Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 5:11

"and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." — Romans 5:11 (ASV)

And not only so. The apostle states another effect of justification.

We also joy in God. In Romans 5:2, he had said that we rejoice in tribulations, and in hope of the glory of God. But he here adds that we rejoice in God himself; in his existence, his attributes, his justice, holiness, mercy, truth, and love.

The Christian rejoices that God is such a Being as he is, and glories that the universe is under his administration. The sinner is opposed to him; he finds no pleasure in him; he fears or hates him, and deems him unqualified for universal empire.

But it is one characteristic of true piety, one evidence that we are truly reconciled to God, that we rejoice in him as he is, and find pleasure in the contemplation of his perfections as they are revealed in the Scriptures.

Through our Lord, etc. By the mediation of our Lord Jesus, who has revealed the true character of God, and by whom we have been reconciled to him.

The atonement. Marginally, or reconciliation. This is the only instance in which our translators have used the word atonement in the New Testament. The word frequently occurs in the Old Testament (Exodus 29:33, 36-37; 30:10, 15-16, etc.).

As it is now used by us, it commonly means the ransom, or the sacrifice, by means of which reconciliation is effected between God and man.

But in this place, it has a different sense. It means the reconciliation itself between God and man, not the means by which reconciliation is effected.

It denotes not that we have received a ransom, or an offering by which reconciliation might be effected, but that in fact we have become reconciled through him.

This was the ancient meaning of the English word atonement—AT-ONE-MENT—being at one, or reconciled.

He seeks to make atonement
Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers.
Shakespeare.

The Greek word which denotes the expiatory offering by which a reconciliation is effected is different from the one here. (See the notes on Romans 3:25.)

The word used here (katallagēn) is never used to denote such an offering, but denotes the reconciliation itself.