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Verses 1–2: Peace and Grace through Faith
Rom 5:1. Therefore, being justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is, being cleansed from sins and sanctified by faith—not by merits—let us keep peace with God, to whom we have been reconciled through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator.
In this verse, the Greek codices vary. In most, it is read as echomen ("we have"), meaning we have God appeased and favorable. Tertullian favors this reading (Against Marcion, Bk 5, Ch 13), saying the Apostle warns those justified by faith in Christ (not by the Law) to have peace. The author of the commentaries formerly attributed to St. Ambrose adds: "Faith, not the Law, creates peace with God; for faith reconciles us to God by removing the sins that made us enemies." Because the Lord Jesus is the minister of this grace, we are pacified toward God through Him. The Arabic and Ethiopic versions render the same sense: "We have peace with God."
However, the ancient Alexandrian MS, the Claromontanus, and another Greek codex cited by Gagnée have echōmen ("let us have"). This reading is followed by Origen, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and others. The Syriac version renders the same sense.
Rom 5:2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the children of God.
By the work and merits of Jesus Christ the Mediator, we have been led, granted access, and admitted—by faith, not merits—to this extraordinary grace of justification and sanctification. We remain firm in this happy state of grace and glory in the Lord, considering ourselves blessed in the hope of the glory prepared for the children of God. To this glory, grace gives us a right, as it makes us children of God by adoption. (Note: The word "children" is absent from the Greek text and the Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions; the Greek commentators and St. Cyprian do not recognize it).
Verses 3–5: Glory in Tribulation
Rom 5:3–5. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.
We rejoice in adversities, especially those that befall us for the name of God and Christ, knowing that tribulation works patience. We are taught by the Holy Spirit and happy experience that adversity produces patience. Patience produces proof (trial), because through it, it is tested how much we value God and heavenly things. Proof kindles hope more and more, both because of God's goodness (who will not leave such patience unrewarded) and because of Christ’s promise (Matt 5:11, John 16:20).
And hope does not confound (disappoint); that is, it does not fail. Those whose hope is deluded by empty promises are usually ashamed, but hope relying on divine promises is not put to shame because it is most certain and infallible. Because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. My statement that hope does not disappoint is proven by Charity—both the love with which God loves us (pouring out the Spirit as a pledge of the promised inheritance) and the love with which He makes us lovers of Him. As written in 1 John 3: "See what kind of charity the Father has given us, that we should be called and should be sons of God."
Verses 6–10: The Death of Christ for Sinners
Rom 5:6–7. For why did Christ, when we were yet weak, according to the time, die for the ungodly?
For what purpose, if not to demonstrate His charity toward us, did Christ die for us at the time appointed by the Father, while we were still held by the sicknesses of sin? For scarcely for a just man will one die. Scarcely can one be found among mortals ready to face death for a just and innocent man. Yet perhaps for a good man someone might dare to die. It might possibly happen that someone is so brave of soul—though this is very rare—that he sustains death for a good man who has deserved well of all.
This sense seems clearer and more in line with the Apostle’s mind than the interpretation of St. Jerome, who explains "just" and "good" as things rather than persons. Jerome says: "Let us not think 'just' and 'good' are different or signify a person, but rather an absolute just and good thing for which someone might with difficulty be found to shed his blood."
Rom 5:8–10. But God commends His charity toward us: because when we were yet sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us.
God makes His extraordinary love conspicuous in that Christ died for us at the convenient time—the fullness of time—when we were still bound by sins and not yet justified.
(Note: The words "according to the time" seem redundant to some learned commentators and are absent in the Greek text followed by the Syriac and Arabic. St. Irenaeus, St. Cyprian, St. Hilary, and St. Augustine did not read them. However, they exist in ancient Greek codices of the best quality, as St. Jerome included them and Theodoret explained them.)
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him.
If we are now justified by His death, much more shall we be delivered from the wrath of God—the just vengeance He will exercise eternally upon sinners. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. If the Son of God reconciled us to the Father by dying for us while we were enemies, much more will He save us as He lives an immortal and glorious life, reigning without end at the right hand of the Father, interceding as our advocate.
Verses 11–12: Reconcilation and Original Sin
Rom 5:11. And not only so, but we also glory in God... through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation.
We glory in God, whom we have as favorable to us, and whose friends and adopted sons we have become—not by our virtue or merit, but through Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:12. Wherefore as by one man [Adam] sin entered into this world... and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.
Sin entered the world through Adam, the first parent of the human race, and was transfused into the entire human race by propagation. Death entered through sin as a punishment justly inflicted by God. Thus, death spread to all descendants because in that one man, Adam—as in the principle and root of the whole race—all sinned.
This was not by "imitation" only (as the Pelagians and Socinians assert), but by a corrupted origin. The Apostle meant the sin of generation; for the sin of imitation entered the world through the devil, not through one man. All sinned in him because all were in him when he sinned.
The Apostle provides this dogma of Original Sin transfused into all men to confirm the necessity of reconciliation through Christ. If reconciliation is necessary for all, then the sin by which we were enemies must have passed to all. From this passage, the Catholic dogma of the transfusion of original sin was invincibly defended by the Council of Africa (Canon 2), the Council of Orange (Canon 2), and the Council of Trent (Session 5). This has been believed by all antiquity and taught with the highest consensus by both Greek and Latin Fathers even before St. Augustine (including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian).
Verses 13–14: Sin Before the Law
Rom 5:13. For until the Law, sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed when the law was not.
Before the Law was given through Moses, sin reigned in men. To the original sin contracted from Adam, they added the grave personal sins of their own will and action. However, those sins were not "imputed" to them as the death penalty for being "transgressors of a law," because there was not yet a specific written law decreeing death for certain crimes. As it is said: "Where there is no law, there is no transgression." Nevertheless, many were struck by the death penalty by God for violating the law of nature.
Rom 5:14. But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of Him who was to come.
Death exercised its tyranny from Adam until Moses, not only over those who sinned willfully (like Adam), but even over those who did not sin by an act of their own will—namely, infants. From this, it follows that death is the effect and punishment of the sin which every individual contracts by being born from Adam.
Adam was a "type" or "figure" of the Christ who was to come (whom the Apostle elsewhere calls the "Last Adam"). He is a figure of Christ by way of contrast: just as through Adam sin and death were introduced, so through Christ justice and life are restored. St. Augustine uses this against the Pelagian Julian: "Behold, those who did not sin by their own act still suffered the reign of death. Will you not return to Catholic truth and admit that death reigned over them because they contracted the contagion of the ancient birth?"
Verses 15–17: The Abundance of Grace
Rom 5:15. But not as the offense, so also is the gift.
The logic of Christ's grace is not the same as the logic of the first man's sin. If by the offense of one (Adam) many died, much more has the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abounded unto many. This does not mean Christ saves more people than Adam lost, but that He restored more grace to us than we lost in Adam—specifically, the perseverance of justice and eternal life, which Adam did not have even in Paradise.
Rom 5:16–17. And not as it was by one sin, so also is the gift...
The judgment was from one sin unto condemnation, but the grace of God is from many offenses unto justification. God's judgment condemned all for one single sin of the first man. But Grace grants justice by absolving us not only from that one sin but from the many personal sins men added of their own will.
If death reigned through one man, much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. They will reign in an immortal and glorious life without end, whereas death's reign over them was only temporary.
Verses 18–19: Condemnation vs. Justification
Rom 5:18. Therefore, as by the offense of one, unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life.
Through Adam’s sin, all fell into the condemnation of death; through Christ’s justice—His holy actions and especially His obedience unto the death of the Cross—all who belong to Christ attain the "justification of life." This is the sanctifying grace by which they live spiritually and are led to eternal life.
Rom 5:19. For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just.
Through Adam’s transgression, all were made sinners—not merely by the "imputation" of his sin from the outside, but by an internal contagion contracted at birth. Likewise, through Christ’s obedience, many are made just—not merely by "imputed" justice from the outside, but by an inherent justice given internally, which we had lost through Adam.
Verses 20–21: The Purpose of the Law
Rom 5:20. Now the Law entered in, that sin might abound.
Between Adam and Christ, the Law of Moses entered for a time. Far from healing men of sin, the Law actually became an occasion for men to become worse. It was not given to give life (for only grace gives life), but to show those who presumed they could fulfill justice by their own strength just how tightly they were bound by sin.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that "that sin might abound" does not signify the purpose of the Law, but its consequence:
Multiplicity: The Law prohibited what was desired, and often, what is forbidden is desired more vehemently (like a river flowing faster when a dam is placed in its way).
Knowledge: Sin "abounded" in knowledge; he who sins knowingly against the Law sins more gravely than one who is ignorant.
Humiliation: God permitted sin to abound so that proud man, recognizing his weakness, might be humbled and seek grace.
But where sin abounded, grace did superabound.
Merciful God poured out grace more copiously than the disease of sin. The medicine had to be more powerful than the sickness.
Rom 5:21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, so also may grace reign through justice unto life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Just as sin spread far and wide to bring death, so let grace and mercy reign far and wide, leading those who belong to Christ to eternal life through the merits of our Savior and Redeemer.
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