Romans

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Romans Essay, Research Paper

Romans 5:1-5

Justification, Peace, Grace and Access

In Romans, Paul talks about many different topics and problems that the Jews face

during 57 to 58 AD. He speaks of the need for righteousness, condemnation and sin in Ch

1:18-3:20. Righteousness is imputed, and justification and sin is explained in Ch

3:21-5:21. But there is one major area that this paper is going to talk about and try to

explain in as good of detail as possible. Justification, Faith, Peace, Access, and Grace in

God in Romans 5:1-5. How does justification show our right standing with God? How

does faith play a part in our justification? Do we have peace with God or receive it? Does

the faith we have give us access to God and His kingdom? And last but not lease, grace

should be the controlling factor of all these strong connecting assets.

Romans 5:1-2

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus

Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and

rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The first point Paul makes in this chapter has become the cornerstone of the

present Christian experience. We are justified by faith. ?Not that faith is at the first of

justification;… nor is it the chief, or has it the chief place in justification; it is not the

efficient cause of it, it is God that justifies, and not faith;… we are not justified by faith,

either as God?s work in us, for, as such, it is a part of sanctification;… but we are justified

by faith objectively and relatively, as that related to the object Christ, and his

righteousness; or as it is a means of our knowledge, and perception of our justification by

Christ?s righteousness, and of our enjoying the comfort of it; and so we come to have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.?1 Please note that our faith and

Abraham?s faith is different. Abraham believed God could and would perform what He

promised, and our faith is to believe that God has performed His promise. What is faith,

peace, grace, justification, and access? What does it have to do with our lives? How can

we understand these words and apply the knowledge to our lives? In this paper one will

find some understanding to them. ?Remark here that justification is distinct from peace.

?having been justified, we have peace.? Justification is my true state before God, by viture

of the work of Christ, of His death, and of resurrection.?2 How do we get or receive

faith? Lets start to explain this with one word, that is, regeneration. When the Holy Spirit

draws one to come to the Lord and he accepts the invitation of the Him and receives the

blessing of God. At this moment in time God is sealing , like a king would seal something

with his ring, to show ownership. God is showing ownership to the one who receives Him

with the spirit, the Holy Spirit is the seal. This is regeneration. When this event takes

place in one?s heart, they receive the truth. The truth is recognizing the good and evil of

the world and also in their personal lives. Justification starts at faith and faith starts at

regeneration. One cannot be justified without faith and one cannot have faith without

being regenerated. Christ?s resurrection was for our justification, as a proof of God?s

acceptance of His Son?s sacrifice. For Paul, justification is not sterile doctrine, but a

source of present blessing in one?s life. ?C.E.B. Cranfield represents a very traditional

approach to the problem by concluding that 5:1-8:39 embodies the second division of the

letter by drawing out ?what having been justified by faith means?3… I would suggest that

his approach to the structure of the letter represents an undue dependence upon the

Lutheran hermeneutic of ?justification by faith.? Or, we might say that Cranfield?s

understanding of the structure of the argument in Romans is more reformational than

Pauline.?4

In being justified before God, we have peace with God through Christ Jesus. Paul

having talked about the doctrine of justification clearly, and proven that is not by works of

men but by the righteousness of God. Proceeds to consider its effects. Among which,

peace with God stands in the first place; and is so called, to distinguish it from peace with

men. ?and whose justice they have affronted; reconciliation for sin being made, and a

justifying righteousness brought in, and this imputed and applied to them, they have that

“peace of God”, that tranquillity and serenity of mind, the same with “peace with God”

here, “which passes all understanding”, (Phil.4:7) ; and is better experienced than

expressed: and this is all through our Lord Jesus Christ.?5 In Romans Paul likes to use

triads, many theologians have picked up on his consitent use of them. The ?peace with

God? is a possible piece of a triad of love, joy, and peace. ?The importance of this triad in

Paul is also underscored by a simple word count of Pauline vocabulary; these three fruit of

the Spirit emerge as a dominant factor…Love, joy, and peace can not be reduced to

inward, individualistic ?traits.?…Love joy, and peace enter into the structure of Paul?s

thought as a corporate reality, corresponding to the all-embarcing Lordship of Jesus

Christ. Consequently, Christians are called to the love of enemies, to living at peace with

all persons, and to enter into the joy of creation. The ?art? of forming Christian character

marked by love, joy, and peace, is to bring persons to that place where there is a symbiosis

of inward and outward reality. Only then can we recognized them as Fruit of the Spirit.?6

If love, joy, and peace are truly related, than one needs to consider all three when dealing

with process of justification through faith. A interesting thought that God has many things

to connect with the understandings of how He wants us to live. Some translations of the

?peace with God? very. ?Although many interpreters and the committees controlling the

standard Greek texts of our day believe the context of 5:1 favors the indicative translation,

?we have peace with God,? the more strongly attested subjunctive form should be

accepted. It should be translated as hortatory subjunctive, ?lets us have peace with

God.?…The implication of the current consensus favoring the indicative is that only those

who have the right doctrine of justification by faith enjoy peace with God. Although this

implication is strongly favored by some branches of the Lutheran exegetical tradition.?7

On the basis of Stanley E. Porter?s recent demonstration of the superiority of the

subjunctive reading, this verse needs to be translated as follows:

?Therefore, having been set right by faith let

us have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ…?8

To have peace with God is a gift that is received at regeneration, but only used to

its entirety when there is a true understanding of the justification whichs involves faith.

?Remark here that justification is distinct from peace. “Having been justified, we have

peace.” Justification is my true state before God, by virtue of the work of Christ, of His

death, and of resurrection. Faith, thus knowing God, is at peace with God; but this is a

result, like the present enjoyment of the grace wherein we stand.?9 Here is a poem that

gives a different angle to peace with God.

?Jehovah-Shalom The Lord send peace (Judges 6:24)

Jesus! whose blood so freely stream?d

To satisfy the law?s demand;

By Thee from guilt and wrath redeem?d,

Before the Father?s face I stand.

To reconcile offending man,

Make Justice drop her angry rod;

What creature could have form?d the plan,

Or who fulfill it but a God?

No drop remains of all the curse,

For wretches who deserved the whole;

No arrows dipt in wrath to pierce

The guilty, but returning soul.

Peace by such means so dearly bought,

What rebel could have hoped to see?

Peace, by his injured Sovereign wrought,

His Sovereign fasten?d to a tree.

Now, Lord, Thy feeble worm prepare!

For strife with earth, and hell begins;

Confirm and gird me for the war;

They hate the soul that hates his sins.

Let them in horrid league agree!

They may assault, they may distress;

But cannot quench Thy love to me,

Nor rob me of the Lord my peace.?10

It is by the same Christ Jesus that we have gained access to grace through faith.

The Bible says that God has given every man a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), but that

measure of faith does not mean that all men have their eyes and hears open to receive

Christ as Lord of their lives. ?Faith believes in the God who has done this, and

who-exercising His power in love and in righteousness-has raised from the dead the One

who bore my sins, having entirely abolished them, and having perfectly glorified God in so

doing. On this ground, too, “by Him” we have found access into the full favour of God in

which we stand.?11 The access talked about here is not to the blessing of justification; but

is of grace which we have access to by Christ, and come to the knowledge of by faith, and

we enjoy the comfort of through it ; and is a grace in which people stand. To which they

should never fall. Paul is ?not specking of that blessing itself, but of its effects; and here of

one distinct from ?peace with God?, before mentioned, as the word also manifestly shows:

nor does it design any other blessing of grace, as pardon, adoption, sanctification… and an

access therunto; not unto the free grace, favour, and good will of God, the source of all

blessing; but to the throne of grace, which may be called that grace because of its

name,?12 Now access to the throne of grace, and standing at that throne, are ?by? Christ.

There is no access to God in our own name and righteousness, and upon the foot of our

own works. Christ is the only way we can have access to God, and acceptance with Him.

Romans 5:3-5

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh

patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not

ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which

is given unto us.

We are to rejoice in the the tribulations because we know that God disciplines

those He loves and tribulations brings the knowledge of understanding that it teaches us to

patient. ?A problem for the interpreters, however has been to make sense of the peculiar

references to ?boasting? in this passage, where Paul appears to claim that Christians

routinely boast in their hope and in their sufferings, which stands in some dissonance to

the actual experience of Roman Christians both internally and externally. This problem

would be eliminated if the text-critical decision about the reading of 5:1 were made on

methodical grounds.?13 The boasting in the achievement of honor that led the human

race to chronic conflict is here replaced by a new form of boasting: in the ?hope of the

glory of God? restored by Christ, and ?in the afflictions? shared with Christ which lead to

?perseverance? and ?hope.? The proper form of the ?boasting God through our Lord

Jesus Christ (5:11),? relying on ?grace? (5:2) rather than in the acheivements of self or

group, stands in contrast to the arrogant boasting in 2:17.14 ?The better a man is, the

more he is led by glory.?15 This boasting or hope of the glory of God is in fact another

effect of justification by faith. The ?glory of God? is another effect of justification, this is

not the essential glory of God; but that everlasting glory and happiness which he has

prepared for his people, he has promised to them, and has called them by Christ. This will

bestow upon them; of which they can, and do rejoice, even amidst a variety of afflictions

and tribulations in this world. ?And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured

out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit? (5:5) What disappoint do we have when

we know of the future and what is brings? God has shown His love through Christ and

His death. Through our faith God gives us the Holy Spirit we receive the fruit of God,

and start to understand the purpose of our mission. The gift that God give us is not the te

Holy Spirit is Grace, grace is what starts the love in God. We cannot have access unless

we have grace. We cannot have faith without grace first. We cannot be justified if didn?t

have grace to cover our sin.

Conclusion

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. One should ask if

they are justified, and then ask who or on what means is that person justified? Can there

be one agent to justify us or many? Of course we now know that God does the justifying,

not our faith. I f God is the justifier then how can we be just in His eyes? Through faith.

Faith is the main ingredient to the being justified. Now that we are just in God eyes, then

we have access to His throne, and that access is available to those who believe. In our

access to Him and His throne we are in / with / and have peace with Him. We start to

understand the difference between good and evil. We are favored by Him after we are

justified. If we have access to Him and are favored by Him, then we can now rejoice in

the further of His comes and the future of the kingdom. Let us boast in the glory the hope

of the kingdom of God.

Bibliography

Cowper, William. ?Olney Hymns?. Sheldon & Company, New York, 1988.

Cranfield, C. E. B. ?Romans?. 1:253-54.

Darby, John. ?Synopsis of the New Testament?.

Dunn, D James. Romans 1-8 Word Biblical Commentary 38a, Word, Dallas, 1988

Gill, John. ?Exposition of the Bible?.

Harrisville, A Roy. ?Expository Ariticles? Interpretations 45, 181-185, 1991.

Jewett, Robert. ?The God of Peace in Romans?. Currents & Theology in Missions 25,

186-194, 1998.

Judge, E. A. ?The Conflict of Educational Aims in New Testament Thought?. Journal of

Christian Education 9, 33-38, 1966.

Meye, P Robert. ?Character Formation?. Theological Education 24, Supp1,

96-126,1988.

Nabpr. ?Romans 5?. Perspectives in Religious Studies 19, 255-272, 1992.

Porter, Stanley. ?The Argument of Romans 5?. Journal of Biblical Literature 110,

662-65, 1991.

Outline

I. Introduction

II. 5:1, Justification by faith, Peace with God.

III. 5:2, We have Access, Rejoice in the Hope, Boasting.

VI. 5:3, We Glory in Tribulations, Tribulation worketh Patience

V. 5:4-5, Experience of Grace and God?s love is shed by the Holy Spirit.

IV. Conclusion

IIV. Bibliagriphy

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