A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS CHAPTER 5.DEALING WITH THE JOY AND PEACE OF GOD

1. ROMA S 5 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1Therefore, since we have been justified through
faith, we [1] have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ,
JAMISON, “If we are to be guided by manuscript authority, the true reading here,
beyond doubt, is, "Let us have peace"; a reading, however, which most reject, because
they think it unnatural to exhort men to have what it belongs to God to give, because the
apostle is not here giving exhortations, but stating matters of fact. But as it seems
hazardous to set aside the decisive testimony of manuscripts, as to what the apostle did
write, in favor of what we merely think he ought to have written, let us pause and ask--If
it be the privilege of the justified to "have peace with God," why might not the apostle
begin his enumeration of the fruits of justification by calling on believers to "realize" this
peace as belonged to them, or cherish the joyful consciousness of it as their own? And if
this is what he has done, it would not be necessary to continue in the same style, and the
other fruits of justification might be set down, simply as matters of fact. This "peace" is
first a change in God's relation to us; and next, as the consequence of this, a change on
our part towards Him. God, on the one hand, has "reconciled us to Himself by Jesus
Christ" (2Co 5:18); and we, on the other hand, setting our seal to this, "are reconciled to
God" (2Co 5:20). The "propitiation" is the meeting-place; there the controversy on both
sides terminates in an honorable and eternal "peace."
Peace with men is good and basic, but what does it matter for eternity if one has no peace
with God? Spurgeon said, “Now, I think that everyone here who will but put his fingers
to his brow for a moment and think, that he will see that, even though a man may go
before the bar of his country, and say before any judge or jury, "I have in nothing injured
my fellow-man; I am just before men," yet it does not make the man's character perfect.
Unless he is also able to say, "And I am also just before the presence of the God who
made me, and whose servant I am," he has only kept one half, and that the less important,
of God's law for him.”
STEDMAN, “If you understand that you are ungodly to start with, then you can be
justified -- because we have a God who has found a way to justify the ungodly. As we
have seen, to be justified means to be given the gift of righteousness, the gift of loving

2. acceptance before God. That is where our lives start. If we are ungodly, we qualify. As
long as we remain self-righteous, we don't have a chance.
That little word rejoice is the key to this whole fifth chapter. You will find it again in the
very next verse. In these first two verses Paul says there are three results when we have
really believed in Jesus Christ for our justification, and we rejoice in these results. In
Verse 3 he says, "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, ..." Have you gotten
that far yet? That is a higher stage of Christian growth and development. Then, in Verse
11, we find that the apostle, with his very logical mind, says, "Not only is this so, but we
also rejoice in God ..." This is the third level of Christian growth. There is the outline of
the whole chapter: learning to rejoice at these various stages.
As a Christian, if you really understand your theology, you will be rejoicing, even in the
midst of suffering. As I look around at Christians, sometimes I wonder if they ever will
grasp this idea. Some of them look like they have been marinated in embalming fluid.
They never seem to rejoice. But Christian teaching and doctrine is designed to produce a
spirit that can't help but rejoice. It is not something artificial -- screwing on a smile and
pretending that you are happy when you are not. When you really understand
Christianity, it will produce a rejoicing spirit. (If you're a glum-bum, just study the fifth
chapter of Romans and it will turn you into a glad-lad!)
In subsequent studies, we will look at this three-fold division of Chapter 5: First, we learn
to rejoice in our spiritual position; Then, to rejoice in our present troubles; and Finally,
we come to the place where we rejoice in God himself, our powerful Friend.
The first thing that you learn as a Christian is that you are justified by faith. To help us
understand what that actually means, the apostle brought in the example of Abraham.
Way back before the Law was given, before the ritual of circumcision, or before anything
that we usually associate with religion came into operation, Abraham was justified by
faith. Those two terms, "justified" and "faith," are explained to us and demonstrated for
us in the person of Abraham. "He was justified" means that he was declared to be the
friend of God. He was acceptable to God, he was loved by God. He was God's friend.
What we need to understand is that Abraham didn't earn that. He was given that right at
the beginning of his relationship with God, when he believed God. And that is what faith
means. When Abraham believed that God could and would do what he had promised,
Abraham was declared the friend of God and he entered into that close relationship with
God that characterized his life. Now that is what it means to be justified by faith, to be
given as a gift, this closeness, this nearness, this dearness to God. You receive this with
no merit on your part, but by faith alone -- by believing the promise of God, according to
the work of his Son. That is justification.
four things that are true immediately when you are at peace with God:
The first one is, you lose your fear of God. I think there is something in all of us that
instinctively fears God. I remember how awesome the person of God seemed to me as a
boy. My guilty conscience troubled me when I thought of God. I thought God as a

3. heavenly policeman, always watching me, a stern and forbidding judge, ready to correct
me and straighten me out. I will never forget the joy that came into my heart when I
realized at God was no longer my judge -- he was my Father. When you have been
justified by faith, you no longer fear God as a Judge because, according to this book and
the promises of Scripture, it is no longer necessary that God function as a judge in
relationship to you. He is now a loving, tenderhearted, compassionate father. Now, as a
father, he disciplines. That is what love does. But God is no longer a judge. That beautiful
picture our Lord gave us in the story of the prodigal son -- is the picture of God as we
learn to see him. Having been justified by faith, we immediately lose our fear of God.
Second, we lose our fear of death. If we have been justified by faith, we no longer are
afraid to die. As a boy, I lived for a while in the Red River Valley of North Dakota in a
little Scottish settlement named after Ayr, Scotland: Ayr, North Dakota. It was a
Presbyterian settlement and held to the old custom of ringing the bell of the church when
someone died. I can remember yet, lying in my bed, listening to the tolling of the bell,
knowing that someone had died, and feeling the cold clutch of fear on my own heart as I
faced the possibility of my own death. Someday I would die. It could even happen while I
was a boy. I knew it could, because a friend of mine had died. I knew it could happen to
me, and I felt the fear of death.
Last week Hal Lindsey shared with us that certain psychologists and psychiatrists are
now admitting that the basic fear behind all other human fears is the fear of death. The
conflict with which we constantly live is this shadow of the end that hangs over us all,
this awareness that someday this life is going to come to a close for us. Hebrews 2:15
speaks of that. It says, Jesus came "that he might destroy him who has the power of
death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong bondage," {cf, Heb 2:14b-15 KJV}. So when you come to understand that you've
been justified, you've been given a righteous acceptance by a loving father, you
immediately lose that fear of death. You are not afraid of what lies beyond. You know it
is not judgment, but glory. Third, when you have peace with God, you have the answer to
the attacks of doubt and fear that the devil is able to bring into your life. I think this is one
of the things that troubles many young Christians. They start out their Christian life with
a sense of rejoicing and an experience of peace. But after a while, there will come a time
when all that they have been believing and resting on and rejoicing in seems to turn dull
and cold and unbelievable. They don't know what has happened. They think they have
just been kidding themselves about Christianity, and now they have awakened to the cold
reality of life. They do not understand that the Scriptures tell us that this is the power of
the devil. Through his angels, he has access to us through our thoughts. He can insert
these troubling doubts and fears into our minds without our being aware of it -- even
against our will, at times.
HENRY, “The precious benefits and privileges which flow from justification are such as
should quicken us all to give diligence to make it sure to ourselves that we are justified,
and then to take the comfort it renders to us, and to do the duty it calls for from us. The
fruits of this tree of life are exceedingly precious.

4. I. We have peace with God, v. 1. It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God,
creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity; the holy righteous God cannot in honour be
at peace with a sinner while he continues under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away
the guilt, and so makes way for peace. And such are the benignity and good-will of God
to man that, immediately upon the removing of that obstacle, the peace is made. By faith
we lay hold of God's arm and of his strength, and so are at peace, Isa. xxvii. 4, 5. There is
more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity, there is friendship and loving-
kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or the best friend. Abraham, being justified
by faith, was called the friend of God (Jam. ii. 23), which was his honour, but not his
peculiar honour: Christ has called his disciples friends, John xv. 13-15. And surely a man
needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through our
Lord Jesus Christ--through him as the great peace-maker, the Mediator between God and
man, that blessed Day's-man that has laid his hand upon us both. Adam, in innocency,
had peace with God immediately; there needed no such mediator. But to guilty sinful
man it is a very dreadful thing to think of God out of Christ; for he is our peace, Eph. ii.
14, not only the maker, but the matter and maintainer, of our peace, Col. i. 20.
BARNES, “Therefore - οᆗν oun Since we are thus justified, or as a consequence of
being justified, we have peace.
Being justified by faith - See the notes at Rom_1:17; Rom_3:24; Rom_4:5.
We - That is, all who are justified. The apostle is evidently speaking of true Christians.
Have peace with God - see the note at Joh_14:27. True religion is often represented
as peace with God; see Act_10:36; Rom_8:6; Rom_10:15; Rom_14:17; Gal_5:22; see
also Isa_32:17.
“And the work of righteousness shall be peace,
And the effect of righteousness.
Quietness and assurance forever:”
This is called peace, because,
(1) The sinner is represented as the enemy of God, Rom_8:7; Eph_2:16; Jam_4:4;
Joh_15:18, Joh_15:24; Joh_17:14; Rom_1:30.
(2) The state of a sinner’s mind is far from peace. He is often agitated, alarmed,
trembling. He feels that he is alienated from God. For,
“The wicked are like the troubled sea.
For it never can be at rest;
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”
Isa_57:20.
The sinner in this state regards God as his enemy. He trembles when he thinks of his
Law; fears his judgments; is alarmed when he thinks of hell. His bosom is a stranger to
peace. This has been felt in all lands, alike under the thunders of the Law of Sinai among
the Jews; in the pagan world; and in lands where the gospel is preached. It is the effect of
an alarmed and troubled conscience.
(3) The plan of salvation by Christ reveals God as willing to be reconciled. He is ready
to pardon, and to be at peace. If the sinner repents and believes, God can now

5. consistently forgive him, and admit him to favor. It is therefore a plan by which the mind
of God and of the sinner can become reconciled, or united in feeling and in purpose. The
obstacles on the part of God to reconciliation, arising from his justice and Law, have
been removed, and he is now willing to be at peace. The obstacles on the part of man,
arising from his sin, his rebellion, and his conscious guilt, may be taken away, and he can
now regard God as his friend.
(4) The effect of this plan, when the sinner embraces it, is to produce peace in his own
mind. He experiences peace; a peace which the world gives not, and which the world
cannot take away, Phi_4:7; 1Pe_1:8; Joh_16:22. Usually in the work of conversion to
God, this peace is the first evidence that is felt of the change of heart. Before, the sinner
was agitated and troubled. But often suddenly, a peace and calmness is felt, which is
before unknown. The alarm subsides; the heart is calm; the fears die away, like the waves
of the ocean after a storm. A sweet tranquillity visits the heart - a pure shining light, like
the sunbeams that break through the opening clouds after a tempest. The views, the
feelings, the desires are changed; and the bosom that was just before filled with agitation
and alarm, that regarded God as its enemy, is now at peace with him, and with all the
world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ - By means of the atonement of the Lord Jesus. It
is his mediation that has procured it.
CLARKE, “Therefore being justified by faith - The apostle takes it for granted that
he has proved that justification is by faith, and that the Gentiles have an equal title with
the Jews to salvation by faith. And now he proceeds to show the effects produced in the
hearts of the believing Gentiles by this doctrine. We are justified - have all our sins
pardoned by faith, as the instrumental cause; for, being sinners, we have no works of
righteousness that we can plead.
We have peace with God - Before, while sinners, we were in a state of enmity with
God, which was sufficiently proved by our rebellion against his authority, and our
transgression of his laws; but now, being reconciled, we have peace with God. Before,
while under a sense of the guilt of sin, we had nothing but terror and dismay in our own
consciences; now, having our sin forgiven, we have peace in our hearts, feeling that all
our guilt is taken away. Peace is generally the first-fruits of our justification.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ - His passion and death being the sole cause of
our reconciliation to God.
GILL, “Therefore being justified by faith,.... Not that faith is at the first of our
justification; for that is a sentence which passed in the mind of God from all eternity, and
which passed on Christ, and on all the elect considered in him, when he rose from the
dead; see Rom_4:25; nor is it the chief, or has it the chief place in justification; it is not
the efficient cause of it, it is God that justifies, and not faith; it is not the moving cause of
it, that is the free grace of God; it is not the matter of it, that is the righteousness of
Christ: we are not justified by faith, either as God's work in us, for, as such, it is a part of
sanctification; nor as our work or act, as exercised by us, for then we should be justified
by works, by something of our own, and have whereof to glory; but we are justified by
faith objectively and relatively, as that relates to the object Christ, and his righteousness;
or as it is a means of our knowledge, and perception of our justification by Christ's
righteousness, and of our enjoying the comfort of it; and so we come to
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle having set the

6. doctrine of justification in a clear light, and fully proved that it is not by the works of
men, but by the righteousness of God; and having mentioned the several causes of it,
proceeds to consider its effects, among which, peace with God stands in the first place;
and is so called, to distinguish it from peace with men, which persons, though justified
by faith in Christ's righteousness, may not have; but are sure, having a sense of this, to
find peace with God, even with him against whom they have sinned, whose law they have
transgressed, and whose justice they have affronted; reconciliation for sin being made,
and a justifying righteousness brought in, and this imputed and applied to them, they
have that "peace of God", that tranquillity and serenity of mind, the same with "peace
with God" here, "which passes all understanding", Phi_4:7; and is better experienced
than expressed: and this is all through our Lord Jesus Christ; it springs from his atoning
sacrifice, and precious blood, by which he has made peace; and is communicated
through the imputation of his righteousness, and the application of his blood; and is only
felt and enjoyed in a way of believing, by looking to him as the Lord our righteousness.
PIPER, “God laid on him the iniquities that we performed, and God laid on us the
righteousness that he performed. He takes our sin, though he didn't perform it. And we
take his righteousness, though we didn't perform it. And so by the faith that unites us to
Christ we stand before God forgiven for all our sins and righteous with the imputed
righteousness of Christ.
On the basis of that great foundation that makes us Christians, Paul says in Romans 5:1
that we have peace with God - and calls us to enjoy that peace (best manuscript tradition
says, "let us have peace with God") - and says that we now stand in grace (verse 2), and
says that we exult (and ought to exult) in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God
and our exulting enjoyment of it, is the goal of justification by faith. This is where all of
Christian life is moving. Justification by faith is designed to help us exult in the hope of
the glory of God. We are reckoned right before God so that we can finally be with God
and see him and enjoy him as the infinitely satisfying Reality forever and ever.
HAWKER, “Romans 5:1-5
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ: (2) By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (3) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; (4) And patience, experience; and
experience, hope: (5) And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The Apostle opens this chapter, with shewing some of the immediate blessings arising
out of a justified state before God in Christ. Having in the preceding chapters most fully
and compleatly established the doctrine, and answered every objection, he begins this
Chapter with stating the blessedness of it. First, He speaks of peace with God. Secondly,
An access to the throne. Thirdly, A rejoicing in the hope and assurance of glory. Fourthly,
The sanctified use of all afflictions. And, Fifthly, the enjoyment of the love of God, the
influences of the Holy Ghost, and communion in all the blessed effects of Christ’s grace.
I beg the Reader to observe the difference between the righteousness of God in Christ,
which is the sole cause of justification and faith, which is the effect of that righteousness,
and by which it is en - joyed. A sinner is not justified by his faith, for, if so, in that case it
would be the work of faith; and what difference would there then be, whether the work of

7. faith, or the deeds of the law, became either in part, or the whole, the cause of his
justification? The Apostle, in one of the preceding chapters, hath clearly stated the
difference between the righteousness of God which justifieth, and the faith of the
believer, who by faith enjoys that justification. The righteousness of God (saith he,)
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, Rom_3:22. It is
the righteousness of God which justifies. And this is unto all, and upon all; not their act,
but the Lord’s; not their merit, but the Lord’s grace. It is revealed from faith to faith,
Rom_1:17, not procured by faith, for faith comes from it, and is not the cause of it. For
faith itself, as an act of our’s, goes no further towards our justification than any other
grace. And faith, as well as every other grace, is received wholly from Christ, and can
constitute no part, no, not an atom, in justification; for this is solely in and by Christ,
I have thought it proper to state this doctrine in the clearest manner possible, to guard
against any mistake which might arise either here or elsewhere, when the doctrine of
justification by faith is the subject. The Apostle did not mean to say, that our justification
is by our faith, for he had in the very concluding verse of the former chapter declared,
that Christ was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Hence the act had already past. And the therefore with which he begins this Chapter, is
the immediate consequence of it. And some indeed read the verse in this way: Therefore
being justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we have, peace with God.
Pause, Reader! and contemplate the boundless mercy! We have peace with God! peace in
the blood of the cross. We who were enemies to God by wicked works, hath he now
reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present us holy, and unblameable,
and unreprovable in his sight, Col_1:20-22. Oh! the blessedness of a justified state in
Christ! Oh! the comfort, when by faith in Christ the soul enjoys it! And we have access
also by Christ’s justification to the throne of grace. We are said to stand in this grace
before the Lord. For by our adoption character, we have the privilege of children,
whereby we cry Abba, Father. An holy boldness, a familiarity at the heavenly court, as
those who are well known there, and well beloved there, in Christ. Reader! do you know
the blessedness of this state, and are you in the daily habit of using it? Oh! Sir! it is a
blessed, yea, a very blessed way of maintaining fellowship with the Father, and with his
Son Jesus Christ, when by virtue of a conscious justified state in Christ, we go often to
court, and feel ourselves there as children at home, when in their father’s house. And
ought it not to be so with every child of God? Hath not Jesus opened this new and living
way by his blood? And doth he not dwell in the midst of the throne, to keep it open by his
intercession? Oh! then! if you know the Lord, if you are in a justified state in Christ, let
us make use of our high privilege. Let us (saith the Psalmist) enter into his gates with
thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations,
Psa_100:4-5.
But we must not stop here. Paul saith also, that we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
This is a third blessed effect springing out of a justified state before God in Christ. And I
beg the Reader to consider the vast importance of this high privilege. Paul himself
elsewhere calls it blessed. Speaking to Titus, he saith, looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ , Tit_2:13. But it
could not be blessed if it was not sure. If any guilt remained on the conscience, fear
would damp the hope. Hence the justification here described by the Apostle, is
considered by him as full, perfect, and complete. We have peace with God. We have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. And in consequence we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God, that glory which shall be revealed. When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. See those scriptures, Lev_16:21;

8. Isa_53:6; Ro 8; Dan_9:24; 2Th_1:10.
And, Reader, do not overlook that other blessed property arising from a justified state, I
mean the sanctified use of all afflictions. A child of God, when by faith he is brought into
the knowledge of his adoption, receives all his exercises with a different aspect from men
of the world. For afflictions of what kind soever they be, passing through the covenant,
come out with an altered property, like waters of the earth, which, by running over
certain minerals, take with them qualities of healing. No afflictions, nor chastenings, for
the present are joyous, but grievous; yet, sanctified by grace, they afterwards yield the
peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby, Heb_12:11. But it is
a character which belongs to none but God’s children justified in Christ, not simply to
bear tribulations, but to glory in them. And this forms a blessed fruit of a justified state.
God the Holy Ghost, in his gracious office-work, directs the heart into the love of God,
and into the patient waiting for Christ, 2Th_3:5.
JAMISON, “Rom_5:1-11. The blessed effects of justification by faith.
The proof of this doctrine being now concluded, the apostle comes here to treat of its
fruits, reserving the full consideration of this topic to another stage of the argument
(Rom_8:1-39).
Therefore being — “having been.”
justified by faith, we have peace with God, etc. — If we are to be guided by
manuscript authority, the true reading here, beyond doubt, is, “Let us have peace”; a
reading, however, which most reject, because they think it unnatural to exhort men to
have what it belongs to God to give, because the apostle is not here giving exhortations,
but stating matters of fact. But as it seems hazardous to set aside the decisive testimony
of manuscripts, as to what the apostle did write, in favor of what we merely think he
ought to have written, let us pause and ask - If it be the privilege of the justified to “have
peace with God,” why might not the apostle begin his enumeration of the fruits of
justification by calling on believers to “realize” this peace as belonged to them, or cherish
the joyful consciousness of it as their own? And if this is what he has done, it would not
be necessary to continue in the same style, and the other fruits of justification might be
set down, simply as matters of fact. This “peace” is first a change in God’s relation to us;
and next, as the consequence of this, a change on our part towards Him. God, on the one
hand, has “reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ” (2Co_5:18); and we, on the other
hand, setting our seal to this, “are reconciled to God” (2Co_5:20). The “propitiation” is
the meeting-place; there the controversy on both sides terminates in an honorable and
eternal “peace.”
SBC, “I. We read in the New Testament, and especially in the writings of St. Paul, a good
deal of the doctrine of justification by faith. Now, is there any distinction between this
doctrine of justification, between this blessing of justification, and the blessing of
pardon? Is pardon synonymous with justification? I take it that, while justification
always involves pardon, and while in the case of an individual sinner it is never separated
from pardon, and the pardoned man is always justified, and the justified man is always
pardoned,—while in the processes of God’s grace to an individual soul, these are never
found apart, yet theologically they are to be carefully distinguished. The type and symbol
of a justified man is not Joshua simply washed, but Joshua clothed, and clothed in such
garments, so fair in holiness, so perfect in their beauty, that we may put into his mouth
the song in which the Church, under God’s mercy, breaks out into the jubilant language
of thanksgiving and praise, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in

9. my God, for He hath clothed me with garments of salvation."
II. "Peace with God." It is undeniable that there is such a thing as peace which does not
arise from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is: (1) The peace of ignorance. There are
men who know nothing of the law of God; they know nothing of the nature of God; they
have never been roused to spiritual anxiety or to spiritual inquiry. Their hopes are of the
vaguest and dreamiest kind; or they are simply those hopes of which we hear much in
the present day, resting upon the great mercy of God, as if somehow or other we are all to
get back to God at last—whether we die in Christ or not. (2) And then there is the peace
of the Pharisee. He lives and dies in the buckram of his self-righteousness. He thanks
God that he is not as other men are. He is going to heaven perfectly satisfied with
himself, or perhaps, just trusting a little to Christ to make up the balance which he may
think is against him. Therefore we should ask, not only, "Have you peace?" but "Upon
what is that peace resting?"
J. C. Miller, Penny Pulpit, No. 717, new series.
I. The common meaning which is put upon the word justified may not be all that St. Paul
intended by it, nor all that we need to see in it. But it must have a great worth. God
accounts me righteous, He justifies me, He does not account me that which in my proper
legitimate state, as united to Christ, I am not; He treats me as that which, in this my
proper and reasonable state, I am. The justified man is not only one who is acquitted, not
only one who is set down as righteous, but one who, in the strictest sense, has become, or
has been made, righteous.
II. And thus we are able to feel the force of the next words, "Being justified by faith." God
is the Justifier, He who accounts man righteous and makes him righteous, and man is
justified or made righteous by faith. He believes the witness which God has given of
Himself in His Son, and therefore he has faith in God, faith in what He has done, faith in
what He is. He is righteous only by this faith, for only by it does he claim any relation to
Him who is righteous, only by it can he ascend out of his own nature. Having faith in
God, he becomes a true man; otherwise he possesses only the torments of a man with the
instincts and pleasures of an animal.
III. Being justified by faith, we have peace. Peace must come by rising into life. To
suppose that this peace is something won by a certain momentary act of belief, and
thenceforth guaranteed to the believer as his treasure and property, is to subvert the
whole doctrine.
IV. The great question which every man asks is, How can I be at peace with God? The
answer St. Paul makes is, "God has made peace with thee, through Jesus Christ." In Him
He has manifested to thee what He is; in Him He sees thee. Thou mayest see God in
Him; thou mayest rise thyself to be a new creature in Him. For thou art not what thou
supposest thyself to be—a separate atom in the universe, a creature who has no relation
to any other. Thou hast wonderful affinities with all these beings about thee; and when
thou art driven by thy wretchedness and despair of thyself to trust in Him who has taken
thy nature upon Him, thou wilt find out that secret as well as the secret of thy own
emancipation.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 1.
References: Rom_5:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 510; vol. xxv., No. 1456;
Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 215; Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 83; Ibid.,
vol. xiii., p. 123; E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 234; Preacher’s
Monthly, vol. ii., p. 235; Homiletic Quarterly., vol. iii., p. 376; W. Hay Aitken,
Around the Cross, p. 65; Archbishop Magee, Sermons at Bath, pp. 63, 88.

10. Romans 5:1-2
The State of Grace.
There are some who seem only to fear or to have very little joy in religion. These are in a
more hopeful state than those who only joy and do not fear at all; yet they are not
altogether in a right state. Let us consider how the persons in question come to have this
defective kind of religion.
I. In the first place, of course, we must take into account bodily disorder, which is not
unfrequently the cause of this perplexity of mind. Many persons have an anxious self-
tormenting disposition, or depression of spirits, or deadness of the affections, in
consequence of continued or peculiar ill-health; and though it is their study, as it is their
duty, to strive against this evil as much as they can, yet it often may be impossible to be
rid of it. Of course in such cases we can impute no fault to them. They must be patient
under their fears, and try and serve God more strictly.
II. But again, the uncomfortable state of mind I have described sometimes, it is to be
feared, arises, I will not say from wilful sin, but from some natural deficiency which
might be corrected, but is not. The sins I speak of arise partly through frailty, partly
through want of love; and they seem just to have this effect of dimming or quenching our
peace and joy. The absence of a vigilant walk, of exact conscientiousness in all things, of
an earnest and vigorous warfare against our spiritual enemies, in a word, of strictness,
this is what obscures our peace and joy.
III. This fearful anxious state of mind arises very commonly from not having a lively
sense of our present privileges. There are persons highly respectable indeed and serious,
but whose religion is of a dry and cold character, with little heart or insight into the next
world. They are most excellent men in their line, but they do not walk in a lofty path.
There is nothing unearthly about them; they cannot be said to be worldly; yet they do not
walk by things unseen, they do not discern and contemplate the next world. They are not
on the alert to detect, patient in watching, keen-sighted in tracing the movements of
God’s secret providence. They do not feel they are in an immense unbounded system,
with a height above and a depth beneath. Such men are used to explain away such
passages as the text. Their joy does not rise higher than what they call a rational faith and
hope, a satisfaction in religion, a cheerfulness, a well-ordered mind, and the like—all very
good words, if properly used, but shallow to express the fulness of the gospel privileges.
IV. What is it, then, that these little ones of Christ lack who, without wilful sin, past or
present, on their consciences, are in gloom and sorrow? What but the great and high
doctrines connected with the Church? Fall down in astonishment at the glories which are
around thee and in thee, poured to and fro in such a wonderful way that thou art, as it
were, dissolved into the kingdom of God, as though thou hadst nought to do but to
contemplate and feed on that great vision. In spite of all recollections of the past or fear
for the future, we have a present source of rejoicing. Whatever comes, weal or woe,
however stands our account as yet in the books against the Last Day, this we have and
this we may glory in—the present power and grace of God in us and over us, and the
means thereby given us of victory in the end.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 138.
Reference: Rom_5:1, Rom_5:2.—Homilist, new series, vol. iv., p. 413.

11. Romans 5:1-11
Immediate Results of Justification.
To be acquitted of guilt through the death of Jesus is the most elementary blessing which
the gospel brings to our condemned race, shut up in its prison-house of wrath. But it
cannot come alone. It opens a door of hope through which each reconciled sinner may
look forward unto a new world of lovely blessings following in its train. Hope is the
keyword of this section, therefore—exultant hope of future glory; and the three ideas
which successively emerge in its very rich and vivid sentences are these: (1) Our hope
reposes on this new relation, established between us and God, that we are at peace with
Him. (2) Our hope is not impaired but confirmed by our present tribulation. (3) Our
hope is warranted by the proof which we already possess of the love of God for us.
I. There is room now in men’s hearts for the hope that God will bless them with that
glory which is His own blessedness, since now they are at peace with Him (vers. 1, 2).
Enemies of God could never expect to behold His glory, or be satisfied with His likeness.
His friends may. Standing thus near, within sight of that Eye that kindles with a Divine
delight over His banished brought back; standing thus near, introduced by the Hand that
was pierced, and accepted in the Beloved who was slain, what is there for a justified
believer to fear? What is there not for him to hope?
II. It is far off, that glory of God which we hope for; at least, it is still in the future. The
present is for all of us a life of trouble. Our mean, grieved, dying days, do they not flout
and mock at such splendid expectations? Quite the contrary. In the long run life’s trouble
is found rather to confirm our hope. The Christian who perseveres under trouble is an
approved or accredited believer. Is it not clear that, when the tested Christian finds his
faith has proved itself genuine, his hope will wax so much the more confident?
III. The triumphant hope of a justified believer in what God is yet to do for him finds a
still more sure and inexpugnable foundation of fact in what God has already done to
prove the greatness of His love.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 113.
JIM NEWHEISER, “We have peace with God. v. 1 Past
A. We previously were at war with God. 1:18-3:20 5:10 Heb. 10:29
1. We were God“s enemies, in rebellion against His Lordship. 5:10 3:10-12 8:7
2. God was our enemy Whose holy wrath was against us. 1:18 2:5,8 Ps. 7:11
Eph. 5:6 Co. 3:6
B. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, has made peace between God and
man.
Isa. 9:6 Col. 1:19-22 Eph. 2:14,17 Acts 10:36 II Co. 5:18-19
1. He has turned aside God“s just wrath against us. 3:24-25 4:25
2. He has turned our hearts to God.
C. What is the nature of the peace God gives us through the Lord Jesus?
1. This peace is not merely a subjective feeling. Rather it is an objective fact.
2. This peace occurs instantaneously when we believe and are justified.

12. 3. This peace is secure because it rests on Christ“s work not yours.
4. The objective peace with God leads to a subjective experience of God“s peace.
a. The fact of a restored relationship with God gives us inward tranquility.
b. The Old Testament promised shalom in the Messianic age. Eze. 37:26
Ps. 72:7 Isa. 9:6-7 54:10 52:7 32:17 Mic. 5:4-5 Zech. 8:12 Hag. 2:9
5. Just because we have peace with God doesn“t mean we will have peace with the
world. Jo. 16:33
6. It is even possible to be at peace with God objectively, while failing to experience
(feel) the peace of God. Phil. 4:4-9
J. DAVID HOKE, “There is a lot of focus today by the so called "faith teachers" on the external
benefits of Christianity. Such a focus is appealing because it feeds the self-centered desires we all possess.
Who would not like to be healthy all the time? Who would not like to be wealthy? All of us would like to
be physically and financially secure. The problem is that many people who subscribe to such teaching end
up disappointed. Why? They're disappointed because they have believed in a false notion about God. They
have not understood the nature of God or the nature of God's purpose in dealing with people. The god of
this aberrant form of theology is not the God revealed in the Bible, even though they selectively use the
Bible to back up their theories. This god has been made subservient to us. He has been made into a god
who is here to benefit us. This god is some sort of divine Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. So people are
disappointed when the true God does not jump through their hoops.
Now this does not mean that there are no benefits from God for those of us who believe. There are! What it
does mean is that we serve a God who is working out a plan into which we must fit. He is not interested in
making us comfortable, but in changing our lives. And He will even make us uncomfortable to do that. The
benefits we experience from knowing and serving this God come from the fact that we were created for
Him. So unless we are connected to Him by faith, we will never experience genuine fulfillment.
The focus of knowing Christ is on our inner life. God desires for us to be changed from the inside out. This
is the only kind of change that really makes any difference. And trusting in Christ by faith opens the door
for God to begin to deal with our inner-self.
Our text focuses on several inner needs that are met through faith in Christ. It shows us how to find peace,
acceptance, joy, and hope.
Now it should be said that making peace with God does not automatically bring peace in every area of our
lives. You can make peace with God and still experience conflict and struggle in various situations and
circumstances. But making peace with God is the essential first step toward receiving another kind of peace
- the peace of God.
The peace of God is referred to in Philippians 4:6-7, which tells us: "Do not be anxious about anything, but
in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of
God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." This is a
wonderful peace. This is the kind of peace that enables you to withstand the storm. This is the kind of peace
that is not based on circumstances. It transcends circumstances. Indeed, it transcends our ability to
comprehend it. We are even amazed that we are experiencing this peace when the circumstances are such
that we should be experiencing great anxiety.
Now, this is not the focus of the peace with God mentioned in our text. But we must experience the peace
with God before we can experience the peace of God. You cannot have the second without having the first.
And if you have the first, then you can receive the second. God's salvation brings peace.

13. BARCLAY, “Rom. 5:1-5
Since, then, we have been put into a right relationship with God in consequence of faith,
let us enjoy peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, by faith, we are
in possession of an introduction to this grace in which we stand; and let us glory in the
hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but let us find a cause of glorying in our troubles;
for we know that trouble produces fortitude, and fortitude produces character; and
character produces hope; and hope does not prove an illusion, because the love of God
has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us.
Here is one of Paul's great lyrical passages in which he almost sings the intimate joy of
his confidence in God. Trusting faith has done what the labour to produce the works of
the law could never do; it has given a man peace with God. Before Jesus came, no man
could ever be really close to God.
Some, indeed, have seen him, not as the supreme good, but as the supreme evil.
Swinburne wrote:
"His hidden face and iron feet, Hath not man known and felt them in their way
Threaten and trample all things every day? Hath he not sent us hunger? Who hath cursed
Spirit and flesh with longing? Filled with thirst Their lips that cried to him?"
Some have seen him as the complete stranger, the utterly untouchable. In one of H. G.
Wells' books there is the story of a man of affairs whose mind was so tensed and strained
that he was in serious danger of a complete nervous and mental breakdown. His doctor
told him that the only thing that could save him was to find the peace that fellowship with
God can give. "What!" he said, "to think of that, up there, having fellowship with me! I
would as soon think of cooling my throat with the milky way or shaking hands with the
stars!" God, to him, was the completely unfindable. Rosita Forbes, the traveller, tells of
finding shelter one night in a Chinese village temple because there was nowhere else to
sleep. In the night she woke and the moonlight was slanting in through the window on to
the faces of the images of the gods, and on every face there was a snarl and a sneer, as of
those who hated men.
It is only when we realize that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that there comes
into life that intimacy with him, that new relationship, which Paul calls justification.
Through Jesus, says Paul, we have an introduction to this grace in which we stand. The
word he uses for introduction is prosagoge. It is a word with two great pictures in it.
(i) It is the regular word for introducing or ushering someone into the presence of royalty;
and it is the regular word for the approach of the worshipper to God. It is as if Paul was
saying, "Jesus ushers us into the very presence of God. He opens the door for us to the
presence of the King of Kings; and when that door is opened what we find is grace; not
condemnation, not judgment, not vengeance, but the sheer, undeserved, incredible
kindness of God."

14. (ii) But prosagoge has another picture in it. In late Greek it is the word for the place
where ships come in, a harbour or a haven. If we take it that way, it means that so long as
we tried to depend on our own efforts we were tempest-tossed, like mariners striving with
a sea which threatened to overwhelm them completely, but now that we have heard the
word of Christ, we have reached at last the haven of God's grace, and we know the calm
of depending, not on what we can do for ourselves, but on what God has done for us.
Because of Jesus we have entry to the presence of the King of Kings and entry to the
haven of God's grace.
No sooner has Paul said this than the other side of the matter strikes him. All this is true,
and it is glory; but the fact remains that in this life the Christians are up against it. It is
hard to be a Christian in Rome. Remembering that, Paul produces a great climax.
"Trouble," he said, "produces fortitude." The word he uses for trouble is thlipis, which
literally means pressure. All kinds of things may press in upon the Christian--want and
straitened circumstances, sorrow, persecution, unpopularity and loneliness. All that
pressure, says Paul, produces fortitude. The word he uses for fortitude is hupomone
which means more than endurance. It means the spirit which can overcome the world; it
means the spirit which does not passively endure but which actively overcomes the trials
and tribulations of life.
When Beethoven was threatened with deafness, that most terrible of troubles for a
musician, he said: "I will take life by the throat." That is hupomone. When Scott was
involved in ruin because of the bankruptcy of his publishers, he said: "No man will say
`Poor fellow!' to me; my own right hand will pay the debt." That is hupomone. Someone
once said to a gallant soul who was undergoing a great sorrow: "Sorrow fairly colours
life, doesn't it?" Back came the reply: "Yes! And I propose to choose the colour!" That is
hupomone. When Henley was lying in Edinburgh Infirmary with one leg amputated, and
the prospect that the other must follow, he wrote Invictus.
"Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever
gods may be For my unconquerable soul."
That is hupomone. Hupomone is not the spirit which lies down and lets the floods go
over it; it is the spirit which meets things breastforward and overcomes them.
"Fortitude," Paul goes on, "produces character." The word he uses for character is
dokime. Dokime is used of metal which has been passed through the fire so that
everything base has been purged out of it. It is used of coinage as we use the word
sterling. When affliction is met with fortitude, out of the battle a man emerges stronger,
and purer, and better, and nearer God.
"Character," Paul goes on, "produces hope." Two men can meet the same situation. It can
drive one of them to despair, and it can spur the other to triumphant action. To the one it
can be the end of hope, to the other it can be a challenge to greatness. "I do not like

15. crises," said Lord Reith, "but I do like the opportunities they provide." The difference
corresponds to the difference between the men. If a man has let himself become weak and
flabby, if he has allowed circumstances to beat him, if he has allowed himself to whine
and grovel under affliction, he has made himself such that when the challenge of the
crisis comes he cannot do other than despair. If, on the other hand, a man has insisted on
meeting life with head up, if he has always faced and, by facing, conquered things, then
when the challenge comes, he meets it with eyes aflame with hope. The character which
has endured the test always emerges in hope.
Then Paul makes one last great statement: "The Christian hope never proves an illusion
for it is founded on the love of God." Omar Khayyam wrote wistfully of human hopes:
"The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone."
When a man's hope is in God, it cannot turn to dust and ashes. When a man's hope is in
God, it cannot be disappointed. When a man's hope is in the love of God, it can never be
an illusion, for God loves us with an everlasting love backed by an everlasting power.
CALVIN, “1.Being then justified, etc. The Apostle begins to illustrate by the effects, what he has
hitherto said of the righteousness of faith: and hence the whole of this chapter is taken up with
amplifications, which are no less calculated to explain than to CONFIRM . He had said before,
that faith is abolished, if righteousness is sought by works; and in this case perpetual inquietude
would disturb miserable souls, as they can find nothing substantial in themselves: but he teaches us
now, that they are rendered quiet and tranquil, when we have obtained righteousness by faith, we
have peace with God; and this is the peculiar fruit of the righteousness of faith. When any one
strives to seek tranquillity of conscience by works, (which is the case with profane and ignorant
men,) he labors for it in vain; for either his heart is asleep through his disregard or forgetfulness of
God’ judgment, or else it is full of trembling and dread, until it reposes on Christ, who is alone our
peace.
Then peace means tranquillity of conscience, which arises from this, — that it feels itself to be
reconciled to God. This the Pharisee has not, who swells with false confidence in his own works;
nor the stupid sinner, who is not disquieted, because he is inebriated with the sweetness of vices:
for though neither of these seems to have a manifest disquietude, as he is who is smitten with a
consciousness of sin; yet as they do not really approach the tribunal of God, they have no
reconciliation with him; for insensibility of conscience is, as it were, a sort of retreating from God.
Peace with God is opposed to the dead security of the flesh, and for this reason, — because the
first thing is, that every one should become awakened as to the ACCOUNT he must render of his
life; and no one can stand boldly before God, but he who relies on a gratuitous reconciliation; for as
long as he is God, all must otherwise tremble and be confounded. And this is the strongest of
proofs, that our opponents do nothing but prate to no purpose, when they ascribe righteousness to
works; for this conclusion of Paul is derived from this fact, — that miserable souls always tremble,
except they repose on the grace of Christ.
COFFMAN, “An amazing difference of opinion among commentators as to what constituted
Paul's SUBJECT matter in this chapter must be NOTED .
Greathouse suggested:
Paul rounds out his doctrine of justification by putting this truth in its eschatological context.[1]
Greathouse cited "the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2), and "final salvation" (Romans 5:9-

16. 10) as supporting his analysis. Lenski favored the view that writings in this chapter
Undoubtedly describe the blessed effects of God's righteousness through faith.[2]
Stiffler noted that:
Many commentators have entitled this chapter, "The Fruits of Justification."[3]
Griffith Thomas saw in this chapter:
Will this new method of salvation really last; will it CONTINUE to the end? Is it safe
for all the varied and complex needs of human life? Is it a foundation sufficiently strong
to stand the wear and tear of human needs?[4]
James Macknight wrote that
In the BEGINNING of this chapter, Paul enumerated the privileges which belong to believers in
general.[5]
This commentator believes that such confusion as regards even the SUBJECT of what Paul was
writing about is due to the preoccupation of scholars with what Thomas called "this new method of
salvation," which, of course, means the wonderful proposition that people are justified by faith alone!
It is apparently a lost fact so many are unaware of, that there is no "new method" of salvation, but
only one, namely, justification through obedient faith, a truth Paul went to great lengths to
demonstrate in his appeal to the example of Abraham, showing at last that we too are saved just
like Abraham was (though through meeting DIFFERENT tests), byWALKING "in the STEPS of
Abraham's faith" (Romans 5:4:12); in short, by believing, and proving it by obedience as he did.
Paul's subject matter in the entire epistle to the Romans is not any new method of salvation, but the
inherent righteousness of God, as noted under Romans 5:1:17. It is, thus, the failure of scholars to
theme here, as appears from the import of Romans 5:12-21, where the question of God's
righteousness in causing death to pass upon all people as a result of the sin of only one man is the
problem discussed. The same problem of how God can be righteous in allowing the tribulations and
death that are the badge of all mortality is also within the focus of the first paragraph (Romans 5:1-
11), where the true answer to the enigma lies in the fact that people may yet achieve eternal life
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1] William M. Greathouse, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press,
1969), p. 106.
[2] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Minneapolis, Minnesota:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1963), p. 330.
[3] J. M. Stiffler, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 87.
[4] W. H. Griffith Thomas, St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 146.
[5] James Macknight, Apostolical Epistles (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1960), p. 78.
Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Romans 5:1)
Justified by faith ... has invariably the meaning of "justified by an obedient faith," as in the case of
Abraham. See the preceding chapter. Also, for further explanation of this synecdoche, see
under Romans 3:22. Both at the beginning and ending of Romans, Paul defined "faith" in the sense
of its being "the obedience of faith"; and although this has been cited before, the extravagant and
vociferous claims to the effect that Paul really meant "faith only" require repeated attention to the
truth. Note:
Through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations,
for his name's sake (Romans 1:5).
But now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the

17. commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all nations unto obedience of
faith (Romans 16:26).SIZE>
It would be impossible to overestimate the significance of Paul's placement of these
two verses, situated like the lions on each side of the throne of Solomon, standing as
the Alpha and the Omega, guarding the portals of this great treatise of God's
righteousness, but necessarily dealing with justification by faith, and making sure that
"he who runs may read" and not be deceived as to the degree of faith Paul was
discussing. One may not ENTER or leave this epistle without confronting the fact
that it was "the obedience of faith" which summed up the end and all of Paul's
"obedience of faith" must be understood as included in Paul's salvation "by faith." The
following example from Paul's writings shows how and when faith makes one a child of
God:
For ye are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of
you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ (Galatians 3:26,27).
Thus, faith saves one by leading him to accept forgiveness of sins in God's appointed
institution, the spiritual body of Christ; and salvation is accomplished when faith
becomes obedient to the degree of causing him to be baptized into Christ, and to put
on Christ. As Lipscomb expressed it:
To be saved through faith in Christ Jesus, to be baptized unto the
remission of sins, to be baptized into Christ, and to put on Christ, all
mean exactly the same thing.[6]
Even in the very epistle we are STUDYING , and where so many allegations to the
contrary are allegedly grounded, Paul went so far as to define exactly the point in the
time sequence of the believer's obedient actions when his salvation actually occurs.
Thus:
But God be THANKED , that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being THENmade free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness (Romans 6:17,18 KJV).
The omission of "then" in some of the TRANSLATIONS does not remove the
meaning, for it is implied anyway; and even Phillips retained it in his rendition. Thus, a
man is saved "by faith" WHEN he obeys the gospel, and not before. It is not amiss,
then, to declare unequivocally that baptism for the remission of sins on the part of a
true and penitent believer is salvation "by faith." If that is not true, how could Christ
have said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16)?
We have peace with God ... should read "Let us have peace with God," according to
many scholars; and that rendition is given as an alternate reading in the English
Revised Version (1885) margin. The difference turns upon two very similar Greek
words, [@echomen] and [@echoomen], the latter meaning "we have," and the other
meaning "let us have." The scholars assure us that the preponderance of manuscript
authority favors the first, "let us have"; and Lenski went so far as to say:
use of the indicative ("we have"), such as that, when speaking, Paul had
in mind the short vowel, but that his amanuensis Tertius wrote the long
vowel by mistake. "The sense must conquer the letter," we are told; but
the letter alone conveys the sense, and we change the sense when we
change the letter.[7]
Lenski's comment is introduced here because of the clear and forceful way in which he

18. emphasized that what the holy writers said, the actual letter of what we have received
only," since it was of "faith" that Paul wrote, and never of "faith only," the latter being
urged as Paul's "meaning," even by Lenski!
The decision of whether "we have" or "let us have" is correct cannot logically be
attempted by this writer. In any event, the difference is of no consequence either way;
and thus. after noting what appears to be a VALID objection against the rendition in
both KJV and English Revised Version (1885) in this instance, the sentence will be
discussed as it stands in those versions, since that is the text which most people have.
Peace with God ... means that the fierce rebellion against God is no longer within the
heart; the war is over, and man has submitted to his Maker; and the ensuing new
status changes everything. God is angry with the wicked every day; and Paul
described the Gentiles in their state of rebellion as "children of wrath." That wrath
pertains to every man who has not come into the inheritance of peace with God in
Christ. It was to that peace which Augustine referred when he said, "Thou, O God,
hast touched me and translated me into thy peace!"
CHRIST AND MAN'S PEACE
Peace is the great legacy of Christ to them that love and obey him. In the annunciation,
the angels brought word of "peace on earth to men of good will" (Luke 2:10); Zacharias
prophesied of the Dayspring from on high who would "guide our feet into the way of
peace" (Luke 1:79); and Paul spoke of the "joy and peace in believing" (Romans
15:13). Jesus said:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid
(John 14:27).
This peace, like every other spiritual blessing, is in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), a thought
also expressed thus:
And the peace of God that passeth understanding, shall guard your
hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).
This marvelous peace is exactly the blessing which troubled man most needs and so
incessantly seeks, even if his seeking is but an unfulfilled subconscious longing after it.
The insatiable desire for that heavenly peace is never abated until people rest in
Christ. In the great invitation (Matthew 11:28-30), Jesus spoke of the rest people would
find and of the rest that he would give; and both are what Paul referred to here
(Romans 5:1). Despite the eternal truth that no worthwhile peace may be procured by
means of any human device, people are, nevertheless, in constant pursuit of it,
employing all kinds of strategies in their sad efforts to possess it; and, no matter how
frequently time has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of one device or another, people
still strive in the same old discredited ways to establish their peace, overlooking the
availability of this dearest of all possessions as a free gift from God in Christ.
Note the various ways in which people strive vainly for that peace, a peace which God
is willing and ready to give them when they turn to him: (1) People seek peace by
moving to the suburbs, planting a garden, and building a hedge, only to discover that
peace is not a commodity that any realtor can sell. (2) Some seek it by going to a
psychiatrist, only to learn that no psychiatrist can convey to another the peace that he
does not himself possess. (3) Some seek peace through the ardent advocacy of this or
that social system, or by participation in campaigns for the alleviation of alleged human

19. woes; but it would be just as reasonable to suppose that one could cure twenty cases
of measles by putting them all in the same room, as it is to suppose that any scheme
for better housing, for example, could cure the agony of human beings whose
wretchedness is due to their sin and not to their circumstances. The savage tides
which swell and flow in the hearts of millions of unregenerated people will never yield
to the magic of some political solution, nor disappear through any readjustment of
earth's material wealth. (4) Others seek peace by means of the bottle, the needle, and
the pillbox; but the reliance upon such pitiful devices cannot evoke some miraculous
genie, as in Moslem mythology, that can pour the oil of peace upon the turbulent
waters of the raging storms that trouble the hearts of people. Alcohol, narcotics, and
drugs produce death instead of life, hell instead of heaven, agony instead of peace. (5)
Still others seek peace through the pursuit of the pleasures of life, only to find as sage,
philosopher, and poet alike have found, that peace comes not from pleasures.
But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is
shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white, then melts
forever.[8]
Alexander Maclaren said:
Sooner or later, the mad, whirling dervish of life will SLOW down,
falter, and grind to an irresistible stop, where the facts of unrest and soul
disquietude must inevitably be faced.[9]
Alexander of Macedon found only dust and ashes at the end of that rainbow, and so
will any other who follows that illusion to its wretched end. (7) Yet another device has
commended itself, throughout history as being a source of peace for troubled people. It
is a sacerdotal arrangement, in which a human contemporary is given a special kind of
education, a special kind of garb, and a special kind of dignity in which such a one is
elevated to a position of alleged sanctity, and then commissioned as an agent to
procure peace and grant it to his fellow mortals. Thousands of years of the use of this
elaborate device have demonstrated, alas, that sacerdotal man is no holier than
ourselves and no more able to procure peace than others. It is time that people should
be reminded again that:
There is one God and one mediator between God and men, himself also
man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5).
As for the old superstition that any man can absolve another of his sins and impart any
peace worth having, it is hereby affirmed in the light of that Word that liveth for ever
and ever, that the scriptures teach no such thing. "Only God can forgive sins"! (Mark
2:5).
Through our Lord Jesus Christ ... The way of receiving that peace is plain. The
source is Jesus Christ. It may not be procured, therefore, through people. Inscribed
upon the north facade of the impressive tomb of William Rockefeller in Tarrytown
cemetery, Tarrytown, New York, are these words of Augustine:
OUR HEARTS; O GOD; WERE MADE FOR THEE; AND NEVER SHALL
THEY REST UNTIL THEY REST IN THEE.
How may people possess that peace of God through Christ? By means of the
obedience of faith so perfectly expounded by Paul in Romans. Atheism is no refuge for
the soul. Even the great achievers among the ranks of atheists, such as H. G. Wells,
have confessed that peace is no part of their endowment. Wells declared:

20. I cannot adjust my life to SECURE any fruitful peace. ... Here I am at
sixty-five still seeking for peace ... that dignified peace is just a hopeless
dream.[10]
Wilbur M. Smith, in the summation of a remarkable chapter on the SUBJECT of
peace and joy in believing, said,
In skepticism and unbelief, there has always been, there cannot help but be, despair in
the place of hope, a miserable unceasing restlessness in the place of peace, and
either an ever-deepening sorrow or a chilling stoicism instead of true and abiding joy.
a
peace that passeth all understanding and a joy the world can never take away. There
is peace and joy in believing; there is neither in unbelief.[11]
By faith ... The emphasis in this commentary on "the obedience of faith" is not
intended to diminish in any manner or degree the true necessity of wholehearted,
unreserved faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is still the strong man that
Whenever and wherever in human hearts there is enough faith to lead one to walk in
all the light he has and strive for more, there, it may be presumed, is enough faith to
save. The reason for insisting throughout this work that "faith only" is a sinful addition
to the word of God, and in fact a denial of it, stems from two reasons, the first being
that God's word nowhere says that justification is by faith only, and the second being
that it is impossible to define faith as automatically including obedience. When
pressed, the advocates of the "faith only" POSITION will often fall back upon the
presumption that if one truly believes, he will also obey. Opposed to that presumption
is this statement from the New Testament.
Even of the rulers many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for
they loved the glory that is of men more than the glory that is of God
(John 12:42,43).SIZE>
The Lutheran ERROR of supposing salvation to be by faith only,
sprang from overlooking the biblically stated truth that many people did
"believe on" the Lord Jesus Christ but, through love of the world, refused
to follow him. As to the thesis, then, that true faith automatically includes
obedience, it is utterly disproved by the lives of millions in every age,
including those cited in John 12:42,43. In this context, it is interesting
to NOTE that Christ said, "If ye love me, ye will keep my
commandments" (John 14:15); but he did not say, "If ye have faith in me,
ye will keep my commandments," the latter being categorically untrue.
Precisely in this, then, is the outrage of teaching that salvation is "by faith
alone." Far from leading people to obey the gospel, that false doctrine is
actually made the ground and excuse of millions for not obeying it!
[6] David Lipscomb, Commentary on the New Testament Epistles
(Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1969), p. 92.
[7] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 333.
[8] Robert Burns, Tam O'Shanter, stanza 7.
[9] Alexander Maclaren, origin of this quotation unknown.
[10] H. G. Wells, QUOTED by Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore Stand
(Boston: W. A. Wilde Company, 1945), p. 197.
[11] Wilbur M. Smith, op. cit., p. 477.

21. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Justification
We have here—
I. A state or condition—“justified.” This implies—
1. Previous dishonour. A truly righteous character needs no justification.
2. Complete satisfaction. A man who owes a debt can only be justified when that debt
is paid; although it need not be paid by himself.
3. Perfect restoration—to all rights, privileges, position, etc. Justification does not
mean righteousness. A man is justified although he is defiled in sin. The justification
of man by God is His counting man as righteous.
II. A means or method—“faith.” Faith is that principle which unites a man with Christ,
and so enables him to appropriate all the Saviour’s merits and righteousness.
Substitution, to be effectual, not only requires its acceptance by the judge, but the
acceptance of the Saviour by the sinner as his Substitute. Faith is that acceptance by the
sinner. Notice—
1. That this act is difficult. It is contrary to human nature—men would rather trust
themselves than God. Hence they add rites and ceremonies.
2. It includes acts as well as conviction and trust. “Faith without works is dead,” and
a dead principle has no existence.
III. A result attained—peace with God. Peace is desirable with man, much more with
God. True peace can be obtained in no other way but this. There is a state which is often
mistaken for it, such as indifference, a numbed conscience. Gratuitous pardon without
justification by atonement would not be able to give peace, but pardon through satisfied
justice can. Nothing can satisfy the sense of justice but trust in the justice-satisfying
Saviour. (Homilist.)
Justification
I. Its nature.
1. From the meaning of the word.
2. From the type (Lev_16:21).
(1) The two goats were necessary to set forth the perfect work of Christ: the first
in atoning for sin, the other in bearing it away.
3. In its foundation (Rom_3:24-25; Rom 5:9).
(1) The foundation is solid.
(2) The grace is perfect.
II. Its condition. “By faith.” Consider—
1. The root meaning of the word.
2. The naturalness of the thing signified.
3. What is involved in unbelief.

22. III. Its fruits.
1. Peace (Rom_5:1).
(1) Its nature.
(2) With whom established.
(3) Through whom acquired.
2. Standing (Rom_5:2).
3. Joy (Rom_5:2).
(1) Its inspiration. “Hope of the glory of God.”
(2) Its strength. “In tribulations.”
(3) Its intellectual basis (Rom_5:4).
(4) Its internal evidence (Rom_5:5).
IV. Its source. The love of God.
1. The manner in which it was procured (Rom_5:8).
(1) “Commendeth” should be rendered “giveth proof of.”
2. The character of those for whom Christ died.
(1) “Those without strength” (Rom_5:6).
(2) “Sinners” (Rom_5:8).
(3) Such an exhibition of love unparalleled (Rom_5:7).
3. The purpose for which God gave His Son (Rom_5:9-10).
V. Practical lessons.
1. The blessing of which this lesson treats is the greatest need of man.
2. The sacrifice which Christ made to procure this blessing the most wonderful fact
in history.
3. The condition on which this blessing may be obtained the most reasonable and
easy.
4. The benefits which this blessing confers on the believer in this life are the most
precious God can bestow.
5. The glory to which the believer by it lays claim is ineffable and eternal. (D. C.
Hughes, A. M.)
Justification more than forgiveness
A friend with whom you have been long doing business falls into a condition of
insolvency, and you find that he is your debtor to a large amount. There is no prospect of
his ever being able to pay you back, and you have reason to know that this condition of
debt arises not merely from his misfortune, but from his fault. Under these
circumstances it would be possible for you to liberate him from his debt by an act of
forgiveness. Let us suppose that you adopt this course; the man would no longer be in
fear of a debtor’s prison, and would no doubt feel himself under a great obligation to you.

23. But would such a state of things be likely to bring you into closer personal relations with
each other? Would it not necessarily produce on the contrary a certain distance and
constraint? On the other hand, the forgiven debtor must needs, me thinks, feel ashamed
to look his generous creditor in the face, must feel ill at ease in his presence, and would
shrink from familiar social intercourse with the family of one on whom his conduct has
inflicted such serious losses. On the other hand, the forgiving creditor could scarcely be
expected to select such a person for his friend, and to treat his past conduct as if it were a
thing easily to be forgotten. But to illustrate our position further, let us now present
another case. Let us suppose that the creditor is so convinced of the sincerity of the
regret which his debtor professes, and has reason to believe that the severe lesson has
wrought in him so great a moral change that he feels himself free to make an experiment
which most of us would certainly regard as a perilous one; let us suppose that, instead of
remitting his debt, he introduces him into partnership with his own son, with whose
business he is himself closely concerned. This his new connection with a solvent and
flourishing firm places him, we may say, in a position of solvency, removes the stigma of
bankruptcy, puts him in the way of making a full return to his benefactor, to whom at the
same time it greatly enhances his obligation. Now it is easy to see how this man—not
merely forgiven, but in a certain sense justified—will be brought by such an arrangement
into the closest relations with his benefactor. Friendly social intercourse will exist
without restraint, and he who under the former mode of treatment might have seemed
little better than an escaped convict will now be a recognised and respected member of
the social circle in which his creditor moves. (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Justification by faith
There is no one who has not asked the question to which these words give the true
answer. “How shall man have peace with God?” Wherever man is found, whether savage
or civilised, rich or poor, he is found attempting to solve this problem. For everywhere
man is found beset with present miseries, and haunted with the dread of some angry
power that inflicts them. And, therefore, everywhere man is found endeavouring to
appease this displeasure by making peace with his God. Now to this question there are
three answers possible: that man might restore himself, or that God alone might restore
man, or that God and man together might effect this restoration. The first is the religion
of the heathen: he seeks to appease God by his own acts; he will give even his first born
for his transgressions. The second is the religion of the Pharisee: “God, I thank Thee, I
am not as other men are.” The third is the religion of the publican. “God be merciful to
me, a sinner.” Which is the true one?
I. Scripture everywhere asserts that God alone justifies (Mic_6:7; Psa_49:7; Isa_45:21-
22). Hear the word of the Lord! Here, then, is a simple and an unerring test, by which to
try every system of religion.
1. To “justify” means to “pronounce guiltless.” It never signifies to make just, but
always to declare or pronounce just (Pro_17:15). This justification is indispensable to
peace with God, for guilt cannot be at peace with justice. Before God can be at peace
with any man, He must first pronounce him to be righteous.
2. Here, then, arise two great questions: first, what righteousness is this? and,
secondly, how does it become ours? St. Paul tells us that it is through Christ. But
even, for the sake of His dear Son, God cannot say the thing that is not. Unless there
be perfect righteousness seen by Him, He cannot say He sees it. How, then, does
Christ procure us this perfect righteousness? (2Co_5:21). In it is laid down, that

24. Christ procured our righteousness by being made sin for us. Clearly, then, if we know
how He was made sin, we know how we are made righteous. Was He, then, made
really and truly sinful? God forbid. He, the Holy One, was, for our sakes, reckoned or
accounted sinful. In the same way, therefore, we sinners are, for His sake, reckoned
righteous; our sins are reckoned as if they were His; His righteousness is reckoned as
if it were ours. To be “justified through Christ,” therefore, is to have the
righteousness of Christ so imputed to us, that God reckons us, or pronounces us, just.
This righteousness is bestowed upon us by faith. Faith is the link that joins together
the justice of God and the satisfaction of Christ in the person of the believer, so that
God can be just, and the justifier of him that believes.
3. Is there, then, no real righteousness in the believer? does God pronounce him who
is unholy, holy; and admit the unclean, in his uncleanness, into His presence?
Assuredly not. God never pronounced any man holy whom He did not also make
holy. There is a righteousness external and a righteousness internal: both are real—
both shall one day be perfect; but that which is wrought for us is perfect from the
first; that which is wrought in us is imperfect, and gradually arrives at perfection: the
one at once and forever justifies; the other progressively sanctifies.
4. But how does this doctrine make God alone the Saviour without any cooperation
on the part of man? Is not faith a work of the mind? and is not this, at least in part,
the cause of the sinner’s justification? We answer, No! for we are not justified
because of our faith, but by our faith. Faith is the hand which the sinner stretches
forth to receive the “free gift” of God’s mercy; but it is not the stretching out of the
hand which induces the bestowal of the alms. Nay, more, that very hand is palsied;
we have no power of ourselves to put it forth. Faith, itself, is a free gift of God; it is
not until He has said, Reach forth thine hand, that we can, by doing so, receive the
alms of His free mercy, which, because of Christ’s satisfaction, He is able, and,
because of His own infinite love, He is willing, to bestow upon us.
5. This doctrine, then, fully answers the test to which we agreed to submit it: it
reveals a salvation, which is God’s work, and His alone; prompted by His love,
designed by His wisdom, and accomplished by His power. This work of man’s
salvation has upon it the impress of divinity; it displays that wonderful union of
power and wisdom that is found in all God’s works, which makes them seem at once
so simple and yet so mysterious. View it in its aspect towards man, how simple it
seems—“Believe and live!” View it in its aspect as regards God, as His plan devised
for the salvation of man, without the compromise of any one of His attributes, it is
the great “mystery of godliness.” This plan of salvation befits the majesty and the
wisdom of God, while it is adapted to the ignorance and the weakness of man, This
river of life is unfathomable, in its mysterious depths, by the mightiest of created
beings; and yet the little child may kneel by its brink and drink of its sweet waters
that flow softly, clear as crystal, from beneath the throne of God.
6. It is an ancient doctrine this; older than Luther, who revived it, or Paul, who
defended it, or Abraham, who exemplified it. It was revealed by God, at the gate of
Eden, to the first sinner who, by faith, hoped for deliverance yet to be accomplished
by the seed of the woman. The first man who believed was justified by faith. The last
saint that enters heaven shall enter it praising God, who, justifying him by faith, gives
peace to his soul forever and ever, through Jesus Christ.
II. Let us now contrast with it man’s plan of salvation, in which he seeks to mingle his
righteousness with that of God. The error of the self-righteous (Rom_10:3) is that he
seeks a righteousness of his own, because he will not submit to be saved by the

25. righteousness of God; as man fell by seeking to be his own God, so he remains fallen by
seeking to be his own saviour. As he once refused to be entirely ruled by God, so he now
refuses to be entirely saved by God. This is a most subtle and dangerous error.
1. The statement of this doctrine we will take from the Church of Rome, because
Romanism is a religion of human nature, reduced to a regular system, and because
we believe this difference between her and us is generally misunderstood.
(1) Let us clearly state how Rome and we are agreed in this matter. We are
agreed—
(a) That man is so utterly fallen that he has no power to help himself.
(b) That he cannot be saved unless God bestow on him a perfect
righteousness.
(c) That God does bestow this righteousness for Christ’s sake.
(2) Where, then, do we differ?
(a) As to the nature of this righteousness. We say that it is a righteousness
imputed; she, that it is a righteousness implanted. We say it is a righteousness
wrought for us; she, it is righteousness wrought in us. We say, God, for
Christ’s sake, reckons us as perfectly righteous, and then proceeds to make us
holy; she says, God, for Christ’s sake, makes us perfectly holy, and then
pronounces us, because of this inherent holiness, to be righteous. In other
words, we hold that God justifies and also sanctifies; Rome holds that He only
sanctifies.
(b) As to the manner in which this righteousness is applied to us: we say, by
faith only; she says, in the sacraments: she holds that this righteousness is
infused into every baptised man, so that he is made perfectly righteous, and
this state of justification, she holds, further, may be endangered by venial sin,
and lost by deadly sin, and that it progresses so that a man may be more or
less justified at one time than another. Now observe the subtlety of this error.
It might be said this doctrine of Rome answers our test, for it ascribes all the
work of salvation to God; it declares that this inherent righteousness is God’s
free gift, just as you say your imputed righteousness is. Surely there is no
claim here made for man’s righteousness. Let us see how our Lord disposes of
this answer. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee the
other a publican, and the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself—God,
I thank Thee, I am not as other men are.” Where is self-righteousness here?
The Pharisee claims no merit—he declares the righteousness which he
presents to God, to be God’s work; God has made him to differ; he fasts, and
prays, and gives alms, but the power to do these good works he acknowledges
to have come from God; and yet it is said that he “trusted in himself that he
was righteous.” Why? Because the righteousness he presented was a
righteousness in him; it was not the righteousness of God, and it availed him
nothing to say that it was God’s gift at first. It is self-righteous to present to
God as a reason for pardon anything in man, whether that be said to be
originally God’s gift or not; he who comes to Him must come as the publican,
“God be merciful to me,”—not a justified or sanctified man, but “me a sinner!”
Add to this, that even if the righteousness be God’s gift in the first instance,
yet the preserving of it, the increase of it, by faith, and prayer, and penance,
are the man’s own, upon this system, so that such an one must claim the
reward of debt and not of grace.

26. 2. Although we have gone to Rome for a definition of it, this doctrine is to be found
among ourselves. How many are there who believe that God, for Christ’s sake, will
accept them “if they do their best”—Christ’s merits making up for their deficiency!
How many more are there who think that God, for Christ’s sake, will enable them to
keep His holy law, and so accept them as righteous! And how many are there who
imagine that God, for Christ’s sake, accepts their faith as something meritorious,
justifying them because they hold the doctrine of justification by faith! In all these,
from the open claim of heaven as a reward, to the more subtle claim of merit for
having rejected all merit; and of righteousness for having renounced righteousness;
in all these there is the same error—the presenting to God of something in us, instead
of presenting the perfect righteousness of Christ. (Abp. Magee.)
Man saved
The words contain a golden chain of highest blessings bestowed by God upon all true
Christians. Notice—
I. The Divine method of salvation.
1. Faith in Christ removes the condemnation. It means both a general trust in God’s
revelations and grace, and a special trust in Christ as given by the Father’s love to be
the Redeemer of His people. Understanding, will, affections, risking their all upon
Him. Justification is not perfection. Not justified by the law of innocency, or of
Moses, but by the law of Christ—“who died for our sins,” and “was raised again for
our justification.”
2. Faith in Christ brings the believer into close communion with the Father. “By
whom also we have access,” etc. They are reconciled, and in a State of love and
friendship. Since man once sinned, God’s justice and man’s conscience tell us that we
are unfit for God’s acceptance or communion immediately, but must have a suitable
mediator. Blessed be God for a “daysman” appointed betwixt us and Himself!
Without Him I dare not pray, I cannot hope, I fear to die; God would else frown me
away to misery. All the hope and pardon that I have, come by this Author and
Finisher of our faith:
(1) This is joyous intercourse—“Peace with God.”
(2) It opens up a bright future. “And rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
3. Faith in Christ strengthens the child of God in tribulation. “Not only so, but,” etc.
The glory revealed unto us is so transcendent, and tribulation so small and short,
that an expectant of glory may well rejoice in spite of bodily sufferings. It is
tribulation for Christ and righteousness’ sake that we are to glory in; tribulation for
our sins must be patiently and penitently born.
(1) “Knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” That which worketh patience
should be a matter of joy; for patience can do more good for us than tribulation
can harm. Why then do I complain under suffering, and study so little the
exercise of patience?
(2) “And patience experience, and experience hope.” What profitable experiences
are to be derived from patient suffering! Of God’s providence, of our own
dependence upon a higher power, of the fickleness of human friendship, etc.
(3) “And hope maketh not ashamed.” That is, true hope of what God hath

27. promised shall never be disappointed. They that trust in deceitful creatures are
disappointed and ashamed of their hope; but God is true and ever faithful. All
this shows the superiority of a free spirit over carnal weapons.
II. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is the source of all excellency in the Christian
character.
1. By the “love of God shed abroad” is meant—
(1) The realisation of Divine life in the soul.
(2) The sweet experiences arising from the absence of doubts and fears.
(3) It leads God’s adopted children to love one another:
2. The Spirit within—
(1) Is helpful to overcome temptation. “When the enemy shall come in like a
flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”
(2) Mortifies the fleshly lusts that war against the soul. The desperately wicked
heart is a hotbed of lusts and passions that require to be weeded, else they will
choke the germs of the good seed. We cannot serve God and Mammon.
3. Points to a future life, and proves our title to it. There are some so blind as to think
that man shall have no hereafter, because brutes have not. But it is enough for us to
know that God hath promised it; and let it be our earnest prayer, “Shed more abroad
upon my heart, by the Holy Spirit, that love of Thine which will draw up my longing
soul to Thee, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.” (Richard Baxter.)
Justification by faith
The justification of which Paul speaks is—
1. Not that gracious constitution of God by which, for the sake of Christ, He so far
delivers men from the guilt of Adam’s sin as to place them in a salvable state, and by
virtue of which all infants dying in infancy are saved (see Rom_5:18); for justification
is not common to the race, but is experienced by certain individuals.
2. Not the justification of those who lived under inferior dispensations, or who now
live in countries where the gospel is not known. On this point there are two extremes.
(1) The unauthorised severity of those who hold that all heathens are doomed to
damnation.
(2) The undistinguishing charity of those who insinuate that the heathen are
perfectly safe, and need not be disturbed in their superstitions. Each of these is
remote from the truth.
3. Not justification before men by the evidence of works (Jas_2:1-26), but the
justification of penitent sinners before God, which is necessarily previous.
4. Not the justification of persevering believers at the last day. This will be
pronounced on the evidence of works springing from faith, and evidencing its
genuineness and continuance. Our business is with a present justification, “Being
justified.” Let us look at:—
I. Its nature. We assume—

28. (1) That all men naturally are in a state of guilt and condemnation. Our
hereditary depravity is odious to the God of Purity, while our consequent
personal iniquity renders us liable to punishment.
(2) That the man of whose justification we are about to speak is convinced that
this is his state.
2. What, then, is meant by justification in these circumstances? To justify a sinner is
to consider him relatively righteous, and to deal with him as such, notwithstanding
his past unrighteousness, by clearing and releasing him from various penal evils,
especially from God’s wrath and the liability to eternal death. Hence justification and
forgiveness are substantially the same (Act_13:38-39; Rom_4:5; Rom 4:8). Note that
justification—
(1) Does not in the least degree alter the evil nature and desert of sin. It is the
holy Lord who justifieth. The penalty is still naturally due, though graciously
remitted. Hence the duty of continuing to confess and lament even pardoned sin
(Eze_16:62-63).
(2) Is not, as Romish and some mystic divines contend, the being made righteous
by the infusion of a sanctifying influence, which confounds justification with
regeneration.
(3) Extends to all past sins (Act_13:39). God does not justify us by degrees, but at
once.
(4) However effectual to our release from past guilt, does not terminate our state
of probation. As he who is now justified was once condemned, so he may again
come into condemnation by relapsing into sin, as was the case with Adam.
(5) If lost, may be recovered (Psa_32:1-5; cf. Rom_4:1; Rom 4:8).
II. Its immediate results.
1. The restoration of amity and intercourse between the pardoned sinner and the
pardoning God. “We have peace with God,” and consequently access to Him. The
ground of God’s controversy with us being removed, we become objects of His
friendship (Jas_2:23). This reconciliation, however, does not mean deliverance from
all the evils which sin has entailed, viz., suffering and death, but it entitles us to such
supports and such promises of sanctifying influence as will “turn the curse into a
blessing.”
2. Adoption and the consequent right to eternal life. God condescends to become not
only our Friend, but our Father (Rom_8:17).
3. The habitual indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As sin induced the Spirit’s departure, so
the pardon of sin is followed by deliverance from it, because it makes way for His
return to our souls (Gal_3:13-14; Gal 4:1; Act_2:38). Of this indwelling the
immediate effects are—
(1) Tranquillity of conscience (Rom_5:5; Rom 8:15-16).
(2) Power over sin, a prevailing desire and ability to walk before God in holy
obedience (Rom_8:1, etc.).
(3) A joyous hope of heaven (Rom_5:2, Rom_15:13; Gal_5:5).
III. Its method.
1. The originating cause is the free, sovereign, undeserved, and spontaneous love of

29. God towards fallen man (Tit_2:11; Tit 3:4-5; Rom_3:24).
2. The meritorious cause is Christ; for what He did in obedience to the precepts of
the law, and what He suffered in satisfaction of its penalty, taken together, constitute
that mediatorial righteousness, for the sake of which the Father is ever well pleased
in Him. In this all who are justified have a saving interest. Not that it is imputed to
them in its formal nature or distinct acts; for against any such imputation there lie
insuperable objections from both reason and Scripture. But the collective merit and
moral effects of all which the Mediator did and suffered are so reckoned to our
account that, for the sake of Christ, we are released from guilt and accepted of God.
3. The instrumental cause is faith.
(1) Present faith. We are not justified by—
(a) Tomorrow’s faith foreseen, for that would lead to the Antinomian
justification from eternity.
(b) By yesterday’s faith recorded or remembered, for that would imply that
justification is irreversible. Justification is offered on believing. We are never
savingly interested in it until we believe; and it continues in force only so long
as we continue to believe.
(2) The acts of this faith are:—
(a) The assent of the understanding to the testimony of God in the gospel,
and especially that part of it which concerns the design and efficacy of Christ’s
sacrifice for sin.
(b) The consent of the will and affections to this plan of salvation, such an
approbation and choice of it as imply the renunciation of every other refuge,
and a steady, decided, and thankful acquiescence in God’s revealed method of
forgiveness.
(3) Actual trust in the Saviour and personal apprehension of His merits.
IV. Inferences.
1. That we are not justified by the merit of our works, inasmuch as no obedience we
can render can come up to the requisitions of the Law of Innocence.
2. That repentance is neither the cause nor instrument of justification. Repentance
makes no atonement, and therefore cannot supersede the blood of Jesus; nor does it
secure any personal or justifying interest in it; this is the object of faith only.
3. That the Spirit’s work in regeneration and sanctification is not the previous
condition of our justification, or the prerequisite qualification for it. For in that case
we should be saved without a Saviour, which is a contradiction. The work of pardon
for yon must precede the work of purification in you. In the cleansing of the leper, the
blood was first to be used, then the oil (Lev_14:1-57). And in order to your salvation
you must first bays “the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus,” and then you shall have
“the renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
4. That our justification is not by the merit of faith itself a refined theory of
justification by works.
V. Reflections.
1. How clear and urgent is the duty of seeking an experimental enjoyment of
justifying grace.

30. 2. How sacred are the obligations of the justified:
(1) Gratefully acknowledge it.
(2) Diligently improve it.
(3) Practically evidence your enjoyment of it. (Jabez Bunting, D. D.)
Justification by faith
I. Justification defined. Justification is the Divine judicial act which applies to the sinner
believing in Christ the benefit of the atonement, delivering him from the condemnation
of his sin, introducing him into a state of favour, and treating him as a righteous person.
Though justifying faith is an operating principle which, through the Holy Spirit’s energy,
attains to an interior and perfect conformity to the law, or internal righteousness, it is
the imputed character of justification which regulates the New Testament use of the
word. Inherent righteousness is connected more closely with the perfection of the
regenerate and sanctified life. In this more limited sense justification is either the act of
God or the state of man.
I. God the Justifier. The act of justifying is that of God as the Judge. Generally it is
δικαίωσις, the word which pronounces the sinner absolved from the condemning
sentence of the law, and it refers always and only to the sins that are past. Whether
regarded as the first act of mercy, or as the permanent will of God’s grace towards the
believer in Christ, or as the final sentence in the Judgment, it is the Divine declaration
which discharges the sinner as such from the condemnation of his sin. “It is God that
justifieth”—God in Christ, for all judgment is “committed to the Son,” who both now and
ever pronounces as Mediator the absolving word, declaring it in this life to the
conscience by His Spirit. It is the voice of God, the Judge in the mediatorial court, where
the Redeemer is the Advocate, pleading His own propitiatory sacrifice and the promise of
the gospel declared to the penitence and faith of the sinner whose cause He pleads. The
simplest form in which the doctrine is stated is in Rom_8:33-34. Here the apostle has in
view the past, present, and future of the believer; the death, resurrection, and
intercession of Christ; and the one justifying sense against which there can be no appeal
in time or in eternity. God is Θεᆵς ᆇ διακιራν, in one continuous and ever-present act.
II. Man as justified. The state into which man is introduced is variously described,
according to his various relations to God, to the Mediator, and the law. As an individual
sinner he is forgiven: his justification is pardon, his punishment is remitted. As a person
ungodly, he is regarded as righteous: “righteousness is imputed to him,” or his
“transgression is not imputed to him.” As a believer in Jesus “his faith is counted for
righteousness.” All these phrases describe, under its negative and its positive aspect, one
and the selfsame blessing of the new covenant as constituting the state of grace into
which the believer has entered and in which as a believer he abides. This is attested by
passages running through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles; passages which only
confirm the promises of the Old Testament. Our Lord’s forerunner was fore-announced
“to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins” (Luk_1:77). Our Saviour’s word
was, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee”; but he spoke of the publican as praying, “God be
merciful to me a sinner,” and as going down to his house “justified”—these words being
introduced for the first time, and both being reserved for abundant future service,
especially in the writings of St. Paul. He left the commission that “remission of sins
should be preached in His name.” St. Peter preached that “remission of sins,” and