5:1 Therefore being 1 justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
(1) 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.
5:22 By whom also we a have access by faith into this grace
b wherein we c stand, 3 and d rejoice in hope of the
glory of God.
(2) Whereas quietness of conscience is attributed to faith, it
is to be referred to Christ, who is the giver of faith
itself, and in whom faith itself is effectual.
(a) We must know by this, that we still receive the same
effect from faith.
(b) By which grace, that is, by which gracious love and
good will, or that state unto which we are graciously
taken.
(c) We stand steadfast.
(3) A preventing of an objection against those who, beholding
the daily miseries and calamities of the Church, think that
the Christians dream when they brag of their felicity: to
whom the apostle answers, that their felicity is laid up
under hope of another place: which hope is so certain and
sure, that they rejoice for that happiness just as if they
presently enjoyed it.
(d) Our minds are not only quiet and settled, but we are
also marvellously glad, and have great joy because of
the heavenly inheritance which awaits us.
5:34 And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also:
5 knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
(4) Tribulation itself gives us different and various occasions
to rejoice, and more than this it does not make us
miserable.
(5) Afflictions make us use to being patient, and patience
assures us of the goodness of God, and this experience
confirms and fosters our hope, which never deceives us.
5:56 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the e love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.
(6) The foundation of hope is an assured testimony of the
conscience, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we are
loved by God, and this is nothing else but that which we
call faith, from which it follows that through faith our
consciences are quieted.
(e) With which he loves us.
5:67 For when we were yet without strength, in due f time
Christ died for the ungodly.
(7) A sure comfort in adversity, so that our peace and
quietness of conscience are not troubled: for he that so
loved them that were of no strength and while they were yet
sinners, that he died for them, how can he neglect them,
having now been sanctified and living in him?
(f) At an appropriate and proper time which the Father had
appointed.
5:78 For scarcely g for a righteous man will one die: yet
peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
(8) An amplifying of the love of God towards us, so that we
cannot doubt it, who delivered Christ to death for the
unjust and for them from whom he could receive no useful
thing, and, what is more, for his very enemies. How can it
be then that Christ, being now alive, should not save them
from destruction whom by his death he justifies and
reconciles.
(g) In the place of a just man.
5:8 But God h commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet i sinners, Christ died for us.
(h) He commends his love toward us, so that in the midst of
our afflictions we may know assuredly that he will be
present with us.
(i) While sin reigned in us.
5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall
be saved from k wrath through him.
(k) From affliction and destruction.
5:119 And not only [so], but we also joy in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the
atonement.
(9) He now passes over to the other part of justification,
which consists in the free imputation of the obedience of
Christ: so that to the remission of sins, there is added
moreover and besides, the gift of Christ's righteousness
imputed or put upon us by faith, which swallows up that
unrighteousness which flowed from Adam into us, and all the
fruits of it: so that in Christ we do not only cease to
be unjust, but we begin also to be just.
5:1210 Wherefore, as by l one man m sin entered into the
world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
n for that all have sinned:
(10) From Adam, in whom all have sinned, both guiltiness and
death (which is the punishment of the guiltiness) came
upon all.
(l) By Adam, who is compared with Christ, and similar to
him in this, that both of them make those who are
theirs partakers of that which they have: but they are
not the same in this, that Adam derives sin into them
that are his, even into their very nature, and that to
death: but Christ makes them that are his partakers of
his righteousness by grace, and that to life.
(m) By sin is meant that disease which is ours by
inheritance, and men commonly call it original sin:
for so he calls that sin in the singular number,
whereas if he speaks of the fruits of it, he uses the
plural number, calling them sins.
(n) That is, in Adam.
5:1311 (For until o the law sin was in the world: but sin
is not p imputed when there is no law.
(11) That this is so, that both guiltiness and death began not
after the giving and transgressing of law of Moses, is
evident in that men died before that law was given: for in
that they died, sin, which is the cause of death, existed
then: and in such a way, that it was also imputed: because
of this it follows that there was then some law, the
breach of which was the cause of death.
(o) Even from Adam to Moses.
(p) Where there is no law made, no man is punished as
faulty and guilty.
5:1412 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over q them that had not sinned after the r similitude
of Adam's transgression, 13 who is the figure of him that
was to come.
(12) But that this law was not the universal law, and that
death did not proceed from any actual sin of everyone
particularly, it appears by this, that the very infants
which neither could ever know nor transgress that natural
law, are nonetheless dead as well as Adam.
(q) Our infants.
(r) Nor after the manner of sin of those who are older,
following their lusts: but yet the whole posterity was
corrupted in Adam when he knowingly and willingly
sinned.
(13) Now that first Adam corresponds to the latter, who is
Christ, as it is afterward declared.
5:1514 But not as the offence, so also [is] the free gift.
For if through the offence of s 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.
(14) Adam and Christ are compared together in this respect,
that both of them give and yield to theirs that which is
their own: but the first difference between them is this,
that Adam by nature has spread his fault to the
destruction of many, but Christ's obedience has be grace
overflowed to many.
(s) That is, Adam.
5:1615 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 t justification.
(15) Another inequality consists in this, that by Adam's one
offence men are made guilty, but the righteousness of
Christ imputed unto us freely, does not only absolve us
from that one fault, but from all others.
(t) To the sentence of absolution, by which we are
acquitted and pronounced righteous.
5:1716 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 u reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ.)
(16) The third difference is that the righteousness of Christ,
being imputed to us by grace, is of greater power to bring
life, than the offence of Adam is to condemn his posterity
to death.
(u) Be partakers of true and everlasting life.
5:1817 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 x
justification of life.
(17) Therefore, to be short, as by one man's offence the
guiltiness came on all men to make them subject to death,
so on the opposite side, the righteousness of Christ,
which by God's mercy is imputed to all believers,
justifies them, that they may become partakers of
everlasting life.
(x) Not only because our sins are forgiven us, but also
because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.
5:1918 For as by one man's y disobedience z many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.
(18) The foundation of this whole comparison is this, that
these two men are set as two heads or roots, so that out
of the one comes sin by nature, and from the other
righteousness by grace springs forth upon others.
(y) So then, sin enters not into us only by following the
steps of our forefathers, but we receive corruption
from him by inheritance.
(z) The word "many" is contrasted with the words "a few".
5:2019 Moreover the law a entered, that the offence might
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more b
abound:
(19) A preventing of an objection: why then did the law of
Moses then enter? So that men might be so much more the
guilty, and the benefit of God in Christ Jesus be all the
more glorious.
(a) In addition to that disease which all men were
infected with by being defiled with one man's sin, the
law entered.
(b) Grace was poured so plentifully from heaven that it
did not only counterbalance sin, but beyond this it
surpassed it.
