Romans 4:23-5:5

²³ And it was not written for his [i.e., Abraham’s] sake only that ‘it was reckoned to him,’ ²⁴ but also for ours, for those whose are going to be reckoned, for those believing in the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ who was handed over on account of our sins and raised for the sake of our justification.

^5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we also have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. And we exult in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only [this], but we also exult in the tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces steadfastness, ⁴ and steadfastness approved character, and approved character hope. ⁵ And hope does disappoint, for the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.

This week in our Sunday School series on Romans, we finished up chapter four and started into chapter five. In verse 22, Paul quoted again part of Genesis 15:6, which has been his theme verse as he demonstrated justification by faith in the life of Abraham. Having proven that it was not Abraham’s works, the Law, circumcision, or the apparent facts that made Abraham righteous, but his faith, Paul now makes application to his readers. The words “it was reckoned to him” was not just for Abraham–it was for everyone who believes in the Lord. Paul describes God as “the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” This phrasing serves the purpose of highlighting that it’s not just faith in God, but in the risen Savior. And also he presents a parallel here: it’s the same God who brought life to Sarah’s “dead” womb who also raised Jesus from the dead.

Paul says that Genesis 15:6 is for “those who are going to be reckoned” or “those about to be reckoned.” However this verse is translated, it is looking forward to a time when people will be reckoned to be righteous. But aren’t Paul’s readers (and indeed all Christians) already reckoned righteous? It’s possible he’s looking to that time, when Christ returns, that we will come into full possession of the promise. But I think it’s more likely that Paul is writing from Abraham’s perspective: he was reckoned righteous then, but for him his spiritual seed will also, at some point in the future, also be reckoned righteous on the basis of the same faith.

It’s possible that verse 25 is an early Christian saying that Paul quotes. One of the reasons for saying that is because the verse contains two clauses that seem to be in parallel. The Greek reads like this: hos paredothê dia ta paraptômata hêmôn//kai êgerthê dia tên dikaiôsin hêmôn. Even if you don’t understand Greek, if you read it aloud hopefully you catch a poetic lilt to it. Also, notice the use of “dia” in both halves. This is a preposition, and it is used in the same grammatical form in both halves, meaning “because of” or “on account of.” For the first half, that presents no problem: “Who was handed over on account of our sins (or transgressions).” If we translate dia the same way, however (which the rules of grammar would normally say we should do), we get: “and was raised on account of our justification.” This sounds as if our justification somehow caused Christ to be raised from the dead, just as it was our sins that caused him to be handed over to death. But Paul has been saying (and will continue saying) that it is because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, and our trust in him, that we are justified. While dia more often than not has this meaning (in this particular grammatical construction), there are cases where it can take a more forward-looking meaning (e.g. “for the sake of”), and I believe that’s how we should understand it here. Christ was handed over to death because of our sins, but was raised for the sake of our justification–our justification depends on Christ’s resurrection, not the other way around.

In 5:1, Paul turns from argument to application. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Christ. Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin, and so the wrath of God that is revealed against all men in 1:18 has been satisfied for those who believe.

There is an important issue with the Greek text of 5:1: should it read “we have peace with God” or “let us have peace with God”? The difference is one letter in the Greek: echomen or echômen. Here is the passage from Codex Vaticanus, a fourth century Greek manuscript, where I have underlined the word in question:

Source: www.csntm.org (from the Vatican Library)

You can see where it was originally written with the Greek omega (which looks like a “w”), but someone has written an omicron (“o”) over the top. In other words, the person who copied this manuscript had echômen (“let us have”) in front of him, but either he, or someone coming along later, believed this to be a mistake, and wrote the omicron above the omega indicating that the word should, in his estimation, be echomen (“we have”). Ancient copyists didn’t like crossing words out, and would rather note corrections either in the margin or above the word in question.

The confusion more than likely came about because in the Greek of this time, the omega and the omicron would have had a similar sound. Therefore, a copyist writing from dictation would have to determine from context (and his knowledge of the language) whether to write an omicron or an omega.

Which is correct? This is an important question, because this one letter affects our interpretation of the passage. Is Paul exhorting the Roman Christians to be at peace with God because of their justification, or is he affirming to them that they have peace with God? The manuscript evidence in this case appears to favor the exhortation. There is only one early manuscript we have that appears to have the omicron in this word. The majority of the best manuscripts read “let us have.” But the fact that there is this one early manuscript, and that there are corrections like the one in Codex Vaticanus noted, should give us pause. Perhaps these correctors had access to manuscripts that no longer exist. Really, the deciding vote must be cast on the basis of context: which reading best fits with what Paul has been saying.

If we read it as an exhortation, then Paul is telling the Roman church that, since they have been justified by faith, and the same faith that justified Abraham, they (and Paul included) need to recognize this fact and on the basis of that have peace with God through Christ. It sounds as if having peace with God is something that comes from the believer on the basis of their justified state. However, if we read it as a statement, Paul is affirming to the Romans (and himself) that because they have been justified by faith, they now have peace with God through Christ. As I noted above, we can draw a link here with 1:18, where the wrath of God is revealed against all “godlessness and wickedness of men.” For those who believe, however, there is no longer wrath, but peace with God. I think this latter view fits the context much better. Although, as some argue, the verbs in verses 2 and 3 translated “we exult” can also be translated “let us exult,” creating a nice series of exhortations (“let us have… let us exult… let us exult…”), I don’t think this is good enough reason to change the meaning of verse 1 as dramatically as this would. All three verbs can remain as statements (“indicatives” to use the technical terminology) and meaning is not lost.

So we have peace with God through Christ, and it is through Christ that we have access to “this grace”–the state we are in with regard to being justified and at peace with God–and it’s upon this grace we stand. Some translations say we have “obtained an introduction,” which is a possible translation, but in this context I think the idea of having “access” is more in mind. Previously, we were enemies with God, and His wrath was upon us. Now we are at peace with God, and we have access to Him through His justifying work through Christ. We can stand, assured and affirmed in our position before God. Moreover, we exult (the word more often means “to boast,” but here I think the idea of exulting, or confidently rejoicing fits) upon the hope of the glory of God.

In the next few verses Paul goes on to talk about also exulting in tribulation. I think he sets us up for this by affirming our position with the Lord: justified, at peace, and able to stand firm in this grace. While we read through to verse 5, and talked about verses 3-5 a little, we will come back to these verses and discuss more fully next time.

PROGRAM NOTE: For the next three weeks, we will be pausing our study of Romans to take a look at “The Six Points of Calvinism.” (Those in the know may be wondering at this–isn’t this supposed to be “The 5 Points of Calvinism”? All will be explained next week!) We will deal with two points per week, and then after that come back to Romans. I will post notes on our discussion of these points each week.