Translated by Claude.
Rom 5:1. The reading fluctuates here between ἔχομεν and ἔχωμεν, and depending on whether we read the indicative or the subjunctive, what follows is either a pure inference from what was previously demonstrated or an inferred exhortation. For ἔχομεν vote B**, F, G, and others, several versions, Ambrosiaster; and Estius has also seen a manuscript of the Vulgate which has habemus. Lachmann (larger edition, Berlin 1850) and Tischendorf have adopted this reading. For the subjunctive ἔχωμεν speak A, B*, C, D, K, L, Sinaiticus, and others, the majority of translations, and among these also the Vulgate. The critical witnesses thus hold almost equal weight. But apart from the fact that the subjunctive could easily have arisen from the paraenetic use of this passage, the sense and the internal coherence of this entire section also decide in favor of the reading ἔχομεν. Paul has not previously spoken at all of the peace effected by justification which we are to preserve; and had he wished to say "let us have peace" — that is, seek to preserve peace with God — he would probably not have used the bare ἔχειν but rather κατέχειν or τηρεῖν. Since we finally take the καυχώμεθα following in v. 3 most naturally with the Vulgate as an indicative, it is obviously most fitting to read the indicative here as well. We accordingly translate: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace in relation to God through our Lord Jesus Christ." — The δικαιωθέντες emphatically placed at the head connects with the preceding διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ἡμῶν. The aorist indicates that Paul now takes justification as a completed fact in order to draw his conclusions from it. The particle οὖν concludes from the entire preceding section 4:1–25. — So long as a man lives in the unjustified state, he carries within him the consciousness of guilt and anxiety before the divine judgment of punishment; inner peace of heart therefore fails him. But when he passes over into the state of justification, gives himself over to God in trusting and loving faith, then rest and peace take up residence in his soul. And this peace — the blossom, as it were, of justifying grace — can be disturbed and taken from a man by nothing except sin alone. Hence in this declaration of the Apostle there lies indeed indirectly the exhortation to guard against sins in order to preserve this peace. This peace was originally mediated for us and is still continually mediated for us through Christ our high priest, in that he offered and still offers the atoning sacrifice for our sins to his heavenly Father in vicarious satisfaction. "Christ is our peace," says the Apostle in Ephesians 2:14, and only as long as we are living in him and abide in him does God remain graciously disposed toward us (cf. on 1:7). That Christ is the mediator of peace because he is the mediator of all graces for us, Paul expresses with the words of
Rom 5:2: "Through whom we have also (by means of faith) obtained access to this grace, in which we stand." — Before εἰς τὴν χάριν, C, K, L, Sinaiticus, and others read with the Vulgate τῇ πίστει; quite correct in terms of sense: Christ is the objective mediator of this grace, while faith is the subjective mediator. However, significant witnesses speak against this reading. — The word προσαγωγή occurs in classical usage only in an active sense = the act of bringing near, introduction; but in later Greek also in a passive sense: access, entry (aditus, accessus). For the explanation of the expression reference is made to the usage of antiquity, according to which access to kings was mediated through a προσαγωγεύς, an intermediary. Better, however, one finds in it an allusion to the high-priestly office of Christ (cf. Hebrews 10:19; 1 Peter 3:18: Χριστὸς ἔπαθεν ἵνα ἡμᾶς προσαγάγῃ τῷ θεῷ). The perfect ἐσχήκαμεν is equivalent to nacti sumus et habemus (Tholuck and most others). By χάρις the Apostle understands in the first instance the grace of justification, from which peace springs as a blossom from a root, but at the same time also the totality of all the graces which justification brings with it. Hence he continues: "and (in which we) glory in the hope of the glory of God" — that is, which grace at the same time brings with it the joyful hope of participation in the glory of God, in eternal blessedness. We take καυχώμεθα most naturally with the Vulgate as an indicative, and let the verb depend upon ἐν ᾗ, sc. χάριτι (not πίστει with the reading τῇ πίστει), so that καυχώμεθα and ἑστήκαμεν are coordinated. The Vulgate has gloriae filiorum Dei.
Rom 5:3ff. But not only does this grace, to which we have obtained access through Christ, give us joyful hope of future blessedness; it also gives us strength to endure the tribulations of this life patiently and even joyfully: "Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations" (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:30; 12:9; Acts 5:41). The οὐ μόνον δέ expresses a gradation; one must supply: καυχώμεθα ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τ. δόξης τ. θεοῦ (cf. vv. 11; 8:23; 9:10; 2 Corinthians 8:19). — The reason why the true Christian can glory in his tribulations, indeed can even rejoice in them, is given by the Apostle in the following participial clause: "knowing that tribulation works steadfastness, steadfastness works proof, proof works hope." He names here the stages by which, ascending, we at last arrive at the point of enduring tribulations not merely patiently but even joyfully. Tribulations give us first of all the opportunity to prove our steadfastness (ὑπομονή, cf. 2:7; Matthew 10:22), our fortitude; but the demonstrated steadfastness gives a man the consciousness of his proven worth (δοκιμή, cf. 2 Corinthians 2:9; Philippians 2:22), of his standing before God. For in tribulations a man is refined from the dross, like gold in the furnace; in them his true worth comes to light, it is shown what he is worth inwardly. This proven worth then awakens in the man the hope of eternal blessedness (cf. James 1:12); and in this certain hope that the brief sufferings will be repaid with eternal joys, he endures those sufferings with joy and glories in them. — This hope of the Christian is however a certain one, a hope that does not deceive, for it is grounded in the love of God. Hence verse 5 continues: "And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." In the καταισχύνει the effect is put for the cause: "it does not disappoint" — that is, it does not deceive and does not delude. The exegetes dispute whether θεοῦ is a genitive of subject or of object — whether, that is, ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ designates God's love toward us or men's love toward God. But since the discussion here is of a pouring out of love through the Spirit, and in the following verses of the death of Christ for us sinners, ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ evidently designates in the first instance the love of God toward us (cf. v. 8); and the Apostle wishes to say: our hope is certain and does not deceive us, because it has its certain pledge, its guarantee as it were, in that love of God with which he gave his Son for us to death. This love of God toward us is, however, a guarantee of our hope only when it has become subjectively our own — when the love of God toward us has kindled our love toward him. For only when we love God in return does the love of God toward us come to our full consciousness, and our hope rests securely in it. The love of God toward us must become our love toward him if it is to be a certain pledge of our hope (cf. on 8:35). — The communication of love takes place through the Holy Spirit; for just as the Holy Spirit forms the bond of love between the Father and the Son, so also between the Father and the man redeemed by the Son (cf. Galatians 4:6). Indeed one can also say: the love of God and the Holy Spirit are ultimately one and the same, and the Holy Spirit is the personified love of God. Paul calls this communication of love a pouring out, partly in order to make vivid through this trope the fullness of the stream of grace (cf. Titus 3:6); but then also according to the constant symbolism of Holy Scripture, water and fire are the symbol of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:17; 10:45; Titus 3:6).
Rom 5:6ff. The proof for the foregoing ἡ ἐλπὶς οὐ καταισχύνει the Apostle now draws from the great fact of the sacrificial death of Christ. This fact was an outflow of the love of God toward us and had as its purpose our rescue from the wrath of God. In this fact, therefore, as in a secure anchor-ground, our hope can rest. — The reading of v. 6 is doubtful; the oldest manuscripts (A, C, D*, Sinaiticus) read ἔτι twice, at the beginning and after ἀσθενῶν. But with the double ἔτι one does not know what to do here; one cannot see to what the first ἔτι is to refer if after ἀσθενῶν we read ἔτι again. If therefore one does not wish to have recourse to the assumption of a careless style of writing on the Apostle's part, one must with Tischendorf strike the second ἔτι, which is least well attested and whose interpolation can easily be explained from other considerations. For when this section was used ecclesiastically as a lectionary reading, it was not easy to begin with the ἔτι γάρ; and if one began with the emphatic Χριστός, then it followed of itself that the ἔτι was given its proper logical position after ἀσθενῶν. For the ἔτι standing at the beginning is also to be connected with ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν, and the Apostle has placed Χριστός somewhat imprecisely forward, since it would regularly have to read: ἔτι γὰρ ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν Χριστὸς κ.τ.λ. (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:6; see Winer, p. 488). Thus: "For so it is that Christ, when we were still weak, died at the (appointed) time for sinners." Other manuscripts read instead of ἔτι γάρ: εἴτε or εἰ γάρ or εἴς τι γάρ. If we read εἴτε = si quidem, this sentence is closely connected with the preceding ἡ δὲ ἐλπὶς οὐ καταισχύνει: "hope does not deceive, if indeed" or "since indeed Christ died for us." If we read εἰ γάρ, we take most aptly (with Ewald) v. 6 as protasis and v. 9 as apodosis, and include vv. 7f. in parenthesis: "for if Christ died, how much more shall we now — — be saved." The last reading εἴς τι γάρ underlies the translation of the Vulgate: Ut quid enim Christus — — mortuus est? — and this too, although not as securely attested as ἔτι γάρ, yields a fitting sense: the Christian's hope for the δόξα τοῦ θεοῦ does not deceive; "for why did Christ, when we were still weak, die for sinners?" The indirect answer to this question is then given by v. 9: he died in order to save us from the wrath of God. — Paul says: "when we were still weak, sick" — sick, namely, from sin, and weak in the absence of the higher powers of true life. The ἀσθενῶν does not differ in sense from the following ἀσεβῶν and ἁμαρτωλῶν (v. 8). Sinfulness is here deliberately designated as sickness and weakness, in order to characterize it as the motive of the love of God intervening to rescue us (Maier). — The κατὰ καιρόν some who read ἔτι twice connect with the last ἔτι and draw this to ἀπέθανεν: "for Christ — — died for sinners still at the time" — that is, at the right time, to forestall the imminent outbreak of divine wrath; others (Chrysostom, Theodoret) connect it with ἀσθενῶν: "when we were still weak according to the time" — that is, as the time brought with it, because namely Christ had not yet appeared, so that we could not be otherwise than weak. But according to this last interpretation there would lie in these words an excuse which does not fit in the entire context here. We best take therefore, with Jerome and Estius, the expression as referring to the following ἀπέθανεν and understand it in the sense of "at the time appointed by God" — when the time had come which God had determined by eternal decree (cf. on Ephesians 1:10; Galatians 4:4). The holy Thomas takes κατὰ καιρόν contrary to linguistic usage in the meaning of πρὸς καιρόν — "for a certain time": "Christus mortuus est secundum tempus, i. e. in certo tempore in morte moraretur, die scil. tertia resurrecturus." — The preposition ὑπέρ is taken by some (Olshausen, Reithmayr) in the sense of loco — "instead of" — so that Christ's death is thereby designated as a substitutionary one; while others (Meyer and others) maintain that ὑπέρ is used by Paul everywhere only in the sense of in commodum — "for the benefit of," "for." The latter claim seems too sweeping, since in the passages Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Philemon v. 13, ὑπέρ can well not be taken otherwise than in the sense of loco; and in general among later writers this preposition is frequently used where the better Greek uses ἀντί (see Passow's Lexicon; Krüger §68, 28, 2). However that may be, the idea of the satisfactio vicaria of the death of Christ is clearly expressed in the passages where Christ is designated as ἱλαστήριον (3:25), as θυσία (Ephesians 5:2), and as ἀντίλυτρον (1 Timothy 2:6) for us men. — The Apostle has chosen the strong expression ἀσεβῶν — ungodly — in order through the contrast to bring out the boundless love of God in full relief.
Rom 5:7. The Apostle dwells in this verse — which need not be taken as a parenthesis either entirely, as some do, or in its last part, as Lachmann (larger edition) does — upon the thought expressed previously, that Christ died for us who were sinners, and seeks through comparison of this divine act of love with human love to set the greatness of the love displayed in this gift to mankind in the fullest light. There is evidently a gradation in the two sentence parts, and for this reason alone ἀγαθός must mean more than δίκαιος. Several expositors therefore rightly take ἀγαθός with Estius in the sense of benefactor, and appeal for this explanation to the meaning "kindly" or "beneficent" which ἀγαθός undeniably sometimes has (cf. Matthew 20:15; Titus 2:5), and to the article which stands before ἀγαθός, whereas it is absent before δίκαιος. Then the sense is: "Scarcely will anyone die for an upright man (who, however, otherwise has no particular claim on one); I say scarcely: for for the beneficent man perhaps even someone will bring himself to die." That is to say: the highest to which a man can perhaps still bring himself is to die for the particular beneficent man — that is, for his benefactor. The word τολμᾶν = sustinere expresses the self-overcoming which such a self-sacrifice demands. — Of the many different explanations of this verse (Jerome, Epist. 121 to Algasia, already cites five), we wish to name only two: the one takes δίκαιον indeed as masculine, but τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ as neuter: "For the good — that is, for what someone regards as his highest good — he might perhaps resolve to die" (Rückert); the other assumes that the Apostle in the second sentence-part partly takes back what was said in the first, or as Jerome expresses it: "pendulo gradu sententiam temperat." Then the sense according to Estius would be: "dico vix reperiri qui pro iusto moriatur; non simpliciter nego reperiri, quia forsitan reperiatur aliquis, qui id faciat." Similarly Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Erasmus, Meyer, and others. But the former explanation is arbitrary; the latter yields a superfluous and feeble thought.
Rom 5:8. To this highest human love which only with difficulty brings itself to sacrifice itself for the benefactor, Paul now opposes the divine love: "But God (cf. v. 5) demonstrates his love toward us by this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The chief emphasis lies on ὄντων ἡμῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν, which stands in contrast to the δίκαιον and τὸν ἀγαθόν of v. 7: if there is scarcely a man who dies for an unjustly accused righteous person, if it is already regarded in life as the highest proof of love when someone sacrifices himself for his benefactor — then Christ by contrast died for us, who were not righteous but sinners, not his benefactors but his enemies. What a love! In this one-time surrender of his Son there lies for us the continually enduring proof of the love of God toward us; hence the present συνίστησιν. Cf. the thought with 8:32. — The secundum tempus which the printed Vulgate has here as in v. 6 is found neither in the Greek witnesses nor in all manuscripts of the Vulgate.
Rom 5:9. A heightening conclusion from the foregoing: "How much more therefore shall we, justified now in his blood, be saved through him from the wrath." — νῦν stands in contrast to the ἔτι of v. 8: if we could and might already hope in God back then, when we were still sinners — namely on account of the boundless love which lies in the surrender of his Son for the sinner — how much firmer will the anchor-ground of our hope now be, where we are justified by the blood of Christ and the enmity with God has thus ceased; now we may all the more reliably hope for complete rescue from the wrath of God which will come upon sinners on the great day of judgment (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10), and for the future σωτηρία (v. 2). — We must keep ever before us here that the Apostle wishes to demonstrate the firmness of the Christian hope — the ἡ ἐλπὶς οὐ καταισχύνει of v. 5 — in order to encourage joyful endurance of sufferings and persecutions.
Rom 5:10. What was just said Paul here clarifies and grounds more fully: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, now that we have been reconciled, shall we be saved in his life." — To ἐχθροί must be supplied, as appears from the following κατηλλάγημεν τῷ θεῷ, ὄντες (cf. Colossians 1:21), and ἐχθροί is not to be taken with some in an active sense = "hostile toward God," but passively: "hated by God." If we are reconciled with God through the death of Christ, in that he expiated the guilt of sin which provoked the wrath of God — if we are thereby redeemed from the state of God's enmity — how much more may we now, where we are reconciled with God, hope for rescue, for salvation (σωτηρία). As the death of Christ works our reconciliation (κατηλλαγή) — the negative side of justification — so his life works our salvation, our healing, in that he imparts to us the higher vital element, the sanctifying grace — the positive side of justification. The dying Christ has reconciled us; the risen and ever-living Christ sanctifies us, in that through his Holy Spirit he refashions and recreates us; hence: ἐν τῇ ζωῇ. Cf. what was said on 4:24f. regarding the significance of the resurrection of Christ.
Rom 5:11. To the elliptical οὐ μόνον δέ, a formula which recurs frequently in Paul (cf. vv. 3; 8:23; 9:10) and always expresses a heightening, some wish to supply from the foregoing σωθησόμεθα; then to the following participle καυχώμενοι an ἐσμέν is to be supplied. Estius, because of the participle καυχώμενοι, prefers the supplement of the preceding participle καταλλαγέντες. Similarly Meyer: "not only as reconciled ones, but also as ones who glory, etc." It seems best, with Winer (pp. 314, 515), to supply καταλλαγέντες σωθησόμεθα: "Not only however (shall we as reconciled ones be saved), but we shall also glory in God" — that is, rejoice in the salvation found in God, despite all sufferings and tribulations. The Apostle returns to what was said in vv. 2f.; he has completed his proof of how the Christian can not only endure sufferings and persecutions with patience, but glory in them and even rejoice in them. This joy is grounded in the first instance in hope; hope however has its certain guarantee in the love of God toward us; and this love of God has revealed itself outwardly in the surrender of his Son to death for us, who were sinners and therefore enemies of God; and it reveals itself inwardly in us through the communication of the Holy Spirit, who pours out in us the love of God that kindles us to love in return. Its last and deepest ground, therefore — this καύχησις as well as the εἰρήνη πρὸς τὸν θεόν (v. 1) — has in Christ our Redeemer; without him our life would be bleak and dark, without hope, without consolation and joy. Hence Paul adds: "through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." — νῦν stands again in contrast to the ἔτι of vv. 6 and 8; it is not, with some (Meyer, Lange), to be taken in contrast to the future glory.
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