Explore the Bible

Explore the Bible

Restored Relationship                                  Session 4                  27 SEP 26

ROM 5:1 “Therefore” refers back to Chapter 4. The “we” means Jews and Gentiles alike (Rom 3:9 RSV) "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin," specifically states Jews and Gentiles are the same as to the effect of sin. If a Gentile is lost, then a Jew is just as lost. Who is one’s mother has nothing to do with it. Rom 3:20 “...For there is no distinction.” (Rom 3:12 RSV)  "All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one."" So the remedy for Jew and Gentile alike is “justification by faith.” (Acts 15:11 RSV)  "But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."" “We” refers to Jews! Thus Peter said that JEWS NEEDED TO BE SAVED IN THE SAME AS WAY AS GENTILES! Gentiles DID NOT need to be saved in a Jewish way! Yet so many Christians believe the Jews have a special “in” with God. Peter and Paul declared that is FALSE! Once again the Greek is not definitive because many ancient manuscripts say one thing and many ancient manuscripts say another. The problem is with “have peace.” The Greek word is echomen. The difference is a short or long o. The former means “we have peace” and the latter means “let us have peace.”

Most translations go with the former while noted scholars say the latter. The reason for the translations is Paul appears to be stating a series of facts. We have peace with God [by context the Father] through Jesus as our Lord and Messiah. (John 14:6 RSV)  "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." (John 16:27 RSV)  "for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father." The SBC puts out mixed messages concerning the Jews. Today’s Lost Jews ARE NOT God’s Chosen People. Today’s Christians are the ONLY chosen people of God! (1 Pet 2:9 RSV) "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Only when a Jew becomes a Christian is he or she a Chosen One.

ROM 5:2 “Through him” refers to Jesus. Here some ancient authorities say “access” while others say “access by faith.” Both are true. We have access by “this grace.” This refers back to God choosing to see a person as righteous. This applies equally to Jew and Gentile. (Rom 3:28-30 RSV) "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. {29} Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, {30} since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith." So “this grace” refers to “he will justify” by a person’s faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah. “In which we stand” is a statement of Eternal Security. (Rom 8:38-39 RSV)  "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, {39} nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." So we can and should “rejoice in our suffering.” This is not what people want to hear. Many are told Jesus takes away all cares and sufferings. Yet Paul says we keep having sufferings and we are to rejoice when we have them. “Sufferings” in Greek refers to grapes being squeezed by the press. Recall that Jesus said (John 17:14-15 RSV) "I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. {15} I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one."

Paul sees suffering as positive for a growing Christian since it produces “endurance.” The Greek means to endure an experience. This “patient endurance” is vital to a Christian’s life, particularly when suffering exists. It proved critical to many early Christians. One of the major purposes for Revelation was to encourage and share (Rev 3:10 RSV) "Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth." (Rev 1:9-10 RSV)  "I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth." From it develops “character” or “experience.” The Greek means the result of testing. And such character leads to an active hope.

                Christians usually don’t understand why they suffer as if they should never suffer. As Jesus said we will have suffering because we are Christians. But Jesus will be will us through the Holy Spirit and the Father works for the most good in any situation. (Rom 8:28 RSV)  "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose."

ROM 5:5 This “hope” does not disappoint. (Heb 11:1 RSV)  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." “Poured” is perfect tense meaning that the Holy Spirit has and still indwells Christians because of God’s grace.

ROM 5:6 “Yet helpless” is most revealing. Mankind could and can do nothing to make themselves seem right before God. So while Mankind was still helpless in sin and its results, God sent Jesus at the right time in history. “Time” in the Greek here means opportune time. (Gal 4:4 RSV)  "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law." While every single person was still a lost sinner, Jesus came as the Messiah for all. Technically this means all Old Testament faith people as well. Salvation was not effective until the Father raised Jesus from death. Without this, then all promises of salvation would have been lies. (Rom 6:4 RSV)  "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

ROM 5:7-8 A “righteous man” here is not one declared righteous by God. The context is a legalistic Jew of the Law.  He is one who expects all to live by the Law and has no sympathy for those who don’t. A “good man” is a person with a benevolent and generous heart. Perhaps for a generous man another person might die to keep him alive. But Jesus died at the request of the Trinity “while we were yet sinners.” In the Jewish mind a “sinner” had one foot already in Hell. Jesus is God’s expression of love to mankind. (John 3:16 RSV)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

ROM 5:9-10 Here Paul argues from the greater to the lessor. So even while we were the enemies of God by doing sin, we [Jews and Gentiles who are faith people] are “now” “justified by his blood.” “Justified” means God has declared it to be so at His choice. He has declared us righteous because of the Cross-Event. What Paul means by the words “the death of his Son” is the whole Cross-Event from the death to the Ascension and presenting himself before the Father. (Heb 9:12 RSV) "he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." (Heb 9:24-27 RSV)  "For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. {25} Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; {26} for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. {27} And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment." “If” in verse 10 in the Greek assumes a condition that was true. So “much more” we will be saved since God because of Jesus declares us righteous. This is a powerful statement of Eternal Security.

We did not do, and cannot do by ourselves,anything to make ourselves saved. We did not do or the power to make ourselves righteous. It is entirely the work of God. The Greek is future tense “we shall be saved by his life” as a statement of Eternal Security.  “Life” means salvation life.  Because Jesus is alive do we have salvation life. Until we set foot on New Earth we do not have the salvation promised to Abraham nor does Abraham. Abraham was promised land. That land is New Earth. (Isa 60:20 RSV) "Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended." (Isa 65:17 RSV)  ""For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind." Only there are the real promises made to Abraham (not those people want to believe are true) given. (Heb 11:39-40 RSV)  "And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, {40} since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." The physical land of Palestine is a shadow just as the physical temple is a shadow. THE PHYSICAL IS NOT WHAT WAS PROMISED TO ABRAM (Abraham). (Heb 8:5 RSV) "They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.""

The “land” was also a shadow. God does not declare any one righteous for the moment only. When God forgives He forgets. (Psa 103:12 RSV)  "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." This is not just sin we have do but sin we will do until we die or the Second Coming. So when a Christian sins it does not affect his/her Eternal Salvation. It does affect the quality of Eternal Life. (1 Cor 3:12-15 RSV)  "Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- {13} each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. {14} If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. {15} If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."

ROM 5:11 This verse is a grand summary of what Paul has just forcibly stated. Christian Rejoice! “...We have now received our reconciliation.” It is from the Father through Jesus as Lord and Messiah: as one Divine and the designated One from the Trinity to die for sinners and be raised by the father for sinners. And Jesus IS the One Great Savior. “One” meaning here the ONLY (ONE GREAT) SAVIOR: (Acts 4:12 RSV) "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.""

ROM 5:12-14 Because of Adam’s disobedience of God, "sin entered into the world." But NO BABY IS BORN A SINNER OR SINFUL! It is only when a person chooses to sin after the age of accountability that sin is sinful. Death comes to all humans, even ones who are not as careless about disobeying God as was Adam. Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs wrote in his book Romans, Word Books, 1977, page 67 "Adam was created in a state of innocence but with a tendency toward sin as shown in later developments. Originally he was neither righteous or unrighteous. To be righteous he must have and refuse the opportunity to be unrighteous, hence his temptation experience…In this sense every person starts out in a state of innocence, but like Adam each has a tendency toward sin, and once reaching the age of accountability each chooses to follow Satan's will."

Note that all die. (Rom 2:12 RSV) "All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." But all have the same accountability to God, both Jew and Gentile. (Rom 2:13-15 RSV) "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. {14} When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. {15} They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them" Dr. Hobbs, page 68, wrote that Paul "was not saying that men were free from guilt prior to that time (see the flood). Man was responsible for the law he had, but the responsibility is greater for those who have the written law." We must state that those with the written law had a clearer chance to be saved than those who did not.

                Dr. Hobbs applied this to all humans: “was created in a state of innocence but with a tendency toward sin.” But a tendency does not force an action!

ROM 5:18-19 So because of a male, sin came into the world), it is just and right that a male should correct the matter. That is why God sent Jesus as a man and not a woman. Sin persisted in Adam but grace overflowed in Jesus. Just as Adam's sin did not force anyone to sin, so the grace of God does not force anyone to choose Salvation through Jesus. Every human has Adam's tendency to sin. And every human has Jesus' offer to be saved by ACTS 20:21. Both ways are strictly by individual choice. No person living or to live has any special relationship with God. Only when a lost person becomes saved is that person a Chosen One, an adopted child of God. Until Southern Baptists believe again Peter and Paul and reject Calvinism and the like, will the SBC believe that all Jews are lost and need Jesus. Only then will we begin to properly witness to the Jews. We must witness to them with the same Good News Gentiles receive. No Jews is any more “Chosen” than any Gentile. All must do (Acts 20:21 RSV) "testifying both to Jew (sin came in AFTER Adam also sinned) and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

Note what Peter said: (Acts 15:11 RSV) "But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."" Jews must believe the same as Gentiles in order to be saved. Peter means that both Jew and Gentile will be saved through grace by faith without the yoke of the law or the rite of circumcision.

ROM 5:20-21 (Rom 5:20-21 RSV) “Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, {21} so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

                Dr. A. T. Robertson in his book Word Pictures in the New Testament, wrote “That - even so grace might reign (hinȧ̇houtos kai hē charis basileusēi). Final hina here, the purpose of God and the goal for us through Christ. Lightfoot notes the force of the aorist indicative (ebasileusen, established its throne) and the aorist subjunctive (basileusēi, might establish its throne), the ingressive aorist both times. “This full rhetorical close has almost the value of a doxology” (Denney).”

                (Romans 6:23 NLT) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Only a Raised Jesus can save. Grace is through faith in the Raised Jesus. (Rom 10:9 RSV) "because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

It is impossible for God to save any person who rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior.

APPLY THE WHOLE BIBLE BEFORE YOU STATE A DOCTRINE!

Best Study Guide: How to Study the Bible Principles with Bible, A Study Sources by Orin T. Binkley.

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