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ROMANS CHAPTER 5 KJV WEB See previous page Rom 5,1-5 (30g) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Favor with God through His Spirit (121k) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope Based On Faithfulness >> Hope based on character -- Hope expects to receive something from God; therefore, it is important to withstand our trials to build character, which opens the windows of heaven. Character makes receiving from God believable, since we are fashioning our lives in the likeness of the reward. So another way to look at our trials is to see them as opportunities to endure them for the sake of receiving the reward of a closer walk with God. As we become more like Him in the way we manage hardship, the veil over our eyes gradually turns translucent like varying shades of glass, revealing the glory of God who lives in us. (231d) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> God’s grace is the mystery of godliness >> Having favor with God is a mystery (234i) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Sold out >> Relinquishing your assets to Christ >> Dispose of every asset except Christ – This life is given to us to invest in eternity. Abraham (spoken in detail a chapter earlier) did the will of God and probably most days were a grind; we can be sure he didn't carry with him more than was absolutely necessary. In the morning he would pack up his tent and supplies and off he would go wandering in the wilderness not knowing where he was going (Heb 11-8), but this brought glory to God, because he was doing what God commanded him. Abraham knew he was doing the will of God and that it would lead to something great, though he was mostly ignorant of God’s purpose for his future descendants. God made promises to him in the beginning and along the way, so when he achieved certain milestones, God would speak to him again about what he was doing, promising that all would come to pass if he persevered. Rom 5-1,2 (31h) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> The ministry of reconciliation -- These verses go with verses 15-21 (41fb) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Righteousness of faith >> Justified by faith – The word "Therefore" suggests that in chapters three and four, after dissecting the walk of Abraham and comparing it to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, Paul reassembles the gospel under the umbrella of a single word, “faith”, so that both trust and obedience are involved in its definition. Abraham therefore trusted God that His word was righteous and then set out to fulfill that righteousness. In today's world, not everybody who hears the word of God believes it; then there are those who believe it but don't understand it, fewest of all are those who have the faith of Abraham who hear the word and believe it by revelation, the Spirit reiterating the Scriptures and planting it in their hearts, transcending their own ability to believe. This is the faith of God. (114j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working God’s grace through Christ >> Salvation is through Christ -- These verses go with verse 9 (117f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His mercy -- These verses go with verses 9-11 (132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ (227f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Depending on Jesus to have compassion >> Depending on Jesus to receive us (233h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seek His glory without wavering >> Seek His glory by faith -- We can serve God for many years, gaining knowledge and experience in the grace of God, yet it is all nothing more than an introduction to what we can expect in the life to come. God has great plans for us even in this life. This moment is more important than a hundred years in heaven, because we now have the opportunity to show God our faith and trust in Him with the choices we make between good and evil. It brings glory to God to choose righteousness over evil, because He values holiness over all His many facets. Rom 5-1 (126f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Terms of peace -- One of the manifestations of faith is peace with God, and one of the many benefits of His peace is knowing we have been forgiven. There isn’t anything else we must do to receive His acceptance as we walk in the direction of His peace, for the enmity has ended between man and God, having been born in sin through the fall of Adam. This three-letter word “sin” means separation from God, and the word “separation” means death. We were formerly dead to God, but now we have been made alive through Christ, once distant as east is from the west but now brought together, the dividing wall broken that God and man may live in harmony, due to the righteousness of faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and His subsequent resurrection that guarantees our justification. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5,2-5 (98i) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> (Faith à Suffering [Integrity] à Glory [Reward]) (103l) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by circumstances >> Purified Through hardship – Believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to justify us before God is our introduction to the plan and purpose of God that has prepared for us, as Abraham walked on His trail, which completed his faith. Tribulation is what we encounter as we walk by faith. Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16-33). (188g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Suffering >> Enduring your circumstances Rom 5-2 (58l) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Introduced to salvation / Introduced to the Kingdom of God Rom 5,3-5 (100a) Thy kingdom come >> Perseverance (Working to keep in motion) >> Persevere in tribulation (121i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope Based On Faithfulness >> Hope based on perseverance Rom 5-3,4 (156e) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> You will know them by their endurance – We know Christians by the fact that they never give up. Remember what Peter said to the Lord after being quizzed by Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (Jn 6-68). We Christians never throw in the towel when it comes to proving our faith, for we all go through trials. We live in the world and we cannot avoid trouble, and the fact that we are Christians invites trouble all the more. We Christians not only have physical and mental anguish; we also have spiritual anguish. The world doesn’t worry about grieving the Holy Spirit, and neither does it concern itself with fulfilling their calling from God, but these are concerns of Christians that are above and beyond their earthly concerns. Paul said in 2Cor 11-28, “Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.” Truth be known, Paul’s spiritual suffering was probably just as severe as his physical suffering. Paul said that it proves our faith not to just endure tribulation but to exalt in it; what did he mean by this? We rejoice, looking forward to the opportunity to prove our faith to God and to the brethren. We demonstrate our faith toward God because of our love for Him and for our fellow believers; we want to encourage them to continue in the faith. Perseverance is what we do in the process of fulfilling our calling, while endurance is what we do in the face of opposition toward that goal. For example, Paul endured his prison sentences, but when he was released, he persevered in his ministry of evangelism, preaching and teaching as an apostle to all the churches. This passage said that tribulation within the ministry brings about perseverance. We don’t stop serving the Lord just because hard times come. We don’t cave to our circumstances that are resisting us, for the product of perseverance is proven character, which produces hope that in turn produces love, and this is what we offer the Church. Love helps us see that our faith is real and that God is real, and that He lives in us and manifests Himself through our perseverance. Nobody in his right mind would continue in the ministry against some of the odds that come against us from the world at times. It proves that we are not part of a cult, and that we are not believing lies; it proves the faith we have is from God. The reason there is still hidden treasure in the earth is that people have given up looking for it, because they are seeking it with human motives, but we possess a faith from God that transcends human motives and strengthens us to rise above our circumstances to finish the course. Rom 5,5-8 (124f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Acts of love >> Love does not seek its own – We have received an introduction into the grace of God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in this introduction is a reference to a new God-given ability to walk and please Him. Before we trusted God for His righteousness, all our righteousness were as filthy rags, but now our faith in the resurrected Christ intrinsically believes that God is true and that all His thoughts about us are good. As we do His will, we have the guarantee from God that we will please Him. We need to remember Abraham who didn’t do what he pleased but sought the will of God in his life. He received specific plans from God, but the Church struggles knowing His specific will, partly because if they knew it, most wouldn’t do it. Try to imagine how the Church would appear to the world if every believer in Jesus knew their place in the body of Christ and was busy at his station doing it, how we would change the world. Rom 5-5 (35f) Gift of God >> God gives Himself to us >> Father sends the Holy Spirit -- This verse goes with verses 15-17. Most new-age people don’t believe in Jesus, and they don’t have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. The world wants a tangible hope, something that registers with their five senses; they want to be blessed in ways that they can enjoy in this life. The Church is the only entity that is apart from the world; all other religions and belief systems contrary to the Scriptures are aspects of the world. New-age religions such as the druids and pantheists are spiritual well enough, but they are not of God, indicating they have an aversion to the Holy Spirit. They are happy to interact with demons, but they want nothing to do with Christ, preferring a relationship with one of the many spirits of the world. They cannot hope in God through a spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ, because they refuse to submit to His sovereign authority in their lives. The Spirit of Jesus has been given to us, and He dwells in us, being the main difference between the world and us. Our hope in God is for the life to come; the world is perishing; He has saved us for eternity, and we use this temporal life as the seed that we invest in good soil, watering it and nurturing it in hope that it will bear fruit for the Kingdom of Heaven. We know God by the Spirit; nothing else convinces us of His love. Many a Christian has been persecuted for his faith in Jesus, and some even martyred, because we Christians have rejected this world in hope of eternal life. See also: All cults follow the same pattern; Mat 26,59-61; 177a (103a) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Blood of Jesus – The poured out love of God was the blood of His Son, and He poured it in our hearts in the form of the Holy Spirit. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5,6-21 (16b) Sin >> Man’s nature is instinctively evil >> Man is an enemy of God – Paul speaks about god’s wrath on every person. That sounds pretty severe, like a very angry god, but if people knew Him, they wouldn’t think that anymore. Rather, God hates sin, and in the eons to come this will be His kingdom’s greatest strength. The fact that He cannot accept sin in His presence will give us tremendous solace in heaven, knowing that all is well. (29k) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> He knows how to supply our needs (227f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Depending on Jesus to have compassion >> Depending on Jesus to receive us – Not even for a righteous man would anybody die, let alone a rotten sinner. Let’s say Prince Charming, known and loved by all, contracts a terminal heart disease that requires a heart transplant that will obviously kill the donor. We think of all the people who loved and respected the prince, while the donor was a complete unknown. If he gives his life for the prince, maybe his name will appear in lights for a couple days and then disappear, though he will not be here to enjoy the fleeting notoriety. That is the best-case scenario of a person giving his life for another. Also, we hear about heroes going into burning buildings, the World Trade Center for instance, firemen going in the opposite direction of traffic to save people. They didn’t do it because they wore a badge on their lapel or because they were employed by the city and received a salary; they didn't even do it because they were sworn to protect and serve the public; rather, they did it because they considered the people in peril more important than themselves. The people of New York City now feel safer knowing that when tragedy strikes the city fire department has their backs. They are no respecters of persons; they are just as willing to pull a dope addict from the embers (possibly who caused the fire), as Prince Charming. Jesus said in Jn 15-13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” They selflessly place their lives in harm’s way to save people who probably will not return the favor; these are most like Jesus. Jesus laid down His life to save us from the fires of hell. There have been many martyrs throughout the age of grace who laid down their lives to perpetuate the faith. They truly believed in God. They gave their lives for the cause of Christ, and their example helps others believe in God after them. Rom 5,6-11 (30i) Gift of God >> Favor by His grace >> He does not take your sins into account (31e) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> God’s mercy overrules man’s sin -- These verses go with verse 20 (209i) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Jesus paid our ransom with His own blood Rom 5,6-10 (246k) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Demonstration of God’s kingdom >> God demonstrates His glory >> Demonstration of His love – God is creating a people who are completely free, who will live forever, but to achieve this He must stamp out their will to rebel against Him. The only way He can do this is to give man the opportunity to sin and show him by experience where it always leads. This is what He did when He placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Once sin and death have been abolished, God will end up with a people who have realized sin's destructive consequences and want to be free of it. They have been given the opportunity to sin and now they have chosen against it, and God will give them a perfect body that will not be tempted and a perfect mind that will not rebel and a perfect kingdom that will never end, and from there He will accomplish all His plans. See also: Adam; Rom 5,12-21; 39k / God intended Adam to eat the forbidden fruit; Rev 20,1-3; 185g Rom 5-6 (215a) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> God Has Good Timing >> God is always right on time – “At the right time,” this is an odd phrase. God is very conservative when it comes to time; He doesn’t want us making any predictions about His second coming. Nobody knew about Jesus when He came the first time; His appearance was a secret. Only a handful of people knew about Him: His mother, His stepfather, and the parents of John the Baptist, Elizabeth and Zechariah. They didn’t brag to everybody that Jesus was the Son of God, and even if they did, nobody would have believed them, and so it happened that Jesus grew up among His countrymen incognito. Jesus was both conceived and born at a time designated by the Father to the year, day, hour and moment, and the same goes for His death. These moments were on God’s calendar that not even the angels knew, and the same goes for His return; Jesus answered His disciples’ questions regarding the time of His return, saying in essence, ‘I couldn’t tell you even if I knew, for only the Father knows this, and He won’t even tell Me.’ God has all the time in eternity, yet He is very stingy with it, and undoubtedly this will remain true throughout eternity. If Jesus didn’t know, then neither will we know the times and epochs, for these are the ways of God. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5,8-11 (72b) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We walk in ordained reconciliation -- These verses go with verse 15. The word “justified” means just-if-I had never sinned. Many people try to justify themselves like adjusting the lens of a telescope to make it clearer, but when there are two people involved, such as a surveyor, one operates the transit while the other walks the pole. The man who walks the pole marks the spot that the surveyor must “justify” in elevation. The transit shoots a lazar at the pole marked in feet and inches that is measured by the lazar, along with the angle of the beam's trajectory, thus allowing the surveyor to calculate the lay of the land by the difference in distance and elevation from the known spot where the transit sets to the unknown spot of the pole. There are people who try to justify themselves before God, who try to tell Him that there is no reason to judge them because they are in accordance with His will, but God is the great surveyor, and He says that the man holding the stick is not the standard but the variable. We hold the stick and God fixes His bead on us; then we hear Daniel 5-27 say, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting,” but if we are walking with Jesus, He holds the stick for us, and the Father will find Him and us level with the truth. The one who tries to justify himself before God will come short of His expectations, for we do not meet God's standard without Christ. See also: Analogies (Swimming upstream); Lk 6-26; 240d Rom 5,8-10 (201c) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> If your heart is not with Him your deeds are against Him – Paul was saying that we are reconciled by the sacrifice of His flesh and are saved by the power of His resurrection. However, most people don’t think they are enemies of God; instead, they think that somehow God will accept them. They consider themselves good people, but Jesus said in Mark 10-18, “No one is good except God alone.” They expect God to accept them in the afterlife without appealing to the righteousness of Christ for God's mercy. They don't want to accept the Lord as their righteousness because they don't want to be obligated to the stipulations of His ordained sacrifice, such as living a holy life, but that is like saying they want to go to heaven but don't want God to be there. They want to keep salvation on their own terms and remain in control of their eternal destiny, thinking that salvation is a matter of accepting God, but in the afterlife it will become a matter of God accepting them. Then they will realize that salvation was based on the death of His Son and His subsequent resurrection, that if we accept Jesus Christ as our mediator before the Father, we must also live for Him, and most people are simply unwilling to do this. Rom 5-8 (114i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Jesus does God’s work >> All His works are what the Father does – It is a good thing the Father loves us; otherwise Jesus could not have saved us. Sending Jesus Christ for us, being flayed to ribbons with a Cat-o-nine-tails before nailing Him on a cross until virtually all His blood drained from His body, the Father used His death as the propitiation of sin for anyone who would believe in His blood sacrifice as the means by which the Father would accept us. However, there are heretical teachings that say God is evil and that He doesn’t love us, and that the depravity of this world is an accurate reflection of Him, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. When we read the Scriptures, there is nothing in it that remotely suggests this; case in point this verse speaks of God’s love and glorifies the Father for sending His Son while we were yet sinners. God the Father initiated the plan of Jesus coming to the earth with the design of salvation. Heb 1-3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father; and Jesus said to Phillip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14-9); and John said “God is love” (1Jn 4-16). All these verses point to the Father loving us, but unbelievers have a problem with God because of the present state of the creation and because of so many verses warning that He intends to judge the world in righteousness, and those who have rejected His blood sacrifice will be thrown into the lake of fire, where they will be tormented day and night. So God’s love is concentrated in Christ and can be found nowhere else. The real problem that man has with God is that He thinks we are sinners, and people don’t want to feel that way about themselves. They have a more flattering version of themselves in mind, but how can they feel good about themselves or man in general in view of all the wars man has fought over the millennia? All they have to do is believe in Jesus and be saved from their sins, and their problem with God would immediately disappear, but they refuse to humble themselves; they are in rebellion against God. Rom 5,9-11 (117f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His mercy -- These verses go with verses 15-21. Jesus went to the cross so His Father would not sentence us to hell; it was the Father’s idea in the first place to send His Son for us (Jn 3-16). Consequently, our justification in Christ has nothing to do with our righteousness. This seems difficult for some people to grasp, for they keep thinking they must be good to merit heaven and demonstrate some level of righteousness before God will accept them, but it is their unrighteousness that offended God that led Him to send His Son in the first place. Our righteousness is like spilling ink on the floor and then smearing it everywhere trying to clean up the mess. Our righteousness is not able to correct our unrighteousness, and the fact that they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their savior, the very righteousness they are using to justify themselves has become their greatest sin, because it is keeping them from believing in Jesus. Rom 5-9 (37h) Judgment >> Redemption of man >> His blood delivered us from destruction – The simple gospel is difficult for some to understand, because they don’t believe they’re sinners. Even when acknowledging their sin, many don’t see their need, figuring God will just forgive them. God must judge sin if He is righteous, and so He found a way to judge our sin without judging us, or He would have destroyed us. He judged our sin through His Son, sending Him to the cross and then heaping all our sins on Him, so that He died in our sin, and then God sent Him to hell for three and a half days. Then 2Pet 3-8 says, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day,” so who knows how long He was really in hell. During that time, all our sin fell off Him because He was personally innocent of sin, and hell had to release Him. (54j) Paradox >> Opposites >> Saved by the blood from the wrath of God (114j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Working God’s grace through Christ >> Salvation is through Christ -- This verse goes with verses 17-21 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5,12-21 (39k) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated the law of sin – Jesus' body couldn’t remain in the grave because sin was not the cause of His death; that is, Jesus literally violated the law of sin and death when He died without sin. God spoke to Adam and told him that if he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would surely die, and sure enough, sin was the cause of his death, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned. Sin became the cause of death in every person after Adam, but Jesus died without sin, and hell and the grave could not hold Him, because it had no jurisdiction over Him. The Father brought Him back to life completely free of sin, though having experienced it for us all. Therefore, Jesus' cross is the opposite of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in that God commanded Adam not to eat its fruit, and when he did, he would surely die, whereas with the cross God commanded us to partake of it (Jn 6-54), and when we do, we will surely live. Adam’s disobedience was the only evil thing he could do, whereas holding faith in Jesus is the only righteous thing we can do. See also: Adam; Rom 5,12-19; 151g Rom 5,12-19 (54k) Paradox >> Opposites >> Contrast of two natures – The transgression is not like the gift of God's grace in that they are opposites, but they are also alike in that through the one many were made sinners, while through the other many were made righteous. There is a one-to-one correlation with the first and second Adam. It is good that the Bible likens Christ to Adam, showing their similarities, except that Jesus demonstrated how Adam should have acted toward God. Adam seemed to have never revered God or took Him seriously. Adam apparently saw Him as a buddy or a peer instead of his God and Master, saw Him as an equal instead of his creator. Conversely, Jesus had the proper attitude toward His Father, one of tremendous zeal for His will. Adam had one temptation and failed, while Jesus endured countless temptations and rose victoriously above them all. He was tempted every day throughout His life, probably more than any of us in that the smallest sin was enormous to Him, whereas the sins that we daily commit seem relatively small to us. Even our lack of zeal for God is a sin. (151g) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> Adam – God is not responsible for our sin, though He is responsible for us being sinners in that He told us not to sin, and by telling us, He conveyed the knowledge of sin, then by Adam sinning he destroyed his conscience, and we inherited his sin nature. With an evil conscience and a sin nature we are not allowed in God's presence; we have become separated from Him. Christ came and paid the penalty for sin to heal the relationship between God and man so the sin we commit in ignorance can be forgiven and our conscience mended. Now we have the best of both worlds; we have the knowledge of sin, but we are innocent of sin at the same time, which is exactly where God wanted us, for without the knowledge of good and evil we are not very well made in His image. Jesus did far more than simply bring us back to square one. Believers in Jesus are in a better place than Adam before the fall in that God never promised Adam he could sit at His right-hand. Jesus has given us grace, not only to bring us back to the place where we went astray but also gave us authority that we might reign with Him in eternity. That is a really big deal, because not even angels have that kind of authority; they only follow orders, being why Satan is jealous of us. See also: Adam; 155d (155d) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> An evil conscience keeps us from believing God >> Knowledge of evil testifies against our deeds – Sin is based on the knowledge of evil. Go back to the Garden of Eden where there was only one commandment: ‘Do not eat from the tree in the midst of the Garden.’ It was the only thing Adam and Eve could not do, but they ate from it anyway, knowing it was evil. Had God not given them this commandment, it wouldn't have been evil to eat from that tree; it was just an ordinary tree until God told them they couldn't eat from it. It was the knowledge of evil that made it sin, also defining the essence of the law, which increased the knowledge of evil, hence the offense. Why then did God give the law if the result was the opposite of its anticipated outcome? It may have increased the offense of sin, but the hope was to decrease the volume of sin and avoid another Noah's flood scenario. Man before Noah overruled his conscience, being all he had to discern good and evil, and this is why God had to reset man with the flood, for when man ruined his conscience, he became unfixable, as it speaks in Heb 6,4-6. When Moses came with God’s law and showed mankind evil in writing, that he might not override his conscience again, people just ignored it and did what they wanted. So God sent Jesus Christ, that if they will not obey their conscience and if they will not obey the law, then maybe they will obey His Son, who is the grace of God. This time He appealed to man, demonstrating what it means to be made in the image of God and told us to model our lives after Him who gave His life’s blood, which the Father would use to blot out our sins and restart anew as born-again Christians. 2000 years later the world is no better than Noah’s time. Man has corrupted the gospel of Christ, just as Israel corrupted the old covenant law, just as man corrupted their conscience in the days of Noah, and now Jesus is about to return, and He will set up His kingdom for a thousand years, and it says in Rev 20,7-10 that right in the face of God, man will make an assault on His throne, proving that the sin nature cannot be stopped. Sin is a vile and wicked evil that cannot be harnessed or controlled, but can only be stamped out and destroyed (Jm 3,6-8). See also: Adam; Rom 5-13,14; 52c Rom 5,12-15 (25k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Dead in sin >> The human condition without Christ -- These verses go with verse 17. Jesus was sent by His Father to die on a cross because man is a victim of sin. Through no fault of his own man was born with a sin nature, inheriting it from his parents; thus, we are all innocent as sinners but guilty of sin. A person born into this world is assumed a sinner, and so death is the result of sin. Nobody born into this world has ever been without sin, except Christ the Son of God. Therefore, we can say that to be a sinner is to be born into this world, and to be born into this world is to be a sinner. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins as the only man who lived without sin. He died according to the will of God, so anybody who would believe in His blood sacrifice, the Father would forgive his past, present and future through faith and repentance. The condition of our forgiveness is that we should live for Him, and this condition is what keeps many people from believing in Jesus. Most people like the idea of God’s forgiveness and being guaranteed a place in heaven, but their flesh means so much to them that they will sacrifice heaven for its temporal desires. Rom 5,12-14 (195i) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping other gods >> Worshipping other gods as a god yourself – All sin can be traced back to idolatry, which is defined as, 'The worship of a false god,' and it reflects a desire to be God. Idolatry is man’s way of wishing God were different. Man fashions an idol with his hands and then worships a false image of the true God in his mind, and the god he fashions in his mind is always acceptant of his sins, including his idolatry. Why does God hate idolatry so much? It is because of where it all leads. If God allowed idolatry to continue, man would never stop trying to usurp His authority, and if God continued to let man rule by his own authority, he would ultimately destroy everything. Satan has three main attributes: steal, kill and destroy, and these are the only things that can result from idolatry. Rom 5-12,13 (165c) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world is wicked KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5-13,14 (52c) Judgment >> Judging Church with world >> Law judges sin >> Power of sin is the law – Paul just said that sin committed in the absence of law is not imputed. This refers to a time before Moses, though a law has always been written in the hearts of men even in the days of Noah. Man has always known about evil since the Garden of Eden, suggesting that the law is not the cause of sin. Rather, the law increased the knowledge of sin, which increased the offense, making it utterly sinful (Rom 7-13). In eternity after God creates a new heavens and a new earth, creating a brand new race of people and will again command them to be fruitful and multiply, except that He will not put a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil among them, and so they will never be tempted to sin, nor will they have a sin nature. They could actually do something wrong and it still would not be sin, because they are innocent. They will be totally free, and we will teach them right from wrong, which will be our job in eternity. So long as God doesn't tell them the meaning of sin, the ability to sin will remain aloof, but if they were given an opportunity to rebel against God, they would do it, and it would result in another Garden of Eden scenario. God will have completely done away with sin, so no one will ever again try a rebellion against His throne. Instead of giving them commandments to break, reintroducing sin, God will command us to teach them His ways, and since there are no commandments, sin does not exist. See also: Adam; Rom 5-14; 48h / New heavens and a new earth (We will teach the new creation right from wrong); 1Cor 3,21-23; 238e Rom 5-13 (118k) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Law of the spirit >> Law of liberty Rom 5-14 (48h) Judgment >> Levels of judgment >> Judged according to your type of sin – Adam’s sin was unique in that He regularly talked with God in the cool of the day, and so Adam saw His face and experienced His literal presence, which no one since him has ever known (Jn 1-18). Moses spoke with God face to face, but he did not know Him as Adam did, much less the rest of mankind. Paul said in the beginning of this chapter that we have been merely introduced to the grace of God (Rom 5-2). Adam’s sin was a type of Lucifer’s offence, because he and his cohorts also sinned in the very presence of God. In that sense Lucifer was a type of Adam, possibly the first angel to be created, but definitely the leader of angels, the greatest and most powerful. Paul said that Christ was a type of Adam (1Cor 15-45). Therefore, if Lucifer was the first Adam and Jesus was the last Adam, then Jesus played a role similar to Lucifer, the main difference obviously being obedience. Mankind from Adam to Moses did not have the Law or the Old Testament or a spiritual leader of any kind, except perhaps the story of Adam, which must have quickly faded into folklore, leaving each person to do what seemed right in his own eyes. However, they did have the earth that demonstrated the glory of God, testifying that there is a superior being that they should honor, and of course we know they didn’t do that based on Noah’s flood, so God judged them for not living according to their conscience. Once Moses came along, God gave mankind the law and added another layer of accountability to man, meant to aid to their conscience to discern between good and evil, removing all doubt. Making a yard stick to measure sin, the law became an instrument of condemnation against those who transgressed it, because now man knows what is wrong and he does it anyway. Finally, God sent His Son to die on a cross to forgive mankind the sins he has committed, and this worked very well for those who received Him, but for those who did not, it added yet another layer of condemnation, because now they have rejected the Son of God, which is a type of sin far greater than transgressing their conscience and the law. Next in line to condemn mankind was a man named Johannes Gutenberg, who was neither a prophet nor an apostle, but a typesetter sent by God to build a printing press, and by that press the very first thing they mass produced was the Bible, which really tells how people felt about the word of the God back then. Now that there is a Bible in every house, people don’t read it, which adds yet another layer of condemnation on their heads, but for those who do read it, adds grace and mercy. These are the works of God; every time He does something, it is meant for good, but leads to a curse for those who reject Him (Proverbs 21-15). See also: Adam; 167j (167j) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Do not conform to the world >> The world of sin – Man likes his world without God. People enjoy this natural world that God rarely visits where they are in charge. This is our world; He gave it to us, and we want Him to leave, and so He did. Adam ate the fruit to say, ‘God, I like this woman better than you; she’s my god now, I am going to serve her instead of you, so I don’t want you in my world anymore.’ When God gave Adam his heart’s desire and then rejected God, when bad things happen, we can’t expect Him to come to the rescue. Adam may have been the one who told Him to leave, still the world is in total agreement with him. See also: Adam; Rom 5,15-17; 31i Rom 5,15-21 (31h) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> The ministry of reconciliation -- These verses go with verses 1&2 (117f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His mercy -- These verses go with verses 1&2 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5,15-17 (31i) Gift of God >> Grace >> Having the ability to respond to the word – Paul compared the two Adams, Adam and Eve who sinned in the Garden of Eden and the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who came as a type of Adam who remained faithful to His Father. In comparing the act of the cross to Adam’s requirement of resisting the forbidden fruit, we see that in both cases God tested his servants, showing that testing is imperative to God. We cannot say that Adam had a life of righteous obedience before He sinned, because he was never given an opportunity to choose righteousness over sin, except by the one tree in the garden, but we can say it about Jesus, as though the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was ever before Him. This made the cross infinitely greater than the demand that God place on Adam. Instead of overcoming one temptation as Adam failed to do, Jesus overcame many temptations, trials, difficulties and opportunities to sin throughout His life, so that He could become the perfect sacrifice when the moment came. He offered Himself to the Father for our forgiveness though thousands of acts of righteousness combined into one, and by trusting in the cross we become partakers of God’s righteous perfection. Paul made it clear that righteousness is a gift, but the world doesn’t understand this. Instead, unbelievers think they must earn God’s acceptance by improving their behavior. If they tried a little they would be the beneficiaries of their own righteousness, but it wouldn’t save them from God’s wrath. He well enough expects us to have a righteousness of our own, not in reference to salvation but so we don’t tear down what God is building in our lives. That is, the basis of His acceptance of us is not our righteousness but His, the obedience of Jesus Christ that He showed the Father by accepting the cross as His destiny in the Garden of Gethsemane. That is, trusting in Jesus’ one act of righteousness makes us acceptable to the Father. His crucifixion was an act of submission, not to man but to His Father. That is why this verse is so important: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (Jn 10-17,18). His act of submission to the Father in accomplishing this manner of forgiveness was an act of God, whose acceptance of Jesus’ cross became our salvation, based on the perfect life that He lived, accounting for tens of thousands of decisions that Jesus made throughout His life to remain faithful to His Father, denying His fleshly impulses, resisting the temptation to negatively react against His enemies and denying sinful pleasure that regularly appealed to Him. All these choices made the one choice of submitting to the cross acceptable to God. See also: Adam; Rom 5,17-19; 41g (35f) Gift of God >> God gives Himself to us >> Father sends the Holy Spirit -- These verses go with verse 5 Rom 5-15 (72b) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We walk in ordained reconciliation -- This verse goes with verses 8-11. We have the transgression of one effecting many and the grace of one abounding also to many, but Paul said that the gift is not like the transgression, for one caused death while the other caused life. As we should know by now, life and death in this context refer to the question of separation from God. Death has separated us from God and the life of Christ has brought us back to Him through the forgiveness of sin, and a clear conscience. Rom 5,17-21 (114j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Working God’s grace through Christ >> Salvation is through Christ -- These verses go with verses 1&2 Rom 5,17-19 (41g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> God’s righteousness is His doing – Paul speaks of the first and second Adam; one brought condemnation through a single act of rebellion, while the other brought justification through a single act of obedience. On the one hand Adam had a beautiful tree tempting him to seek its desire, promising light and knowledge but holding death; and on the other hand we have the origin of light and knowledge submitting to a torturous death, becoming the embodiment of sin but holding the promise of eternal life. That which was beautiful (the forbidden tree) brought death, and that which died (Christ) brought life, and so Jesus is seen as undoing Adam’s curse. By partaking of the forbidden fruit death reigned through Adam, contrasting with Christ who offers the gift of righteousness, which should dispel any idea of seeking righteousness in ourselves. If believers in Jesus have received a gift of righteousness, then the good works they do have nothing to do with salvation. Christians are supposed to be good people, but it is the free gift of righteousness they received through faith that has saved them, making their good works a mere byproduct of their salvation. We don’t make ourselves righteous, anymore than we have made ourselves sinners; we were born sinners through no fault of our own and God has made us righteous through no effort of our own. See also: Adam; Rom 5,6-10; 246k (70j) Authority >> Believer’s authority >> We have been given authority over all creation >> We are the children of God >> We have the divine nature (89b) Thy kingdom come >> Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom >> Wisdom corresponds with logical reasoning – Paul speaks in logical terms, though applying logic to the gospel has led many to the wrong conclusions, especially when they daisy-chain “therefore-s” together. If we don’t get our connections right, we can hinge one flawed idea to another and corrupt the gospel. Jesus addressed this in Mat 7,24-29, talking about building our house on the sand. If we don’t build our lives on a right foundation, it might fall on us in the middle of the night. We are all spiritual architects; we build reality in our minds that determines our value system, and we live by it, so we better not build it on sinking sand. If we live according to the word of God, our sense of reality will stand the test of time. Rom 5-17,18 (254e) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> We live because He is life >> Life is in the blood Rom 5-17 (25k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Dead in sin >> The human condition without Christ -- This verse goes with verse 21 (85d) Thy kingdom come >> Words that are spoken in faith >> Powerful when spoken by the Spirit >> The spoken word of God Rom 5-18,19 (247g) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> God’s interests >> God is interested in the cross Rom 5-18 (41e) The Righteousness Of God (Key verse) KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 5-19 (21c) Sin >> Disobedience >> Unfaithful (87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Jesus obeyed all the Father’s will Rom 5-20,21 (11d) Servant >> The law is our standard of conduct – They say the gospel is simple, and so it is to a little child, but to most adults it is a conundrum, because their sin has complicated it. For example, why then did God send the law if it increased sin? The complete answer may be more complicated than this short paragraph can answer, but for one thing God gave the law to Moses so there would be no question about sin. We know that there was no law during the days of Noah, and that didn’t work. Although God is straightforward to those of us who are born of Him, yet our sinful flesh does not see Him as straightforward, which is all man had to discern the nature of God who lived in Noah's day. No doubt there were questions back then about good and evil, and no doubt many philosophies, ideologies and religious beliefs tried to explain God, and none of them came close to the truth by evidence of the flood. (31e) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> God’s mercy overrules man’s sin -- This verse goes with verses 6-11. God calls us to live as we will in heaven, appealing to us in terms of faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Some say that the law is no longer in effect, but in fact the law will never stop being true, since stealing will always be a sin. In heaven no one steals, so the law is obsolete there, but in this sinful world the law remains relevant, because people still violate it (1Tim 1,9-11). However, Paul said, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Paul said in chapter 4 that before Abraham was circumcised righteousness was credited to him (v3), and now in this chapter he said that Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners (v8), and so it appears that God has taken the preemptive rout in saving mankind. Therefore, we can say that sin and grace are proportionate to each other, so the more we sin, the more grace is applied. If we put it into mathematical terms, we could say that sin equals “S”, multiplied by grace a constant say 7, and so the equation would go like this: Sx7=F, where F is forgiveness. This example shows that forgiveness is seven times greater than sin, so that if we sin once, grace is multiplied seven times, and if we sin a hundred times, grace is still multiplied seven times above sin, so that sin can never rise above God's forgiveness. However much we sin, God’s grace covers all the more. God wants us to know that we are forgiven and that He loves us, so the more we sin, the more He shows His great love and the more He reveals His kindness and mercy. However, this caused Paul to ask a question in Rom 6-1,2: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (108j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of His righteousness – Most Christians say they are saved because they believe. In our evangelism efforts, when we listen to people we are trying to persuade, the majority of them say they too believe in God. What do we say to them? Regarding the drug addict and the whoremonger, the difference between them and us who truly believe is whether the Holy Spirit dwells in them as He does in us, whom we have received from God, which is His righteousness, and we pursue the freedom of Christ to avoid the eroding effect of sin on our faith. (244d) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Jesus is the source of eternal life (227k) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Dependence on Jesus >> Depending on Jesus to instill His life in us – Faith and love are essentially one and the same, as are righteousness and faith, suggesting that love and righteousness are also the same, which is why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 10-12, “Love covers all transgressions” and Peter quoted him in 1Pet 4-8, "Love covers a multitude of sins," and Paul talked about the righteousness of faith (Rom 4-13). What do these mean? God sees us as righteous because we believe in Him. Not only did God equate faith to righteousness; He has given us His faith to believe in Him when He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. The righteousness of God is imparted by a faith, and by that faith we live for Him and conquer the evil passions and desires in our flesh through the Spirit. We have already obtained the freedom of Christ on a spiritual level through faith in Jesus' cross, and through this gift of faith He wants us to pursue freedom on a practical level and walk in holiness and righteousness of the truth. That is, God wants us to live like we believe, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 5-21 (25k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Dead in sin >> The human condition without Christ -- This verse goes with verses 12-15 See next page