Peace with God, and the Reign of Grace

Observation

Setting. “Therefore” (v1) — Paul has just finished Abraham: righteousness credited by faith, “to us also … who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:24–25). Chapter 5 counts what a justified man has, then widens to the whole human race in Adam and in Christ.

Structure:

• vv1–5 — the fruit of justification: peace with God through Jesus (v1); introduction by faith into grace, where we stand (v2); exulting in hope of the glory of God (v2) — and in tribulations, because tribulation → perseverance → proven character → hope (vv3–4); hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (v5).
• vv6–8 — the love that came down: while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly (v6); hardly anyone dies for a righteous man, perhaps for a good man (v7); but God demonstrates His own love: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (v8).
• vv9–11 — ”much more”: justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (v9); reconciled as enemies by His death, much more saved by His life (v10); we exult in God, through whom we have received the reconciliation (v11).
• vv12–14 — through one man: sin entered the world through one man, death through sin, and death spread to all men because all sinned (v12); sin was in the world before the Law (v13); death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin like Adam — “a type of Him who was to come” (v14).
• vv15–19 — not like the transgression: five comparisons of Adam and Christ — the many died / grace abounded to the many (v15); one transgression → condemnation / many transgressions → justification (v16); death reigned / believers will reign in life (v17); one transgression → condemnation to all men / one act of righteousness → justification of life to all men (v18); disobedience → many made sinners / obedience → many made righteous (v19).
• vv20–21 — the reign of grace: the Law came in so that the transgression would increase; where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (v20); as sin reigned in death, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (v21).

Repeated words, with counts: “one / One” ×14 — v7, 12, 15×2, 16×3, 17×3, 18×2, 19×2 (thirteen of them in vv12–19); “through” ×18 — vv1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11×2, 12×2, 16, 17×2, 18×2, 19×2, 21×2 (everything comes through someone); “much more” ×4 — vv9, 10, 15, 17 (plus “all the more,” v20); “transgression(s)” ×7 — vv15×2, 16×2, 17, 18, 20; “sin” ×6 — vv12×2, 13×2, 20, 21 (plus “sinned/sinners” ×5 — vv8, 12, 14, 16, 19); “grace” ×6 — vv2, 15×2, 17, 20, 21; “death” ×6 — vv10, 12×2, 14, 17, 21; “reign/reigned” ×5 — vv14, 17×2, 21×2; “gift / free gift” ×5 — vv15×2, 16×2, 17; “justified / justification” ×4 — vv1, 9, 16, 18; “exult” ×3 — vv2, 3, 11; “hope” ×3 — vv2, 4, 5; “reconciled / reconciliation” ×3 — vv10×2, 11; “the many” ×4 — vv15×2, 19×2; “all men” ×3 — vv12, 18×2.

Contrasts: enemies ⟷ reconciled (v10). Helpless, ungodly, sinners (vv6–8) ⟷ God’s own love (v8). Saved by His death ⟷ much more by His life (v10). One man ⟷ the one Man (vv12–19). Transgression ⟷ free gift; condemnation ⟷ justification of life; disobedience ⟷ obedience; made sinners ⟷ made righteous. Death reigned ⟷ believers reign in life (v17). Sin increased ⟷ grace abounded all the more (v20). Sin reigned in death ⟷ grace reigns to eternal life (v21).

Shape of the chapter: a “therefore” (v1), a list of gifts that rises by “much more” (vv1–11), then a long sentence Paul starts in v12 (“just as through one man…”), breaks off to explain (vv13–17), and finally finishes in vv18–19 (“so then as … even so”). It ends where chapter 6 will pick up: grace on the throne.

Chapter theme (my words): Justified by faith, I have peace with God and a hope that will not let me down, because God loved me while I was His enemy. And I belong to a new Head — what Adam’s one sin brought on the whole race, Christ’s one act of righteousness has more than answered.

Interpretation

Peace with God or peace of God (v1)? Guzik and Sproul both stress that this is peace with God — the end of a real war, not first a feeling. Sproul: “They could not get excited about a peace treaty with God because they did not know that there was a war.” Spurgeon separates the fact of peace (settled in God’s court through a Substitute) from the feeling of it (which unbelief can cloud): “We do not get peace before we are justified, neither is peace a means of justification.” Henry: “God is either the worst enemy or the best friend.”

Exulting in tribulation (vv3–5). Not enjoying pain, but knowing what God does with it. Sproul: “We glory in tribulations because we know what tribulation does,” and “Character is forged in the crucible of pain.” Henry is careful: “Tribulation in itself worketh impatience; but, as it is sanctified to the saints, it worketh patience.” Spurgeon pictures a ladder — “Tribulation is the foot” — climbed like the pilgrim songs of ascent. Hope will not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured, not trickled (Guzik), into our hearts by the Spirit.

For whom did Christ die (vv6–8, 18)? Here the teachers lean differently, and I want to hear each fairly. Sproul reads “for the ungodly” with definite atonement — “The Bible does not teach that Christ died to make salvation possible” — and distinguishes God’s general goodness from the love of delight He has for those in Christ. Guzik reads “all men” in v18 as the gift offered to all and received by faith, quoting Harrison that universalism would make Paul contradict himself. Spurgeon presses the free offer: “Then sin cannot shut any man out from the grace of God if he believes.” All four reject universalism; all four say Christ died for the helpless and ungodly, not the deserving.

”Much more” (vv9–10). An argument from the harder thing to the easier. If God justified and reconciled us as enemies by Christ’s death, He will much more save us as friends by His life. Henry: “Christ dying was the testator, who bequeathed us the legacy; but Christ living is the executor, who pays it.” Sproul adds that the hostility ran both ways — ours from evil, God’s from holiness — and both are ended at the cross.

How did Adam’s sin become ours (v12)? “Because all sinned” — an aorist, one act. Guzik takes Genesis 3 as history and says infants are born sinners: “Every grave is mute evidence to the spread and reign of sin since the time of Adam.” Sproul lays out realism (we were present in Adam) and federalism (Adam was our appointed representative) and holds the second: “When God selects your representative, He makes that selection infallibly” — “No damnation without representation.” Spurgeon argues from infant deaths: “They die, for Adam sinned; they live, for Jesus died.” Henry sees death as “a mighty prince” with an absolute monarchy.

Adam a type (v14) — and not like (vv15–17). The pattern is the same (one man’s act counts for many), but the results are not equal. Henry: “The plaster is wider than the wound, and more healing than the wound is killing.” One sin was enough to condemn; the gift answered “many transgressions” (v16).

Imputation (vv18–19). “Made sinners … made righteous” (kathistēmi, constituted). Sproul: “Paul labors the point that Adam’s sin is reckoned, transferred, or imputed to the entire human race” — and Christ’s righteousness is reckoned to believers. Christ kept what Adam broke; we are saved by works — His. Guzik’s illustration: righteousness can be credited through Another only because sin was credited through another.

Why the Law (vv20–21)? It “came in” alongside, to make the transgression increase — exposing sin, not curing it. Sproul: “Does that not sound strange? Why would God want sin to abound?” — and then, “The equation is not equal.” Spurgeon: “Sin robbed us of silver, but grace has given us gold.” Guzik guards it: “Grace does not wink at unrighteousness, it confronts sin with the atonement at the cross.”

Word study (Greek):

• justified — dikaiōthentes (G1344): aorist participle, “having been declared righteous” — a verdict already given.
• peace — eirēnē (G1515): the Hebrew shalom; peace pros (toward) God — the war ended.
• introduction / access — prosagōgē (G4318): being ushered into a king’s presence.
• exult — kauchaomai (G2744): to boast, glory — in hope (v2), tribulations (v3), God (v11).
• tribulation — thlipsis (G2347): pressure, crushing.
• perseverance — hypomonē (G5281): staying under the load.
• proven character — dokimē (G1382): tested-and-approved metal.
• disappoint — kataischynō (G2617): to put to shame.
• poured out — ekcheō (G1632): perfect tense — poured and still flowing.
• helpless — asthenēs (G772): without strength.
• demonstrates — synistēmi (G4921): to prove, commend — present tense.
• reconciled / reconciliation — katallassō (G2644) / katallagē (G2643): enmity exchanged for friendship; God the reconciler.
• type — typos (G5179): the impression of a seal; a pattern pointing ahead.
• transgression — paraptōma (G3900): a false step; KJV “offence.”
• free gift — charisma (G5486) / gift — dōrea (G1431): grace-gift, present.
• condemnation — katakrima (G2631) ⟷ justification — dikaiōma (G1345), dikaiōsis (G1347): the two verdicts.
• made — kathistēmi (G2525): constituted, appointed.
• disobedience — parakoē (G3876) ⟷ obedience — hypakoē (G5218).
• came in — pareiserchomai (G3922): came in alongside.
• increased — pleonazō (G4121) ⟷ abounded all the more — hyperperisseuō (G5248): super-abounded.
• reign — basileuō (G936): death, sin, believers, grace — four reigns in vv14–21.

Key insights to carry (from the Deep Dive):

1. Peace is a relationship before it is a feeling. The war is over because the verdict is in.
2. ”Introduction” means Someone brings you in — and you stay standing.
3. Three exults mark the road: in hope, in trouble, in God Himself.
4. Tribulation does not sanctify by itself — grace working in it does (Henry).
5. The lower the description, the higher the love: helpless, ungodly, sinners, enemies.
6. The “much more” runs from the hard to the easy — if enemies were reconciled, friends will be kept.
7. No damnation without representation (Sproul) — reject Adam’s headship and you lose Christ’s.
8. The teachers differ on “all men” — offered to all (Guzik) or secured for His own (Sproul); none teach universalism.
9. The plaster is wider than the wound (Henry).
10. Grace reigns through righteousness — never by winking at sin.

Cross-references: Gen 2:17; Gen 5; 1 Cor 15:21–22, 45; 2 Cor 5:18–21; Eph 2:1–5, 18; Col 1:21–22; Heb 6:19; James 1:2–4; 1 John 4:10, 19; Rom 6:1–2.

Application

Promise to trust — I have peace with God (v1). Not a mood, a fact. On the days my conscience screams, I will go back to the verdict: having been justified by faith, I have peace. Spurgeon: “Christian, there is no ground of quarrel between you and your heavenly Father.”

Sin to confess — I still secretly think I wasn’t that bad. Paul says I was helpless, ungodly, a sinner, an enemy (vv6–10). I confess the pride that wants to have been half-lost. Christ is “the Saviour not of those partly lost, but of the wholly lost” — and that is the only kind of Savior who could help me.

Truth to stand on — I am in a new Head. Adam’s one sin counted for me before I ever chose; Christ’s one act of righteousness counts for me now that I believe (vv18–19). My standing is not my record — it is His.

Example to follow — Paul exults in tribulation (v3). This week I will name one trouble I’m in and ask God what perseverance, proven character and hope He means to build out of it — and I’ll tell one brother at the table so he can hold me to it.

Command to obey (implied) — Receive (v17). The abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness are given to “those who receive.” I will stop trying to earn what God is handing me, and I will stop using grace as an excuse (6:1).

For the men I walk with — Many of us know what “death reigned” looks like — in addictions, broken homes, years behind walls. Verse 21 says another King has taken the throne. Where sin increased in my story, grace abounded all the more. That is not a slogan; it is the reason there is hope for any of us.

Questions for the table (from the Deep Dive):

1. Paul lists what justification gives in 5:1–11. Which of these do you actually live from this week, and which do you only know about? Peace, access, hope, love poured out, rescue from wrath, reconciliation — Spurgeon’s fact and feeling of peace. (5:1–11; Eph 2:18)

2. Walk the chain of 5:3–4 with a real trouble from your life. Where are you on the ladder right now? Tribulation → perseverance → proven character → hope; Henry: grace in the trouble does the work. (5:3–5; James 1:2–4)

3. Why does Paul describe us as helpless, ungodly, sinners and enemies before he tells us God’s love? What happens to your view of God’s love if you think you weren’t that bad? Sproul and Spurgeon: the glory of the remedy proves the desperateness of the disease. (5:6–10; 1 John 4:10)

4. How does the “much more” of verses 9–10 answer the fear that you might lose your salvation after a fall? Reconciled enemies will be kept as friends — Henry’s testator and executor. (5:9–10)

5. Is it fair that Adam’s sin counts for us? What would we lose if it did not? Sproul: if Adam cannot represent us, neither can Christ. (5:12–19; 1 Cor 15:22)

6. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” How do you hear that verse on your worst day — and how could it be twisted? Spurgeon: when your sin abounds, recollect that grace much more abounds; Guzik: grace never winks at sin. (5:20–21; 6:1–2)

Worship. Sing of the love that did not wait for me to get better — “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Thank Him for each gift on the ring: peace, access, hope, love poured out, rescue from wrath, reconciliation. Exult in God Himself (v11).

Prayer. Father, I was helpless and ungodly, a sinner and Your enemy, and You loved me first. Thank You that the war is over because Jesus bore the wrath I earned and gave me the righteousness I could never earn. When trouble comes, work perseverance, proven character and hope in me, and pour Your love into my heart by Your Spirit. Where sin has reigned in my life and in the lives of the men I walk with, let grace reign through righteousness to eternal life. Keep me by the life of Your Son as surely as You reconciled me by His death. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.