Romans 5

We can have peace with God only on being declared righteous before Him. And we can be declared righteous before God, only when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, vs1.

It is through our faith in Him alone that we receive this grace and we can now rejoice in the hope of partaking of the glory of God, which is His divine nature, vs 2.

Now surprisingly, we can also rejoice in our sufferings, because it is through our sufferings that we can partake of God’s character and this gives us great hope, vs 3,4!

All this is possible only because of the power of the Holy Spirit poured out in our hearts from the time we chose to trust in Jesus to be out Saviour and Lord, vs 5. The beautiful thing about Jesus dying for us, is that He did not die for us because we were righteous or good, but because we were sinners and desperately needed a Saviour who could save us from the wrath of God which would eventually be poured out on all who did not experience salvation from their sin, vs 6-8!

Now it is only because of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf that we have a chance to become righteous in God’s eyes and be saved from God’s wrath, vs 9.

Infact, now we who have trusted Christ are not only saved from our past sins, but can also be increasingly set free from our present sin too, because Christ has been raised from the dead, and lives to die no more, vs 10! Hallelujah! God is now our Father and as we draw near to Him with this renewed mindset, our joy will know no bounds, vs 11! Yes, sin did enter the world through Adam and Eve, and they died spiritually.

However, we all also chose to sin after entering the world too, and so spiritual death spread to all men, 12. Yet that sin could not be imputed to man before the law came, nevertheless spiritual death did reign, vs 13,14, because man invariably disobeyed the voice of his/her conscience, which was a law unto him/her in itself. Thus, without the Saviour, Jesus Christ, sent from God, it would have been impossible for many to enjoy the gift of the grace of God which was absolutely needed in order to enter into and enjoy God’s presence, 15. So, just as the sin of one led to judgment and condemnation, the gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ led to the justification of many, vs 16,18,19. However, in order for us to enjoy this victory over sin, we must be in that place of genuine humility so that we can receive abundant grace from God, made available to us in Christ Jesus, vs 17.

So, no matter how dark the law paints man’s sin to look, yet all those who are recipients of God’s grace can truly keep the law of God from their hearts, and so be counted as righteous before God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

And this is what it means to partake of eternal life right here on earth, even before we encounter physical death, vs 20,21.

Let us not miss it for anything in this world on account of our pride, which makes it very difficult for us to acknowledge that we have sinned, even though we have broken God’s laws!

Let him who has an ear, hear. Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.