SCRIPTURE: Romans 5

INTRODUCTION:

Romans 5:1-11 Here is a clear transition from the external status, standing of legal righteousness under the Law, to regenerative change within the soul: made righteous (v. 1), hence restoration from the Fall as is evident by the gift of the Holy Sprit

(v. 5); and peace with God (v.1); standing grace, i.e., this grace (v. 2).

Note that this grace is enablement to rejoice in tribulation (v. 3), as well as in hope of glory (v. 2).

Standing grace is that in which tribulation cannot destroy us, but rather develops us:

It produces endurance (v. 4);

proof (v. 4), i.e.,

tried and approved; and hope (v. 5).

Evidence that this is not legal righteousness shows the Holy Spirit as having been given to us as an abiding Presence (v. 5), not temporary as under the Law.

Accordingly, the believer is necessarily made righteous by the power of God, a state of being far superior to all legal righteousness, imputation, declaration, positional, etc.

This is that righteousness grounded in the shed blood of Christ (v. 9), not a Levitical animal.

Reconciliation is a state in actual righteousness.

A righteous God cannot be reconciled to the sin/sinner that necessitated reconciliation in the first place (v. 10).

5:1 Therefore: Therefore surveys the previous inadequacies of the Law.

Sin could not be removed (Hebrews 10:4, 11); man could be legally justified (Romans 2:13), but not made righteous (Rom 3:20).

Therefore, thus declares restoration through "atonement by His blood, through faith."

Thus legal righteousness through the blood of the Levitical animal must give way to that regenerative change grounded in the power of HIS blood.

Hence, a new creation, having been made righteous!

Having been made righteous: Having been made righteous is an aorist passive participle, from dikaioo.

In Paul’s usage dikaioo is his term for the new creation in Christ; that host of the redeemed who are no longer under the Law, nor in the fallen state of Adam.

But they are a new creation in Christ.

In pagan literature, and the LXX, dikaioo is used in the sense to declare just, right; to justify, to acquit, etc.

Reformation and Calvinistic thinkers use this lofty term in the same sub-Christian sense.

In their unbelief that Christ’s blood removes sin in the here and now, they contend for sin in the Christian until after death.

His blood is thus made common See Hebrews 10:29b where the blood of Christ is made common, koinon.

With that of the Levitical animal if sin is not removed now.

Note that whether a person or a tabernacle, for the presence of the Holy Spirit, cleansing must be either from sin or ceremonial, cf. v. 5.

Peace with God: This peace is of an internal nature and cannot be derived from any earthly provision, nor can it be taken away by any temporal circumstance.

It is the result of becoming a new creation in Christ; it is a tranquility in the soul in which all is well apart from outward circumstances.

5:2 in this grace: Grace is not used here simply as passive benefit, i.e., overpowering or irresistible, but is an active power or enablement in the life of the believer to do God’s will on the earth as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

Standing grace: Able to stand in tribulation, etc.

Hope: Hope is shown here in two aspects:

(1) It is the sphere of exultation;

(2) it is the end result of proven character, hope forged in the fires of tribulation (v. 4). Hope then is no passive daydream, but a stimulus to action, to creativity.

5:5 Holy Spirit having been given to us: This statement shows that the Roman Christians:

(1) had received the Holy Spirit;

(2) were in a spiritual condition to receive;

(3) were established. (See note at Romans 1:11.)

THEOLOGICAL NOTE: The Aorist Tense/Participle

Having been given translates dothentos, an aorist passive participle, with reference to past, completed action, so given in past time. Grammarians argue against this usage of the aorist participle, but the text can speak for itself.

In Rom 5:10 we have katellagemen, we were reconciled, an aorist passive verb, and katallagentes, having been reconciled, an aorist passive participle.

Note that both verb and participle are used interchangeably of the same event, past and complete, in the life of the Roman Church–their reconciliation.

The aorist indicative has diversity: It is point action; it is past action; it is a simple occurrence; it is constative; it is an event as a single whole, as the building of the temple: But was the temple never completed? I say it was! " Christ died (apethanen; aorist, indicative) for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3). In that Christ died, can we say His death was completed?

Abel was murdered (esphaxen; aorist, indicative), but can we say the murder was completed? (I John 3:12).

While numerous things may be said about the aorist tense, as above–Christ died... death completed!

Saul (Paul) was baptized in past time, the action of which was completed, finalized. Consequently, there is no completion of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the life after death–an admission that no Calvinistic scholar can make.

It is obvious that something less than honesty prevails in the argument that "The aorist signifies nothing as to completeness..."

We here give a few quotes:

Dana and Mantey say: "The aorist signifies nothing as to completeness..."

Robertson and Davis say: "The Greek never uses the aorist participle for subsequent action.

No example of that use has ever been shown"

Here are four grammarians of renown and trust who twist usage and meaning that they may gain authority over our thinking with fabricated linguistic evidence.

This they do to support their false doctrine. 5:6 Christ died [apethanen, died, aorist tense]: Christ’s death was:

(1) while we were still helpless (v. 6);

(2) while we were yet sinners (v. 8);

(3) while we were enemies (v. 10); and that,

(4) Christ died for the ungodly (v. 6).

His death is shown as once-for-all by the aorist tense, not as in continual offerings; hence, the ability to live above sin, and so the cessation of a sin offering.

In the Levitical system of perpetual bloodshed and remembrance of sin, righteousness was declared, holiness ceremonial, and justification legal.

But these shadows of the mighty truths about Christ, the Messiah, must give way to regenerative change, to righteousness apart from sin.

If sin had not been put away in the life of God’s people, the perpetual stream of bloodshed would continue; but not continued because Christ died in our behalf, once-for-all.

So, there is no longer an offering for sins. In Christ sin is done away.

5:8 Christ died for us: False teachers use this statement to prove that Christ only died for the elect; so limited, particular, or definite atonement, as they call it.

Thus, Christ’s death is limited to His people (Matthew 1:21); life…for the sheep (John 10:15); for us (Romans 5:8); for us all (8:32), etc.

But this extremism fails to make the point that Christ only died for the Church. He died for those who will never be saved, because of their choice, not God’s sovereign purpose to damn them for His glory.

We read: God loved the World so that He gave…the Son (John 3:16); He, Himself, is an atonement concerning our sins and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the world as a whole (1 John 2:2). Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:8). In 2 Corinthians 5:14 One died on behalf of all men.

Christ only died for the elect and not all the world? Clearly, atonement was made for all/whole.

WORD STUDIES: Monadic Construction…Atonement

World is a monadic construction; so it is,

(1) indivisible;

(2) the only such thing there is, and cannot then be divided into concepts as elect and non elect, that Christ died for some but not for others. Christ’s death cannot be so restricted whatsoever. It is for that company of Adam’s fallen race known as the whole world.

Atonement translates hilasmos, atonement, or sin-offering, not propitiation.

Note, as a whole translates the force of the predicate position in the GK NT. The world is its inhabitants, those for whom Christ died.

We note that on the same premise other false doctrines could be formulated:

(1) Paul says: the Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Does this statement exclude the world, even the Church, except me, Paul?

(2) God loved the world so that He gave (John 3:16).

Does this mean that God did not love the Church? Nonsense! this false premise is as the apostate teaching of Reformed Calvinism on limited, particular, or definite atonement.

5:9 having now been justified: No, it should read: having now been made righteous.

Justification is a legal or law concept of the Levitical system of animal sacrifices and can neither express nor permit the lofty concept of regenerative change.

See notes at (Romans 2:13 and 3:20.)

By His blood: His blood is the ground of every benefit of the Christian faith, not His punishment…the blood!

That the blood…keeps on cleansing us from all sin (1 John 1:7.) does not mean continuous cleansing because of continuous sin.

The continuous aspect is of the Gospel Day as people are restored from the Fall.

In the Cf. Genesis 1:27; 5:3; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9-10.

The cleansing is as efficacious and complete with respect to sin as with leprosy.

In one case sin is cleansed or removed, in the other, leprosy.

We shall be saved: Paul now turns to an eschatological emphasis on salvation:

(1) shall be saved from the grave, i.e., raised, transformed in a moment (atomô), in the twinkling (hripê) of an eye.

Cf. 1 Corinthians 15: 51-52. Atomos means indivisible, cannot be cut or divided, or an instant of time so brief as to make division impossible or virtually timeless;

(2) shall be saved from the wrath to come. Consider this: There are tenses in the GK NT to express the aspects of salvation as saved (aorist), the moment of conversion; being saved (present), daily walking with God; and shall be saved, as in the resurrection.

WORD STUDIES:

Keeps on cleansing translates katharizei, a present tense verb designated as a gnomic or customary present, expressing a universal or perpetual truth; i.e., the blood of

Christ cleanses throughout the Gospel Day.

Mt 10:8, we have a series of present imperatives: Heal sick ones; raise dead ones; cleanse (katharizete) lepers, etc.

It is evident that these are gnomic or customary presents, as in salvation.

They were not to keep on raising the same dead man any more than the blood was to keep on cleansing the same sinner all the time.

5:10 we were reconciled…having been reconciled:See note 1.

Reconciliation is necessitated because sin has come between God and man.

Man is thus in a state of enmity and rebellion against God; Cf. Romans 8:7.

God’s wrath abides upon rebellious man. John 3:18-36. Reconciliation takes place when the cause that necessitated it is removed–sin.

Rebellion and wrath are thus resolved and a state of peace Romans 5:1. exists.

We shall be saved by His life: His life is life as a fact, i.e., life Divine and human…one Person, two natures.

By His human life He shed the blood of atonement, by His Divine life there was efficacy.

Thus, saved by His life has nothing to do with the theory of the active obedience of Christ, in which it is claimed that He was obedient for the believer; His obedience is thus imputed to us in the Calvinistic system.

But obedience is not transferable from one to another.

5:11 now: The salvation of the soul is in the here and now.

Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:2 and note that day is a monadic construction for which see Word Study (now at fn. 10).

There is no positional righteousness from one to another; there is no deliverance from sin beyond the grave.

It is an awesome truth that the verb hagiazo, to make holy, to sanctify, does not occur in the GK NT in the future tense (hagiaso) for obvious reasons: Eternal destiny is sealed in this life, no further deliverance occurs beyond the grave.

5:13 sin is not imputed: Sin is not counted or imputed against them, as was Adam’s, who openly rebelled against a given law. Genesis 2:17.

They had no law except the law of conscience and creation, Romans 1:19-20.

On which ground they are without excuse. Romans 2:1. So death reigned from Adam until Moses.

5:14 not having sinned after the likeness of Adam’s sin:

Adam’s sin (parabaseos) was in the light of open rebellion. And so, he fell from the image of God in which he was created, into a state of death Genesis 2:7. and separation from God.

Genesis 3:10,17,23-24. To sin means that someone did something. The human race did not thus sin in Adam’s bowels, as false teachers say. His descendants were born in his fallen image. Genesis 5:3.

Paul clearly so states in this v. that there is sin not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, which brought death.

Adam was neither created nor born in sin; he was created holy, in the image of God.

We are born in a state of sin.

Psalms 51:5, i.e., the Adamic nature.

So, infants We do not believe as the Calvinist that some infants are predestinated to hell, with others for whom Christ did not die; that some "infants themselves…are obnoxious [liable] to punishment by their own sinfulness…cannot but be odious and abominable to God" (Calvin, Institutes, 2.1.8.).

Are born with this sin nature, according to the law of kind with the fallen Adamic nature; but did not sin Adam’s act of sin (parabaseos), having sinned "in his bowels," as false teachers claim.

Sin in the sense of separation from God happens when we rebel in our own act of sin.

We neither sin in the act or rebellion of another, nor are we righteous by the obedience of Another, i.e., Christ.

5:15 the many died: The Fall is the result of the sin of one man, reported in some detail in v 12. So death passed through the human race because all men sinned (hêmarton) their sin, not in Adam’s bowels (cf. James 1:15).

Here the many and all men of v.12 are humankind in death and separation from God.

The gift by the grace: The favor of God, on man’s part, is not by law, not by works, not by our own righteousness; on God’s part, not by preference, not by election, not definite to save certain of the elect.

On the part of God’s provision and man’s acceptance, the gift is by grace.

(1) The gift cannot be by mere human effort: not by law…cannot be legislated; not by works…cannot be earned, not by goodness…we are fallen. The gift cannot exist under these conditions.

(2) The gift cannot be by Divine preference: not by predestination of some to eternal life…it is whosoever will; not by universalism to save all…all are not saved; not definite, particular, or limited to save some…God loved the world. The gift cannot exist under any of these conditions and be by grace.

(3) The Gift is necessarily conditional; if conditional…God can love the whole world; if conditional…the gift [can] be by the grace; if conditional…the many can be in Christ apart from Divine preference, therefore, by grace.

The gift by the grace can exist under these Scriptural conditions.

Abound Eperisseusen, translated abounded, is a constative aorist.

This construction perceives the occurrence of an event as a single whole, regardless of the extent of time.

So, grace abounded throughout the Gospel Day.

An example of this usage is the building of the temple (John 2:20).

…more than enough, overflowed, in abundance; thus, empowering to live holy, to do God’s will in this life.

What the Calvinist calls grace is a disgrace, impugning blood bought grace.

unto the many: The many here are not equal/same as the many noted above, the many who died, i.e., all.

The many, in the accusative case, are the end or terminus of the action of the verb, abounded. here are those to whom the gift by the grace abounded, the many in Christ.

5:16 The Judgment arose [or came] Understood from context.

By one transgression: Adam’s one sin plunged the whole human race into the Fall, death and separation from God.

One (henos) sin brought judgment.

Note:

(1) judgment of sin is already in place; accordingly, sin was not judged in the person of Christ on the cross by God punishing God, the Son, so that sin no longer brings death to the believer;

(2) Sin brings death and separation from God today, as in Eden. But where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.

THEOLOGICAL NOTE: Atonement not Penal!

God Punished God, the Son?

Christ was not punished by God, because Punisher and punished cannot be one; God is one.

Thus, atonement is Priestly-Sacrificial, not penal.

Further, Paul did not finish the quote from Deut 21:23 in Galatians 3:13, "accursed of God," often used in proof that God punished God, the Son.

But atonement is internalized in Christ in the intrinsic Self-sufficiency of His Person alone–Divinity and humanity, so efficacy.

The great Priest officiated the Offering of Himself as the Sacrifice or Sin-Offering.

No other atonement theory, penal satisfaction or any other, can remotely lay claim to the exclusive Self-sufficiency internalized in the Person of Christ; all other theories are extrinsic and necessarily laid aside as man-made doctrines.

5:17 those who receive: These persons are in the active voice, and receive the abundance, described as of the grace and of the gift of the righteousness.

Grace and righteousness are not an imputed positional fiction, but a fact in which those receiving will reign in [this] life.

Clearly human effort cooperates with Divine provision. Man does something with respect to his salvation.

In life: The sphere of the reign, in life, not after death. 5:18 through one Henos, one, as used in this v. of the two Adams, emphasizes single acts of far-reaching results.

The act of the first Adam resulted in judgment; the act of the second Adam resulted in righteousness as a fact, not positional.

Transgression: One act is emphasized…still plummeted the race into sin and separation from God.

Through one Henos, one righteous act: Here it is one righteous act that is emphasized, i.e., the atonement, the benefit of which may be restoration from the Fall.

Genesis 1;26-27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9-10.

5:19 the many were made sinners: Note that the many were not considered to be sinners, but not really.

They were made sinners, actually, factually, historically, really; hence, the necessity of the atonement.

The many will be made righteous: Here "righteous" is not simply positional, declared, or imputed, but not in fact, anticipating some future event, death, etc.

Were made and will be made translate the same word, except tense.

Both have the same causative force to produce, by a single act, persons after their kind.

Adam produced sinners; Christ produced the righteous. And this causative force cannot yield a mix of kinds whatsoever, for there is no righteousness in Adam and no sinners in Christ.

Accordingly, the one righteous act of Christ conditionally reverses the Fall in Adam.

THEOLOGICAL NOTE: Accounted or Made Righteous?

Were made translates katestathesan, from katisthemi, to make or cause someone to become something, i.e., sinners.

Will be made is the same word as above, except future tense, katastathesontai, from kathistemi, to make, to cause someone to become something.

We note:

(1) as surely as many were made sinners in fact…and in thought, word and deed, many will be made righteous, as certainly…in thought, in word and deed;

(2) the past tense, were made, speaks of the unconditional result of an act, irresistibly accomplished as surely as the act itself, i.e., all were surely, certainly, absolutely made sinners.

The future tense speaks of the conditional nature of an act, not irresistibly accomplished and so conditional, and will happen throughout the Gospel Day;

(3) Adam’s act, in and of itself, made a world of sinners; Christ’s act, in and of itself, did not have the same universal result.

The expression, "the many" of the righteous and of the sinners, is not equal in number. See notes on v.15;

(4) the state of both classes resulted from one act, not a decree. See notes on Romans 9:11-13, 16-18, on Calvinistic proof-texts for sovereignty, predestination, etc.

5:20 the grace abounded: Abounded all the more translates hupereperisseusen, a very strong word.

The verb, perisseuo, be more than enough, is prefixed with the preposition, huper, over-and-above, beyond, more than (in context). Ephesians 3:20.

Here Paul puts forth a very strong construction to show the enabling power of grace over the sin in Adam, that we are no longer partakers of Adam, but of Christ.

But despite the super abounding grace of Christ, Calvinists, as do many others, impugn grace to a law level by their unbelief that super abounding grace enables one to live free from sin. The saved, however, believe this of which Paul speaks.

5:21 the sin reigned in the death: Where there is no death, sin cannot reign; sin necessarily exists and reigns in death. Death is the end of life in relation to context.

Here death is the fall from holiness, Genesis 2:17. the image of God in which man was created.

But saved persons are restored from the Fall, and sin still brings death, Genesis 1:26-27; Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:9-10 refer to restoration through Christ.

Despite the efforts of the Calvinists to defend sin as consistent with the in Christ life.

Grace would reign: In super abounding enablement over sin. through righteousness: Here grace reigns through righteousness.

The reign of death has come to an end in the life of the righteous, consequent upon the destruction of the condition that brought death in the first place–sin.

The believer is now as free from sin’s reign, through Christ, as was Adam in Eden.

And when sin takes place death results, whether Adam or the believer. To life eternal: This life IS a state, through Christ, in Christ, and in Him there is no sin, no death; only holiness, righteousness, life…the opposite of sin and death. This life in Him is eternal.

The believer is given the gift of eternal life (Romans 5: 21 & 6:23), but it is not a gift that is distinct from the Giver as a Christmas gift and one walks away; it is not life as distinct from one’s mother, as in natural birth.

It is life strictly and uniquely in Christ, in which the believer is apart from sin, as Christ is (Hebrews 7:26).

The in Christ Life cannot participate in the death in Adam, nor can the death in Adam participate in the Life in Christ. The two kinds life/death are mutually exclusive.

Two diverse moral states or spheres–life/death, righteousness/sin–cannot be united in the same life any more than light and darkness can occupy the same space.

Eternal life in Christ is a crossing over out of sin/death and participation in the Life of that One Who has life in Himself.

It may be said, therefore, that we have the gift of eternal life in which we share in His Life, imparted, but not immutable, not in ourselves per se; eternal life, but not self-existent.

Eternal life, therefore, means two different things: For God it is Life in Himself, immutable, eternal; for the believer it is in Him, eternal as to kind or quality–in Him, but not duration when another kind or quality enters into life, as with Adam, so mutable by sin.

Eternal life is a gift, but as Robert Law says: "…the gift is not extraneous to the Giver.