Reflections on Romans 5

Romans 05 (Contemporary English Version)
1. By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God.
   
2. Christ has also introduced us to God's undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God.
   
3. But that's not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure.
   
4. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope
   
5. that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.
   
6. Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful.
   
7. No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person.
   
8. But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
   
9. But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger.
   
10. Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son's life.
    
11. And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.
    
12. Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die.
    
13. Sin was in the world before the Law came. But no record of sin was kept, because there was no Law.
    
14. Yet death still had power over all who lived from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. This happened, though not everyone disobeyed a direct command from God, as Adam did. In some ways Adam is like Christ who came later.
    
15. But the gift that God was kind enough to give was very different from Adam's sin. That one sin brought death to many others. Yet in an even greater way, Jesus Christ alone brought God's gift of kindness to many people.
    
16. There is a lot of difference between Adam's sin and God's gift. That one sin led to punishment. But God's gift made it possible for us to be acceptable to him, even though we have sinned many times.
    
17. Death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned. But that cannot compare with what Jesus Christ has done. God has been so kind to us, and he has accepted us because of Jesus. And so we will live and rule like kings.
    
18. Everyone was going to be punished because Adam sinned. But because of the good thing that Christ has done, God accepts us and gives us the gift of life.
    
19. Adam disobeyed God and caused many others to be sinners. But Jesus obeyed him and will make many people acceptable to God.
    
20. The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God's kindness was even more powerful.
    
21. Sin ruled by means of death. But God's kindness now rules, and God has accepted us because of Jesus Christ our Lord. This means that we will have eternal life.
    
    

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    When we accept, by faith, Christ's death as our means to a relationship with God and eternal life with Him, then God declares us righteous. And the result of this declaration is that we have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (5:1) Another result is the ability to "rejoice in our afflictions." (5:3) Why is this? Because we know the outcome of afflictions in our lives when we are at peace with God. The outcome of affliction for those who are at peace with God is that it produces endurance, which produces proven character, which produces hope. So when we receive God's declaration of righteousness, we go from viewing affliction as something bad to viewing it as something that can produce good. But we have to get beyond the concept that being in right relationship with God means He will take away all our afflictions, and the accompanying concept that if we are having affliction it means God is punishing us or upset with us.
    
    Following Paul's opening statements in this chapter about being declared righteous through faith, he then establishes our need to be declared righteous. It is because all of us have sinned. We have transgressed against God's instructions. No one is exempt. It all began with Adam. Sin entered the world and the human race through him resulting in death, both pysically and spiritually. The evidence that each of us are also sinners as he was is that we all die physically. Until the law was given to mankind through Moses, sin was not "charged to one's account." (5:13) But, nevertheless, death reigned in mankind. Thus, although God did not punish man's sin until the law, the result of sin, which is death, was still present.
    
    But as sin entered the human race through one man, and through him all are sinners, thus separating man from God, it was also through one Man that mankind was again justified and the relationship restored. This one Man was Jesus Christ. However, the justification that Jesus made possible is not automatic. It must be received by faith. But once we receive by faith what Jesus did for us on the cross, God declares us righteous. Paul sums it up in this way, "So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone." (5:18)
    
    The result? "As sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (5:21)