Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 5

Being justified. The present chapter is thus linked to the last. Christ was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Being justified then, etc. This opening has a wonderful beauty that centers on the Christian idea of peace. After all the gloomy retrospect that fills the preceding chapters, the clouds break, and light steals gently over the scene. Nor is it merely the subsidence of storm, but an ardent and eager hope that now awakens, and looks forward to a glorious future.

We have. A decided preponderance of manuscript authority compels us to read here, “Let us have,” though the older reading would seem to make the best sense. A hortatory element is introduced into the passage, which does not seem quite properly or naturally to belong to it. It is just possible that there may have been a very early error of the copyist, afterward rightly corrected (in the two oldest manuscripts, Vatican and Sinaiticus, the reading of the Authorized Version appears as a correction) by conjecture. On the other hand, it is too much always to assume that a writer really used the expression that seems to us most natural for him to have used. “Let us have” would mean “Let us enter into and possess.”

Peace. The state of reconciliation with God, with all that blissful sense of composure and harmony that flows from such a condition. “Peace” is the special legacy bequeathed by Jesus to His disciples (John 14:27; John 16:33); it is also the word used, with deep significance, after miracles of healing, attended with forgiveness (Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50).

Boswell notes a remark of Johnson’s on this word. “He repeated to Mr. Langton, with great energy in the Greek, our Savior’s gracious expression concerning the forgiveness of Mary Magdalene: Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace (Luke 7:50). He said, ‘The manner of this dismissal is exceedingly affecting’” (Life of Johnson, chapter 4, under the date 1780). For other illustrations of this supreme and unique phase of the Christian life, we may turn to the hymns of Cowper, especially those stanzas beginning “Sometimes a light surprises,” “So shall my walk be close with God,” “Fierce passions discompose the mind,” “There if Thy Spirit touch the soul”; or to some of the descriptions in the Pilgrim’s Progress.

On verses 1-11:

A description of the serene and blissful state that the sense of justification brings. Faith brings justification; justification brings (let us see that it does bring) peace—peace with God, through the mediation of Jesus.

It is to that mediation that the Christian owes his state of grace or acceptance in the present, and his triumphant hope of glory in the future. Indeed, the triumph begins now. It begins even with tribulation, for tribulation leads by gradual stages to that tried and approved constancy that is a virtue most nearly allied to hope. Such hope does not deceive. It is grounded on the consciousness of justifying love assured to us by the wonderful sacrifice of the death of Christ.

The one great and difficult step was that which reconciled sinful man to God; the completion of the process of his salvation follows by an easy sequence. Knowing this, our consciousness just spoken of takes on a glow of triumph.

By whom.—More accurately translated, through whom also we have had our access (Ellicott). “Have had” when we first became Christians, and now while we remain so.

Into this grace.—This state of acceptance and favor with God, the fruit of justification.

Rejoice.—The word used elsewhere for “boasting.” The Christian has his boasting, but it is not based upon his own merits. It is a joyful and triumphant confidence in the future, not only felt, but expressed.

The glory of God.—That glory which the “children of the kingdom” shall share with the Messiah Himself when His eternal reign begins.

But much more than this. The Christian’s glorying is not confined to the future; it embraces the present as well. It extends even to what would naturally be supposed to be the very opposite of a ground for glorying—to the persecutions that we have to undergo as Christians.

(Matthew 5:12, “Blessed are the persecuted; ” 2 Corinthians 11:30; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10, “glorying in infirmities; ”Acts 5:41, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame; ” 1 Peter 4:12–13; “think not the fiery trial strange, but rejoice.”)

Attention has here been called to Bacon’s aphorism, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity of the New.” This is a very profound side of the Christian revelation.

Experience. This is “Approvedness,” the quality of being tried and approved. The result of patient endurance is to test, confirm, and refine the better elements of faith. Out of this, in turn, grows hope. Hope began and ends the circle. It is the knowledge of what is in store for him that, initially, strengthens the Christian to endure. That endurance, being prolonged, gives him the steady, calm assurance no longer of the novice but of the veteran.

Hope maketh not ashamed.—This Christian hope does not disappoint or deceive. It is quite certain of its object. The outcome will prove it to be well founded.

Because the love of God.—This hope derives its certainty from the consciousness of justifying love. The believer, feeling the love of God (i.e., God's love for him) shed abroad in his heart, has in this an assurance that God’s promises will not be in vain.

By the Holy Ghost.—The communication of God Himself to humankind is generally regarded as taking place through the agency of the Spirit (Galatians 4:6).

Which is given.—Rather, which was given—i.e., when we first believed (Acts 19:2; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30).