Quotes & Notes on:
Romans 5:1
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John Wesley's Notes:
Being justified by faith-This is the sum of the preceding
chapters.
We have peace with God-Being enemies to God no longer, Ro 5:10; neither
fearing his wrath, Ro 5:9. We have peace, hope, love, and power over
sin, the sum of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters. These
are the fruits of justifying faith: where these are not, that faith is
not.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
* being. Ro 5:9; 1:17; 3:22,26-28; 4:5,24; 9:30; 10:10; Hab 2:4 Joh
3:16-18; 5:24; Ac 13:38,39; Ga 2:16; 3:11-14; 5:4-6; Php 3:9 Jas 2:23-26
* we have. Ro 5:10; 1:7; 10:15; 14:17; 15:13,33; Job 21:21; Ps 85:8-10;
122:6 Isa 27:5; 32:17; 54:13; 55:12; 57:19-21; Zec 6:13; Lu 2:14; 10:5,6
Lu 19:38,42; Joh 14:27; 16:33; Ac 10:36; 2Co 5:18-20; Eph 2:14-17 Col
1:20; 3:15; 1Th 5:23; 2Th 3:16; Heb 13:20; Jas 2:23
* through. Ro 6:23; Joh 20:31; Eph 2:7
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Adam Clarke's Commentary:
Therefore being justified by faith] The apostle takes it for granted
that he has proved that justification is by faith, and that the Gentiles
have an equal title with the Jews to salvation by faith. And now he
proceeds to show the effects produced in the hearts of the believing
Gentiles by this doctrine. We are justified-have all our sins pardoned
by faith, as the instrumental cause; for, being sinners, we have no
works of righteousness that we can plead.
We have peace with God] Before, while sinners, we were in a state of
enmity with God, which was sufficiently proved by our rebellion against
his authority, and our transgression of his laws; but now, being
reconciled, we have peace with God. Before, while under a sense of the
guilt of sin, we had nothing but terror and dismay in our own
consciences; now, having our sin forgiven, we have peace in our hearts,
feeling that all our guilt is taken away. Peace is generally the
first-fruits of our justification.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ] His passion and death being the sole
cause of our reconciliation to God.
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Family Bible Notes:
Have peace with God; are reconciled to him, and in a state of
favor with him. Faith in Christ makes a great and blessed change in the
state, character, condition, enjoyments, and prospects of men.
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1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
Another argument taken from the effects: we are justified
with that which truly appeases our conscience before God: and faith in
Christ does appease our conscience and not the law, as it was said
before, therefore by faith we are justified, and not by the law.
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People's New Testament Commentary:
Therefore being justified by faith. Paul has just shown that men
are counted righteous before God, not through obedience to the law, but
through faith in Christ. Not law, but faith justifies. The faith that
justifies is (1) a faith in Christ; (2) a faith of the heart (Ro 10:9)
which brings the whole life into obedience (Ro 1:5).
Peace with God. While sinners, we are rebels against God. When our
rebellion ceases and we are forgiven we are at peace. This blessed peace
with God, which brings peace to the soul, is "through Jesus Christ."
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Robertson's Word Pictures:
Being therefore justified by faith (dikaiôthentes oun ek pisteôs).
First aorist passive participle of dikaioô, to set right and expressing
antecedent action to the verb echômen. The oun refers to the preceding
conclusive argument (chapters 1 to 4) that this is done by faith. Let us
have peace with God (eirênên echômen pros ton theon). This is the
correct text beyond a doubt, the present active subjunctive, not echomen
(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 eirênên schômen would mean. A good example
of schômen occurs in Mt 21:38 (schômen tên klêronomian autou) where it
means: "Let us get hold of his inheritance." Here eirênên echômen can
only mean: "Let us enjoy peace with God" or "Let us retain peace with
God." We have in Ac 9:31 eichen eirênên (imperfect and so linear), the
church "enjoyed peace," not "made peace." The preceding justification (dikaiôthentes)
"made peace with God." Observe pros (face to face) with ton theon and
dia (intermediate agent) with tou kuriou.
Albert Barnes' Commentary:
Since we are thus justified, or as a consequence of being justified,
we have peace.
Being justified by faith. See Barnes for Ro 1:17; See Barnes for Ro
3:24; See Barnes for Ro 4:5.
We. That is, all who are justified. The apostle is evidently speaking of
true Christians.
Have peace with God. See Barnes for Joh 14:27. True religion is often
represented as peace with God. See Ac 10:36; Ro 8:6; 10:15; 14:17; Ga
5:22. See also Isa 32:17:--
"And the work of righteousness shall be peace, And the effect of
righteousness Quietness and assurance for ever."
This is called peace, because
(1.) the sinner is represented as the enemy of God, Ro 8:7; Eph 2:16;
Jas 4:4; Joh 15:18; 17:14; Ro 1:30.
(2.) The state of a sinner's mind is far from peace. He is often
agitated, alarmed, trembling. He feels that he is alienated from God.
For
"The wicked are like the troubled sea, For it never can be at rest;
Whose waters east up mire and dirt." Isa 57:20.
The sinner, in this state, regards God as his enemy. He trembles when he
thinks of his law; fears his judgments; is alarmed when he thinks of
hell. His bosom is a stranger to peace. This has been felt in all
lands--alike under the thunders of the law of Sinai among the Jews, in
the pagan world, and in lands where the gospel is preached. It is the
effect of an alarmed and troubled conscience.
(3.) The plan of salvation by Christ reveals God as willing to be
reconciled. He is ready to pardon, and to be at peace. If the sinner
repents and believes, God can now consistently forgive him, and admit
him to favour. It is therefore a plan by which the mind of God and of
the sinner can become reconciled, or united in feeling and in purpose.
The obstacles, on the part of God, to reconciliation, arising from his
justice and law, been removed, and he is now willing to be at peace. The
obstacles on the part of man, arising from his sin, his rebellion, and
his conscious guilt, may be taken away, and he can now regard God as his
friend.
(4.) The effect of this plan, when the sinner embraces it, is to produce
peace in his own mind. He experiences peace; a peace which the world
gives not, and which the world cannot take away, Php 4:7; 1Pe 1:8; Joh
16:22. Usually, in the work of conversion to God, this peace is the
first evidence that is felt of the change of heart. Before, the sinner
was agitated and troubled. But often suddenly, a peace and calmness is
felt, which is before unknown. The alarm subsides; the heart is calm;
the fears die away, like the waves of the ocean after a storm. A sweet
tranquillity visits the heart--a pure shining light, like the sunbeams
that break through the opening clouds after a tempest. The views, the
feelings, the desires are changed; and the bosom that was just before
filled with agitation and alarm, that regarded God as its enemy, is now
at peace with him, and with all the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. By means of the atonement of the Lord
Jesus. It is his mediation that has procured it.
{e} "Therefore being justified" Isa 32:17; Eph 2:14; Col 1:20.
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Jamieson-Faussett Brown:
Therefore being--"having been."
justified by faith, we have peace with God, &c.--If we are to be guided
by manuscript authority, the true reading here, beyond doubt, is, "Let
us have peace"; a reading, however, which most reject, because they
think it unnatural to exhort men to have what it belongs to God to give,
because the apostle is not here giving exhortations, but stating matters
of fact. But as it seems hazardous to set aside the decisive testimony
of manuscripts, as to what the apostle did write, in favor of what we
merely think he ought to have written, let us pause and ask--If it be
the privilege of the justified to "have peace with God," why might not
the apostle begin his enumeration of the fruits of justification by
calling on believers to "realize" this peace as belonged to them, or
cherish the joyful consciousness of it as their own? And if this is what
he has done, it would not be necessary to continue in the same style,
and the other fruits of justification might be set down, simply as
matters of fact. This "peace" is first a change in God's relation to us;
and next, as the consequence of this, a change on our part towards Him.
God, on the one hand, has "reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ"
(2Co 5:18); and we, on the other hand, setting our seal to this, "are
reconciled to God" (2Co 5:20). The "propitiation" is the meeting-place;
there the controversy on both sides terminates in an honorable and
eternal "peace."
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Spurgeon Commentary:
This is a short but very precious portion, in which Paul writes of the
high privileges and perfect security of believers.
Faith lays hold upon the righteousness of Jesus, and so makes us just
before the Lord, and this brings a heavenly peace into the soul. No
self-confidence can ever do this. Our own good works are faulty, and can
neither make peace for us nor work peace in us. What a joy it is to be
just before God, because "accepted in the Beloved!" No wonder that the
man who is so favored enjoys peace of soul.
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William Burkitt's Notes:
The first blessed effect and sweet fruit of our justification by faith,
is peace and reconciliation with God. Pardon and peace go together, and
accompany one another; a sinner being discharged from guilt, and thereby
from his obnoxiousness to God's wrath, is instantly brought into a state
of friendship and reconciliation with God; for there is no middle state
betwixt his favour and his wrath.
Learn hence, 1. That peace, is proclaimed in heaven betwixt God and
every justified person whatsoever, the enmity betwixt God and such a
soul being taken away: Peace I say, is proclaimed in the sinner's
conscience: A person may be in a state of peace, and yet want the sense
of peace.
Again, There is a twofold peace with God; one which is opposite to God's
paternal anger as a father. Now, the apostle here speaks of the former.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God; that is, God has no
more hostile enmity against us, and will not satisfy his justice upon
us, by punishing of us; but if we offend him, we shall certainly fall
under his frowns and chastisements, and feel the effects of his heavy
displeasure as an angry father!
With this agrees that of the learned and pious Bishop Davenant: Deus
absolvit justificatum ab omni pana satisfactoria, sed non ab omni pana
medicinali & castigatoria.
Learn, 2. That our reconciliation with God is settled upon a sure
foundation by Jesus Christ; We have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus; that is, through him as a Mediator betwixt God and us; he made
peace by the blood of his cross, Col 1:20. that is, by his blood shed
upon the cross; he meritorious satisfaction brought us into a state of
peace and reconciliation, and his prevailing intercession keep us in it:
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
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Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:
A blessed change takes place in the sinner's state, when he becomes a
true believer, whatever he has been. Being justified by faith he has
peace with God. The holy, righteous God, cannot be at peace with a
sinner, while under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the
guilt, and so makes way for peace. This is through our Lord Jesus
Christ; through him as the great Peace-maker, the Mediator between God
and man. The saints' happy state is a state of grace. Into this grace we
are brought, which teaches that we were not born in this state. We could
not have got into it of ourselves, but we are led into it, as pardoned
offenders. Therein we stand, a posture that denotes perseverance; we
stand firm and safe, upheld by the power of the enemy. And those who
have hope for the glory of God hereafter, have enough to rejoice in now.
Tribulation worketh patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful
grace of God working in and with the tribulation. Patient sufferers have
most of the Divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It
works needful experience of ourselves. This hope will not disappoint,
because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. It is the
gracious work of the blessed Spirit to shed abroad the love of God in
the hearts of all the saints. A right sense of God's love to us, will
make us not ashamed, either of our hope, or of our sufferings for him.
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The Fourfold Gospel:
(No comment on this verse).
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