Romans 5

English Standard Version

Peace with God Through Faith

5 ^(A)Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, ^(B)we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also ^(C)obtained access by faith^[b] into this grace ^(D)in which we stand, and ^(E)we^[c] rejoice^[d] in hope of the glory of God. ³Not only that, but we ^(F)rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering ^(G)produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and ^(H)hope does not put us to shame, because God's love ^(I)has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

⁶For ^(J)while we were still weak, at the right time ^(K)Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but ^(L)God shows his love for us in that ^(M)while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, ^(N)we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from ^(O)the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if ^(P)while we were enemies ^(Q)we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by ^(R)his life. ¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received ^(S)reconciliation.

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

¹²Therefore, just as ^(T)sin came into the world through one man, and ^(U)death through sin, and ^(V)so death spread to all men^[e] because ^(W)all sinned— ¹³for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but ^(X)sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not ^(Y)like the transgression of Adam, ^(Z)who was a type of ^(AA)the one who was to come.

¹⁵But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for ^(AB)many. ¹⁶And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For ^(AC)the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought ^(AD)justification. ¹⁷For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness ^(AE)reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Therefore, as one trespass^[f] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness^[g] leads to justification and life for ^(AF)all men. ¹⁹For as by the one man's ^(AG)disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's ^(AH)obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰Now ^(AI)the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, ^(AJ)grace abounded all the more, ²¹so that, ^(AK)as sin reigned in death, ^(AL)grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Footnotes

Romans 5:1 Some manuscripts let us
Romans 5:2 Some manuscripts omit by faith
Romans 5:2 Or let us; also verse 3
Romans 5:2 Or boast; also verses 3, 11
Romans 5:12 The Greek word anthropoi refers here to both men and women; also twice in verse 18
Romans 5:18 Or the trespass of one
Romans 5:18 Or the act of righteousness of one

Romans 5

The Message

Developing Patience

5 ^1-2By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

^3-5There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

The Death-Dealing Sin, the Life-Giving Gift

^12-14You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

^15-17Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, absolute life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

^18-19Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

^20-21All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Message (MSG)

Romans 5 English Standard Version