The Good News Is Better Than You Think -- Paul's words in Romans 5:1-21
Jesus being God's Son means more than we probably appreciate.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Romans 5:1-21
Now that Paul has explained the bad news (all have sinned) and the good news (all can be saved through faith in Jesus), Paul transitions into even better news: our salvation gives us incalculable benefits and blessings. To him, the logic is simple: Jesus is the Son of God; if God will give us His Son, what could we possibly think He won't also give?
and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (5:2)
This post was written by a human. Like it or not.
When We Studied This Passage in 2020
We last studied Romans during the initial covid shutdown, which explains why I don't remember writing that post. [Wait, I take that back. I just read part 2 and remember writing it.] Anyway, it's a short post, which may make some of y'all really happy.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
I have a grab-bag of ideas for an opening discussion or attention-getter. One of these should spark an idea you that you can use with your unique group.
Backstage Tour!
Forgive me for showing my age, but when I think "backstage pass" I still think "Wayne's World". What a bizarrely hilarious scene.
Anyhoozie, what's your favorite "behind the scenes" or "backstage pass" story? My daughter and I did a "visit the penguin" event in Atlanta, and we had to walk through the back halls of the aquarium to get to it. I love walking around behind the scenes of pretty much anywhere. And we enjoyed visiting the penguin.
What's the exciting part of going backstage? Unless you're an engineer, I'm confident that you're doing it to get access to a celebrity (like a penguin!). Was it worth it?
In this week's passage, Paul drops the bombshell -- "I'm sure you're happy about being justified before God, but wait till you understand what justification gets you!"
Getting an Audience
Another version of this would be a story of you "getting an audience" with someone. That doesn't have to be backstage. I've read plenty of stories of people getting an audience with a high-up religious or political leader. I've spent time with seminary leaders and business leaders and other successful people, and it's a cool experience.
But in Jesus, we gain access to God.
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger
Here's another "showing my age" -- I can't think about this phrase without also thinking about the lipsync video put out by the Seattle Children's Hospital. (Would you believe that was 14 years ago?)
It seems really on-the-nose to me, but God bless those kids and their caregivers for fighting.
Your story may (or may not) be that dramatic -- what's your "it made me stronger" story? We've learned throughout the Bible that God uses challenges to build our faith, make us better, and draw us closer to Him. Those kinds of stories often encourage the people around us who may be struggling through their own challenge.
Your Best Reconciliation Story
I'll continue to show my age with another reference -- do you remember the scene at the baseball stadium in The Naked Gun where everybody is inspired by Frank and Jane being reconciled that they all reconcile with the people around them? I don't know why a mailman was sitting next to a dog, or a Muslim next to a Jew, but it's quite the visual gag when they're all hugging each other.
That might be silly, but it works because we all have two people in mind who we don't think could ever possibly reconcile. And we also have stories of reconciliation that we never thought would happen.
What is that story for you? What is the relationship that you never thought could be reconciled that was? (Maybe you were a part of it.) How did that reconciliation happen, and did it inspire others to work on their relationships?
In this week's passage, we learn about the greatest reconciliation in history -- we just may not have realized that we were a part of it.
Your Best Grace Story
A variation of that would be to focus on showing grace. (The amount of grace God has shown us is incomprehensible.) Maybe it didn't result in reconciliation, but what is an example of grace that really made an impression on you? It could be something showed to you personally or something you observed in another relationship.
I can pretty much count on each Voice of the Martyrs magazine to have at least one story of a widow forgiving her husband's murderer; sometimes that person comes to Christ and sometimes not. But I can't get enough of that kind of story. If that person can show grace, then I certainly can.
Where We Are in Romans
It's turning point time!
Leon Morris (my favorite commentary guy) explains that scholars view the transition in chapter 5 a number of ways. You won't be surprised to learn that I agree with his take -- Paul has ended his discussion of justification and has moved on to the consequences. "Justification has results."
I'm going to copy the outline I wrote in last cycle's post because it most clearly explains the transition here in chapter 5:
Part 1
What is the gospel? Salvation through justification by faith (chap 1-4)
1. Humans have a sin problem--Jews and Gentiles alike (1:18-3:20)
2. God has a grace solution: faith, not works (3:21-4:25)
Part 2
What does the gospel bring? Peace and freedom and life (chap 5-8)
1. Peace with God and the hope of glory (5:1-21)
2. Freedom from sin and law, bondage now to righteousness (6:1-7:25)
3. Life eternal in the Spirit, so much more than our present suffering (8:1-39)
Part 3
An aside on a very important question: where does Israel fit? (chap 9-11)
Part 4
How should the gospel affect us? Transformed lives in the power of the Spirit (chap 12-15)
1. Sacrificial service (12:1-21)
2. Humble submission (13:1-7)
3. Urgent love (13:8-14)
4. Not being judgmental (14:1-23)
5. Loving acceptance (15:1-13)
I think of it this way: what are the parts of a basic gospel presentation?
My life before Christ.
How I came to know Christ.
How Christ has changed my life.
That's what Paul gives us in the beginning of Romans
Paul's (and everybody's) life before Christ -- 1:18-3:20
How Paul (and anybody) came to know Christ -- 3:21-4:25
How Christ changed Paul's (and anybody's) life -- 5:1-8:39
[Note: I switched from "everybody" to "anybody" because Paul also makes the point that the glorious benefits of salvation only come to those who are, you know, saved.]
This Week's Big Idea:
"Justified"
Last week, my church did a churchwide celebration during our Sunday School hour, so we didn't study last week's lesson.
In the Bible study group that I lead, I'm going to recap a few key points from that lesson, namely "what is justification?" and "what is redemption?". Here is the relevant paragraph from that post:
<block quote begins.
I want to focus on 3:24 and the massive concepts therein:
"justified" -- the famous phrase is "just as if I'd never sinned" which is a valuable learning tool. It's important for us to realize, though, that Paul isn't saying that saved people had never sinned! Being "made righteous" doesn't mean "made virtuous"; it means being made "right with God". In the legal sense, it means to be acquitted of charges. But it's not because we aren't guilty! It's because Jesus has already paid the penalty of our guilt.
"redemption" -- this word had several uses in the ancient world: payment for the release of prisoners of war, payment for the freeing of a slave, and payment for the release of a prisoner under sentence of death. (Important note: Paul never suggests who the price is paid to! Some have strangely said that Jesus was a price paid to Satan, but Satan has never had that kind of power. Instead, we can think of it as God satisfying His own holiness or justice.)
Paul has smashed two of the most important images for salvation into one verse. "Justification" is a legal image -- after death, people will stand before God the Judge and answer for their "crimes" against Him. They are all guilty and deserve hell. But Jesus has earned their acquittal. "Redemption" is a market image -- all people are slaves or prisoners of sin under a sentence of death; only the highest price could be paid to obtain their release. Jesus paid that price for us.
So, which one is it?
We're going to learn in Romans that salvation cannot be simplified. Salvation is such an incredible thing that no one word or concept can do it justice.
</block quote ends>
Here's an oversimplified summary of the plan of salvation:
Creation -- God created everything, and created humans in His image
Sin -- humans sinned, earned God's wrath and eternal punishment
Atonement -- Jesus the perfect Son of God sacrificed Himself to atone for our sins
Gospel -- Jesus sent His followers to tell others the good news of what He did
Faith -- some people believe that good news and put their faith in Jesus
Salvation -- everyone who believes will be saved
Justification -- God "acquits" that person of the sentence of death
Righteousness -- God "imputes" a right relationship with that person
Regeneration -- that person is "born again" by the Holy Spirit
Sanctification -- God's Holy Spirit begins to change that person from within
Glorification -- when we die, we enter the enteral glory of God's presence
That is so oversimplified, and I apologize to my seminary professors, but I just want to give a rough sense of everything Paul is saying so far in Romans.
Important Note about "Defining Salvation"
I want to be very clear about this. Under the "salvation" bullet point, I put things "in order". That can be pushed too far. I studied Christian history, and some Puritans got really obsessed with defining that order (like William Perkins and his "Golden Chain"). They concluded that salvation was a scientific process:
Predestination --> Effectual Calling --> Regeneration --> Faith -->
Justification --> Sanctification --> Repentance --> Glorification
And it's actually a lot more complicated than that. Some of it is biblically logical -- a person isn't saved before he has faith in Jesus. But they concluded that if any person missed any of those steps, they weren't saved. That led to a lot of neuroses where Christians panic-searched their hearts for evidence of "sufficient repentance" and the like.
Look, I don't claim to be the expert, but I believe they made that way too complicated. (I'd also point out that those Puritans were all Calvinists.) Salvation is all of those things. If you're saved, then all of those things are true of you -- you're justified, you have been given Christ's righteousness, you're born again, you're being sanctified, and you'll go to heaven when you die. Parsing a sequence misses the point. Salvation is the greatest gift, and God alone has the power to give it.
Part 2: "Reconciled"
If you feel like your group has all of that under control, then you might set aside some time to go through this important distinction about relationships.
Because this is one of the most practical things I've ever learned, I explain it every time it comes up.
Relationships get broken. For Christians, one (or more) of three things must follow:
Forgiveness. Christians must forgive the person who wronged them, just as Christ forgave us our sins. (Similarly, Christians must also seek forgiveness when we have wronged somebody else.) This is "level 1", and it's non-negotiable for Christians.
Reconciliation. If that forgiveness is sought and granted (yes, the Bible is clear that Christians must seek and grant forgiveness, but experience tells us that sometimes that can take time), the two people can declare a "mutual truce" and move on in life.
Restoration. If that reconciliation is quite successful, the two people can agree to try to restore their relationship to what it once was. Some people think this is always the goal, but it's not; people change, and sometimes "the way it was" isn't realistic anymore.
Anyway, in this week's passage, Paul tells us that we have been reconciled to God in Christ (through Christ's death). I encourage you to look up every instance of "reconcile" in the Bible -- you'll only find it in 8 places, and 6 of them are in Paul's letters, so it won't take you very long. It's pretty powerful.
You might wonder, "Why just reconciled? Why not restored? Are we getting a bum deal in Jesus?" Remember that we had no relationship with God. There is no relationship to restore. Paul is going to launch into a very complicated argument about Adam (the man who did have that perfect relationship with God in Eden), and his conclusion will be that when we are "born again" in Jesus, we have a new relationship with God that Adam never had. Get that -- as Christians, we have a better relationship with God than Adam did. We don't want Adam's relationship restored in us because we have something better.
Does that make sense? That's why Paul focuses on reconciliation.
Part 1: Benefits -- Peace and Love (Romans 5:1-5)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Use Paul's own words to explain what he's saying as much as you can. We're not going to come up with a better way to say any of this.
"Therefore" makes is clear that Paul is putting a bow on what he just said in chapter 4. Abraham was justified and made right with God before the law was given, therefore (4:16) justification comes through faith, not works. Abraham's righteousness was credited to him by faith in God through what Jesus accomplished on the cross. That means that salvation (= justification = righteousness before God ) was accomplished by Jesus who died for our sins and was risen from death for our justification.
Therefore (5:1) we can be certainly amazed at everything salvation means for every Christian.
To Paul, this isn't even hard logic. "If Jesus, the Son of God, died for your salvation, and if God Himself raised Jesus from the dead to validate that salvation, you should expect the benefits of salvation to be exceedingly great."
You'll note that I will use the words "justification" and "salvation" interchangeably in this post. I do that because our people will be more familiar with the idea of "salvation" than "justification", and you can help them understand what justification means. Paul uses "justification" as the "beginning" of salvation.
I think you should have your group read the entire passage and list the "benefits" of being justified by faith. Write them on a whiteboard. Then, as you go through the passage, evaluate the list they came up with.
Benefit #1: Peace with God
This is not a subjective feeling ("I feel at peace"); this is an objective fact. Everyone who has been justified through faith in Jesus now has peace with God. Period. The noun Paul uses corresponds with the Hebrew shalom -- wholeness. Here are two other lessons we've had related to this:
With all of the headlines on the news sites right now, my hope is that you don't have to explain how precious it is to have true peace with God.
Our peace is through Jesus. Salvation comes only through Him and what He did. There is no other way to have peace with God.
Benefit #2: Access to God
If anyone in your group has a background in a religion other than Protestant Christianity, they might be able to share the rigmarole of gaining "access" to their deity.
We spent a lot of time in Exodus and Leviticus, and one thing we focused on was how the priests were unable to enter the tabernacle when it was completed. God's glorious, holy presence would not abide or tolerate their sin. Hence, the book of Leviticus and all of the rules the people had to follow to be able to live safely in a camp that had God in it.
Well, Jesus can enter the presence of God. Jesus can walk right into the throne room of heaven and sit down next to God (!). And Jesus gives that access to everyone who puts our faith in Him for salvation (does that make us His +1?). Paul uses a verb in the perfect tense, signifying a completed action in the past that has ongoing results.
Very importantly, this is through grace. We cannot earn that right. Our faith does not earn us that access. Our faith is the "non-work" that God has said will result in our justification and thus access to Him.
I will also hope and assume that you don't have to work hard to help your group appreciate the insane value of having access to God.
Benefit #3: Hope of Heaven
Because we have access to God, that means we can be in the presence of the glory of God. This takes a little explanation. God's glory has "weight" (that's what the Hebrew word means); in fact, God's glory is what kept the sinful priests out of the tabernacle.
Paul is not saying that in salvation we "get" God's glory. He's saying that in salvation we can safely be in the presence of God's glory. Importantly, we should think about this is in terms of heaven where we will be in God's presence for eternity. Because we have been justified by faith, we can know that we can be in God's presence in heaven forever.
You might want to pull out your advent devotionals. What is "hope"? It's not wishful thinking; it is definitive certainty. When we hope in the glory of God, Paul is saying that we know our salvation and eternal destination of heaven is secure and sure.
The word for "boast" is more often translated "rejoice" or "exult". We're not bragging about our access to God -- we didn't earn it. We are rejoicing in it!
[Benefit #4: Perspective for Suffering]
Paul then goes on a quick tangent, as he is wont to do. We don't just rejoice in our access to God, we also rejoice in everything in life He sends us. Some people might read Paul's words and conclude, "So shouldn't we just hope to die sooner?" That would be a huge mistake -- a huge misunderstanding of the hope of glory. Paul sees everything he has experienced in life as a tool to turn him into a better follower of Jesus. Why? Because his life is no longer about him. His life is now about helping other know and follow Jesus. All of his sorrows and struggles will help him minister to others better.
The only word we don't fully translate into modern English is that "proven character"; the word really just refers to whatever is left after testing. Think of a piece of metal ore; after it is fired and the dross is dripped out, what is left is a purer metal.
In other words, the "hope of glory" gives Paul perspective for everything he experiences in his life. God does not make mistakes or waste time. If it has happened in Paul's life, God can use it to make him a better disciple of Jesus. And that means make him a better tool for helping others know and follow Jesus.
Write this on your whiteboard:
Afflictions -- Endurance -- Character -- Hope
Have your class evaluate themselves; where are they on that spectrum right now? (They're probably in more than one place.) Does knowing the end help them want to persevere through whatever they're experiencing?
Benefit #5: Love of God
Morris makes the humorous point that Bible readers think of John as the "apostle of love", but Paul talks about love significantly more than John does.
The reason our hope is sure is God has joined it with His love, poured out into us through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the heart of every believer.
Paul is going to talk about the Spirit many times in Romans, so don't feel like you need to exhaust this topic this week. I'll give one passage that further develops what Paul is talking about:
1 Cor 2:10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
When we are saved, God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. The Spirit "opens our minds" to understand God's truths and "opens our hearts" to love the world around us like He does.
That change is unmistakable. If you're a Christian, you have experienced those effects. The Holy Spirit does not sneak around in your heart and mind.
And because the Holy Spirit is at work in you, you know God loves you.
Part 2: Proof -- The Death of Christ (Romans 5:6-11)
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
I'm going to speed through this point to save time for the last point.
Yes, there are some difficult concepts and wordings in here, but Paul's point is clear: Jesus dying for those who were God's enemies should prove to all Christians that our salvation is secure and that the benefits Paul has described are ours in Christ.
"Helpless" is not about physical strength, as if we could do more pushups and be able to save ourselves. Rather, it's about moral inability. We cannot save ourselves.
Paul does not say "the ungodly"; he just says "ungodly". It's not as if there is a class of people who are "the ungodly" and another who are "the godly". All humans are ungodly, meaning sinners.
And Christ died for us all.
To help us comprehend just how unbelievable that is, Paul gives us two hypotheticals -- a righteous ("just") person and a good person. (The righteous person is the person who is known for following the law / doing the right thing. The good person is the person everyone loves as moral and generous and kind.) Can you imagine someone you know willingly dying in place or a righteous person? How about a good person?
That might be an interesting topic to pursue: from the perspective of the non-Christian world, who is someone they might die for?
Another version of that topic is the "self-sacrifice" illustration. Any time a person willingly sacrifices himself to save others in a book or movie, doesn't that always win over the audience? I'm trying to think of a time a person did that that I wasn't moved by it.
And Christ did that for God's enemies.
Note that Paul emphasizes that it is God's love on display here. Salvation is God's plan. Jesus didn't go rogue to die for our sins hoping to win over God to our plight. In Jesus, we see God's love for us.
Paul then draws the logical conclusion: if God did this for His enemies, can't we have supreme confidence in the glory we have in Him?
Two Beliefs Paul Absolutely Destroys Here
Some people believe in "moral influence" theories of the atonement -- the idea that when Jesus died on the cross, He changed people's minds about God's love. Liberal Christians believe that -- they believe that people are basically good, and we just need to be nudged toward following Jesus.
Nope. We're God's enemies. Every one of us.
Second, some Christians believe you can lose your salvation.
Paul wouldn't know what to do with that belief. God will save you, but He won't keep you? God will move heaven and earth to bring you into the kingdom of light, but you have the power to leave if you feel like it?
Nope. Your salvation is secure.
Part 3: Our New Identity in Christ (Romans 5:18-21)
18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I find Lifeway's choice of passage a bit odd. I love this passage, but it's not designed to skip to. Verse 12-18 are absolutely critical, and they're some of the most difficult in Romans. One scholar calls 12-18 the most "condensed" passage in the entire Bible, meaning Paul packs so much into it through grammatical tricks that we're almost certainly not getting the full meaning of Paul's words.
There are lots of charts available online that attempt to explain what Paul is saying (I found this chart on Pinterest!), so it can't be that obscure.
But it's really thick, and it makes your head spin when you think about it really deeply.
One important point: Paul assumes that Adam is a real, singular person. In other words, God created Adam as the first human. We did not evolve out of apes. Theologically, that truth is necessary to make sense of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
TL;DR -- "one man" is Adam, and "one man" is Jesus. Paul thinks of it as two different families of the human race. One of them is natural -- we're born into it. One of them is spiritual -- we're adopted into it.
In our natural family, Adam is the head. When he sinned, he brought sin into the world -- "original sin". Paul's words in 5:12-18 could be interpreted to mean that "Adam's sin condemned the entire human race" or "Adam's sin corrupted the entire human race" or "Adam's sin became the example that we could not escape". I'll be honest -- this is above my pay grade. It seems to be a combination of those: Adam's sin condemned the entire human race, and now we all live in a world where we cannot help but copy the sinful model of those who came before us. It's Adam's "fault", but we're all getting what we deserve.
But Jesus offers another way. He is the head of a new family, a spiritual family. And everyone who believes in Him can be adopted into it. And in Jesus' family, every member receives the benefits to being part of the family. In today's world, we think of nepotism as a bad thing; but in Jesus' family, we should rejoice ("boast") in the benefits we freely receive by being in Jesus' family.
Adam's one act of sin in the garden resulted in all of humanity being separated from God. But Jesus' act of obedience (let's be romantic and say "in the garden" as well, where He said "not My will but Yours" even though His obedience was a lot longer than just that) resulted in the possibility of reconciliation with God.
But again, only for those who put their faith in Jesus, the author of this reconciliation.
Paul talks about Adam a lot in the preceding verses, but in these verses it's only Jesus. Morris rightly notes that Paul's focus has not really been on the sin in Adam but the salvation in Jesus. We've already learned the bad news of our sin; now Paul rejoices in the good news of salvation.
If anybody in your group gives you the "what's the point of these verses?", first give them the nod of sympathy, then tell them that Paul is making a very simple point:
we were born into a race that was broken in Adam and condemned for our sin;
Jesus offers a way out -- a new "race" that has been redeemed from hell by His sacrifice.
Every human has sinned and deserves hell.
Jesus' sacrifice is sufficient to pay that price on behalf of every human so that anyone who believes will be saved.
This is good news.
"Admit" to God that you're a sinner.
"Believe" that Jesus is God's Son.
When we say "Jesus is God's Son", we have in the background everything Paul says in this week's passage. Jesus being the Son of God means we can be certain that He has earned these incredible blessings for us. And it also means that He has the power to rescue us from the curse of being born into a broken race.
That's a lot. What of that do you think your group needs to focus on?
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