Romans
Chapter 5
Overview
Paul has argued that people are put right with God through trust, not by earning approval through religious law. Now he explores what follows: peace with God, confident hope, and endurance even in suffering. He points to Jesus’ death as the clearest proof of God’s love, then widens the view to the whole human story. Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death; Jesus’ obedience opens the way to restored life. The chapter moves through a striking contrast: one act caused ruin to spread, while another released grace more powerful than the ruin.
1Therefore, since we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
2Through Jesus, by faith, we have also gained access to the grace in which we now stand. We celebrate the hope of sharing in God’s glory.
3Not only that, but we also find reason for confidence in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces endurance.
4Endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
5This hope will not leave us ashamed, because God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6For while we were still powerless, at just the right time, the Messiah died for people who lived without regard for God.
7Someone would hardly die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps dare to die for a truly good person.
8But God shows his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us.
9Since we have now been put right with God through Jesus’ blood—his death for us—how much more certainly will we be saved through him from God’s judgment!
10When we were God’s enemies, we were restored to friendship with him through the death of his Son. Now that our relationship with God has been restored, how much more certainly will we be saved through the Son’s life!
11And that is not all. We also celebrate what God has done through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now received this restored relationship.
12So sin entered the world through one man, and death entered through sin. In this way death spread to all people, because everyone sinned.
13Sin was in the world before the law of Moses was given. But when there is no law, sin is not counted as a violation of a specific command.
14Even so, death ruled from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. It ruled even over those who did not sin by breaking a direct command as Adam did. Adam was a pattern pointing ahead to the one who was to come.
15But God’s gracious gift is not like Adam’s offense. If the offense of one man caused many to die, how much more abundantly have God’s grace and the gift given through the grace of one man, Jesus the Messiah, overflowed to many!
16The gift is also unlike the result of one man’s sin. Judgment followed one offense and brought condemnation, but the gracious gift followed many offenses and brought acquittal.
17Because of one man’s offense, death ruled through that one man. But those who receive God’s overflowing grace and his gift of being put right with him will do much more: they will rule in life through the one man, Jesus the Messiah.
18So one offense brought condemnation to all people. In the same way, one righteous act opened the way for all people to be put right with God and receive life.
19Just as the disobedience of one man caused many to become sinners, the obedience of one man will cause many to be made right with God.
20The law came in so that offenses would increase. But where sin increased, grace overflowed far beyond it.
21Sin ruled by bringing death. In the same way, grace now rules by putting people right with God and leading them to eternal life through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.