1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die.
8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
11 Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12 Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned.
13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
15 But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
16 The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification.
17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
20 The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly,
7 passages from writers of 2 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
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Oldest first.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:3–5For tribulations are in their own selves a goodly thing. How so? It is because they anoint us unto patient abiding. … Tribulations, that is, are so far from confuting these hopes, that they even prove them. … What then? do our goods lie in hopes? Yes, in hopes--but not mere human hopes, which often slip away, and put him that hoped to shame; when some one, who was expected to patronize him, dies, or is altered though he lives. No such lot is ours: our hope is sure and unmoveable. For He Who hath made the promise ever liveth, and we that are to be the enjoyers of it, even should we die, shall rise again … "Because the love of God is," he does not say "given," but "shed abroad in our hearts," so showing the profusion of it.
For tribulations are in their own selves a goodly thing. How so? It is because they anoint us unto patient abiding. … Tribulations, that is, are so far from confuting these hopes, that they even prove them. … What then? do our goods lie in hopes? Yes, in hopes--but not mere human hopes, which often slip away, and put him that hoped to shame; when some one, who was expected to patronize him, dies, or is altered though he lives. No such lot is ours: our hope is sure and unmoveable. For He Who hath made the promise ever liveth, and we that are to be the enjoyers of it, even should we die, shall rise again … "Because the love of God is," he does not say "given," but "shed abroad in our hearts," so showing the profusion of it.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 9; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:12–19But what means, "for that all have sinned?" This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal. … It is the saying that through the offence of one many were made sinners. For the fact that when he had sinned and become mortal, those who were of him should be so also, is nothing unlikely. But how would it follow that from his disobedience another would become a sinner? … What then does the word "sinners" mean here? To me it seems to mean liable to punishment and condemned to death. Now that by Adam's death we all became mortals, he had shown clearly and at large. … immortality awaits us, and after having been chastened a little while, we shall enjoy the blessings to come without fear
But what means, "for that all have sinned?" This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal. … It is the saying that through the offence of one many were made sinners. For the fact that when he had sinned and become mortal, those who were of him should be so also, is nothing unlikely. But how would it follow that from his disobedience another would become a sinner? … What then does the word "sinners" mean here? To me it seems to mean liable to punishment and condemned to death. Now that by Adam's death we all became mortals, he had shown clearly and at large. … immortality awaits us, and after having been chastened a little while, we shall enjoy the blessings to come without fear
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 10; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:17–20For it was not as much as we must have to do away the sin only, that we received of His grace, but even far more. … As then if any one were to cast a person who owed ten mites (obolous) into prison, and not the man himself only, but wife and children and servants for his sake; and another were to come and not to pay down the ten mites only, but to give also ten thousand talents of gold, and to lead the prisoner into the king's courts, and to the throne of the highest power, and were to make him partaker of the highest honor and every kind of magnificence, the creditor would not be able to remember the ten mites; so hath our case been. For Christ hath paid down far more than we owe, yea as much more as the illimitable ocean is than a little drop. … He does not say did abound, but "did much more abound." For it was not remission from punishment only that He gave us, but that from sins, and life also.
For it was not as much as we must have to do away the sin only, that we received of His grace, but even far more. … As then if any one were to cast a person who owed ten mites (obolous) into prison, and not the man himself only, but wife and children and servants for his sake; and another were to come and not to pay down the ten mites only, but to give also ten thousand talents of gold, and to lead the prisoner into the king's courts, and to the throne of the highest power, and were to make him partaker of the highest honor and every kind of magnificence, the creditor would not be able to remember the ten mites; so hath our case been. For Christ hath paid down far more than we owe, yea as much more as the illimitable ocean is than a little drop. … He does not say did abound, but "did much more abound." For it was not remission from punishment only that He gave us, but that from sins, and life also.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 10; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Calvin1509–1564ReformedCommentaries · on Romans 5:3–4By saying that the saints glory in tribulations, he is not to be understood, as though they dreaded not, nor avoided adversities, or were not distressed with their bitterness when they happened, (for there is no patience when there is no feeling of bitterness;) but as in their grief and sorrow they are not without great consolation, because they regard that whatever they bear is dispensed to them for good by the hand of a most indulgent Father, they are justly said to glory … This is not the natural effect of tribulation; for we see that a great portion of mankind are thereby instigated to murmur against God, and even to curse his name. But when that inward meekness, which is infused by the Spirit of God, and the consolation, which is conveyed by the same Spirit, succeed in the place of our stubbornness, then tribulations become the means of generating patience
By saying that the saints glory in tribulations, he is not to be understood, as though they dreaded not, nor avoided adversities, or were not distressed with their bitterness when they happened, (for there is no patience when there is no feeling of bitterness;) but as in their grief and sorrow they are not without great consolation, because they regard that whatever they bear is dispensed to them for good by the hand of a most indulgent Father, they are justly said to glory … This is not the natural effect of tribulation; for we see that a great portion of mankind are thereby instigated to murmur against God, and even to curse his name. But when that inward meekness, which is infused by the Spirit of God, and the consolation, which is conveyed by the same Spirit, succeed in the place of our stubbornness, then tribulations become the means of generating patience
John Calvin, Commentaries, on 5:3–5; Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1843–1855); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
The French reformer of Geneva, from whose teaching the Reformed and Presbyterian churches come.
John Calvin1509–1564ReformedCommentaries · on Romans 5:12But Paul distinctly affirms, that sin extends to all who suffer its punishment … But to sin in this case, is to become corrupt and vicious; for the natural depravity which we bring, from our mother's womb, though it brings not forth immediately its own fruits, is yet sin before God … and this is that sin which they call original. For as Adam at his creation had received for us as well as for himself the gifts of God's favor, so by falling away from the Lord, he in himself corrupted, vitiated, depraved, and ruined our nature; for having been divested of God's likeness, he could not have generated seed but what was like himself. Hence we have all sinned; for we are all imbued with natural corruption, and so are become sinful and wicked.
But Paul distinctly affirms, that sin extends to all who suffer its punishment … But to sin in this case, is to become corrupt and vicious; for the natural depravity which we bring, from our mother's womb, though it brings not forth immediately its own fruits, is yet sin before God … and this is that sin which they call original. For as Adam at his creation had received for us as well as for himself the gifts of God's favor, so by falling away from the Lord, he in himself corrupted, vitiated, depraved, and ruined our nature; for having been divested of God's likeness, he could not have generated seed but what was like himself. Hence we have all sinned; for we are all imbued with natural corruption, and so are become sinful and wicked.
John Calvin, Commentaries, on 5:12–14; Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1843–1855); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
The French reformer of Geneva, from whose teaching the Reformed and Presbyterian churches come.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Romans 5:1It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity … Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. … There is more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity, there is friendship and loving-kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or the best friend. Abraham, being justified by faith, was called the friend of God (Jam 2:23), which was his honour, but not his peculiar honour: Christ has called his disciples friends, Joh 15:13-15. And surely a man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ - through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man, that blessed Day's-man that has laid his hand upon us both.
It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity … Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. … There is more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity, there is friendship and loving-kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or the best friend. Abraham, being justified by faith, was called the friend of God (Jam 2:23), which was his honour, but not his peculiar honour: Christ has called his disciples friends, Joh 15:13-15. And surely a man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ - through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man, that blessed Day's-man that has laid his hand upon us both.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 5:1–5; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Romans 5:7–8One would hardly die for a righteous man, that is, an innocent man, one that is unjustly condemned; every body will pity such a one, but few will put such a value upon his life as either to hazard, or much less to deposit, their own in his stead. … But Christ died for sinners (Rom 5:8), neither righteous nor good … Now herein God commended his love, not only proved or evidenced his love (he might have done that at a cheaper rate), but magnified it and made it illustrious. … While we were yet sinners, implying that we were not to be always sinners, there should be a change wrought; for he died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins; but we were yet sinners when he died for us.
One would hardly die for a righteous man, that is, an innocent man, one that is unjustly condemned; every body will pity such a one, but few will put such a value upon his life as either to hazard, or much less to deposit, their own in his stead. … But Christ died for sinners (Rom 5:8), neither righteous nor good … Now herein God commended his love, not only proved or evidenced his love (he might have done that at a cheaper rate), but magnified it and made it illustrious. … While we were yet sinners, implying that we were not to be always sinners, there should be a change wrought; for he died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins; but we were yet sinners when he died for us.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 5:6–8; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Romans 5
Romans 5:1–20, World English Bible
Romans 5 in the Bible · Told in the Story: Chapter 22, Not Ashamed of the Good News
What others have written
7 passages from writers of 2 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
Oldest first.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:3–5For tribulations are in their own selves a goodly thing. How so? It is because they anoint us unto patient abiding. … Tribulations, that is, are so far from confuting these hopes, that they even prove them. … What then? do our goods lie in hopes? Yes, in hopes--but not mere human hopes, which often slip away, and put him that hoped to shame; when some one, who was expected to patronize him, dies, or is altered though he lives. No such lot is ours: our hope is sure and unmoveable. For He Who hath made the promise ever liveth, and we that are to be the enjoyers of it, even should we die, shall rise again … "Because the love of God is," he does not say "given," but "shed abroad in our hearts," so showing the profusion of it.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 9; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:12–19But what means, "for that all have sinned?" This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal. … It is the saying that through the offence of one many were made sinners. For the fact that when he had sinned and become mortal, those who were of him should be so also, is nothing unlikely. But how would it follow that from his disobedience another would become a sinner? … What then does the word "sinners" mean here? To me it seems to mean liable to punishment and condemned to death. Now that by Adam's death we all became mortals, he had shown clearly and at large. … immortality awaits us, and after having been chastened a little while, we shall enjoy the blessings to come without fear
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 10; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Chrysostomc. 347–407Early church, EastHomilies on the Epistle to the Romans · on Romans 5:17–20For it was not as much as we must have to do away the sin only, that we received of His grace, but even far more. … As then if any one were to cast a person who owed ten mites (obolous) into prison, and not the man himself only, but wife and children and servants for his sake; and another were to come and not to pay down the ten mites only, but to give also ten thousand talents of gold, and to lead the prisoner into the king's courts, and to the throne of the highest power, and were to make him partaker of the highest honor and every kind of magnificence, the creditor would not be able to remember the ten mites; so hath our case been. For Christ hath paid down far more than we owe, yea as much more as the illimitable ocean is than a little drop. … He does not say did abound, but "did much more abound." For it was not remission from punishment only that He gave us, but that from sins, and life also.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 10; the Oxford translation (Library of the Fathers, 1839–1877), revised for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 11, edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1889); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Archbishop of Constantinople, called “golden-mouthed” for his preaching; his sermons on the Gospels and on Paul's letters are still read in the Orthodox church.
John Calvin1509–1564ReformedCommentaries · on Romans 5:3–4By saying that the saints glory in tribulations, he is not to be understood, as though they dreaded not, nor avoided adversities, or were not distressed with their bitterness when they happened, (for there is no patience when there is no feeling of bitterness;) but as in their grief and sorrow they are not without great consolation, because they regard that whatever they bear is dispensed to them for good by the hand of a most indulgent Father, they are justly said to glory … This is not the natural effect of tribulation; for we see that a great portion of mankind are thereby instigated to murmur against God, and even to curse his name. But when that inward meekness, which is infused by the Spirit of God, and the consolation, which is conveyed by the same Spirit, succeed in the place of our stubbornness, then tribulations become the means of generating patience
John Calvin, Commentaries, on 5:3–5; Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1843–1855); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
The French reformer of Geneva, from whose teaching the Reformed and Presbyterian churches come.
John Calvin1509–1564ReformedCommentaries · on Romans 5:12But Paul distinctly affirms, that sin extends to all who suffer its punishment … But to sin in this case, is to become corrupt and vicious; for the natural depravity which we bring, from our mother's womb, though it brings not forth immediately its own fruits, is yet sin before God … and this is that sin which they call original. For as Adam at his creation had received for us as well as for himself the gifts of God's favor, so by falling away from the Lord, he in himself corrupted, vitiated, depraved, and ruined our nature; for having been divested of God's likeness, he could not have generated seed but what was like himself. Hence we have all sinned; for we are all imbued with natural corruption, and so are become sinful and wicked.
John Calvin, Commentaries, on 5:12–14; Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1843–1855); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
The French reformer of Geneva, from whose teaching the Reformed and Presbyterian churches come.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Romans 5:1It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity … Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. … There is more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity, there is friendship and loving-kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or the best friend. Abraham, being justified by faith, was called the friend of God (Jam 2:23), which was his honour, but not his peculiar honour: Christ has called his disciples friends, Joh 15:13-15. And surely a man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our Lord Jesus Christ - through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man, that blessed Day's-man that has laid his hand upon us both.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 5:1–5; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Romans 5:7–8One would hardly die for a righteous man, that is, an innocent man, one that is unjustly condemned; every body will pity such a one, but few will put such a value upon his life as either to hazard, or much less to deposit, their own in his stead. … But Christ died for sinners (Rom 5:8), neither righteous nor good … Now herein God commended his love, not only proved or evidenced his love (he might have done that at a cheaper rate), but magnified it and made it illustrious. … While we were yet sinners, implying that we were not to be always sinners, there should be a change wrought; for he died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins; but we were yet sinners when he died for us.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 5:6–8; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.