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Being therefore justified by faith (δικαιωθεντες ουν εκ πιστεως). First aorist passive participle of δικαιοω, to set right and expressing antecedent action to the verb εχωμεν. The ουν refers to the preceding conclusive argument (chapters 1 to 4) that this is done by faith. Let us have peace with God (ειρηνην εχωμεν προς τον θεον). This is the correct text beyond a doubt, the present active subjunctive, not εχομεν (present active indicative) of the Textus Receptus which even the American Standard Bible accepts. It is curious how perverse many real scholars have been on this word and phrase here. Godet, for instance. Vincent says that "it is difficult if not impossible to explain it." One has only to observe the force of the tense to see Paul's meaning clearly. The mode is the volitive subjunctive and the present tense expresses linear action and so does not mean "make peace" as the ingressive aorist subjunctive ειρηνην σχωμεν would mean. A good example of σχωμεν occurs in Matthew 21:38 (σχωμεν την κληρονομιαν αυτου) where it means: "Let us get hold of his inheritance." Here ειρηνην εχωμεν can only mean: "Let us enjoy peace with God" or "Let us retain peace with God." We have in Acts 9:31 ειχεν ειρηνην (imperfect and so linear), the church "enjoyed peace," not "made peace." The preceding justification (δικαιωθεντες) "made peace with God." Observe προς (face to face) with τον θεον and δια (intermediate agent) with του κυριου.

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Romans 5:1-11. The blessings of Justification. The first section of the epistle (chap. Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20) has proved man’s need of the righteousness of God; the second (chap. Romans 3:21-30) has shown how that righteousness comes, and how it is appropriated; the third (chap. Romans 3:31 to Romans 4:25) has shown, by the example of Abraham, and the testimony of David, that it does not upset, but establishes the spiritual order revealed in the O.T. The Apostle now, like David, enlarges on the felicity of the justified, and especially on their assurance of God’s love and of future blessedness. We may describe the contents of Romans 5:1-11 in the words which he himself applies (Romans 4:6) to the 32nd psalm: λέγει τὸν μακαρισμὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ᾧ ὁ θεὸς λογίζεται δικαιοσύνην χωρὶς ἔργων.

Romans 5:1. δικαιωθέντες takes up emphatically the δικαίωσιν of Romans 4:25 : Christ’s death and resurrection have not been in vain: there are those who have actually been justified in consequence. Having, therefore, been justified (the Apostle says), εἰρήνην ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν θεόν. The MSS. evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of ἔχωμεν, so much so that W. and H. notice no other reading, and Tischdf. says “ἔχωμεν cannot be rejected unless it is altogether inappropriate, and inappropriate it seemingly is not”. But this last statement is at least open to dispute. There is no indication that the Apostle has finished his dogmatic exposition, and is proceeding to exhortation. To read ἔχωμεν, and then to take καυχώμεθα as subjunctive both in Romans 5:2 and Romans 5:3 (as the R.V.), is not only awkward, but inconsistent with οὐ μόνον δὲ, Romans 5:3. If the hortative purpose dominated the passage throughout, the Apostle must have written μὴ: see Gifford, p. 122. It is better (reading ἔχωμεν) to take καυχώμεθα in Romans 5:2 with διʼ οὗ, and co-ordinate it with τὴν προσαγωγήν: “through whom we have had our access, and rejoice, etc”. Then the οὐ μόνον is in place. But the uninterrupted series of indicatives afterwards, the inappropriateness of the verb ἔχειν to express “let us realise, let us make our own,” the strong tendency to give a paraenetic turn to a passage often read in church, the natural emphasis on εἰρήνη, and the logic of the situation, are all in favour of ἔχομεν, which is accordingly adopted by Meyer, Weiss, Lipsius, Godet and others, in spite of the MSS., see critical note. The justified have peace with God: i.e., His wrath (Romans 1:18) no longer threatens them; they are accepted in Christ. It is not a change in their feelings which is indicated, but a change in God’s relation to them.

Romans 5:1.[1129] Οὖν draws an inference from the whole of the preceding section, Romans 3:21 to Romans 4:25, and developes the argument in such a form that ΔΙΚΑΙΩΘΈΝΤΕς, following at once on ΔΙᾺ ΤΉΝ ΔΙΚΑΊΩΣΙΝ ἩΜ., heads the sentence with triumphant emphasis. What a blessed assurance of salvation is enjoyed by believers in virtue of their justification which has taken place through faith, is now to be more particularly set forth; not however in the form of an exhortation (Hofmann, in accordance with the reading ἔχωμεν) “to let our relation to God be one of peace” (through a life of faith), in which case the emphasis, that obviously rests in the first instance on δικαιωθ. and then on ΕἸΡΉΝΗΝ, is taken to lie on ΔΙᾺ ΤΟῦ ΚΥΡΊΟΥ ἩΜ. ʼΙ. Χ.

ΕἸΡΉΝΗΝ ἜΧ. Π. Τ. ΘΕΌΝ] He who is justified is no longer in the position of one to whom God must be and is hostile (ἘΧΘΡῸς ΘΕΟῦ, Romans 5:9 f.), but on the contrary he has peace (not in a general sense contentment, satisfaction, as Th. Schott thinks) in his relation to God. This is the peace which consists in the known objective state of reconciliation, the opposite of the state in which one is subject to the divine wrath and the sensus irae. With justification this peace ensues as its immediate and abiding result.[1130] Hence δικαιωθέντες.… ἔχομεν (comp Acts 9:31; John 16:33). And through Christ (διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Κ.Τ.Λ[1132]) as the εἰρηνοποιός is this pacem obtinere (Bremi, a[1133] Isocr. Archid. p. 111) procured; a truth obvious indeed in itself, but which, in consonance with the strength and fulness of the Apostle’s own believing experience; is very naturally again brought into special prominence here, in order to connect, as it were, triumphantly with this objective cause of the state of peace what we owe to it respecting the point in question, Romans 5:2. There is thus the less necessity for joining διὰ τοῦ κυρίου κ.τ.λ[1134] with ΕἸΡΉΝΗΝ (Stölting); it belongs, like ΠΡῸς Τ. ΘΕΌΝ, in accordance with the position of ἜΧΟΜΕΝ, to the latter word.

πρὸς (of the ethical relation, Bernhardy, p. 265), as in Acts 2:47; Acts 24:16. Comp Herodian, viii. 7, 8 : ἈΝΤῚ ΠΟΛΈΜΟΥ ΜῈΝ ΕἸΡΉΝΗΝ ἜΧΟΝΤΕς ΠΡῸς ΘΕΟΎς. Plat. Pol. v. p. 465 B: εἰρήνην πρὸς ἀλλήλους ΟἹ ἌΝΔΡΕς ἌΞΟΥΣΙΝ; Legg. xii. p. 955 B; Alc. I. p. 107 D; Xenoph. and others. It is not to be confounded with the divinely wrought inward state of mental peace, which is denoted by εἰρήνη τοῦ Θεοῦ in Php 4:7; comp Colossians 3:15. The latter is the subjective correlate of the objective relation of the ΕἸΡΉΝΗ, which we have ΠΡῸς ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ although inseparably combined with the latter.

[1129] On vv. 1–8 see Winzer, Commentat. Lips. 1832. On the entire chapter Stölting, Beitrage z. Exegese d. Paul. Briefe, Göttingen, 1869, p. 3 ff.

[1130] Comp. Dorner, die Rechtfert. durch den Glauben, p. 12 f.

[1132] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1133] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[1134] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

Romans 5:1. Therefore being justified — In the way shown in the preceding chapter, we receive many blessed privileges and advantages in consequence thereof. Here, to comfort the believers at Rome, and elsewhere, under the sufferings which the profession of the gospel brought upon them, the apostle proceeds to enumerate the privileges which belong to true believers in general. And from his account it appears, that the privileges of Abraham’s seed by faith, are far greater than those which belong to such as were his seed by natural descent, and which are described, Romans 2:17-20. The first privilege of this spiritual seed is, that, being justified by faith, we have peace with God — Being alienated from God and exposed to condemnation and wrath no longer, but brought into a state of reconciliation and peace with him. “Our guilty fears are silenced, and we are taught to look up to him with sweet serenity of soul, while we no longer conceive of him as an enemy, but under the endearing character of a Friend and a Father.” Through our Lord Jesus Christ — Through his mediation and grace. They have also divers other privileges and blessings here enumerated, which are all the fruits of justifying faith; so that where they are not, that faith is not. “It seems very unreasonable,” says Dr. Doddridge, “that when the apostle wrote such passages as this, and Ephesians 1:1-3, he should mean to exclude himself, who was no Gentile; they are not therefore to be expounded as spoken particularly of the Gentiles; nor could he surely intend by these grand descriptions, and pathetic representations, to speak only of such external privileges as might have been common to Simon Magus, or any other hypocritical and wicked professor of Christianity. And if he did not intend this, he must speak of all true Christians as such, and as taking it for granted that those to whom he addressed this and his other epistles were, in the general, such, though there might be some few excepted cases, which he did not think it necessary often to touch upon. And this is the true key to such passages in his epistles as I have more particularly stated and vindicated in the postscript which I have added to the preface of my Sermons on Regeneration, to which I must beg leave to refer my reader, and hope I shall be excused from a more particular examination of that very different scheme of interpretation which Dr. Taylor has so laboriously attempted to revive. The main principles of it are, I think, well confuted by my pious and worthy friend, Dr. Guyse, in the preface to his Paraphrase on this epistle.

Romans 5:1. The Apostle, having proved in the former chapter, that the believing Gentiles are justified in the same way with Abraham, and in fact are his seed, included with him in the promise or covenant, he judged this a proper place (as the Jews built all their glorying upon the Abrahamic covenant) to produce some of those privileges and blessings in whichthe Christian Gentile could glory, in consequence of his justification, or his being pardoned, and taken into the covenant and peculiar kingdom of God by faith. And he chooses to instance in three particulars, which above others were adapted to this purpose; namely, first, the hope of eternal life, in which the law wherein the Jews glorified, ch. Rom 2:17 was defective, Romans 5:2. Secondly, the persecutions and sufferings to which Christians were exposed, Rom 5:3-4 and on account of which the Jew was greatly prejudiced against the Christian profession: and here, having shewn that tribulations have a happy tendency to establish our hearts in the hope of the Gospel, he wisely adds, to alleviate the frightful aspect of tribulation, some weighty reasons to prove, that the glorious hope of the Gospel will certainly be made good to faithful souls in their eternal salvation by Jesus Christ, Romans 5:5-11. Thirdly, an interest in God, as our God and Father; a privilege upon which the Jews valued themselves highly above all other nations. See ch. Romans 2:17. These three are the singular privileges belonging to the Gospel state, wherein we Christians may glory, as really belonging to us, and greatly redounding, if duly understood and improved, to our honour and benefit. See Locke.

We have peace with God— That is, we Gentiles, who are not under the law. It is in their names that St. Paul speaks in the last three verses of the foregoing chapter, and so on to Rom 5:11 as is evident from the illation here,—therefore, being justified by faith, we, &c. it being an inference drawn from his having proved in the former chapter, that the promise was not to the Jews alone, but to the Gentiles also; and that justification was not by the law, but by faith, and consequently designed for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. We have peace with God, is thus paraphrased by Dr. Doddridge: "Our guilty fears are silenced, and we are taught to look up to him with sweet serenity of soul, while we no longer conceive of him as an enemy, but under the endearing character of a friend and father."

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Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Being justified by faith — As he had said, Romans 4:24 .

We have peace with God — A blessed calm lodged in our consciences; like as when Jonah was cast overboard, there followed a tranquillity. This is that continual feast, a very heaven beforehand, an anticipation of glory, ουρανος προ ουρανου .

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Chapter V

Contents

From Romans 5:1-11, inclusive, the apostle deduces some of the more obvious and consolatory inferences from the doctrine of gratuitous justification. From the Romans 5:12 to the end, he illustrates his great principle of the imputation of righteousness, or the regarding and treating the many as righteous, on account of the righteousness of one man, Christ Jesus, by a reference to the fall of all men in adam.

Romans 5:1-11

Analysis

The first consequence of justification by faith is, that we have peace with God, Romans 5:1. The second, that we have not only a sense of his present favor, but assurance of future glory, Romans 5:2. The third, that our afflictions, instead of being inconsistent with the divine favor, are made directly conducive to the confirmation of our hope; the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the fact that we are the objects of the love of God, Romans 5:3-5. The fourth, the certainty of the final salvation of all believes. This is argued from the freeness and greatness of the divine love; its freeness being manifested in its exercise towards the unworthy: and its greatness, in the gift of the Son of God, Romans 5:6-10. Salvation is not merely a future though certain good, it is a present and abundant joy, Romans 5:11.

Commentary

Romans 5:1

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have‹12› peace with God; that is, we are reconciled to God. We are no longer the objects of God’s displeasure, his favor having been propitiated by the death of his Son, Romans 5:10. As a consequence of this reconciliation, we have conscious peace with God, that is, we have neither any longer the present upbraidings of an unappeased conscience, nor the dread of divine vengeance. Both these ideas are included in the peace here spoken of. The latter, however, is altogether the more prominent. The phrase εἰρήνην ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, we have peace in regard to God, properly means, God is at peace with us, his ὁργή (wrath) towards us is removed. It expresses, as Philippi says, “not a state of mind, but a relation to God.”‹13› It is that relation which arises from the expiation of sin, and consequently justification. We are no longer his enemies, in the objective sense of the term (see Romans 5:10), but are the objects of his favor. The whole context still treats of reconciliation and propitiation, of the removal of the wrath of God by the death of his Son, and not of inward sanctification. It is true that the immediate and certain effect of God’s reconciliation to us is our reconciliation to him. If he is at peace with us, we have inward peace. Conscience is only the reflection of his countenance, the echo, often feeble and indistinct, often terribly clear and unmistakable, of his judgment; and therefore subjective peace uniformly attends faith in the love of God, or assurance of our justification. Although, therefore, the primary idea of the apostle is, that God is at peace with us, it is nevertheless true that inward tranquility of mind is the fruit of justification by faith. It is peculiarly an evangelical doctrine, that pious affections are the fruit of this reconciliation to God, and not the cause of it. Paul says this peace is the result of justification by faith. He who relies on his works for justification, can have no peace. He can neither remove the displeasure of God, nor quiet the apprehension of punishment. Peace is not the result of mere gratuitous forgiveness, but of justification, of a reconciliation founded upon atonement. The enlightened conscience is never satisfied until it sees that God can be just in justifying the ungodly; that sin has been punished, the justice of God satisfied, his law honored and vindicated. It is when he thus sees justice and mercy embracing each other, that the believer has that peace which passes all understanding; that sweet quiet of the soul in which deep humility, in view of personal unworthiness, is mingled with the warmest gratitude to that Savior by whose blood God’s justice has been satisfied, and conscience appeased. Hence Paul says we have this peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not through ourselves in any way, neither by our own merit, nor our own efforts. It is all of grace. It is all through Jesus Christ. And this the justified soul is ever anxious to acknowledge. “Pacem habemus. Singulalis justitiae fidei fructus. Nam siquis ab operibus conscientiae securitatem petere velit, (quod in profanis et brutis hominibus cernitur,) frustra id tentabit. Aut enim contemptu vel oblivione Divini judicii sopitum est pectus, aut trepidatione ac formidine quoque plenum est, donec in Christum recubuerit. Ipse enim solus est pax nostra. Pax ergo conscientiae serenitatem significat, quae es eo nascitur, quod Deum sibi reconciliatum sentit.” Calvin.

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