Chapter V.
1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2. By whom now we have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God . Faith then has given us remission of sins, and made us blameless and just by the regeneration of the baptismal font, and it is incumbent on you to preserve the peace thus effected. For the only-begotten by His incarnation has reconciled you, while you were in hostility with Him, and sin it was that produced this hostility, righteousness therefore it must be which will maintain the peace commenced; and this then we are in every way bound to pursue by the consideration of the hopes held out, and the glory promised by God to be given to us. For the recompense of our labours he calls not payment, but glory , to show the excess of our reward. And as they had at that time to endure many troubles, being beaten, tortured, and subjected to a thousand kinds of death, he most fitly brings forward the sources of consolation connected with these things, 3. And not only so, but we even glory in tribulations . He has displayed brightly his own insuperable magnanimity, for it is not, we patiently endure afflictions, which he says, but we even rejoice in afflictions ; we are exalted, he exclaims, and take pride to ourselves, as fellow-sharers with the Lord of sufferings; but this he says not openly, because they alone could so feel, who with himself had arrived at completeness in the faith; the rest he encourages by what should come hereafter. 4. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience proof, and proof hope. 5. And hope maketh not ashamed . When misfortunes surround a man, and he bears their attack nobly, he is thereby shown to stand his proof , and leans on the hope of the future; and this is not a fallacious hope, but one based on truth; which is what he means by maketh not ashamed , they who hope, and then are disappointed, being confounded and ashamed. |350
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us . For the grace of the thrice holy Spirit, which we received through baptism, has kindled the love of God within us. And he then sets forth the causes of this love. 6. For when we were yet without strength, in time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die . For we reflect, that when we were yet transgressors, and suffering under the infection of impiety, the Lord Christ endured that death, which was inflicted on our behalf; and hence we learn the depth of His loving-mercy, for for a just man it might be, that some might face death, but He, through the excess of His love, welcomed the death which was in behalf of sinners; as he also goes on to say, 8. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us . God then makes manifest the greatness of His love towards us, in the death of Christ having been undergone, not for such as had been just, but for such as were yet transgressors. For we now have been justified by faith in Him, but, when He undertook that death for us, we were still subject to every kind of sin; the words, in time , mean, at the fit time, in due time, and this he says also in his epistle to the Galatians, (iv. 4, 5.) " But when the fulness of the time was come , God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 9. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him . Having encountered that accursed (see Gal. iii. 13) death for the ungodly and transgressors, it is evident that He will free from the future punishment those, that believe in Him; for that future (eternal) punishment is what he here calls wrath. 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved in His life . If while we were antagonists, and enemies, He thought fit to treat us with so great consideration, as to give up His Son to die for us, how is it possible, now that reconciliation has been effected, that we should not share in everlasting life? And here again he calls the Lord Christ, the Son , who, the same, is both God and man; it must be evident therefore, I apprehend, even to the most determined heretics, as to which nature His passion took place.
11. And not only so, but we joy also in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation . For not only do we expect immortal life, but even as to the present existence, glory in having been brought near unto God, while we reflect upon the things concerning the Lord Christ, who, being our mediator, has effected peace.
From hence he proceeds to explain the mystery of the dispensation, and show the reasons of the incarnation, 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned . The Lord God having formed Adam, and dignified him with reason, imposed on him one single law for the exercise of those rational faculties; for indeed it was not meet that one who had received reason, and possessed the power of discriminating between good and its opposite, should live without any law at all. He, having been beguiled, transgressed the command. But, from the first, the lawgiver had to the command affixed the threat of retribution, and thus, |351 falling under the sentence of death, he so begot Cain, Seth, and the rest. All therefore, as having sprung from him, inherited a mortal nature. Now such a nature has need of many things, food, and drink, and clothing, and houses, and various arts, and the use of these oftentimes excites the passions into excess, and excess begets sin; and therefore the holy apostle says, that Adam having sinned, and become mortal through that sin, both descended to his race, for death came upon all men, in that all have sinned , for not on account of our first father's transgression, but for his own, each receives the sentence of death. 13. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not reckoned ( such ) where there is no law . He accuses not, as some suppose, those who lived before the law, but all alike; for the until the law means, not until the commencement of, but until the end of, the law; that is, while the law reigned sin had power, for where there is no law, neither can there be transgression.
14. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the type of Him that would come after . By Moses he means the law, as we also find in the Gospels (Luke xvi. 29,) "They have Moses and the prophets;" |352 and so also the holy apostle speaks in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (iii. 15,) " But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their hearts," that is, the law. Death then, says he, reigned from Adam until the manifestation of the Saviour, for then the law received its end, "for the law," says he, "and the prophets, prophesied until John; but from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matt. xi. 12, 13.) And death, moreover, reigned over those also, who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, for although they had not transgressed that particular commandment, they had nevertheless ventured on other sins. And he calls Adam the type of Christ, for the latter he designates as Him that would come after , on this account, that as Adam first, by his sin, became subject to the sentence of death, and thus the whole race followed their first parent, so the Lord Christ, having fulfilled the most perfect righteousness, destroyed the power of death, and first rising from the dead shall restore the whole race of man to life. And as he had called Adam the type of Christ, he shows the pre-eminence (of the latter.) 15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift . And how then is this? For if through the offence of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many . As regards punishment, says he, the Lord God preserved the strict law of justice, and Adam, having sinned, and been given over to death, the whole race followed him; how much more right then that, as regards God's loving-mercy, justice should also be preserved, and all men share in the resurrection of our Lord Christ! He here calls the Lord Christ a man , to show clearly the type in Adam, that as there by one man (came) death, so here by one man the dissolution of death. 16. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification . The munificence of grace, says he, goes beyond the limits of justice, for then, one having sinned, the whole race received punishment, but now, all mankind having been unholy, and transgressors, it has brought, not punishment but, the free gift of life.
17. For if by one man's offences death reigned by one; much more they which receive the fulness of grace, and of the gift, and of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ . If the transgression of one man established the dominion of death, it is evident that they, which enjoy the plenteous gifts of God, shall be conquerors over death, and share with Christ in the imperishable kingdom and life eternal.18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life . Doubt not, says he, concerning what I have said, while looking to Adam; for if those things be true, as indeed they are true, and when he had sinned the whole race received the sentence of death; it is plain, that the righteousness of the Saviour gains life to all men. And again he puts the same thing in another form, varying his phrase, and again and again re-stating it, in order the more clearly to open the mystery of the dispensation. 19. For as by one man s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . With great nicety does he here, in the case of those under Adam, and that of those under grace, adopt the word |353 many, for indeed among the former we find some, who were superior to the grosser sins, as Abe1, and Enoch, and Noah, and Melchisedek, and the patriarchs, and even those who became illustrious under the law; and after (the covenant of) grace there are many who embrace a sinful life.
Having thus shewn us, from what took place through Adam, the reasons for the divine incarnation, he brings forward the objection which might arise, and offers a solution. The objection is with regard to the law, which was given in the interim between Adam and the appearance of the Saviour; wherefore the holy apostle says, 20. But the law came in between, that the offence might abound . He means not, by that it might , that such was its object; but uses the words according to his familiar mode of expression. But what he is shewing is, that neither in time past did God leave men neglected, but gave the law to the Jews, and by their means showed forth the light of religion on the rest of the nations also. And aptly has he put intervened , in that Christ was the end of the promise made to the patriarch; for "in thy seed," says He, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," and the law intervened between Abraham and Christ. And it taught the more clearly how evil a thing sin was, while yet it was incompetent to put a stop thereto, but only the more increased it, seeing that, in proportion as more commandments were given, so many the more became the violations of them. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound . It invalidated not, says he, the mercy of God, but rather displayed the vastness of His loving-kindness. 21. That as sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord . Here he finishes the argument, shewing that as sin, begetting death, had reigned in our mortal bodies, exciting the passions to excess; so grace, conveying to believers the justification which is of faith, has her dominion also, one not coeval with that of sin, but eternal and endless; for the former reigns over our bodies, but at their death ceases from her power, "for he who is dead," according to the holy apostle, "is freed from sin;" while, after the resurrection, our bodies having become imperishable, and immortal, grace will reign in them, sin having no longer any place; for when the passions have ceased, there will be no room for sin. And then again he proposes another objection arising from the subject, and with ease resolves it. |407