Romans 5

Lexham English Bible

Reconciliation with God through Faith in Christ

5 Therefore, because we^[a] have been declared righteous by faith, we have^[b] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom also we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³And not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we^[c] know that affliction produces patient endurance, ⁴and patient endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while^[d] we were still helpless, yet at the proper time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For only rarely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person (for on behalf of a good person possibly someone might even dare to die), ⁸but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while^[e] we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Therefore, by much more, because we^[f] have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath. ¹⁰For if, while we^[g] were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, by much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. ¹¹And not only this, but also we are boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Death Came through Adam but Life Comes through Christ

¹²Because of this, just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. ¹³For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not charged to one’s account when there^[h] is no law. ¹⁴But death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who is to come. ¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass^[i], for if by the trespass of the one, the many died, by much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, multiply to the many. ¹⁶And the gift is not as through the one who sinned, for on the one hand, judgment from the one sin led to condemnation, but the gift, from many trespasses, led to justification. ¹⁷For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸Consequently therefore, as through one trespass came condemnation to all people, so also through one righteous deed came justification of life to all people. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. ²⁰Now the law came in as a side issue, in order that the trespass could increase, but where sin increased, grace was present in greater abundance, ²¹so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Footnotes

Romans 5:1 Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“have been declared righteous”) which is understood as causal
Romans 5:1 Although a number of important manuscripts read the subjunctive mood here (“let us have”), almost all English versions prefer the indicative mood (“we have”) which is supported by many other manuscripts
Romans 5:3 Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“know”) which is understood as causal
Romans 5:6 Here “while” is supplied as a component of the participle (“were”) which is understood as temporal
Romans 5:8 Here “while” is supplied as a component of the participle (“were”) which is understood as temporal
Romans 5:9 Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“have been declared righteous”) which is understood as causal
Romans 5:10 Here “while” is supplied as a component of the participle (“were”) which is understood as temporal
Romans 5:13 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“is”) which is understood as temporal
Romans 5:15 Literally “but not like the trespass so also the gift”

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.

Lexham English Bible (LEB)

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The Message (MSG)

Romans 5 Lexham English Bible