Romans Lesson Page

Romans Chapter 5:1-21

Memory verses for this week: 1 Cor 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Introduction:     Last week, in  the chapter 4 , Paul reviewed the faith of Abraham and showed its importance and significance in regards to salvation.  He went on to show how that his works also justified him, but only after he had been saved some 41 years earlier by his faith.  While God commands and expects us to the works of God, He wants us to clearly understand that salvation is wholly of God by grace.  Just as Abraham could not boast before God in what he did, neither can we.  We work because of what He did for us.

I.    Believers are Justified

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

All who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are justified.    And being justified, we now have peace with God.   If the world only knew the kind of peace that the child of God has, they would come to Christ for salvation without waiting another moment.   That is why it is important that we let others know what God has done for us. 

John 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:28  Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

John 14:29  And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

John 14:30  Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

John 14:31  But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the

Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. 

The wicked do not have peace at all.  They are like the wind tossed seas. 

Isa 57:20  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

Isa 57:21  There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. 

Why does the Christian have peace?  It is because of what Christ has done for us.   We are no longer under the condemnation of sin, but have been brought up to walk in newness of life.

Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

We have access (a way in) to the Father now because of Jesus.  It is only there for those who are admitted by Christ into His grace. 

John 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Rom 5:4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

One of the biggest differences that Christ makes in a believer’s life is the ability to glory not only in the good things that come unto us, but also to glory in the tribulations when they come.   Christ gives us the ability to see good even through the bad, and to know that every step we take is ordered by the Lord.  The tribulation we go through is there to teach us patience.  We learn to wait on God instead of going faster than the Lord has ordered our steps.  And as we gain experience, we have renewed hope because of what God has done and is doing in our lives.  Believers have the love of God in our hearts, and that love is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit.   Love is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and every true believer has the Holy Spirit living inside them.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

1 Cor 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Cor 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Rom 5:7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:9  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Rom 5:11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

 What great love that God has for us.  When we were without strength and still the enemies of God, Christ came and died for us.   And how true verse 7 is in that we might ourselves die for a righteous person, but would die for a vile sinner.  That is what Christ did for us.  Why we were God’s enemy, vicious and unloving in our hearts, God sent His only Begotten Son to die in our place.  If we got what we deserved, every one of us would have to spend eternity in hell for our sins.  But God laid all the sins of this world on Christ that day on the hill of Golgotha, there as he suffered for all mankind.  What agony that must have been when it was all placed on Christ, and God in His righteousness had to turn his back as Jesus suffered and died.   Christ cried out at that moment and said “My God, my God, why hath thou forsaken me?”    He did it all for you and me. 

In the study on Romans by J. I. Packer, he quoted several theologians on what they considered these verses to mean.  F. B. Meyer said “The death of Christ does not remove the enmity of men towards God, but as it secures the favor of God, it removes his enmity towards men, from which the removal of our enmity towards him follows as a consequence.”  The Theologian Rueckert was credited with saying “The reconciled here can only be God, whose wrath towards sinners is appeased by the death of His Son.  On man’s part nothing has happened, no internal change, no step towards God.  All this follows as the consequence of the reconciliation spoken about here.  Reconcile must mean the removal of the wrath of God to man, and consequently the reconciliation is of God to men.”

Because we are reconciled to God, this brings great joy to man.  Atonement could be broken into three words explaining what it does.  “At one ment”.  By the death of Christ, we are brought back into fellowship with God.  It is interesting to note that the words “Much more” are mentioned again and again inverse 9 – 20.  When things are repeated, I believe it has special significance.

II.   Death and Sin Entered through Adam 

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

 God put Adam and Eve in the garden with perfect fellowship with Him.  There was no sin dividing man and God.  But when they partook of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge, they died a spiritual death which is separation from God.   We may be good people at heart, but each of us have entered into this life with a fallen nature inherited by God.  Because of this, we sin and are under the condemnation of sin.  The law was our schoolmaster to show us where we stood before God.  From Adam to Moses’ time, there was no written law.  But all those born during this time still sinned although the rules had not been written down.   And all who sin die after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.  God had spoken the law concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil and how they were to not eat of that fruit.  Verse 14 says that Adam was a figure of Christ.  Adam was the first one, Christ was the second Adam that sinned not.

1 Cor 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

1 Cor 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

1 Cor 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

J. Vernon McGee had an unusual example in his commentary on these verses.  “You and I belong to a lost race, and we need to be redeemed.  Even the very thought life of man is alienated from God.  Somebody may say,  “Then I think God is obligated to save all of us.”  No, He is not.  Suppose that you could go down to an old marshy lake covered with scum where there are hundreds of turtles, and you take a turtle out of there.  And you teach this turtle to fly.  Then this turtle goes back to the lake and says to the other turtles, “Would you like to learn to fly?”  I think they’d laugh at the turtle.  They’d say, “No!  We like it down here.  We don’t want to learn to fly.”  And that is the condition of lost mankind today.  People don’t want to be saved.  People are lost, alienated from God.  Now, that’s a great truth that does not soak into our minds easily, because we have that lost nature.  We just love to think that we’re wonderful people.  But we are not, my friend.” 

III.         Righteousness Came through Jesus Christ  

Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Rom 5:16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

The grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ, has more power to bring salvation, than Adam's sin had to bring misery,  If by one man’s offense, many were brought under condemnation, HOW MUCH MORE could we be justified by one, Jesus Christ.  By Christ’s one act, His death on the Cross, he brought justification to all true believers.  Truly it was just one sin that brought the sin curse upon us all, and by Christ’s one sacrifice (His death), we are saved.

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

The free gift in verse 16 is the salvation given to us through Christ.   

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Rom 5:18  Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Through Adam’s sin, death reigned.   As we read earlier in our study, “Sin brings forth death.”   Because of this, some one must pay the penalty of sin.  By Christ, we who believe shall live.  The grave has no power over the true child of God.  By Adam’s disobedience, we all were made sinners.  And by Christ’s pure and perfect life of obedience to the Will of God, many shall be made righteous. 

1 Cor 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1 Cor 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

1 Cor 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

1 Cor 15:56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

1 Cor 15:57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Rom 5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.   

Verse 20 says that where sin abounded, grace (the unmerited favor of God) has surpassed it.  The righteousness which God gives believers through our faith in Jesus Christ is what verse 21 is saying.   Because of Christ, we can have eternal life.  There is no way to obtain this righteousness except through faith in Christ.  

Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Titus 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Titus 3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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Prov 4:18  But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

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