Therefore being justified by faith. Romans 5:1 Justification Homilist. We have here — I. A STATE OR CONDITION — "justified." This implies — 1. Previous dishonour. A truly righteous character needs no justification. 2. Complete satisfaction. A man who owes a debt can only be justified when that debt is paid; although it need not be paid by himself. 3. Perfect restoration — to all rights, privileges, position, etc. Justification does not mean righteousness. A man is justified although he is defiled in sin. The justification of man by God is His counting man as righteous. II. A MEANS OR METHOD — "faith." Faith is that principle which unites a man with Christ, and so enables him to appropriate all the Saviour's merits and righteousness. Substitution, to be effectual, not only requires its acceptance by the judge, but the acceptance of the Saviour by the sinner as his Substitute. Faith is that acceptance by the sinner. Notice — 1. That this act is difficult. It is contrary to human nature — men would rather trust themselves than God. Hence they add rites and ceremonies. 2. It includes acts as well as conviction and trust. "Faith without works is dead," and a dead principle has no existence. III. A RESULT ATTAINED — peace with God. Peace is desirable with man, much more with God. True peace can be obtained in no other way but this. There is a state which is often mistaken for it, such as indifference, a numbed conscience. Gratuitous pardon without justification by atonement would not be able to give peace, but pardon through satisfied justice can. Nothing can satisfy the sense of justice but trust in the justice-satisfying Saviour. ( Homilist. )

Benson Commentary Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: Romans 5:1 . Therefore being justified — In the way shown in the preceding chapter, we receive many blessed privileges and advantages in consequence thereof. Here, to comfort the believers at Rome, and elsewhere, under the sufferings which the profession of the gospel brought upon them, the apostle proceeds to enumerate the privileges which belong to true believers in general. And from his account it appears, that the privileges of Abraham’s seed by faith, are far greater than those which belong to such as were his seed by natural descent, and which are described, Romans 2:17-20 . The first privilege of this spiritual seed is, that, being justified by faith, we have peace with God — Being alienated from God and exposed to condemnation and wrath no longer, but brought into a state of reconciliation and peace with him. “Our guilty fears are silenced, and we are taught to look up to him with sweet serenity of soul, while we no longer conceive of him as an enemy, but under the endearing character of a Friend and a Father.” Through our Lord Jesus Christ — Through his mediation and grace. They have also divers other privileges and blessings here enumerated, which are all the fruits of justifying faith; so that where they are not, that faith is not. “It seems very unreasonable,” says Dr. Doddridge, “that when the apostle wrote such passages as this, and Ephesians 1:1-3 , he should mean to exclude himself, who was no Gentile; they are not therefore to be expounded as spoken particularly of the Gentiles; nor could he surely intend by these grand descriptions, and pathetic representations, to speak only of such external privileges as might have been common to Simon Magus, or any other hypocritical and wicked professor of Christianity. And if he did not intend this, he must speak of all true Christians as such, and as taking it for granted that those to whom he addressed this and his other epistles were, in the general, such, though there might be some few excepted cases, which he did not think it necessary often to touch upon. And this is the true key to such passages in his epistles as I have more particularly stated and vindicated in the postscript which I have added to the preface of my Sermons on Regeneration, to which I must beg leave to refer my reader, and hope I shall be excused from a more particular examination of that very different scheme of interpretation which Dr. Taylor has so laboriously attempted to revive. The main principles of it are, I think, well confuted by my pious and worthy friend, Dr. Guyse, in the preface to his Paraphrase on this epistle. Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2 . By whom also we have access — Greek, ??? ?????????? , admittance, entrance, or introduction. The word, as Raphelius has shown from the heathen historian, Herodotus, is often used as a sacerdotal phrase, and signifies, “being with great solemnity introduced as into the more immediate presence of a deity in his temple, so as (by a supposed interpreter, from thence called ??????????? , the introducer ) to have a kind of conference with such a deity.” By faith into this grace — Into this state of favour, and a state in which we receive, or may receive, grace to help in every time of need. The word also shows that the blessing here spoken of is different from and superior to the peace with God, mentioned in the preceding verse. Wherein we stand — Remain, abide; or rather, stand firm, as the word ????????? signifies. “As the apostle often compares the conflicts which the first Christians maintained, against persecutors and false teachers, to the Grecian combats, perhaps, by standing firm, he meant that, as stout wrestlers, they successfully maintained their faith in the gospel, in opposition both to the Jews and heathen, notwithstanding the sufferings which the profession of their faith had brought on them.” And rejoice in hope of the glory of God — Here two other blessings are mentioned, rising in degree above both the preceding; a hope of the glory of God, and joy arising therefrom. By the glory of God is meant the vision and enjoyment of the God of glory in a future state, particularly after the resurrection and the general judgment; including a full conformity to Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, in soul and body; (to whom we shall be made like, because we shall see him as he is, 1 John 3:2 ;) also the glorious society of saints and angels, and a glorious world, the place of our eternal abode. Of this, those that are justified by faith have a lively and well-grounded hope, being heirs of it in consequence of their justification, Titus 3:7 ; and of their adoption, Romans 8:14-17 ; Galatians 4:6-7 ; and through this hope, to which they are begotten again by faith in the resurrection of Christ, who rose the first-fruits of them that sleep, and by pardoning and renewing grace, communicated in and through him, they rejoice frequently with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Peter 1:3-8 ; being sealed to the day of redemption and having an earnest of their future inheritance by God’s Spirit in their hearts. Romans 5:3 And not only so , but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; Romans 5:3-4 . And not only so — Not only do we possess the four fore- mentioned inestimable blessings; but 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 may be enabled to do him more singular honour, and be prepared for a more exalted happiness. The Jews often objected the persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with what they concluded would be the condition of the people of the Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety that the apostle so often discourses on the benefit arising from this very thing. The apostles and first Christians gloried in tribulations: 1st, Because hereby their state was made to resemble that of Christ, with whom they died, that they might live; suffered, that they might reign, Romans 8:17 ; 2 Timothy 2:11-12 . 2d, Because their graces were hereby exercised, and therefore increased. And, 3d, They were hereby purified and refined, as gold and silver in the furnace. See Isaiah 1:4-5 ; Zechariah 13:9 . Knowing that tribulation — Under the influence of divine grace, without which it could produce no such effect; worketh patience — Calls into exercise, and so gradually increases our patience; even an humble, resigned, quiet, contented state of mind: suggesting those considerations which at once show the reasonableness of that duty, and lay a solid foundation for it. And patience, experience — The patient enduring of tribulation gives us more experience of the truth and degree of our grace, of God’s care of us, and of his power, and love, and faithfulness, engaged in supporting us under our sufferings, and causing them to work for our good. The original expression, ?????? , rendered experience, signifies being approved on trial. Before we are brought into tribulation, knowing God’s power, we may believe he can deliver; and knowing his love and faithfulness to his word, we may believe he will deliver: but after we have been actually brought into tribulation, and have been supported under it, and delivered out of it, we can say, from experience, he hath delivered; and are thus encouraged to trust in him in time to come. Thus Shadrach and his companions, before they were cast into the furnace, could say ( Daniel 3:17 ) to Nebuchadnezzar, Our God: whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and they could also add, He will deliver us. But after they had been cast into the furnace, and their faith in, and obedience to, their God had been put to that fiery trial, their patience wrought experience; and they could say, from experience, He hath delivered us, as was acknowledged by the haughty monarch himself, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, &c., who hath delivered his servants that trusted in him. And experience, hope — That is, an increased and more confirmed hope than is possessed before experience is attained; namely, 1st, Of continued help, support, and deliverance. 2d, Of a comfortable issue of our trials in due time. 3d, Of eternal salvation at last, Matthew 5:12 , John 16:20-22 . Observe, reader, as soon as we are justified, and made the children and heirs of God, chap. Romans 8:17 , we hope, on good grounds, for the glory of God; but our faith and other graces not having then been tried, our hope of eternal life must be mixed with doubts and fears respecting our steadfastness when exposed to trials, (which we are taught in the word of God to expect,) and our enduring to the end. But when we have been brought into and have passed through various and long-continued trials, and in the midst of them have been so supported by divine grace as to be enabled to continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel, our expectation of persevering in the good way, and being finally saved, attains a confirmation and establishment: and our gratitude and joy, 1 Peter 1:3 , our patience, purity, and diligence in all the works of piety and virtue, 1 Thessalonians 1:3 , 1 John 3:3 ; 1 Corinthians 15:58 , are increased and confirmed in proportion thereto. Romans 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: Romans 5:5 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. Romans 5:5 . And hope — Such hope as is the fruit of faith, patience, and experience, namely, the full assurance of hope; maketh not ashamed — Does not shame and confound us with disappointment, but we shall certainly obtain the good things hoped for; yea, we know it cannot shame or disappoint us, because we have already within ourselves the very beginning of that heaven at which it aspires. For the love of God — That is, love to God, arising from a manifestation of his love to us, even that love which constitutes us at once both holy and happy, and is therefore an earnest of our future inheritance in our hearts; that love, in the perfection of which the blessedness of that celestial world consists; is shed abroad — Greek, ????????? , is poured out; into our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us — The efficient cause of all these present blessings, and the earnest of those to come. As a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, the Holy Ghost enables us to discern God’s love to us; and as a Spirit of holiness and consolation, he enables us to delight ourselves daily in him, though for the present he appoint us trials which may seem rigorous and severe. Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6-8 . For — How can we now doubt of God’s love, since when we were without strength — Either to think, will, or do any thing good; were utterly incapable of making any atonement for our transgressions, or of delivering ourselves from the depth of guilt and misery into which we were plunged; 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 — For the sake, and instead of, such as were enemies to God, ( Romans 5:10 ,) and could not merit any favour from him: that is, for Jews and Gentiles, when they were, as has been proved in the first three chapters, all under sin. Observe, reader, Christ not only died to set us an example, or to procure us power to follow it, but to atone for our sins; for it does not appear that this expression, of dying for any one, has any other signification than that of rescuing his life by laying down our own. “By the ungodly here, Mr. Locke understands Gentiles, as also by weak, sinners, enemies, &c. They are undoubtedly included; but it seems very inconsistent with the whole strain of the apostle’s argument in the preceding chapters, to confine it to them. Compare Romans 3:9-20 ; Romans 3:22-23 ; Romans 4:5 ; Romans 5:20 . I therefore,” says Dr. Doddridge, “all along explain such passages in the most extensive sense; and think nothing in the whole New Testament plainer, than that the gospel supposes every human creature, to whom it is addressed, to be in a state of guilt and condemnation, and incapable of being accepted with God, any otherwise than through the grace and mercy which it proclaims. Compare John 3:16 ; John 3:36 ; John 5:24 ; 1 John 3:14 ; Mark 16:15-16 ; Luke 24:47 ; and especially 1 John 1:10 , than which no assertion can be more positive and express.” For scarcely for a righteous, or rather, honest, just, and unblameable man — One who gives to all what is strictly their due; would one be willing to die — Though apprehended to be in the most immediate danger: yet for a good man — A kind, merciful, compassionate, bountiful man; peradventure some would even dare to die — Every word increases the strangeness of the thing, and declares even this to be something great and unusual. But God commendeth — Greek, ????????? , recommendeth. A most elegant and proper expression; for those are wont to be recommended to us who were before either unknown to, or alienated from us. In that while we were yet sinners — So far from being good, that we were not even just; and were not only undeserving of his favour, but obnoxious to wrath and punishment; Christ died for us — Died in our stead, that our guilt might be cancelled, and we brought into a state of acceptance with God. Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:9-11 . Much more then — Since, therefore, it hath pleased the blessed God to give us such an unexampled display of his love as this, how high may our expectations rise, and how confidently may we conclude, that much more, being now justified by his blood — Shed for us: that is, by his death, which is the meritorious cause of our justification, while faith in that blood is the instrumental cause; we shall be saved from wrath — From future punishment, from the vengeance of eternal fire; through him — If he so loved us as to give his Son to die for us, when we were mere guilty sinners, we may assure ourselves that, having now constituted us righteous, and accepted us as such, pardoning all our sins for the sake of the sacrifice of Christ’s blood, he will certainly save us from eternal damnation; us who continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. For if when we were enemies — Through the perverseness of our minds, and the rebellion of our lives, (see Colossians 1:21 ;) we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son — Which expiated our sins, and rendered God reconcileable, and which procured for us the Holy Spirit, to remove the enmity from our minds, giving us, at the same time, such a display of the love of God to us, as won our affections over to him; much more, being thus reconciled, we shall be saved — Sanctified and glorified; by his life — Restored in order to our being thus saved: that is, by his ever living to make intercession, and his thereby receiving for us, and communicating to us, continual supplies of grace. He that has done the greater thing, which is, of enemies to make us friends, will certainly do the lesser, which is, when we are friends to treat us as such, and be kind and gracious to us. But the opposition is not only between reconciling enemies, and preserving friends, the latter being less difficult than the former, but also between Christ’s death and life; his life here spoken of, being not his life in the flesh, but his life in heaven, that life which ensued after his death. See Romans 14:9 . Now if his death, when he was crucified in weakness, performed the harder work, that is, reconciled his enemies, shall not his life, which is stronger, (for he liveth by his divine power as the Prince of life, that could not be held in death,) effect the easier work, and preserve and save to the uttermost, those that are already made his friends? For, we are reconciled by Christ humbled, and finally saved by Christ exalted, it being in consequence of his exaltation to the right hand of God, and his being invested with all power in heaven and on earth, and made head over all things to his church, that he completes and consummates our salvation. And not only so — Namely, that we should be reconciled and saved; but we also joy, Greek, ?????????? , glory, in God — In the relation in which he stands to us as our God, and in all his glorious and boundless perfections, which we see are engaged for us; through our Lord Jesus Christ — By whom we are introduced into this happy state, who is our peace, and hath made God and us one; by whom we have now — That we are believers; received the atonement — Greek, ??? ?????????? , the reconciliation. So the word signifies, and in all other passages where it occurs is so translated, being derived from the verb ?????????? , which is twice rendered reconcile in the preceding verse, and to which it has so apparent a reference, that it is surprising it should have been here rendered by so different a word as atonement, especially as it is quite improper to speak of our receiving an atonement which God receives as made for our sins. But, when we are made true believers in Christ, we receive the reconciliation, and that not only averts the terrors of God’s wrath, but opens upon us all the blessings of his perpetual friendship and love; so that the Father and the Son come unto us, and make their abode with us, John 14:23 ; and we know and believe the love that he hath to us, and in consequence thereof dwell in love, and therefore dwell in God, and God in us. The whole paragraph from Romans 5:3-11 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 received the reconciliation. Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:11 And not only so , but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:12-13 . Wherefore — This refers to all the preceding discourse, from which the apostle infers what follows: he does not therefore make a digression, but returns to speak again of sin and righteousness; as if he had said, “We may from these premises infer, that the benefit which we believers receive from Christ is equal to the detriment we derive from Adam; yea, is on the whole greater than that.” For, as by one man — That is, Adam, the common father of the human species; (he is mentioned, and not Eve, as being the representative of mankind;) sin entered into the world — Actual sin, namely, the transgression of Adam and its consequence, a sinful nature, which took place in him, through his first sin, and which he conveyed to all his posterity; 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 in before sin; and so — Namely, by one man; death passed — From one generation to another; upon all men, for that all have sinned — Namely, in Adam, their representative, and as being in his loins. That is, they are so far involved in his first transgression and its consequences, and so certainly derive a sinful nature from him, that they become obnoxious to death. Instead of, for that, Dr. Doddridge renders ?? ’ ? , unto which, (namely, unto death, mentioned in the preceding clause,) all have sinned. In which ever way the expression is rendered, the words are evidently intended to assign the reason why death came upon all men, infants themselves not excepted. For until the law — For, from the fall of Adam, unto the time when God gave the law by Moses, as well as after it; sin was in the world — As appeared by the continual execution of its punishment; that is, death: but — It is a self- evident principle that sin is not, and cannot be, imputed where there is no law — Since the very essence of sin consists in the violation of a law. And consequently, since we see, in fact, that sin was imputed, we must conclude that the persons, to whose account it was charged, were under some law. Now this, with respect to infants, could not be the law of nature, (any more than the law of Moses,) for infants could not transgress that; it must therefore have been the law given to Adam, the transgression whereof is, in some sense, imputed to all, even to infants, he being the representative of all his posterity, and they all being in his loins. In other words, they do not die for any actual sins of their own, being incapable, while in infancy, of committing any, but through Adam’s sin alone. Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. Romans 5:14 . Nevertheless — Though the law was not yet given by Moses, yet sin was in the world, and was imputed, as appears by this, that death, which is the punishment of sin, was in the world at that time, and reigned — Brought all under its power, from Adam to Moses — As Romans 5:21 , and Romans 6:12 , even over them, &c. — Not only over them that had sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, but also over infants that had not committed actual sin, as Adam had done, and over others who had not, like him, sinned against an express law. Who is the figure of him that was to come — A lively type of Christ in his public capacity, 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 difference 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 afterward committed, brought us death: so the righteousness of Christ, without the good works which we afterward perform, brings us life, although still every good as well as evil work will receive its due reward. Romans 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of 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. Romans 5:15-16 . But not as the offence, &c. — The apostle 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, 1st, In amplitude, Romans 5:15 ; Romans 2 d, He, from whom sin came, and He from whom the free gift came, (termed also the gift of righteousness, ) differ in power, Romans 5:16 ; Romans 3 d, The reason of both is subjoined, Romans 5:17 ; Romans 4 th, This premised, the offence and the free gift are compared with regard to their effect, Romans 5:18 . And with regard to their cause, Romans 5:19 . Not as the offence — The sin of Adam, and the misery that follows upon it; so also is the free gift — The benefit that arises to us from the obedience of Christ; that is, there is not a perfect equality and proportion between the evil that comes through Adam, and the benefit that comes by Christ: they are not equal in their influence and efficacy. For if through the offence of one many be dead — If the transgression of one mere man was effectual to bring down death, condemnation, and wrath upon all his posterity, or natural seed; much more the grace of God — His love and favour; and the gift — The salvation; by grace, which is by one man — Who, however, is God as well as man; even Jesus Christ — The divinely-commissioned and anointed Saviour; hath abounded unto many — Is more abundantly efficacious to procure reconciliation, pardon, righteousness, and life, for all that will accept them, and become his spiritual seed. The apostle’s design here is to compare Adam’s sin and Christ’s obedience, in respect of their virtue and efficacy, and to show that the efficacy of Christ’s obedience must needs be much more abundant than that of Adam’s sin. And not, &c. — As there is a difference in respect of the persons from whom these effects are derived, and the advantage is on the side of Christ; so there is a difference also in respect of the extent of the efficacy of their acts: thus, one sin brought condemnation; the mischief arose from one offence: here not only that one sin, but also many sins, — yea, all the sins of believers, — are pardoned, and their nature is renewed: so that the benefit exceeds the mischief. For the judgment — The guilt which exposed to judgment; was by one — Namely, by one offence; to Adam’s condemnation — Occasioning the sentence of death to be passed upon him, which, by consequence, overwhelmed his posterity: but the free gift — To ??????? , the gift of grace, is of many offences — Extends to the pardon not only of that original sin, but of all other personal and actual sins; unto justification — Unto the purchasing of it for all men, notwithstanding their many offences, and the conferring of it upon all the truly penitent that believe in Christ. Romans 5:16 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 justification. Romans 5:17 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 reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Romans 5:17 . For, &c. — Here he shows the difference in respect of the consequence of those acts, or the different nature of the effects, that death came from one, life from the other; as if he had said, Moreover, there is another important article, in which the grace of the gospel exceeds the seeming severity which attended the imputation of guilt from our first father, Adam, namely, that, if by one man’s offence death reigned by one — Over all his posterity, as we observed above; they who receive — By faith, John 1:12 ; abundance of grace — An abundant measure of God’s love, of the influences of his Spirit, and the gift of righteousness, exhibited in the gospel; namely, those benefits which Christ, by his obedience unto death, has purchased for us; shall much more reign in life, by one — The great restorer and recoverer of his seed; Jesus Christ — That is, believers shall by him be brought to a much nobler and more excellent life than that from which Adam fell, and which they lost in him. Romans 5:18 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 justification of life. Romans 5:18-19 . Therefore, &c. — Here the apostle compares Christ and Adam together again, as he began to do Romans 5:12 , with which this verse seems to be connected, (all the intermediate verses coming in as a parenthesis,) and he makes the comparison full in both members; which there, by reason of intervening matter, was left off imperfect. As if he had said, On the whole you see, as I began to observe to you before, that as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation — Or, the condemnatory sentence was passed upon all men; even so, by the righteousness of one — The obedience of Christ, the free gift — Or gift of grace; came upon all men — Is provided for, and offered to, the whole human race, and is actually conferred on all the spiritual seed of the second Adam, on all true believers; unto justification of life — Unto that justification by grace through faith, whereby we have a right and title to eternal life. Or, leaving out the words in Italics, which are not in the original, the verse may be paraphrased thus: “As the consequence of one offence on the one hand extended to all men, to bring condemnation upon them; so also, on the other side, the consequence of one grand Acts of righteousness extended to all men, who receive and embrace it; securing to them that justification which will be crowned with the enjoyment of eternal life.” For, as by one man’s disobedience many — That is, all men; were made, or constituted sinners — Being then in the loins of their first parent, the common head and representative of them all, and became obnoxious to death; so by the obedience of one — By his obedience unto death, by his dying for us; many — Namely, all that believe with a faith working by love; shall be, or are, constituted righteous — That is, pardoned, justified, and sanctified, and shall be treated as such in the day of God’s final account; though they have no perfect righteousness of their own to plead, in consequence of which they should stand before God and claim the reward. With respect to Dr. Taylor’s scheme of interpretation, it is justly observed here by Dr. Doddridge, that although “to become liable to death for the offence of another is indeed being thereby constituted, or rather treated, as a sinner, since death is in its primary view to be considered as the wages of sin, or the animadversion of a righteous God upon it;” yet, “simply to be raised from the dead is not being made righteous, or treated as a righteous person; since it is a very supposable case, and will in fact be the case of millions, that a sinner may be raised in order to more condign and dreadful punishment. The whole interpretation, therefore, which Dr. Taylor has given of this text, in this view, appears to me destitute of a sufficient foundation.” Romans 5:20-21 , Moreover the law entered — Made a little entrance, as Dr. Doddridge translates ???? ??????? ; the sense also given it by the Vulgate, sub intravit. Thus the partial and limited entrance of the law is distinguished from that universal entrance of sin which passed on all. Others, however, as L’Enfant and Wesley, render it, The law intervened, or came between Adam and Christ, 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 sins; 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. That as sin hath reigned unto death — In the wide and universal destruction made of those whom it had brought under that fatal sentence; so grace might reign — Which could not reign before the fall, before man had sinned; through righteousness — Imputed, implanted, and practised; through the justification of men’s persons, the renovation of their nature, and their practical obedience to God’s holy law; unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord — Here is pointed out, 1st, The source of all our blessings, the rich and free grace of God. 2d, The meritorious cause; not any works or righteousness of man, but the alone merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3d, The effect or end of all; not only pardon, but life, divine life, leading to glory. Romans 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made

Expositor's Bible Commentary Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: Chapter 12 PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FOR THE JUSTIFIED Romans 5:1-11 WE reached a pause in the Apostle’s thought with the close of the last paragraph. We may reverently imagine, as in spirit we listen to his dictation, that a pause comes also in his work; that he is silent, and Tertius puts down the pen, and they spend their hearts awhile on worshipping recollection and realisation. The Lord delivered up; His people justified; the Lord risen again, alive for evermore-here was matter for love, joy, and wonder. But the Letter must proceed, and the argument has its fullest and most wonderful developments yet to come. It has now already expounded the tremendous need of justifying mercy, for every soul of man. It has shown how faith, always and only, is the way to appropriate that mercy-the way of God’s will, and manifestly also in its own nature the way of deepest fitness. We have been allowed to see faith in illustrative action, in Abraham, who by faith, absolutely, without the least advantage of traditional privilege, received justification, with the vast concurrent blessings which it carried. Lastly we have heard St. Paul dictate to Tertius, for the Romans and for us, those summarising words { Romans 4:25 } in which we now have God’s own certificate of the triumphant efficacy of that Atoning Work, which sustains the Promise in order that the Promise may sustain us believing. We are now to approach the glorious theme of the Life of the Justified. This is to be seen not only as a state whose basis is the reconciliation of the Law, and whose gate and walls are the covenant Promise. It is to appear as a state warmed with eternal Love; irradiated with the prospect of glory. In it the man, knit up with Christ his Head, his Bridegroom, his all, yields himself with joy to the God who has received him. In the living power of the heavenly Spirit, who perpetually delivers him from himself, he obeys, prays, works, and suffers, in a liberty which is only not yet that of heaven, and in which he is maintained to the end by Him who has planned his full personal salvation from eternity to eternity. It has been the temptation of Christians sometimes to regard the truth and exposition of Justification as if there were a certain hardness and as it were dryness about it; as if it were a topic rather for the schools than for life. If excuses have ever been given for such a view, they must come from other quarters than the Epistle to the Romans. Christian teachers, of many periods, may have discussed Justification as coldly as if they were writing a law book. Or again they may have examined it as if it were a truth terminating in itself, the Omega as well as the Alpha of salvation; and then it has been misrepresented, of course. For the Apostle certainly does not discuss it drily; he lays deep indeed the foundations of Law and Atonement, but he does it in the manner of a man who is not drawing the plan of a refuge, but calling his reader from the tempest into what is not only a refuge but a home. And again he does not discuss it in isolation. He spends his fullest, largest, and most loving expositions on its intense and vital connection with concurrent truths. He is about now to take us, through a noble vestibule, into the sanctuary of the life of the accepted, the life of union, of surrender, of the Holy Ghost. Justified therefore on terms of faith, we have peace towards our God, we possess in regard of Him the "quietness and assurance" of acceptance, through our Lord Jesus Christ, thus delivered up, and raised up, for us; through whom we have actually found our introduction, our free admission, by our faith, into this grace, this unearned acceptance for Another’s sake, in which we stand, instead of falling ruined, sentenced, at the tribunal. And we exult, not with the sinful "boasting" of the legalist, but in hope (literally, "on hope," as reposing on the promised prospect) of the glory of our God, the light of the heavenly vision and fruition of our Justifier, and the splendour of an eternal service of Him in that fruition. Nor only so, but we exult too in our tribulations, with a better fortitude than the Stoic’s artificial serenity, knowing that the tribulation works out, develops, patient persistency, as it occasions proof after proof of the power of God in our weakness, and thus generates the habit of reliance; and then the patient persistency develops proof, brings out in experience, as a proved fact, that through Christ we are not what we were; and then the proof develops hope, solid and definite expectation of continuing grace and final glory, and, in particular, of the Lord’s Return; and the hope does not shame, does not disappoint; it is a hope sure and steadfast, for it is the hope of those who now know that they are objects of eternal Love; because the love of our God has been poured out in our hearts; His love to us has been as it were diffused through our consciousness, poured out in a glad experience as rain from the cloud, as floods from the rising spring, through the Holy Spirit that was given to us. Here first is mentioned explicitly, in the Apostle’s argument (we do not Romans 1:4 as in the argument), the blessed Spirit, the Lord the Holy Ghost. Hitherto the occasion for the mention has hardly arisen. The considerations have been mainly upon the personal guilt of the sinner, and the objective fact of the Atonement, and the exercise of faith, of trust in God, as a genuine personal act of man. With a definite purpose, we may reverently think, the discussion of faith has been kept thus far clear of the thought of anything lying behind faith, of any "grace" giving faith. For whether or no faith is the gift of God, it is most certainly the act of man; none should assert this more decidedly than those who hold (as we do) that Ephesians 2:8 does teach that where saving faith is, it is there because God has "given" it. But how does He "give" it? Not, surely, by implanting a new faculty, but by so opening the soul to God in Christ that the divine magnet effectually draws the man to a willing repose upon such a God. But the man does this, as an act, himself. He trusts God as genuinely, as personally, as much with his own faculty of trust, as he trusts a man whom he sees to be quite trustworthy and precisely fit to meet an imperative need. Thus it is often the work of the evangelist and the teacher to insist upon the duty rather than the grace of faith; to bid men rather thank God for faith when they have believed than wait for the sense of an afflatus before believing. And is this not what St. Paul does here? At this point of his argument, and not before, he reminds the believer that his possession of peace, of happiness, of hope, has been attained and realised not, ultimately, of himself, but through the working of the Eternal Spirit. The insight into mercy, into a propitiation provided by divine love, and so into the holy secret of the divine love itself, has been given him by the Holy Ghost, who has taken of the things of Christ, and shown them to him, and secretly handled his "heart" so that the fact of the love of God is a part of experience at last. The man has been told of his great need, and of the sure and open refuge, and has stepped through its peaceful gate in the act of trusting the message and the will of God. Now he is asked to look round, to look back, and bless the hand which, when he was outside in the naked field of death, opened his eyes to see, and guided his will to choose. What a retrospect it is! Let us trace it from the first words of this paragraph again. First, here is the sure fact of our acceptance, and the reason of it, and the method. "Therefore"; let not that word be forgotten. Our Justification is no arbitrary matter, whose causelessness suggests an illusion, or a precarious peace. "Therefore"; it rests upon an antecedent, in the logical chain of divine facts. We have read that antecedent, Romans 4:25 ; "Jesus our Lord was given up because of our transgressions, and was raised up because of our justification." We assented to that fact; we have accepted Him, only and altogether, in this work of His. Therefore we are justified, ???????????? , placed by an act of divine Love, working in the line of divine Law, among those whom the Judge accepts, that He may embrace them as Father. Then, in this possession of the "peace" of our acceptance, thus led in ( ????????? ), through the gate of the promise, with the footstep of faith, we find inside our Refuge far more than merely safety. We look up from within the blessed walls, sprinkled with atoning blood, and we see above them the hope of glory, invisible outside. And we turn to our present life within them (for all our life is to be lived within that broad sanctuary now), and we find resources provided there for a present as well as a prospective joy. We address ourselves to the discipline of the place; for it has its discipline; the refuge is home, but it is also school; and we find, when we begin to try it, that the discipline is full of joy. It brings out into a joyful consciousness the power we now have, in Him who has accepted us, in Him who is our Acceptance, to suffer and to serve in love. Our life has become a life not of peace only, but of the hope which animates peace, and makes it flow "as a river." From hour to hour we enjoy the never-disappointing hope of "grace for grace," new grace for the next new need; and beyond it, and above it, the certainties of the hope of glory. To drop our metaphor of the sanctuary for that of the pilgrimage, we find ourselves upon a pathway, steep and rocky, but always mounting into purer air, and so as to show us nobler prospects; and at the summit-the pathway will be continued, and transfigured, into the golden street of the City; the same track, but within the gate of heaven. Into all this the Holy Ghost has led us. He has been at the heart of the whole internal process. He made the thunder of the Law articulate to our conscience. He gave us faith by manifesting Christ. And, in Christ, He has "poured out in our hearts the love of God." For now the Apostle takes up that word, "the Love of God," and holds it to our sight, and we see in its pure glory no vague abstraction, but the face, and the work, of Jesus Christ. Such is the context into which we now advance. He is reasoning on; "For Christ, when we still were weak." He has set justification before us in its majestic lawfulness. But he has now to expand its mighty love, of which the Holy Ghost has made us conscious in our hearts. We are to see in the Atonement not only a guarantee that we have a valid title to a just acceptance. We are to see in it the love of the Father and the Son, so that not our security only, but our bliss, may be full. For Christ, we still being weak (gentle euphemism for our utter impotence, our guilty inability to meet the sinless claim of the Law of God), in season, in the fulness of time, when the ages of precept and of failure had done their work, and man had learnt something to purpose of the lesson of self-despair, for the ungodly-died. "For the ungodly," "concerning them," "with reference to them," that is to say, in this context of saving mercy, "in their interests, for their rescue, as their propitiation." "The ungodly," or, more literally still, without the article, "ungodly ones"; a designation general and inclusive for those for whom He died. Above { Romans 4:5 } we saw the word used with a certain limitation, as of the worst among the sinful. But here, surely, with a solemn paradox, it covers the whole field of the Fall. The ungodly here are not the flagrant and disreputable only; they are all who are not in harmony with God; the potential as well as the actual doers of grievous sin. For them "Christ died"; not "lived," let us remember, but "died." It was a question not of example, nor of suasion, nor even of utterances of divine compassion. It was a question of law and guilt; and it was to be met only by the death sentence and the death fact; such death as He died of whom, a little while before, this same Correspondent had written to the converts of Galatia; { Galatians 3:13 } "Christ bought us out from the curse of the Law, when He became a curse for us." All the untold emphasis of the sentence, and of the thought, lies here upon those last words, upon each and all of them, "for ungodly ones-He died." The sequel shows this to us; he proceeds: For scarcely, with difficulty, and in rare instances, for a just man will one die; "scarcely," he will not say "never," for, for the good man, the man answering in some measure the ideal of gracious and not only of legal goodness, perhaps someone actually ventures to die. But God commends, as by a glorious contrast, His love, "His" as above all current human love, "His own love," towards us, because while we were still sinners, and as such repulsive to the Holy, One, Christ for us did die. We are not to read this passage as if it were a statistical assertion as to the facts of human love and its possible sacrifices. The moral argument will not be affected if we are able, as we shall be, to adduce cases where unregenerate man has given even his life to save the life of one, or of many, to whom he is not emotionally or naturally attracted. All that is necessary to St. Paul’s tender plea for the love of God is the certain fact that the cases of death even on behalf of one who morally deserves a great sacrifice are relatively very, very few. The thought of merit is the ruling thought in the connection. He labours to bring out the sovereign Lovingkindness, which went even to the length and depth of death, by reminding us, that, whatever moved it, it was not moved, even in the lowest imaginable degree, by any merit, no, nor by any "congruity," in us. And yet we were sought, and saved. He who planned the salvation, and provided it, was the eternal Lawgiver and Judge. He who loved us is Himself eternal Right, to whom all our wrong is unutterably repellent. What then is He as Love, who, being also Right, stays not till He has given His Son to the death of the Atonement? So we have indeed a warrant to "believe the love of God". { 1 John 4:16 } Yes, to believe it. We look within us, and it is incredible. If we have really seen ourselves, we have seen ground for a sorrowful conviction that He who is eternal Right must view us with aversion. But if we have really seen Christ, we have seen ground for-not feeling at all, it may be, at this moment, but-believing that God is Love, and loves us. What is it to believe Him? It is to take Him at His word; to act altogether not upon our internal consciousness but upon His warrant. We look at the Cross, or rather, we look at the crucified. Lord Jesus in His Resurrection; we read at His feet these words of His Apostle; and we go away to take God at His assurance that we, unlovely, are beloved. "My child," said a dying French saint, as she gave a last embrace to her daughter, "I have loved you because of what you are; my heavenly Father, to whom I go, has loved me malgre moi ." And how does the divine reasoning now advance? "From glory to glory"; from acceptance by the Holy One, who is Love, to present and endless preservation in His Beloved One. Therefore much more, justified now in His blood, as it were "in" its laver of ablution, or again "within" its circle of sprinkling as it marks the precincts of our inviolable sanctuary, we. shall be kept safe through Him, who now lives to administer the blessings of His death, from the wrath, the wrath of God, in its present imminence over the head. of the unreconciled, and in its final fall "in that day." For if, being enemies, with no initial love to Him who is Love, nay, when we were hostile to His claims, and as such subject to the hostility of His Law, we were reconciled to our God through the death of His Son (God coming to judicial peace with us, and we brought to submissive peace with Him), much more, being reconciled, we shall be kept safe in His life, in the life of the Risen One who now lives for us, and in us, and we in Him. Nor, only so, but we shall be kept exulting too in our God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we have received this reconciliation. Here, by anticipation, he indicates already the mighty issues of the act of Justification, in our life of Union with the Lord who died for us, and lived again. In the sixth chapter this will be more fully unfolded; but he cannot altogether reserve it so long. As he has advanced from the law aspect of our acceptance to its love aspect, so now with this latter he gives us at once the life aspect, our vital incorporation with our Redeemer, our part and lot in His resurrection-life. Nowhere in this whole Epistle is that subject expounded so fully as in the later Epistles, Colossians and Ephesians; the Inspirer led His servant all over that region then, in his Roman prison, but not now. But He had brought him into the region from the first, and we see it here present to his thought, though not in the foreground of his discourse. "Kept safe in His life"; not "by" His life, but "in" His life. We are livingly knit to Him the Living One. From one point of view we are accused men, at the bar, wonderfully transformed, by the Judge’s provision, into welcomed and honoured friends of the Law and the Lawgiver. From another point of view we are dead men, in the grave, wonderfully vivified, and put into a spiritual connection with the mighty life of our Lifegiving Redeemer. ‘The aspects are perfectly distinct. They belong to different orders of thought. Yet they are in the closest and most genuine relation. The Justifying Sacrifice procures the possibility of our regeneration into the Life of Christ. Our union by faith with the Lord who died and lives brings us into actual part and lot in His justifying merits. And our part and lot in those merits, our "acceptance in the Beloved," assures us again of the permanence of the mighty Love which will maintain us in our part and lot "in His life." This is the view of the matter which is before us here. Thus the Apostle meets our need on every side. He shows us the holy Law satisfied for us. He shows us the eternal love liberated upon us. He shows us the Lord’s own Life clasped around us, imparted to us; "our life is hid in God with Christ, who is our Life". { Colossians 3:3-4 } Shall we not "exult in God through Him"? And now we are to learn something of that great Covenant-Headship, in which we and He are one. Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Chapter 13 CHRIST AND ADAM Romans 5:12-21 WE approach a paragraph of the Epistle pregnant with mystery. It leads us back to Primal Man, to the Adam of the first brief pages of the Scripture record, to his encounter with the. suggestion to follow himself rather than his Maker, to his sin, and then to the results of that sin in his race. We shall find those results given in terms which certainly we should not have devised a priori. We shall find the Apostle teaching, or rather stating, for he writes as to those who know, that mankind inherits from primal Man, tried and fallen, not only taint but guilt, not only moral hurt but legal fault. This is "a thing heard in the darkness." It has been said that Holy Scripture "is not a sun, but a lamp." The words may be grievously misused, by undue emphasis on the negative clause; but they convey a sure truth, used aright. Nowhere does the Divine Book undertake to tell us all about everything it contains. It undertakes to tell us truth, and to tell it from God. It undertakes to give us pure light, yea, "to bring life and immortality out into the light,". { 2 Timothy 1:10 } But it reminds us that we know "in part," and that even prophecy, even the inspired message, is "in part". { 1 Corinthians 13:9 } It illuminates immensely much, but it leaves yet more to be seen hereafter. It does not yet kindle the whole firmament and the whole landscape like an oriental sun. It sheds its glory upon our Guide, and upon our path. A passage like this calls for such recollections. It tells us, with the voice of the Apostle’s Lord, great facts about our own race, and its relations to its primeval Head, such that every individual man has a profound moral and also judicial nexus with the first Man. It does not tell us how those inscrutable but solid facts fit into the whole plan of God’s creative wisdom and moral government. The lamp shines there, upon the edges of a deep ravine beside the road; it does not shine sun-like over the whole mountain land. As with other mysteries which will meet us later, so with this; we approach it as those who "know in part," and who know that the apostolic Prophet, by no defect of inspiration, but by the limits of the case, "prophesies in part." Thus with awful reverence, with godly fear, and free from the wish to explain away, yet without anxiety lest God should be proved unrighteous, we listen as Paul dictates, and receive his witness about our fall and our guilt in that mysterious "First Father." We remember also another fact of this case. This paragraph deals only incidentally with Adam; its main theme is Christ. Adam is the illustration; Christ is the subject. We are to be shown in Adam, by contrast, some of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." So that our main attention is called not to the brief outline of the mystery of the Fall, but to the assertions of the related splendour of the Redemption. St. Paul is drawing again to a close, a cadence. He is about to conclude his exposition of the Way of Acceptance, and to pass its junction with the Way of Holiness. And he shows us here last, in the matter of Justification, this fragment from "the bottoms of the mountains"-the union of the justified with their redeeming Lord as race with Head; the nexus in that respect between them and Him which makes His "righteous act" of such infinite value to them. In the previous paragraph, as we have seen, he has gravitated toward the deeper regions of the blessed subject; he has indicated our connection with the Lord’s Life as well as with His Merit. Now, recurring to the thought of the Merit, he still tends to the depths of truth, and Christ our Righteousness is lifted before our eyes from those pure depths as not the Propitiation only, but the Propitiation who is also our Covenant-Head, our Second Adam, holding His mighty merits for a new race, bound up with Himself in the bond of real unity. He "prophesies in part," meanwhile, even in respect of this element of his message. As we saw just above, the fullest explanations of our union with the Lord Christ in His life were reserved by St. Paul’s Master for other Letters than this. In the present passage we have not, what probably we should have had if the Epistle had been written five years later, a definite statement of the connection between our Union with Christ in His covenant and our Union with Him in His life; a connection deep, necessary, significant. It is not quite absent from this passage, if we read verses 17, 18 ( Romans 5:17-18 ) aright; but it is not prominent. The main thought is of merit, righteousness, acceptance; of covenant, of law. As we have said, this paragraph is the climax of the Epistle to the Romans as to its doctrine of our peace with God through the merits of His Son. It is enough for the purpose of that subject that it should indicate, and only indicate, the doctrine that His Son is also our Life, our indwelling Cause and Spring of purity and power. Recollecting thus the scope and the connection of the passage, let us listen to its wording. On this account, on account of the aspects of our justification and reconciliation "through our Lord Jesus Christ" which he has just presented, it is just as through one man sin entered into the world, the world of man, and, through sin, death, and so to all men death travelled, penetrated, pervaded, inasmuch as all sinned; the Race sinning in its Head, the Nature in its representative Bearer. The facts of human life and death show that sin did thus pervade the race, as to liability, and as to penalty: For until law came sin was in the world: it was present all along, in the ages previous to the great Legislation. But sin is not imputed, is not put down as debt for penalty, where law does not exist, where in no sense in there statute to be obeyed or broken, whether that statute takes articulate expression or not. But death became king, from Adam down to Moses, even over those who did not sin on the model of the transgression of Adam-who is (in the present tense of the plan of God) pattern of the Coming One. He argues from the fact of death, and from its universality, which implies a universality of liability, of guilt. According to the Scriptures, death is essentially penal in the case of man, who was created not to die but to live. How that purpose would have been fulfilled if "the image of God" had not sinned against Him, we do not know. We need not think that. the fulfilment would have violated any natural process; higher processes might have governed the case, in perfect harmony with the surroundings of terrestrial life, till perhaps that life was transfigured, as by a necessary development, into the celestial and immortal. But, however, the record does connect, for man, the fact of death with the fact of sin, offence, transgression. And the fact of death is universal, and so has been from the first. And thus it includes generations most remote from the knowledge of a revealed code. And it includes individuals most incapable of a conscious act of transgression such as Adam’s was; it includes the heathen, and the infant, and the imbecile. Therefore wherever there is human nature, since Adam fell, there is sin, in its form of guilt. And therefore, in some sense which perhaps only the Supreme Theologian Himself fully knows, but which we can follow a little way, all men offended in the First Man-so favourably conditioned, so gently tested. The guilt contracted by him is possessed also by them. And thus is he "the pattern of the Coming One." For now the glorious Coming One, the Seed of the Woman, the blessed Lord of the Promise, rises on the view, in His likeness and in His contrast. Writing to Corinth from Macedonia, about a year before, St. Paul had called him { 1 Corinthians 15:45 ; 1 Corinthians 15:47 } "the Second Adam," "the Second Man"; and had drawn in outline the parallel he here elaborates. "In Adam all die; even so in Christ all shall be made alive." It was a thought which he had learned in Judaism, but which his Master had affirmed to him in Christianity; and noble indeed and far reaching is its use of it in this exposition of the sinner’s hope. But not as the transgression, so the gracious gift. For if, by the transgression of the one, the many, the many affected by it, died, much rather did the grace of God, His benignant action, and the gift, the grant of our acceptance, in the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, ("in His grace," because involved in His benignant action, in His redeeming work) abound unto the many whom it, whom He, affected. We observe here some of the phrases in detail. "The One"; "the One Man":-"the one," in each case, is related to "the many" involved, in bane or in blessing respectively. "The One Man":-so the Second Adam is designated, not the First. As to the First, "it goes unsaid" that he is man. As to the Second, it is infinitely wonderful, and Of eternal import, that He, as truly, as completely, is one with us, is Man of men. "Much rather did the grace, and the gift, abound":-the thought given here is that while the dread secret of the Fall was solemnly permitted, as good in law, the sequel of the divine counter work was gladly sped by the Lord’s willing love, and was carried to a glorious overflow, to an altogether unmerited effect, in the present and eternal blessing of the justified. "The many," twice mentioned in this verse, are the whole company which, in each case, stands related to the respective Representative. It is the whole race in the case of the Fall; it is the "many brethren" of the Second Adam in the case of the Reconciliation. The question is not of numerical comparison between the two, but of the numerousness of each host in relation to the oneness of its covenant Head. What the numerousness of the "many brethren" will be we know-and we do not know; for it will be "‘a great multitude, which no one can number." But that is not in the question here. The emphasis, the "much rather," the "abundance," lies not on the compared numbers, but on the amplitude of the blessing which overflows upon "the many" from the justifying work of the One. He proceeds, developing the thought. From the act of each Representative, from Adam’s Fall and Christ’s Atonement, there issued results of dominion, of royalty. But what was the contrast of the cases! In the Fall, the sin of the One brought upon "the many" judgment, sentence, and the reign of death over them. In the Atonement, the righteousness of the One brought upon "the many" an "abundance," an overflow, a generous largeness and love of acceptance, and the power of life eternal, and a prerogative of royal rule over sin and death; the emancipated captives treading upon their tyrant’s necks. We follow out the Apostle’s wording: And not as through the one who sinned, who fell, so is the gift; our acceptance in our Second Head does not follow the law of mere and strict retribution which appears in our fall in our first Head. (For, he adds in emphatic parenthesis, the judgment did issue, from one transgression, in condemnation, in sentence of death; but the gracious gift issued, from many transgressions, -not indeed as if earned by them, as if caused by them, but as occasioned by them; for this wonderful process of mercy found in our sing, as well as, in our Fall, a reason for the Cross-in a deed of justification.) For if in one transgression, "in" it, as the effect is involved in its cause, death came to reign through the one offender, much rather those who are receiving, in their successive cases and generations, that abundance of the grace just spoken of, and of the free gift of righteousness, of acceptance, shall in life, life eternal, begun now, to end never, reign over their former tyrants through the One, their glorious One, Jesus Christ. And now he sums up the whole in one comprehensive inference and affirmation. "The One" "the many"; "the One," "the all"; the whole mercy for the all due to the one work of the One; -such is the ground thought all along. It is illustrated by "the one" and "the many" of the Fall, but still so as to throw the real weight of every word not upon the Fall but upon the Acceptance. Here, as throughout this paragraph, we should greatly mistake if we thought that the illustration and the object illustrated were to be pressed, detail by detail, into one mould. To cite an instance to the contrary, we are certainly not to take him to mean that because Adam’s "many" are not only fallen in him, but actually guilty, therefore Christ’s "many" are not only accepted in Him, but actually and personally meritorious of acceptance. The whole Epistle negatives that thought. Nor again are we to think, as we ponder ver. 18 ( Romans 5:18 ), that because "the condemnation" was "to all men" in the sense of their being not only condemnable but actually condemned, therefore "the justification of life" was "to all men" in the sense that all mankind are actually justified. Here again the whole Epistle, and the whole message of St. Paul about our acceptance, are on the other side. The provision is for the genus, for man; but the possession is for men-who believe. No; these great details in the parallel need our reverent caution, lest we think peace where there is, and can be, none. The force of the parallel lies in the broader and deeper factors of the two matters. It lies in the mysterious phenomenon of covenant headship, as affecting both our Fall and our Acceptance; in the power upon the many, in each case, of the deed of the One; and then in the magnificent fulness and positiveness of result in the case of our salvation. In our Fall, sin merely worked itself out into doom and death. In our Acceptance, the Judge’s award is positively crowned and as it were loaded with gifts and treasures. It brings with it, in ways not described here, but amply shown in other Scriptures, a living union with a Head who is our li