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1: 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.
2: Into this grace - This state of favour.
3: We glory in tribulations also - Which we are so far
from esteeming a mark of God's displeasure, that we receive
them as tokens of his fatherly love, whereby we are prepared
for a more exalted happiness. The Jews objected to the
persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with the
people of the Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety
that the apostle so often mentions the blessings arising from
this very thing.
4: And patience works more experience of the
sincerity of our grace, and of God's power and faithfulness.
5: Hope shameth us not - That is, gives us the highest
glorying. We glory in this our hope, because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts - The divine conviction of God's love
to us, and that love to God which is both the earnest and the
beginning of heaven. By the Holy Ghost - The efficient cause
of all these present blessings, and the earnest of those to come.
6: How can we now doubt of God's love? For when we were
without strength - Either to think, will, or do anything good.
In due time - Neither too soon nor too late; but in that very
point of time which the wisdom of God knew to be more proper than
any other. Christ died for the ungodly - Not only to set them a
pattern, or to procure them power to follow it. It does not appear
that this expression, of dying for any one, has any other
signification than that of rescuing the life of another by laying
down our own.
7: A just man - One who gives to all what is strictly
their due The good man - One who is eminently holy; full of
love, of compassion, kindness, mildness, of every heavenly and
amiable temper. Perhaps - one - would - even - dare to die - Every
word increases the strangeness of the thing, and declares even
this to be something great and unusual.
8: But God recommendeth - A most elegant expression.
Those are wont to be recommended to us, who were before either
unknown to, or alienated from, us. While we were sinners
- So far from being good, that we were not even just.
9: By his blood - By his bloodshedding. We shall be saved
from wrath through him - That is, from all the effects of the
wrath of God. But is there then wrath in God? Is not wrath a
human passion? And how can this human passion be in God? We may
answer this by another question: Is not love a human passion? And
how can this human passion be in God? But to answer directly:
wrath in man, and so love in man, is a human passion. But wrath
in God is not a human passion; nor is love, as it is in God.
Therefore the inspired writers ascribe both the one and the other
to God only in an analogical sense.
10: If - As sure as; so the word frequently signifies;
particularly in this and the eighth chapter. We shalt be saved
- Sanctified and glorified. Through his life - Who "ever liveth
to make intercession for us."
11: And not only so, but we also glory - The whole sentence,
from the third to the eleventh verse, may be taken together thus:
We not only "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," but also
in the midst of tribulations we glory in God himself through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12: Therefore - This refers to all the preceding discourse;
from which the apostle infers what follows. He does not therefore
properly make a digression, but returns to speak again of sin and of
righteousness. As by one man - Adam; who is mentioned, and not Eve,
as being the representative of mankind. Sin entered into the world
- Actual sin, and its consequence, a sinful nature. And death - With
all its attendants. It entered into the world when it entered into
being; for till then it did not exist. By sin - Therefore it could not
enter before sin. Even so - Namely, by one man. In that - So the
word is used also, (2Co 5:4).
All sinned - In Adam. These words assign the reason why death came
upon all men; infants themselves not excepted, in that all sinned.
13: For until the law sin was in the world - All, I say,
had sinned, for sin was in the world long before the written law;
but, I grant, sin is not so much imputed, nor so severely
punished by God, where there is no express law to convince men of it.
Yet that all had sinned, even then, appears in that all died.
14: Death reigned - And how vast is his kingdom! Scarce can
we find any king who has as many subjects, as are the kings whom he
hath conquered. Even over them that had not sinned after the
likeness of Adam's transgression - Even over infants who had never
sinned, as Adam did, in their own persons; and over others who had
not, like him, sinned against an express law. Who is the figure of
him that was to come - Each of them being a public person, and a
federal head of mankind. The one, the fountain of sin and death to
mankind by his offence; the other, of righteousness and life by his
free gift.
Thus far the apostle shows the agreement between the first and second
Adam: afterward he shows the differences between them. The agreement
may be summed up thus: As by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; so by one man righteousness entered into the world, and
life by righteousness. As death passed upon all men, in that all had
sinned; so life passed upon all men, (who are in the second Adam by
faith,) in that all are justified. And as death through the sin of
the first Adam reigned even over them who had not sinned after
the likeness of Adam's transgression; so through the righteousness
of Christ, even those who have not obeyed, after the likeness of his
obedience, shall reign in life. We may add, As the sin of Adam, without
the sins which we afterwards committed, brought us death ; so the
righteousness of Christ, without the good works which we afterwards
perform, brings us life: although still every good, as well as evil,
work, will receive its due reward.
15: Yet not - St. Paul now describes the difference between Adam
and Christ; and that much more directly and expressly than the agreement
between them. Now the fall and the free gift differ,
-
In amplitude, (Ro 5:15).
-
He from whom sin came, and He from whom the free gift came, termed
also "the gift of righteousness," differ in power, (Ro 5:16).
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The reason of both is subjoined, (Ro 5:17).
-
This premised, the offence and the free gift are compared,
with regard to their effect, (Ro 5:18),
and with regard to their cause, (Ro 5:19).
16: The sentence was by one offence to Adam's condemnation
- Occasioning the sentence of death to pass upon him, which, by
consequence, overwhelmed his posterity. But the free gift is of
many offences unto justification - Unto the purchasing it for all
men, notwithstanding many offences.
17: There is a difference between grace and the gift.
Grace is opposed to the offence; the gift, to death,
being the gift of life.
18: Justification of life - Is that sentence of God,
by which a sinner under sentence of death is adjudged to life.
19: As by the disobedience of one man many (that is,
all men) were constituted sinners - Being then in the loins
of their first parent, the common head and representative of
them all. So by the obedience of one - By his obedience
unto death; by his dying for us. Many - All that believe.
Shall be constituted righteous - Justified, pardoned.
20: The law came in between - The offence and the free gift.
That the offence might abound - That is, the consequence (not the
design) of the law's coming in was, not the taking away of sin, but
the increase of it. Yet where sin abounded, grace did much more abound
- Not only in the remission of that sin which Adam brought on us, but
of all our own; not only in remission of sins, but infusion of
holiness; not only in deliverance from death, but admission to
everlasting life, a far more noble and excellent life than that which
we lost by Adam's fall.
21: That as sin had reigned - so grace also might reign - Which
could not reign before the fall; before man had sinned. Through
righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord - Here is
pointed out the source of all our blessings, the rich and free grace
of God. The meritorious cause; not any works of righteousness of man,
but the alone merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. The effect or end of all;
not only pardon, but life; divine life, leading to glory.
