5. Romans 5:1-20

The apostle Paul has, in his first four chapters of his letter to Rome, made utterly clear that for God there is no difference between Jews and people from the nations. All are sinners, all are lost, and all can be saved by faith in Christ Jesus alone. The fact that Jews were born with the law in their cradle, and that they are physical posterity of Abraham, does not make a difference in regard to their salvation.

Then Paul proceeds. Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:1) I think the word we in this case points to all members of the Church in Rome. There is no distinction any more.

Peace with God is a very Jewish concept. In Judaism the great expectation is peace, shalom, for the whole nation. For Israel the concept is connected with living peacefully and without worries in the land. Paul now says that all who believe in Jesus, have received this peace. It is no longer just hope for the future, and it has a different character from what they had expected.

Paul also speaks of the hope of the glory of God that all Church members share in common. The concept of glory is important. In Rom. 8:30 Paul will pick it up again as the highest expectation of those who believe in Christ.

Paul continues in this style; he uses we, we, we… In the Church or Christ there are no Jews or non-Jews, but all share in the same:

PAST: We have been reconciled to God when we were weak, godless, sinners, enemies of God (Rom. 5:6-8,10), but also true is that we have been justified by his blood, we have been reconciled with God by the death of his Son. (Rom. 5:1,9-11) Justification and reconciliation are closely connected with the concept of salvation.

TODAY: Salvation is expressed in many terms – peace with God, access to this grace, perseverance, hope, love of God in our hearts, the holy Spirit given to us.(Rom 5:1-5)

FUTURE – All terms related to salvation: the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), being saved of wrath (Rom 5:9), live, rule as kings(Rom. 5:17-18), eternal life (Rom. 5:21).

The past of all people in Church, without any distinction between nationalities, was marked by sin, but by the justification through faith all believers, Jew or Greek, have peace with God. All believers share in the same hope of glory and salvation from the judgment of God.

Paulus continues to underline the similarities between Jews and non-Jews. He does this by sketching a worldview that revolves around Adam and Christ. Moses is part of the picture, but Paul shows that the role of law is to make people more guilty. The law has been added so that the trespass might increase. (Rom. 5:20)

There the law of Moses is, saying it with reverence, an add-on. Before the law, from then time of Adam, there was sin and death in the world. All have sinned and all are punished with death. This is the result of the sin of one man. (Rom. 5:12-13) This proves that mankind is one, there is no difference between people. There is also no difference between the time before the law was given, and life under the law. Before and after, all people die because of Adam’s sin.(Rom. 5:13-14)

Paul then compares the influence of Adam and Jesus, in a few complicated verses. Mind the context; Paul wants in the first place to show the cosmic impact of Adam and Jesus. They are central in the Christian worldview, and Moses and his law, they have just been added. They are not central. I will come back to this. But first these comparisons between Adam and Christ Jesus.

Many died by the trespass of the one man;
how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!(Rom. 5:15)

The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation,
but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.(Rom. 5:16)

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man,
how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.(Rom. 5:17)

Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men,
so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.(Rom. 5:18)

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners,
so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.(Rom. 5:19)

Some think that these verses contain the idea that God will, eventually, save all people, but that is a misconception. In the previous chapters Paul has very clearly underlined that without faith in Christ, people stay under the judgment of God, and salvation is only attained by faith in Christ.

Paul is describing here his cosmic view of the impact of what Adam and Jesus did, in order to show that there is no favoritism with God. Whether a person is a Jew or from the nations does not make a difference. The terms all, many, very many, must be seen in this context.

This is being underlined by the parallel verse in the middle of the five, namely Rom 5:17. There we see that the many, the very many, the all, are those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness. Paul has made abundantly clear that those are only the people who believe in Jesus Christ.

God is not interested in Israel only, but in the whole world, and that whole world can be summarized in the children of Adam and the believers in Jesus Christ. Paul has said all this as an introduction to Rom. 5:20, where we says that the law was added:

The law was added so that the trespass might increase.

It was already completely clear that all men are sinners and die, but the law of Israel has made even more abundantly clear that all men are trespassers of the will of God, including Jews. This also shows the more how gracious God is by making his salvation available in Jesus Christ through faith only.

The Greek word houtoos (thus) and the word pas (all) occur in Rom; 5:12 (in this way death came to all men). Houtoos further occurs in Rom. 5:12,18,19 and 21. In these four verses it is always accompanied by the Greek word kai (too, also). Houtoos kai means: and thus.

Pas is used twice in Rom. 5:18: condemnation for all men, life for all men. The three occurrences of houtoos seem to point to numerical totality, no-one excluded.