Rom. 5 Rom. 5:1 Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, Rom. 5:2 we glory in our hopes, Rom. 5:3–5 and in present afflictions, Rom. 5:6–10 from the best experience of God’s love, looking with more assurance for final salvation. Rom.

Hitherto of the cause and manner of our justification; now follow the benefits and effects. Being justified by faith; as he had before asserted and proved particularly, in Rom. 3:28, Rom. 4:24. We have peace with God; i.e. we have reconciliation with God, who before were utter enemies to him, Col.

We have not only reconciliation with God by Jesus Christ, but also by faith in him we are admitted to his presence, his grace and favour. One may be reconciled to his prince, and yet not to be brought into his presence: witness Absalom, &c. See Eph. 2:18, Eph. 3:12, 1 Pet. 3:18.

We glory in tribulations also; as old soldiers do in their scars of honour: see Gal. 6:17, 2 Cor. 12:9–11. Believers do not only glory in their future happiness, but in their present sufferings and afflictions: yet not so much in affliction itself, as in the issue and fruitful effects thereof, of…

And patience, experience; viz. of God’s sustentation and care of us, and of his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, Ps. 91:15, Isa. 43:2, 2 Cor. 1:4–5; as also of our own sincerity, and strength to endure and persevere, Matt. 13:21. And experience, hope; i.e.

And hope maketh not ashamed; it doth not disappoint or deceive us. Frustrated hopes fill men with shame and confusion, Job 6:19–20. This passage seems to be taken out of Ps. 22:5. Because, &c.

Without strength; utterly unable to help or redeem ourselves. In due time; some read it, according to the time, and refer this clause to the foregoing words, making this to be the sense: When we were weak in time past, or in the time of the law, before grace appeared, then Christ died, &c.

He amplifies the love of Christ in dying for the ungodly, and shows that it is unparalleled and without example. By a good man you must understand one that is very kind and bountiful, or one that is very useful and profitable; that is, a public and common good.

God commendeth his love toward us; i.e. he declareth or confirmeth it by this, as a most certain sign, he makes it most conspicuous or illustrious: see John 3:16, 1 John 4:9–10. In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; i.e. in a state of sin, and under the guilt and power of sin.

The apostle’s arguing is cogent, for it is more to justify and reconcile sinners, than to save them being justified; Christ therefore having done the former, he will much more do the latter. By his blood; i.e. by faith in his blood or sufferings.

We were reconciled to God; put into a capacity of reconciliation, God being by Christ’s death made reconcilable, and also actually reconciled, when we believe, through the merits of the death of Christ. We shall be saved by his life; i.e. by the resurrection to life.

And not only so, &c.: q.d. We do not only rejoice in the hope of glory, and in tribulation, of which he had spoken, Rom. 5:2–3, (all that fell in between being a long parenthesis), but we rejoice and glory in God himself, who is become our God and merciful Father in Jesus Christ.

From this verse to the end of the chapter, the apostle makes a large comparison between the first and Second Adam, which he joins to what he had said by the causal particle wherefore: q.d. Seeing things are as I have already said, it is evident, that what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ.

For until the law sin was in the world: q.d. It appears that all have sinned, because sin was always in the world, not only after the law was given by Moses, but also before, even from the beginning of the world till that time. But sin is not imputed when there is no law: q.d.

He proceeds to prove his assertion in the foregoing verse, that sin was in the world before the law, because death, which is the wages of sin, did reign, and had power over all mankind, from Adam to Moses, which was about two thousand five hundred years.

But not as the offence, so also is the free gift: q.d. But yet the resemblance betwixt the first and Second Adam is not so exact as to admit of no difference; differences there are, but they are to great advantage on Christ’s part: e.g.

q.d. As there is a difference between Adam and Christ in respect of their persons, so also in respect of their acts, and the extent thereof; for one sin of Adam did condemn us; the mischief arose from one offence; but the free gift and grace of Christ doth absolve us not only from that one fault,…

Here he shows the difference in respect of the effects and consequents of their acts. If by means of one man and his one offence death had power over all mankind, then much more shall the grace and gift of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ alone, obtain eternal life for all that have received…

Here, after a long parenthesis, the apostle returns to what he had begun to say in Rom. 5:12; and now he makes the comparison full in both members, which there, by reason of intervening matter, was left imperfect, as I before hinted. Judgment; guilt, which exposeth to judgment.

One man’s; i.e. Adam’s: see the notes on Rom. 5:12. Many; i.e. all, as before; many is here opposed to one, or a few; the meaning is: Though Adam was but one, yet he infected many others, his sin rested not in his own person. Were made sinners; brought into a state of sin.

Here he shows the reason why the law was given; although (as it is in Rom. 5:13) before that time sin was in the world, it was that the offence might abound; either strictly, the offence of that one man, or rather largely, the offence of every man.

Before he ascribed dominion and reign to death, now to sin; the reason is evident, because death indeed reigneth by sin. Before also he had made the comparison between Adam and Christ, here it is between sin and grace, the power of one and of the other.