Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 5:10
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
10. if ] i.e. as. The hypothesis is also a fact.
enemies ] Personal enemies; the proper force of the Gr. word. Cp. Col 1:21. See below on Rom 8:7.
reconciled to God ] On “reconciliation,” see on Rom 5:1. Here certainly the idea of the conciliation of man’s will to God (as a result of the Propitiation revealed) is suggested. But even here it is scarcely the main idea. The language, carefully weighed, points more to God’s acceptance of the sinner than to the sinner’s acceptance of God. For the case is put thus: “When we were enemies, God was gracious to us: much more (as to our apprehension) will He be gracious to us still.” How was He gracious to us then? Surely by the gift of justification (see Rom 5:9). As our Judge, He acquitted us; in other words, He was reconciled to us, and adopted us. Therefore, as our reconciled Father, He will surely be equally gracious to us still. Through this context St Paul has not yet come to the result of pardon on the will. When he here uses the phrase “reconciled to God” it is evidently with main reference to the removal of a judicial bar. Absalom, for instance, was reconciled to David restored to his filial position only when David put aside his just wrath: till this was done, no change of will in Absalom would be reconciliation.
by the death ] As propitiation, with a view to justification; Rom 3:24-25.
being reconciled ] He does not say “being friends; ” which, as just stated, is not yet the idea in point. The barrier of condemnation is taken away; therefore fortiori the Judge, who is also the Father, will continue to us His love.
we shall be saved ] See on Rom 5:9.
by his life ] Lit. in His life. The “ in ” here is probably strictly appropriate: “in His life” = “in Him who lives.” The justified are “in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Cp. Col 3:4, where the reference to the final appearing of the Saviour, (the appearing to judgment and salvation,) serves to explain this passage. Q. d., “We shall be saved in the day of the Lord because He, who died for us, ever lives as our Life.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For if – The idea in this verse is simply a repetition and enlargement of that in Rom 5:9. The apostle dwells on the thought, and places it in a new light, furnishing thus a strong confirmation of his position.
When we were enemies – The work was undertaken while we were enemies. From being enemies we were changed to friends by that work. Thus, it was commenced by God; its foundation was laid while we were still hostile to it; it evinced, therefore, a determined purpose on the part of God to perform it; and he has thus given a pledge that it shall be perfected.
We were reconciled – Note, Mat 5:24. We are brought to an agreement; to a state of friendship and union. We became his friends, laid aside our opposition, and embraced him as our friend and portion. To effect this is the great design of the plan of salvation; 2Co. 5:1-20; Col 1:21; Eph 2:16. It means that there were obstacles existing on both sides to a reconciliation; and that these have been removed by the death of Christ; and that a union has thus been effected. This has been done in removing the obstacles on the part of God – by maintaining the honor of his Law; showing his hatred of sin; upholding his justice, and maintaining his truth, at the same time that he pardons; Note, Rom 3:26. And on the part of man, by removing his unwillingness to be reconciled; by subduing, changing, and sanctifying his heart; by overcoming his hatred of God, and of his Law; and bringing him into submission to the government of God. So that the Christian is in fact reconciled to God; he is his friend; he is pleased with his Law, his character, and his plan of salvation. And all this has been accomplished by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus as an offering in our place.
Much more – It is much more to be expected; there are still stronger and more striking considerations to show it.
By his life – We were reconciled by his death. Death may include possibly his low, humble, and suffering condition. Death has the appearance of great feebleness; the death of Christ had the appearance of the defeat of his plans. His enemies triumphed and rejoiced over him on the cross, and in the tomb. Yet the effect of this feeble, low, and humiliating state was to reconcile us to God. If in this state, when humble, despised, dying, dead, he had power to accomplish so great a work as to reconcile us to God, how much more may we expect that he will be able to keep us now that he is a living, exalted, and triumphant Redeemer. If his fainting powers in dying were such as to reconcile us, how much more shall his full, vigorous powers as an exalted Redeemer, be sufficient to keep and save us. This argument is but an expansion of what the Saviour himself said; Joh 14:19, Because I live, ye shall live also.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 5:10
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Enemies of God
I. In what respect unregenerate men are such. In–
1. Their esteem of Him.
2. The natural relish of their souls.
3. Their will.
4. Their affections.
5. Their practice.
II. To how great a degree.
1. They have no love.
2. Their every faculty is subject to this enmity.
3. It is insuperable to any finite power.
4. They are greater enemies to God than to any other being.
III. The reasons for this.
1. God is opposed to their idolatries.
2. They are threatened with damnation because of them. (Jonathan Edwards, A. M.)
Gods hatred of sin
It is no figure but a deep essential truth that God hates sin; and since sin is necessarily personal, the sinner as such, i.e., so far as he wilfully identifies himself with his sin, is hated of God, His enemy (Rom 11:28). But God loves everything that He has made. He cannot love man as a sinner, but He loves him as man, even when he is a sinner. In like manner the Jews are described as being, at the same time, enemies in one relation and beloved in another (Rom 11:28). Human love here offers a true analogy: the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, or the traitor. Thus God, loving as His creatures those whom He hates as self-made sinners, devises means whereby they may be brought back to Him. (Archdeacon Gifford.)
Reconciliation with God
I. The believers reconciliation.
1. The previous character of the partakers of this benefit; they were enemies to God. But it is no easy thing to induce men to acknowledge this. They may indeed acknowledge that they have some imperfections and infirmities; but they cannot be persuaded that they are enemies to God.
2. This inestimable boon itself. There are but few who do not know the value of reconciliation. Who has not tasted the bitterness of estrangement? Who has not enjoyed the deliciousness of renewed friendship? How delicious is national peace, domestic peace, ecclesiastical peace. But the blessing of reconciliation must be judged of by the Being whom we have offended and provoked. Who knoweth the power of His anger? And oh, to know that we are one with God again! Why, then, trials have no curse, death no sting, and all things work together for good.
3. The reconciliation is perfect and perpetual. A breach may be so far made up as to exclude hostility. Absalom was allowed to live three years in Jerusalem without seeing the kings face. There may be an admission of civilities and even general intercourse, where there may be no admission of cordialness. But how is it here? (Rom 8:35-39).
4. The medium of it. The death of His Son. We escape, but He suffered. There are some who deny the vicariousness of the sufferings of Christ. But upon their principles it seems hard to account for His sufferings at all. According to these, He died not for others sins, and we know He could not for His own; so upon this ground He suffered in every respect as innocent; and if this were true, we may well ask, Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Why is He thus making Him to be sin for us who knew no sin? Why, if our tears, or repentance, or alms could have made reconciliation with God, He never would have been pleased to bruise His only begotten Son; and if in His sacrifice God did nothing needlessly or in vain, then there must have been a propriety, a necessity in the great transaction. So the apostle affirms, It became Him to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. Thus your reconciliation is made in a way that is as honourable to God as it is safe to us. The just God appears a Saviour. Now, this blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, having spoken to the justice of God, and satisfied it, speaks to the conscience of the sinner, and gives it quiet and peace. Thus have we boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Christ.
II. The believers salvation.
1. We are saved by His life. But are we not saved when reconciled? No. The one regards God, the other regards ourselves. But did not He exclaim when He expired, It is finished? Yes; but what was finished? The work of redemption, or the procuring of the thing; not the work of salvation, or the applying of the thing. The case is this. We were guilty, and by the death of Gods Son expiation was made for our offences. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and thus removed every hindrance on Gods side to our return to Him. Yet we are not actually saved till we receive Christ, and are found in Him. Indeed, as to the commencement of the work, and the certainty of the issue, Christians are said to be saved already. By grace are ye saved through faith. But as to the actual consummation, they are not saved till death is swallowed up in victory. This work of salvation is a gradual work carried on through the whole of the Christians life on earth. We go from strength to strength, and in the Divine image we are renewed day by day.
2. How this salvation is achieved. By His life; His mediatorial life; that life in which He is now living in our nature in heaven. This is what He referred to when He said, Because I live ye shall live also. Had He not risen, our hopes would have perished in the same grave. But we are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Everything that concerns our salvation is now to be viewed in connection with His life. He is now making intercession for us. He is a living Saviour, and as such He received the whole dispensation of the Spirit for men (Eph 4:8, etc.; Act 2:33). It is as a living Saviour, it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell, and out of His fulness have all we received grace for grace.
3. From hence you should learn to dwell more upon the present life of Christ. Christians love to hear of Christs death. But it would be in vain to view Him as the crucified One, unless we could view Him as the glorified One. Here is the ground of our highest triumph (Rom 8:34).
III. Their confirmation; derived from an inference drawn from one to the other. For if much more. Observe the conclusiveness of the inference. What can be more natural than for us to argue from the past to the future; from what has been done to what may be; to feel the remembrance of one favour encouraging our hope of another, especially when we argue from the greater to the less; as Rom 8:32 does? It was wonderful that God should have provided an ark for the saving of Noah and his house; but it was not wonderful, after He had provided it, that He should not suffer him to sink and go to the bottom. It is wonderful that God should have given us exceeding great and precious promises; but it is not wonderful, after He had given them, that He should fulfil the same. It is wonderful, Christians, that He should have begun a good work in you; but having begun it, it is not wonderful that He should perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (W. Jay.)
Reconciliation with God an earnest of complete salvation
I. More immediately in reference to God. Reconciliation is the restoring to a state of friendship parties Who had been at variance with each other. The parties presented by the apostle in the passage before us being God and man–God being necessarily the justly-offended party, it belonged to guilty, rebellious man to reconcile himself to God. But wherewithal could man thus come before God? What man, however, could never have solved, God hath both unravelled and removed. He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; not imputing to men their trespasses. He so far reconciled Himself to man, when He devised the plan whereby He could continue the just God, whilst the justifier of the ungodly who believe on Jesus. And He so far reconciled Himself to man, when He gave and continues with man, the ministry of reconciliation. Now the reasoning of the apostle, as bearing on this view of the case, is shortly this–hath God out of absolutely spontaneous loving kindness thought compassionately on man in his low and lost estate–hath He exerted His infinite wisdom in devising a scheme whereby in the riches of His grace through Christ, He hath even abounded towards man in all wisdom and prudence–hath the character of the Divine holiness been signally vindicated, and the claims of infinite justice and unimpeachable truth satisfied–hath the almighty power of God been put forth in raising up Christ from the dead–hath the Divine machinery, the pattern of things in the heavens, not only been constructed and perfected, but ready at the bidding of the great Artificer to begin the work of mercy and of love–when lo! the hand of the Divine Artificer, ready to touch the life-giving apparatus is suspended–producing the silence of ungratified desire in heaven, of disappointment on earth, of joy in hell. And, would such a part be worthy of the great God to act? Would it be consistent with the all-perfect character of Jehovah? Could the wisdom which devised and consummated the scheme, rest satisfied till its excellence was developed in its glorious effects?
II. The contrast implied between the efficacy and power of the life and the death of Christ. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now, although the death of Christ is not here specifically mentioned, yet it is directly referred to, and a contrast stated, though tacitly, between His death and His life. How was it that God was reconciled to man, and man to God? It was by the death of His Son. Now, if such effects are ascribed to, and naturally flow from the death of Christ, much more may we look for, and naturally expect consequences, even if possible surpassing these, springing from His life. It is not so much His mediatorial life, as affording opportunities for the fruits of His death to appear, and hereby manifesting its incalculable efficacy; as by the transference, as it were, of what gave worth and efficacy in the death, to the activity and energy in the life. And what was it which rendered the death or sacrifice of Christ infinitely meritorious? It was not that He was a man, or even a perfect man, but that He was the God-man. Oh, what encouragement, and what a firm ground of confidence does the apostles reasoning in this view of the case afford to the genuine believer in the name of Christ! Transfer the infinite worth of character, as giving value and efficacy to the death of Christ–transfuse all this into His mediatorial life, and what vitality and power concentrate not only here; but how are all these pledged as a guarantee that the foundation which was laid in the death will be reared into a glorious edifice by the life of Christ. If His death effected so much, much more rather will His life more than perfect all.
III. The third step in the process of the apostles reasoning refers more immediately to man, and carries with it into the bosom of the genuine believer the most irresistible evidence of its truth and power. Having become the subject of this reconciliation, he is conscious to himself that a thorough change hath passed upon his state and character as in the sight of God. Lately he was dead whilst he lived; but now hath he been quickened to newness of life, and is alive unto God, through Jesus Christ. Originally his inner man was a spiritual chaos, without form and void; but now he is created anew in Christ Jesus. A new heart has been given him, and a new spirit put within him. Lately his mind, being carnal, was enmity against God, but this enmity is now transfused into friendship. Once he loved sin, and derived his chief enjoyment from the ways of it; but now he is a lover of God, and Gods law is his delight. Now, observe how forcibly to the experienced Christian the conclusion is which the apostle draws in the text–much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by Christs life. What hath been already wrought in the heart of the believer is an earnest and a pledge of what God will continue to do, and delight in doing. Hath He changed rebellion into loyalty, He will never fail to reward with the smiles of His approval the acts of loyalty cheerfully and submissively rendered. Hath He changed enmity into affection, He will never cease to draw forth renewed and more ardent expressions of this heaven-born love. In short, if our heavenly Father came graciously near when we were repulsive, He will never leave us now that He hath rendered us attractive. (D. Logan.)
Reconciled and saved
1. Among the ten thousand plants that clothe the naked world, none are found where the execution falls short of the design. Nor among the countless tribes of animals does God, in any case, appear to have begun a work and stopped in the middle. He never made an unfinished flower or insect; and it were strange if He should make an unfinished saint.
2. Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? I saw the prosperity of the wicked Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all day long have I been plagued. These plaints prove that Providence is not so easily read as nature. But that is because Providence is not, like creation, a finished work. Take a man to a house when the architect is in the middle of his plan, what is perfect order to the architect, to the other will be confusion; and so stands man amid that vast scheme of Providence which God began six thousand years ago, and may not finish for as many thousand years to come. Raised to the throne of Egypt, Joseph saw why God had permitted him to be sold into slavery and cast into prison. And raised to heaven, the saint, now that Gods works of Providence stand before him in all their completeness, shall take his harp, and sing, Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints.
3. Now, Gods work in grace forms no exception to His works in nature and in Providence. A man designs a great literary work, and he dies; or throwing it aside for something else, he leaves the world but a fragment of it. The studio of the painter has unfinished pictures; our streets have unfinished houses; and man has many a plan lodged in his busy brain that he never or but partly executes. But where God begins a good work He carries it on to the day of the Lord Jesus. Consider–
I. Our state by nature–We are the enemies of God.
1. Some things we are to believe on the simple authority of Gods Word. There are others, again, in which, as face answereth to face in water, so the state of our hearts answereth to the statements of Gods Word; and such is the case with Pauls saying, The carnal mind is enmity against God. For was there ever a saved man who did not feel when he was converted that he was conquered? This enmity does not lie in bad habits, education, or other such circumstances. It is not like a cold which anyone may take, but a consumption which is constitutional and hereditary; and what are all these sins and crimes which the apostle describes as works of the flesh (Gal 5:19); but, like the flushed cheek, languid eye, and bounding pulse of fever, the symptoms of an enmity that lies lurking in every heart? The temptations that call out the enmity no more create it than the showers and sunshine create the deadly hemlock which has its seed in the soil.
2. Nor is this all. Consumption, fell and deadly as it is, usually attacks but one organ. The constitution may be otherwise sound. The best things, indeed, have their defects–there are spots in the sun; there is more or less of alloy in all gold; and weeds deform the fairest gardens. But whenever circumstances occur to call it out, this enmity affects the whole man; so that he is as much under its influence as every sail, yard, mast, and timber of a ship are under the government of her helm. True, that does not always appear; but no more does the fire that sleeps in the cold flint, until there be a collision with steel. The carnal mind not only has, but is, enmity against God. Enmity is of its very nature, as it is of the nature of grass to be green, or sugar to be sweet, or vinegar to be sour. If it were not so, man would not need to be born again to get a new heart; like a watch that had but started a jewel, or lost the tooth of a wheel, it were enough to be repaired without being renewed.
3. What a proof of this we have in the treatment of Christ by man. Fancy a drowning man putting forth his dying strength to wound the hand stretched out to save him! I would hold any man my enemy that would kill my son; and if men by nature were not Gods enemies, why did they kill His Son? why do they still reject Him?
II. The reconciliation. The time has come when Jacob must face an angry brother. He had taken cruel advantage of Esaus necessities and ungodliness, to possess himself of the birthright and the blessing. He had to settle the account with his brother now; and the prospect, as well it might, filled him with alarm. Busy, guilty, fancy conjures up a dreadful retribution. What shall he do? Fight? It is vain to think of that. Flee? Encumbered with wives and little ones, it is vain to think of fleeing. One refuge is still open to him! He betakes himself to prayer; wrestling with God till the break of day. I have seen the sun set on a troubled sea where the billows burst in white foam on rocky headlands, and roared in thunders on the beach; and tomorrow the same sun set on the same sea, smooth as a glassy mirror. A change as great, and in as short a time, has passed on the soul of Jacob. Yesternight was spent in an agony of prayer; and this night he lays his head in sweet peace on its pillow. The long estranged brothers have embraced and buried in one grave Esaus wrongs and Jacobs crimes–being enemies, they were reconciled. Blessed change to Jacob; and yet but a faint image of our reconciliation to God! What is that? what does it imply? what blessings does it bring? We shall never know fully till we get to heaven; for eye hath not seen, etc. But this, meanwhile, we know, reconciliation is sin pardoned; death discrowned; peace of conscience; a sense of Divine love; a sight of coming glory.
III. The means of reconciliation. A man lying under sentence of death has sent off a petition for mercy, and waits the answer in anxious suspense. One day his ear catches rapid steps approach his door–they stop there. The chain is dropped; the bolts are drawn; a messenger enters with his fate; the sovereign pities the criminal, but cannot pardon the crime. His hopes dashed to the ground, he gives himself up for lost. And now the messenger draws near, and tells him that if the kings son would change places with him and die in his room, that would satisfy justice, and set him free. Drowning men will catch at straws; not he at that. The king give up his son! If there is no hope but that, there is no hope at all! Now fancy, if you can, his astonishment, sinking to incredulity, and then rising into a paroxysm of joy, when the messenger says, I am the kings son; it is my own wish, and my fathers will that I should die for you; take you the pardon, and give me the fetters. In me shall the crime be punished; in you shall the criminal be saved. Such love never was shown by man; only by God. Did David, when he considered the heavens the work of Gods fingers, exclaim, What is man that Thou art mindful of him? How much more may Gods people break out into expressions of adoring wonder, when they stand beneath the Cross.
IV. Reconciled by the death of Christ, His people are saved by His life. Suppose that our Lord, having satisfied Divine justice, had left in the grave a body which He needs no more, and returned to the bosom of His Father, still the Son of God, but no longer also the Son of Man, His death had been in vain. There was the medicine, but where was the physician to administer it? When we die our work is done. Not so with Christ. He had a great work to do after His death–a work foreshadowed on the day of atonement in the temple. The high priest, having sacrificed a lamb, carries its blood into the holy of holies; offering it before the mercy seat. By and by, returning with the blood, he takes a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkles it in red showers on the people. Now are they ceremonially clean before the Lord; and so David, with his eyes no doubt on better blood, prays, Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow. Even so, Jesus rises from yonder grave and ascends to yonder throne, that He may apply to His people the benefits of His redemption. He lives to provide for our wants and to advocate our cause; so that our life is as much dependent on His as that of the branches on the tree, or the bodys various members on the life of their heart and head. Because He liveth we live also. We attach little value to what costs us little. Of all men they are the most careful of their money who have earned it by the hardest labour; they guard their liberties most jealously Who have bought them at the greatest price. The great price at which Christ purchased His people is the great security for their safety. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Double assurance
How anxious the apostle was in all his letters to convince believers in Christ that their position was absolutely secure. The text suggests the following train of thought.
I. The sad state into which sin has degraded man. We were enemies. Not simply godless and careless, but rebels against God. Hence the heinousness of sin. The carnal mind is enmity against the holiest and best of Beings, and implies alienation, guilt, condemnation, and if persisted in–death.
II. The happy condition into which grace elevates man. Reconciled to God.
1. The exhibition of Divine love, in the sacrifice of Calvary, draws men to God, because there is proclaimed how deep, sincere, and pitiful He is, against whom sinners have revolted; how ready He is to forgive and save.
2. To be reconciled to God is not only to be pardoned, but to be admitted into fellowship with Him; to be in harmony with His will and purposes; to acquiesce in the dispensations of Providence.
3. What honour in such a state of oneness with the Almighty. Reconciled to Him we–
(1) Walk with Him.
(2) Talk to Him and He to us.
(3) Work with and for Him.
(4) Become like Him.
(5) Become prepared to be forever with Him.
III. The Divine means by which that great change is effected. By the death of His Son. The voices of nature call us to grateful acknowledgment of the great and good Creator; but the loudest and sweetest tones come from Calvary. By the death of Gods dear Son, we see–
1. The exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. The ineffable love of God. Not that He loved His friends, but His foes.
3. The substitutionary character of the Redeemers offering.
IV. The immovable basis upon which we may rest our hope of complete salvation. Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The death of Christ was not merely to save us from the consequences of sin, but from the love and practice of it. The love of Christ was seen in His life as well as in His death; and we are saved from sin by–
1. His exemplary earthly life. We may attain to the highest life by imitating Him, and in proportion as we become like Him do we please God.
2. His exalted heavenly life. He lives to see the purposes of redemption fulfilled, to dispense the gifts His atoning death procured. No wonder the apostle staked all on the resurrection of Christ. If we cannot look up to a risen and reigning Redeemer, then our preaching and faith are vain, we are yet in our sins. (F. W. Brown.)
A double contrast, and an argument drawn therefrom
I. Contrasted conditions in the history of those who were now Christians.
1. We were enemies. Some had answered to the description given in chap. 1, others had doubtless been more virtuous heathen, or, like Paul, blameless as touching the righteousness of the Jewish law; but the description enemies, is applied to all (Rom 8:7). We were reconciled to God. Reconciliation may be mutual, or only one party may need to be influenced by its power. The latter is the case here; we are the only parties needing to be reconciled (see 2Co 5:18). This is effected by Christs death, as the manifestation of the love of God.
II. Contrasted conditions in the history of Christ.
1. His death. Death is a time of captivity, therefore of weakness. Christs death was surrounded by circumstances of sorrow and shame.
2. His life. The life which followed His death, when He led captivity captive, when sorrow was exchanged for the joy set before Him, and the Cross for the throne.
III. The argument drawn from this double contrast. If Gods Son by death could reconcile His enemies, how much more by His life will He complete and perfect their salvation, now that they are His friends. If in weakness He could accomplish the greater, how much more in strength can He insure the less. If by imprisonment in the tomb He could give us the liberty of the sons of God, how much more can and will He now sustain us in that freedom. (W. Harris.)
Converting mercy a pledge of preserving grace
I. The position here assumed. Note–
1. The change which Christians have undergone. This change has been effected. Let us separately advert to these two particulars.
(1) They were enemies to God. This, indeed, is naturally the state of all men. Being by nature born in sin, they are children of wrath. It is not, however, by imputation only, but also by wicked works. They dislike His holiness, His law, His service. To dislike God, who is goodness; to hate His service, which is happiness; to have lost His favour, which is better than life; to be exposed to His wrath, which is a consuming fire; who can conceive the real wretchedness of such a state!
(2) Such was once the state of those who are now real Christians. But it is their state no longer.
(a) They are now reconciled to God. His wrath is turned away from them. They are brought into a state of peace and friendship with God.
(b) Their nature has undergone a most wonderful alteration. They are become new creatures in principle and practice. They now love God and find pleasure in His ways. From enemies they have been made friends; from rebels, children; from vessels of wrath, monuments of grace and mercy.
2. The astonishing way in which this change has been effected.
(1) By what means? By the death of His Son. It is plain that the whole benefit of this reconciliation rests with man. God cannot be profited by it; but it was God who brought it about. In His infinite mercy He projected so great a blessing to mankind. In His infinite wisdom He devised a plan for effecting it. And when, according to this plan, it was expedient that His only-begotten Son should suffer for sinners, He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. He delivered Him up as a sacrifice to justice.
(2) Under what circumstances? When they were enemies. Previously to any disposition on their part, to any sorrow felt, any contrition expressed, any desire of forgiveness manifested, any petition for mercy offered, God planned their return to Him, and provided the way.
II. The inference drawn from it. Much more being reconciled, they shall be saved by His life. True Christians in their reconciliation with God have, indeed, undergone a great and a glorious change. But the work is not yet complete. The great obstacle is removed. Their sins are pardoned and their souls are renewed. But they are as yet renewed only in part. The carnal mind, though weakened, is not utterly subdued. Their great adversary constantly harasses them; while the world assails them with all its formidable weapons. Now the natural tendency of all these united obstacles is to oppose their progress; nay, to drive them back, and to leave them at last to perish in sin and wrath. Effectual provision is made for their security. He who died to reconcile them by His blood, now liveth to preserve them by His power. Observe, then, the whole force of the inference in the text. Hath God done so much for His people, and will He do no more? Certainly not. On the contrary, if He has done the greater work for them, much more will He do the less. If He pitied them when enemies, much more will He love them when friends. (E. Cooper.)
The Christian encouraged to expect final salvation
Mankind, in all ages, have been prone to extremes. If we reject the doctrine of infallible perseverance, which has no foundation in Scripture, and has a tendency to lull asleep in carnal security, there is danger lest we conceive that the continuance and final salvation of Gods people is a matter of uncertainty. The consequence is, that some, who might otherwise go on comfortably in the ways of God, are enervated and cast down, while their dejection and sorrow is very discouraging to others. To offer a preventative I have chosen this passage, from which I would observe–
I. Of whom the apostle here speaks. The context shows he does not speak of mankind in general–or of mere nominal Christians–but of those who have obtained peace with God through Christ.
II. The state such were in when the grace of God found them.
1. They were without strength (verse 6), and without ability to recover themselves; ignorant, and without ability to enlighten themselves; guilty, depraved, and wretched, and without strength to expiate their guilt, change their depraved nature, or remove their miseries.
2. But did they not deserve that God should help and save them? No; for they were ungodly (verse 6), devoid of the knowledge, fear, love, favour, image, and enjoyment of God (Rom 3:10-11).
3. They not only had no merit, but they had demerit, for they were sinners (verse 8).
4. Nay, they were enemies (verse 10), to Gods nature and attributes, to His will, word, and ways, manifested by the carnal mind, their disobedience to, or rebellion against His laws, their fretfulness and murmuring against His dispensations.
III. What God has already done for them. He has given His Son (see verses 6-8). And consider–
1. His dignity (Joh 1:1; Col 1:13-17; Heb 1:2), and His dearness to His Father, whom the Father gave to die.
2. The unworthiness of the persons for whom He suffered; how this demonstrates Gods love, as they were enemies, etc. He has justified them by Christs death, reconciled them to Himself, and united their hearts in love to Him. And this He has done on the most easy condition, viz., repentance and faith.
IV. The ground hereby laid for hoping that He will do all that remains to be done. We shall be saved by His life–that is, sanctified and glorified. The solidity of our hope in this respect will appear from three particulars.
1. From what He has done already. The incarnation, life, sufferings, death, resurrection, etc., of Gods Son, have afforded much greater displays of Divine wisdom, power, and love, than any other that can possibly be made. To save the lost, to reconcile the enemy, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, were greater and more difficult than to guard the found, to preserve the friendly, to keep in health the restored, to sustain the life of the quickened and revived, and to save to the uttermost.
2. From the situation of the person from whom this remaining good is to be done. If not less weak, unworthy, and guilty than they were before, yet they are better disposed, and less opposed to the work to be done in them and for them. Therefore there is less obstruction in the way.
3. From the nature of the means employed to do it. If, when enemies, we were reconciled by the death of Gods Son, much easier is it that when made His friends we should be preserved and saved to the uttermost by His life. For life is more powerful than death; especially life after death; life for evermore. (Joseph Benson.)
Conflict prolonged unnecessarily
The battle of New Orleans was fought after the treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, the news of which arrived soon after. And this is what conflict with God means–warfare continued when there is no longer any occasion for it. (W. Baxendale.)
Salvation by Christs life
1. The resurrection and life of Jesus are the sure pledge of the resurrection and life of all His people.
2. Christ in His present life at Gods right hand, is invested with power to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given Him.
3. Jesus is employed in interceding for His people: and the evidence of Gods full satisfaction in the finished work of His Son, afforded by His rising to life from the grave, gives us the most assured confidence that He never pleads in vain, that the Father heareth Him always.
4. All the arrangements of providence are in His hands. He not only exercises a general superintendence of the affairs of the world for the advancement and final triumph of His spiritual kingdom; there is a minuter care–a care which extends to each particular individual of His subjects in his passage through life.
5. By the power which is committed to Him in His mediatorial life, He will perfect the salvation of His people, by raising them at last from the grave. He is Lord of the dead. Their spirits are with Him. Their bodies, though for a time left under the power of the last enemy, are still His. He will redeem them from death, He will ransom them from the power of the grave. He ransomed them by price on earth: He will redeem them by power in heaven. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
The salvation of believers carried on by the life of Christ in heaven
I. The life of Christ.
1. Its present sphere–
(1) In the glory which He had with the Father before the world was.
(2) At the Fathers right hand of power.
2. Its present occupation.
(1) He ever liveth to make intercession.
(2) All power in heaven and earth which has been given Him He employs.
(a) To serve His friends.
(b) To extend His dominion.
II. How we are saved by this life. He–
1. Perpetuates the justification, and liberty of access to God, procured by Him for us, when we first believed on Him.
2. Frustrates the attempts of our adversaries to injure us.
3. Replenishes us with grace for the furtherance of our sanctification in the use of the appointed means.
4. Revives us with Divine support and consolation in seasons of extremity. (J. Leifchild, D. D.)
The genuine Christian
I. Is the subject of a great moral change in his relation to God. All were once enemies to God. The language presents to us two facts–
1. The most terrible condition in which it is possible to conceive a moral creature. Enemies to God. The fact that men are not conscious of this is no proof that it does not exist. Emotion often settles down into a principle of action too regular to become a matter of consciousness. The fathers love, which in its first stage was a warm emotion, in the course of years becomes a principle of action, that rules the life and explains the conduct; and thought concentrated on the object, can at any time bring up this emotion.
1. There are facts which indicate a mans state of mind towards another. If, e.g., I find a man–
(1) Habitually acting contrary to my well-known wishes.
(2) Habitually ignoring and shunning those who are my avowed friends.
(3) Associating with my determined opponents, he proves himself my enemy in each case. In such ways as these, sinful men demonstrate their enmity to God, whatever they may say.
2. But what a state is this to be in!
(1) How ungrounded! They hated Me without a cause.
(2) How guilty! hating the infinitely Righteous and the infinitely Good.
(3) How mad! a worm raising its head against the thunders of the universe. Hast thou an arm like God? etc.
2. A suggestion which serves to correct a theological error–that God was an enemy whose love had to be purchased, whereas it is quite the other way.
II. Has been thus changed by means of the death of Christ. We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. How is enmity to be destroyed? There is only one way in which from the constitution of mind it is possible–by love. This God does by the death of Christ, which is–
1. The grandest effect of Gods love. The universe is an effect of His love, but this is the grandest.
2. The mightiest demonstration of Gods love. It is impossible for the human mind to conceive of anything more convincing. All arguments and facts bearing on this subject seem to concentrate in this. This is the great focal and ultimate exhaustive argument.
3. The special organ of Gods love. The Cross is the great instrument of His Spirit, in convincing, converting, justifying, and sanctifying sinners. It is that by which the world is crucified unto us, etc.
III. That he has been thus changed by Christs death is an invincible argument that his salvation will be completed. Much more. The following thoughts may develop the force of Pauls a fortiori reasoning.
1. The most difficult part of the work has already been accomplished. Any power may destroy an enemy, but it requires the highest power to destroy enmity. The reconciler or peacemaker is the divinest character in the universe. This work has been done; what remains to be done is the development of this new affection.
2. This most difficult part of the work has been accomplished–
(1) When you were in the most repulsive condition. Enemies repel us from acts of kindness. Vengeance for enemies, says corrupt human nature. Scarcely for a righteous man will one, etc.
(2) By a dying Saviour; the remaining and easier part of the work, now we are in a more pleasing position, is accomplished by a living Saviour. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. For if, when we were enemies] See under Ro 5:6.
We were reconciled] The enmity existing before rendered the reconciliation necessary. In every human heart there is a measure of enmity to holiness, and, consequently to the author of it. Men seldom suspect this; for one property of sin is to blind the understanding, so that men do not know their own state.
We shall be saved by his life.]
1. For, as he died for our sins, so he rose again for our justification; and his resurrection to life, is the grand proof that he has accomplished whatever he had purposed in reference to the salvation of man.
2. This may be also understood of his life of intercession: for it is written. He ever LIVETH to make INTERCESSION for us, Heb 7:25. Through this life of intercession at the right hand of God we are spared and blessed.
3. And it will not be amiss to consider that, as our salvation implies the renovation of our nature, and our being restored to the image of God, so, , may be rendered: we shall be saved IN his life; for, I suppose, it is pretty generally agreed, that the life of God in the soul of man is essential to its salvation.
4. The example also of the life of Christ is a means of salvation. He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps: and he that followeth him, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of LIFE, Joh 8:12.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We were reconciled to God; put into a capacity of reconciliation, God being by Christs death made reconcilable, and also actually reconciled, when we believe, through the merits of the death of Christ.
We shall be saved by his life; i.e. by the resurrection to life. Salvation is ascribed to the resurrection and life of Christ, because he thereby doth perfect our salvation, he ever living to make intercession for us, Heb 12:25; and because by his resurrection and life we shall be raised to eternal life at that day.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. For if, when we were enemies, wewere reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, beingnow“having now been”
reconciled, we shall be savedby his lifethat is “If that part of the Saviour’s workwhich cost Him His blood, and which had to be wrought for personsincapable of the least sympathy either with His love or His labors intheir behalfeven our ‘justification,’ our ‘reconciliation’isalready completed; how much more will He do all that remains to bedone, since He has it to do, not by death agonies any more, but inuntroubled ‘life,’ and no longer for enemies, but for friendsfromwhom, at every stage of it, He receives the grateful response ofredeemed and adoring souls?” To be “saved from wraththrough Him,” denotes here the whole work of Christ towardsbelievers, from the moment of justification, when the wrath ofGod is turned away from them, till the Judge on the great whitethrone shall discharge that wrath upon them that “obey not theGospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”; and that work may all besummed up in “keeping them from falling, and presenting themfaultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”(Jude 24): thus are they “savedfrom wrath through Him.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For if when we were enemies,…. For the further illustration of the love of God expressed to sinners, by the death of his Son, the state and condition God’s elect were in when Christ died for them is taken notice of; they “were enemies”; to God, to his being, perfections, purposes, and providences; to Christ, to his person, offices, grace, and righteousness; to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, and his divine operations and influences; to the people of God, and to the Gospel and ordinances of Christ; which enmity is deeply rooted in their minds, is causeless, and undeserved, and is implacable, and irreconcileable without the power and grace of God; which grace of God is wonderfully displayed in the reconciliation of such persons,
by the death of his Son. Reconciliation implies a former state of friendship, a breach of that friendship, and a making of it up again; which no ways contradicts the everlasting and unchangeable love of God to his people; for this is not a reconciliation of God to them, but of them to God:
we were reconciled to God; not God to us; and this reconciliation is for their sins, an atonement for them, rather than of their persons; which being done, their persons are reconciled, not to the love, grace, and mercy of God, or to his affections, in which they always had a share, but to the justice of God injured and offended by their sins; and so both justice and holiness on one side, and love, grace, and mercy on the other, are reconciled together, in the business of their salvation; which is brought about by the sufferings and death of Christ: this expresses the wonderful love of God, since this reconciliation arises purely from himself; the scheme of it is of his own contriving; he, whose justice was affronted, and whose law was broken, took the first step towards it, and conducted the whole affair; and which was effected at the expense of the blood and life of his own Son, and that for persons who were enemies to them both. In consequence of this, another reconciliation of them is made by the Spirit of God in regenerations, of which notice is taken in this passage:
much more being reconciled: to God, as a sovereign God, in his decrees, in his providences, and in the method of salvation by his Son; to Christ, to the way of salvation by him, so as to submit both to his righteousness for justification, and to the sceptre of his kingdom, to be ruled and governed by it; to the Spirit, so as to be led by him, to walk after him, and to depend upon him for the carrying on, and finishing the good work of grace begun in them; to the people of God, so as to love them, and delight in their company; and to the Gospel and ordinances, so as highly to value them, long after them, and take pleasure in them. Now from both these reconciliations is inferred the sure and certain salvation of persons so reconciled:
we shall be saved by his life; by the life of Christ, and which designs not so much his life as God; or his living in the hearts of his people by faith; though neither of them are to be excluded; but his life, as man, and that not either his private or public life, as man here on earth, though this has an influence upon, and a concern in the business of salvation; but more especially here is meant the interceding life of Christ in heaven, where he lives, and ever lives to make intercession for his people, and to see the salvation he has obtained by his death applied unto them, and they put into the possession of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We were reconciled to God ( ). Second aorist passive indicative of for which great Pauline word see on 2Co 5:18f. The condition is the first class. Paul does not conceive it as his or our task to reconcile God to us. God has attended to that himself (Ro 3:25f.). We become reconciled to God by means of the death of God’s Son. “Much more” again we shall be saved “by his life” ( ). “In his life,” for he does live, “ever living to intercede for them” (Heb 7:25).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Enemies [] . The word may be used either in an active sense, hating God, or passively, hated of God. The context favors the latter sense; not, however, with the conventional meaning of hated, denoting the revengeful, passionate feeling of human enmity, but simply the essential antagonism of the divine nature to sin. Neither the active nor the passive meaning needs to be pressed. The term represents the mutual estrangement and opposition which must accompany sin on man’s part, and which requires reconciliation.
We were reconciled to God [ ] . The verb means primarily to exchange; and hence to change the relation of hostile parties into a relation of peace; to reconcile. It is used of both mutual and one – sided enmity. In the former case, the context must show on which side is the active enmity.
In the Christian sense, the change in the relation of God and man effected through Christ. This involves,
1. A movement of God toward man with a view to break down man’s hostility, to commend God ‘s love and holiness to him, and to convince him of the enormity and the consequence of sin. It is God who initiates this movement in the person and work of Jesus Christ. See vers. 6, 8; 2Co 5:18, 19; Eph 1:6; 1Jo 4:19. Hence the passive form of the verb here : we were made subjects of God ‘s reconciling act.
2. A corresponding movement on man’s part toward God; yielding to the appeal of Christ ‘s self – sacrificing love, laying aside his enmity, renouncing his sin, and turning to God in faith and obedience.
3. A consequent change of character in man; the covering, forgiving, cleansing of his sin; a thorough revolution in all his dispositions and principles.
4. A corresponding change of relation on God ‘s part, that being removed which alone rendered Him hostile to man, so that God can now receive Him into fellowship and let loose upon him all His fatherly love and grace, 1Jo 1:3, 7. Thus there is complete reconciliation. See, further, on ch. 3 25, 26.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For if when we were enemies,” (ei gar echthroi ontes) “For if when we existed as enemies,” objects of Divine hostility, rebels against, and under the condemnation of God’s wrath, every day and every hour, Psa 7:11-13; Rom 1:18; Joh 3:18; Joh 3:36; 1Th 1:10.
2) “We were reconciled to God,” (katellaglmen to theo) “We were reconciled (restored to favor) to God; restored to favor, fellowship and communion with God, from whom we were separated by sin and enmity, Isa 59:1-2; Rom 8:7; 2Co 5:17-18.
3) “By the death of his Son,” (dia tou thanatou tou huiou auton) “Thru the death of his Son,” God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, Rom 3:24-25; 2Co 5:19.
4) “Much more being reconciled,” (pollo mallon katalagentes) “Much more, having been reconciled” or already having been restored to God’s favor; The term “being reconciled,” is present passive, referring to a present state, condition, or relationship of favor with God; Isa 53:11; in harmony and at peace with God, Col 1:20-21.
5) “We shall be saved,” (sothesometha) “We shall be saved,” or delivered –This refers to the saving or salvaging of ones influence, testimony and service thru an obedient life, a life patterned after Jesus Christ, Mar 8:34-36; Rom 6:4; Php_2:12-13.
6) “By his life,” (en te zoe autou) “in or by the life of him,” in or by His life; He ever lives to make intercession for us, Heb 7:25; Gal 2:20; Col 3:3-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. This is an explanation of the former verse, amplified by introducing a comparison between life and death. We were enemies, he says, when Christ interposed for the purpose of propitiating the Father: through this reconciliation we are now friends; since this was effected by his death; much more influential and efficacious will be his life. (162) We hence have ample proofs to strengthen our hearts with confidence respecting our salvation. By saying that we were reconciled to God by the death of Christ, he means, that it was the sacrifice of expiation, by which God was pacified towards the world, as I have showed in the fourth chapter.
But the Apostle seems here to be inconsistent with himself; for if the death of Christ was a pledge of the divine love towards us, it follows that we were already acceptable to him; but he says now, that we were enemies. To this answer, that as God hates sin, we are also hated by him his far as we are sinners; but as in his secret counsel he chooses us into the body of Christ, he ceases to hate us: but restoration to favor is unknown to us, until we attain it by faith. Hence with regard to us, we are always enemies, until the death of Christ interposes in order to propitiate God. And this twofold aspect of things ought to be noticed; for we do not know the gratuitous mercy of God otherwise than as it appears from this — that he spared not his only-begotten Son; for he loved us at a time when there was discord between him and us: nor can we sufficiently understand the benefit brought to us by the death of Christ, except this be the beginning of our reconciliation with God, that we are persuaded that it is by the expiation that has been made, that he, who was before justly angry with us, is now propitious to us. Since then our reception into favor is ascribed to the death of Christ, the meaning is, that guilt is thereby taken away, to which we should be otherwise exposed.
(162) “By his life,” the abstract for the concrete; it means, “through him being alive,” being at God’s right hand, having every power committed to him, and making intercession for us Rom 8:34. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Joh 14:19. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) The interval that separates the state of enmity from the state of reconciliation is a large one, that which separates the state of reconciliation from the state of salvation a small one. And yet there is a difference. Reconciliation is the initial act; the removal of the load of guilt, justification. Salvation is the end of the Christian career, and of the process of sanctification. Justification is regarded as being specially due to the death of Christ. Sanctification is brought about rather by His continued agency as the risen and exalted Saviour. The relations in which the risen Saviour still stands to the individual Christian are more fully worked out in Rom. 6:4 et seq.; Rom. 8:34; 1Co. 15:22 et seq.; 2Co. 4:10-11; Php. 3:10.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Enemies reconciled saved If when enemies God reconciled us, much more, being friends, he will save us. He will deal far better with friends than foes, even though they are the same persons.
Saved by his life We are reconciled by his atoning death, and saved by his ever-living power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, will we be saved by his life,’
Paul’s language now moves from the law court to the question of our personal relationship to God. In Paul’s day the King/Emperor was both the supreme court and the ‘father’ of his people. Thus transgressing the law was in itself an act of rebellion, both against the law, and against the King’s ‘fatherhood’. So sin, Paul brings out, is nothing less than rebellion against God. It is not just a breaking of the Law but a personal affront to God. It thus reveals us as being at enmity with God. As we were sinners, so were we enemies. But it goes further, for it also results in His enmity towards us, it results in His wrath revealed against us because of sin (Rom 1:18; Rom 2:5). That is why propitiation is needed (Rom 3:25; 1Jn 2:1-2). That is why He ‘gave us up’ to the consequences of sin (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:28). It was because He was ‘angry’ (filled with aversion to our sin). There is no avoiding the thought of a broken relationship on both sides, something which on God’s side could only be remedied by the death of His Son. For in Scripture reconciliation always comes from God’s side. Being accounted as righteous through His blood (affecting God’s attitude towards us – Rom 5:9), we are reconciled though His death (affecting God’s attitude towards us). And this is made possible by the shedding of Jesus’ blood as a ‘propitiation’, for averting of wrath is one of the purposes of sacrifice. Thus, as a consequence of coming to Christ and believing ‘into Him’ and in His death for us (committing our lives to His saving activity), we have now been reconciled to God. His wrath is no longer directed at us. ‘In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses towards them’ (2Co 5:19). It was God Who reconciled us to Himself (2Co 5:18), not we who reconciled ourselves towards God, and it is as a consequence that we become reconciled towards Him. Thus there is now total reconciliation.
However, there is not only reconciliation but much more. ‘Much more, being reconciled, will we be saved by his life.’ Reconciliation through His death brings us into powerful contact with the power of His risen life (Rom 1:4). The contrasting of His death with His life prevents us from seeing ‘His life’ here as simply indicating His life given up in death. It is clearly a further step forward. But how then are we to be ‘saved by His life’? The initial answer to that lies in Rom 1:4. It is because He was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power’ by His resurrection from the dead, that He is able to save. It is thus this power revealed by His resurrection, ‘the power of God unto salvation’ (Rom 1:16), that undergirds the whole letter. His death was certainly essential but it is the risen Christ, in all His risen power (Mat 28:19; Eph 1:19-22), Who finally brings about our total salvation.
It is the risen Christ Who, acting as our High Priest, has reconciled us to God, for He is ‘a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people’ (Heb 2:17), and it is He Who continually makes intercession for us as a result of His resurrection (Rom 8:34). And it is the risen Christ Who will now save us by His life. This will indeed be the theme of coming chapters (e.g. Rom 5:17; Rom 6:1-11; Rom 8:9-10; Rom 8:34-35). It is by being made one with Him and being united with Him that we will be saved as a consequence of participating in His life. ‘Because I live, you will live as well’ (Joh 14:19). For when God comes to us bringing us His righteousness, and we are ‘made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ’ in the same way as He ‘was made sin for us’ by divine transference (2Co 5:21), it not only results in our being ‘accounted as righteous’, but has a consequence of giving us ‘a hunger and thirst after righteousness’ that we might be filled (Mat 5:6). It is not possible to experience the righteousness of God coming upon us without it affecting our whole lives. It is not a legal fiction. And such a hunger and thirst can only be met by Christ’s life being fulfilled through us as we ‘walk in newness of life’ (Rom 6:3). ‘Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me (and now lives in me) (Gal 2:20). ‘For we (the Father and the Son) will come to him and will make our dwelling with him’ (Joh 14:23).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 5:10 . More special development ( , namely ) of Rom 5:9 .
] namely, of God , as is clear from . . But it is not to be taken in an active sense (hostile to God, as by Rckert, Baur, Reithmayr, van Hengel, Mehring, Ritschl in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol. 1863, p. 515 f.; Weber, vom Zorne Gottes , p. 293, and others); for Christ’s death did not remove the enmity of men against God, but, as that which procured their pardon on the part of God, it did away with the enmity of God against men , and thereupon the cessation of the enmity of men towards God ensued as the moral consequence brought about by faith. And, with that active conception, how could Paul properly have inferred his . . [1217] , since in point of fact the certainty of the ( is based on our standing in friendship (grace) with God, and not on our being friendly towards God? Hence the passive explanation alone is correct (Calvin and others, including Reiche, Fritzsche, Tholuck, Krehl, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Philippi, Hofmann): enemies of God, i.e. those against whom the holy , the of God on account of sin, is directed; , Rom 1:30 ; , Eph 2:3 . Comp Rom 11:28 ; and see on Col 1:21 ; comp Pfleiderer in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1872, p. 182. This does not contradict the praised in Rom 5:8 (as Rckert objects), since the very arrangement, which God made by the death of Jesus for abandoning His enmity against sinful men without detriment to His holiness, was the highest proof of His love for us (not for our sins).
Consequently and must also be taken not actively, but passively: reconciled with God , so that He is no longer hostile towards us, but has on the contrary, on account of the death of His (beloved) Son, abandoned His wrath against us, and we, on the other hand, have become partakers in His grace and favour; for the positive assertion (comp Rom 5:1 f.), which is applicable to all believing individuals (Rom 5:8 ), must not be weakened into the negative and general conception “that Christians have not God against them ” (Hofmann). See on Col 1:21 and on 2Co 5:18 . Tittmann’s distinction between and (see on Mat 5:24 ) is as arbitrary as that of Mehring, who makes the former denote the outward and the latter the inward reconciliation. Against this view, comp also Philippi’s Glaubenslehre , II. 2, p. 270 ff.
] by His life ; more precise specification of the import of in Rom 5:9 ; therefore not “cum vitae ejus simus participes” (van Hengel, comp Ewald). The death of Jesus effected our reconciliation; ail the less can His exalted life leave our deliverance unfinished. The living Christ cannot leave what His death effected without final success. This however is accomplished not merely through His intercession , Rom 8:34 (Fritzsche, Baumgarten-Crusius), but also through His whole working in His kingly office for His believers up to the completion of His work and kingdom, 1Co 15:22 ff.
[1217] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Ver. 10. We shall be saved ] Here the apostle reasoneth from regeneration to eternal life, as the lesser.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10. ] The same is substantiated in another form: ‘we were enemies (see below) when He died and reconciled us: much more now that we have been reconciled, and He lives, shall we by His life be saved.’ For if, being enemies ( may either be active, as Col 1:21 , ‘ haters of God ;’ so , ch. Rom 8:7 ; Eph 2:15 ; or passive, as ch. Rom 11:28 , ‘ hated by God .’ But here the latter meaning alone can apply, for the Apostle is speaking of the Death of Christ and its effects as applied to all time, not merely to those believers who then lived: and those unborn at the death of Christ could not have been in the active sense), we were reconciled ( also may be taken of giving up anger against any one , see ref. 1 Cor., and Jos. Antt. vi. 7. 4, , or of being received into favour by any one , see 1 Kings 29:4, ; and Jos. Antt. v. 2. 8, , , the latter of which meanings, were received into favour with God , must for the reason above given be here adopted) to God by means of the death of His Son (this great fact is further explained and insisted on, in the rest of the chapter), much more, having been reconciled (but here comes in the assumption that the corresponding subjective part of reconciliation has been accomplished, viz. justification by faith: compare 2Co 5:19-20 , , . Both these, the objective reception into God’s favour by the death of Christ, and the subjective appropriation, by faith, of that reception, are included), we shall be saved by means of His Life (not here that which he now does on our behalf, but simply the fact of His Life , so much enlarged on in ch. 6: and our sharing in it).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
if. Greek. ei. App-118.
enemies. Note the Figure of speech Catabasis, App-6; without strength, sinners, enemies verses: Rom 5:6, Rom 5:8, Rom 5:10.
reconciled. Greek. katallasso, a more intensive word than allasso (Rom 1:23). Elsewhere, 1Co 7:11. 2Co 5:18, 2Co 5:19, 2Co 5:20.
Son. App-108. Compare Rom 6:10. Gal 1:2, Gal 1:19, Gal 1:20.
life. App-170.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] The same is substantiated in another form: we were enemies (see below) when He died and reconciled us: much more now that we have been reconciled, and He lives, shall we by His life be saved. For if, being enemies ( may either be active, as Col 1:21, haters of God; so , ch. Rom 8:7; Eph 2:15; or passive, as ch. Rom 11:28,-hated by God. But here the latter meaning alone can apply, for the Apostle is speaking of the Death of Christ and its effects as applied to all time, not merely to those believers who then lived: and those unborn at the death of Christ could not have been in the active sense), we were reconciled ( also may be taken of giving up anger against any one,-see ref. 1 Cor., and Jos. Antt. vi. 7. 4, ,-or of being received into favour by any one,-see 1 Kings 29:4, ; and Jos. Antt. v. 2. 8, , ,-the latter of which meanings, were received into favour with God, must for the reason above given be here adopted) to God by means of the death of His Son (this great fact is further explained and insisted on, in the rest of the chapter), much more, having been reconciled (but here comes in the assumption that the corresponding subjective part of reconciliation has been accomplished, viz. justification by faith: compare 2Co 5:19-20, , . Both these, the objective reception into Gods favour by the death of Christ, and the subjective appropriation, by faith, of that reception, are included), we shall be saved by means of His Life (not here that which he now does on our behalf, but simply the fact of His Life, so much enlarged on in ch. 6: and our sharing in it).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 5:10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall by saved by his life.
Grand argument for the safety of all believers having a three-fold edge to it. If he reconciled his enemies, will he not save his friends? If he reconciled us, will he not save us? If he reconciled us by the death, will he not save us by the life of his Son?
Rom 5:11. And not only so,
The blessings of the covenant of grace rise tier upon tier, mountain upon mountain, Alp on Alp. When you climb to what seems the utmost summit, there is a height yet beyond you. And not only so
Rom 5:11. But we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Then he begins to explain the great plan of our salvation.
Rom 5:12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
In that one man.
Rom 5:13-14. For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Children died who had not actually sinned themselves, but died because of Adams sin.
Rom 5:15-17. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. 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. 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. For if by one mans offence
By Adams sin.
Rom 5:17-18. Death reigned by one: much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment cam upon all men to condemnation: even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
All who are in Christ are justified by Christ, just as all who were in Adam were lost and condemned in Adam. The alls are not equal in extent equal as far as the person goes in whom the alls were found. And this is our hope that we, being in Christ are justified because of his righteousness.
Rom 5:19-20. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered,
The law of Moses.
Rom 5:20. That the offence might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
It makes us see sin where we never saw it. It comes on purpose to drive us to despair of being saved by works. It bids us look to the flames that Moses saw, and shrink and tremble with despair.
Rom 5:21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa 116:1-6; Rom 5:10-21.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Rom 5:10. , [since] if) Often , if, especially in this and the eighth chapter of this epistle, does not so much denote the condition as strengthen the conclusion.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 5:10
Rom 5:10
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God-Man must be reconciled to God, not God to man. Man must be conformed to the life of God, not God to man and his sins. If Gods love shown in the death of Christ was such as to overcome us when we were at enmity with him, how much more ready, now being reconciled, we should be to be saved by his life! We are reconciled to God by bringing our character into harmony with his character and will. This is reconciliation.
through the death of his Son,-It is offered through the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ at once enabled God to be just while justifying him that believes in Christ, and enabled God to make the terms easy; and the death of Christ showed to man his own lost condition-because we thus
judge, that one died for all, therefore all died (2Co 5:14)- and pointed him to the love and mercy of God and his great anxiety to save all who would come to him through Christ.
much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life;-We are saved by entering into Christ and living his life, reproducing the life of Christ in our lives. The salvation promised to man is a salvation from sin. When saved from sin, we are united to God and inherit his glories. No blessing or favor is provided out of Christ. All blessings are in and through him. Into him we must enter, and in him live his life, if we would be blessed.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Reconciliation
See Rom 5:10-11 2Co 5:18-20; Col 1:21.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
when: Rom 8:7, 2Co 5:18, 2Co 5:19, 2Co 5:21, Col 1:20, Col 1:21
reconciled: Rom 5:11, *marg. Rom 8:32, Lev 6:30, 2Ch 29:24, Eze 45:20, Dan 9:24, Eph 2:16, Heb 2:17
we shall: Joh 5:26, Joh 6:40, Joh 6:57, Joh 10:28, Joh 10:29, Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26, Joh 14:19, 2Co 4:10, 2Co 4:11, Col 3:3, Col 3:4, Heb 7:25, Rev 1:18
Reciprocal: Lev 8:15 – to make Lev 9:18 – a sacrifice Lev 14:6 – the living bird Lev 23:28 – General Num 16:46 – from off Deu 27:7 – peace offerings Psa 138:8 – perfect Eze 45:15 – to make Mal 3:6 – therefore Luk 11:13 – how Luk 22:32 – I have Joh 3:16 – gave Joh 6:47 – He that Joh 14:27 – Peace I leave Rom 5:2 – wherein Rom 5:9 – we shall Rom 8:6 – to be spiritually minded Rom 8:17 – if children Rom 11:15 – the reconciling 1Co 15:17 – ye are Eph 2:5 – dead Eph 2:13 – are 1Th 1:10 – Jesus Heb 9:15 – for Jam 4:4 – is the 1Pe 1:3 – by 1Pe 2:4 – a living
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SALVATION BY LIFE
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Rom 5:10
The Cross is not a final thing; the Cross is a means to an end. The life which comes out of the death is the climax. I would draw your attention to Salvationnot reconciliationSalvation by the Life of Christ.
I. A Living Presence.The first thought which we draw from the Life of Christ is thisthat He is now a Living Presence. For that Christ should live, and not be with His people, is a thing contrary to the very nature and whole character of Christ, and would violate all His promises. But the sense of a present, living Christ is to allwho have ever realised itan inestimable comfort and support beyond everything else in the universe.
II. A Living Mediation.But the Life of Christ is much more than a Presence near us here. It is a Presence for us within the veil, and that Presence of Christ is a Representative Presence. When He died, He died a Substitutein our placefor usinstead of usthat we might not die. But when He ascended to heaven, He ascended no Substitute, but a Representative, that we might follow Him, each in his own order, and be there too. He holds ground for us till we come. His glorified life assures our glorified life. So that, just as we died in His dying, we live in His living.
III. A Living Fountain of Life.But it is more than this. Christ, in heaven, is a Fountain of Life always flowing, for Jesus life is a communicating life. The first Adams was not. The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening, i.e. a life-givingwas made a life-giving Spirit. As He is at your side, so He is at Gods side; and He is always receiving from the Father to transmit to you. His whole life is a life between God and us; that, through Him, the things of God may pass to us; for without Him they could not pass in any way whatever. We call that life mediatorial life.
IV. A Living union of all the life of the whole family of God.If He is the life of all who live, then all who live meet in Him. We here, those far away, those in Paradise, all meet in Him. It is one life in both worlds. And all the springs of that one common life flow from the one Rockthe Life of Christ. What a union is here! what a basis for the most fond and unbroken fellowship for ever! Are those I love dead? Nay, they live the perfect life of Christ. Are they separate from me? Nay, my life is their life; their life is my life. Both lives are Christs. We are side by sidewe are one. The beating of the heart of Jesus is the life of the whole Church in earth and heaven.
And if this is a helpful thought, to strengthen and animate you to holier feelings, and higher exercises, and better servicesif you get a stronger grasp from the assurance of your own perfect safety, when you realise your own actual oneness of life with the life of all that is pure and holy in every worldyou owe it all to the reuniting, the cementing, the identifying life of Christ, and you can enter again into the power of the truth, For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,
Illustration
Dimly, feebly, imperfectly, we can see how Christ, Himself perfected through suffering, has made known to us, once for all, the meaning and the value of suffering; how He has interpreted it as a Divine discipline, the provision of a Fathers love; how He has left us to realise in Him, little by little, the virtue of His work; to fill up on our part, in the language of St. Paul, that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in our own sufferings, not as if His work were incomplete or our efforts meritorious, but as being living members of His body, through which He is pleased to manifest that which He has wrought for men.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
CHRISTS LIFE IN HEAVEN
However important we may regard the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must not consider His lifewe mean His life in heavenof secondary moment.
I. Apart from this life His death would not avail us.But the Apostle asserts that the death of Christ effected our reconciliation to God. This mighty change was wrought by the death of Christ! And shall we doubt the power of His life? Thus Gods love, as manifested in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glorious change wrought by it in the relation of the sinner to God, leads us to believe that the good work which He hath begun on our behalf will be fully consummated.
II. The nature of Christs work in heaven is a pledge for the final safety of the believer. He liveth to make intercession for us. His intercession is the completion of His sacrifice. It perpetuates the efficacy of His atonement. It bears the same relation to His death as providence does to creation. God created and now sustains: Christ died and now intercedes. So regarded, the intercession of our Lord justifies our largest expectations, and is a pledge of our final success.
III. We must not consider that this office of our Lord is needed to awaken the love of the Father, or to remind Him of what He might otherwise forget. The office itself originated in the love of the Father, and we are assured that His peoples names are engraven on the palms of His hands, and that He can never forget them. Well might the Apostle say, Much more then, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
:10
Rom 5:10. Jesus found us in sin and reconciled us to his Father through his blood, which denotes that He put us into the position of praying terms with God. In that relation with God, we could “work out our salvation” by following the example that Jesus set by his own life.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 5:10. For. A further setting forth of the thought of Rom 5:9.
Being enemies; i.e., being, as we were, the objects of Gods holy wrath. That this was while we, on our part, were opposed to God is certainly true; but the best commentators agree in declaring that the other sense is the logical one. The only objection to it rests on a mechanical and false view of Scripture language. It is supposed to imply a wrong state of feeling on the part of God. But this is impossible. When the Scriptures say that God has wrath against sinners (which really means that they are enemies in the sense we advocate), they do not assert that He has the revengeful, passionate feelings which naturally belong to human enmity. Every assertion, even in our ordinary use of language, is modified by the character of the person spoken of; much more in this case, for God must be right, if there is any distinction between right and wrong. Nor does this view contradict the love of God: His love shines out conspicuously, becomes effective, by means of the plan which removes His enmity without detriment to His holiness.
We were reconciled to God, etc. In accordance with the last remark, we refer this to Gods act by means of which we cease to be the objects of His holy wrath. (Comp. Rom 5:11, where reconciliation should be substituted for atonement, and where this reconciliation is said to be received.) The primary sense, therefore, points to the great change which has taken place in the relation of God to us, by means of the voluntary atoning sacrifice of Christ (through the death of His Son). Thus Gods wrath was removed, His justice satisfied, and, in consequence, men are reunited to Him as a loving and reconciled Father. While it is true that man is reconciled to God through the death of His Son, this is not the thought from which the Apostle is arguing, nor is it justified by correct laws of interpretation. All attempts to make this, the secondary meaning of the word, to be the primary, rest not on an unprejudiced exegesis, but on a foregone determination to get rid of the reality of Gods anger against sin (Trench). On the other hand, it is clear that the two sides are practically inseparable; and this because our reconciliation to God, as a moral process on our side is prompted and encouraged by the assurance that God has been reconciled to us, resting on the demonstration of His love to us in the atoning death of Christ, which was the meritorious ground of His reconciliation to us. Our privilege will seem all the greater, our duty the more imperative, from holding fast to the plain meaning of the passage.
Much more, being reconciled, or, having been reconciled, once for all. The former participle (being) pointed to a past state; this indicates a past act Paul is speaking of Christians, who have been justified (Rom 5:1), who have embraced this plan of reconciliation, to whom God is actually reconciled. On this accomplished fact he bases his argument: We shall be saved by (or, in) his life. Fellowship with the life of the ascended and reigning Lord is here suggested. The death of Christ effected our reconciliation; all the less can His exalted life leave our deliverance unfinished. The living Christ cannot leave without final success what His death effected. This, however, is accomplished not merely through His intercession (chap. Rom 8:34), but also through His whole working in His kingly office for believers up to the completion of His work and kingdom; 1Co 15:22 (Meyer). This same Saviour that died for them still lives, and ever lives, to sanctify, protect, and save them (Hodge).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 10 is, strictly speaking, only a stronger repetition of the argument of Rom 5:9. Paul makes the reasoning more evident1. By adding the term enemies, which renders the a fortiori character of the proof more striking; 2. By substituting for justified (Rom 5:9) the term reconciled, which corresponds better with the word enemies; 3. By describing the death of Christ as that of the Son of God, which presents its value more impressively; 4. By explaining the indefinite term: through him (Rom 5:9), by the more precise expression: by his life.
The for is explained by the new force which the argument derives from these various changes. It is our en effet (in fact); comp. the relation between Rom 5:3; Rom 5:5 in John 3
Three stages are indicated: enemies, reconciled, saved. Divine love, which has brought us from the first to the second, will yet more certainly bring us from the second to the third.
The terms: weak, ungodly, sinners (Rom 5:6; Rom 5:8), are here summed up in the word enemies. Does this word denote man’s enmity to God, or that of God to man? Hating God (Dei osores), or hated of God (Deo odiosi)? The first notion would evidently be insufficient in the context. The enmity must above all belong to Him to whom wrath is attributed; and the blood of Christ, through which we have been justified, did not flow in the first place to work a change in our dispositions Godward, but to bring about a change in God’s conduct toward us. Otherwise this bloody death would have to be called a demonstration of love, and not of righteousness (Rom 3:25). Here, besides, the saying Rom 11:28 should be compared, where the term enemy of God is contrasted with the title beloved of God; the first therefore signifies: one not loved, or hated of God; comp. Eph 2:3 : by nature children of wrath. We must obviously remove from this notion of divine enmity every impure admixture, every egoistic element, and take this hatred in the sense in which Jesus speaks of His disciple hating his father, mother, wife, children, and his own life, Luk 14:26. This hatred is holy; for it is related only to what is truly hateful to ourselves and others, evil, and what is fitted to lead to it. But yet it is not enough to say, with many commentators, that what God hates in the sinner is the sin and not the person. For, as is rightly observed by Oltramare (who on this account rejects the passive sense of the word enemies, which we defend), it is precisely hatred against the sinners, and not against the sin, which meets us in the expression enemies of God, if it be taken in the sense: hated of God. The truth is, as it appears to me, that God first of all hates sin in the sinner, and that the sinner becomes at the same time the object of this holy hatred in proportion as he voluntarily identifies himself with sin, and makes it the principle of his personal life. Undoubtedly, so long as this development remains unfinished, the sinner is still the object of divine compassion, inasmuch as God continues to regard him as His creature destined for good. But the co-existence of these two opposite sentiments, of which, Rom 11:28, we have a very striking particular example, can only belong to a state of transition. The close of the development in good or evil once reached, only one of the two sentiments can continue (see on Rom 1:18). While maintaining as fundamental the notion of divine enmity in the term enemies of God, we do not think it inadmissible to attach to it as a corollary that of man’s enmity to God. Our heart refuses to embrace the being who refuses to embrace us. It is in this double sense that the word enemy is taken in common language. It implies a reciprocity; comp. the expression , used of Pilate and Herod (Luk 23:12).
A somewhat analogous question arises as to the meaning of the expression , we were reconciled to God. The words may signify two things: either that man gives up the enmity which had animated him against God, or that God gives up His enmity to man. Taken in themselves, the two meanings are grammatically possible. The words 1Co 7:11 present a case in which the reconciled person becomes so by giving up his own enmity (if the woman depart, let her remain unmarried, or, be reconciled to her husband); 1Sa 29:4 and Mat 5:24 offer two examples of the opposite sense. In the first of these passages, the chiefs of the Philistines, suspecting the intentions of David, who asks permission to join them in fighting against Saul, say to their king: Wherewith should he reconcile himself (, LXX.) to his master ( ), if not with the heads of our men? In the second, Jesus exhorts the man who would bring his offering to the altar, and who remembers that his brother has something against him, to go and first be reconciled to him. In both cases it is evident that the enmity, and consequently the giving up of the enmity, are ascribed to the man with whom the reconciliation has to take place (Saul, and the neighbor who thinks himself offended). In our passage the true meaning does not seem to us doubtful. The word being reconciled reproducing the being justified of Rom 5:9, it follows from this parallelism that it is God, and not man, who gives up His enmity. In the same way as by justification God effaces all condemnation, so by reconciliation He ceases from His wrath. This meaning results also from that of the word , enemy, which we have just established, as well as of the term wrath, Rom 5:9. If it is God who is hostile and provoked, it is in Him first of all that the act of reconciliation must take place. This view is confirmed by the main passage, Rom 3:25. If it was man who had to be brought first to abandon his hostility, the reconciling act would consist, as we have just said in speaking of the word enemy, in a manifestation of love, not of righteousness. Finally, as Hodge observes, to make these words signify that it is we who in the reconciliation lay down our enmity to God, is to put it in contradiction to the spirit of the whole passage. For the apostle’s object is to exhibit the greatness of the love testified by God to unworthy beings, in order to conclude therefrom to the love which will be testified to them by the same God in the future. The whole argument thus rests on God’s love to man, and not on man’s to God. On the other side it is true, as Oltramare remarks, that the expression to be reconciled is nowhere applied to God. It is only said, 2Co 5:19 : that He reconciled the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. How explain this fact? Certainly the sacred writers felt that it is impossible to compare the manner in which God becomes reconciled to men, with the manner in which one man becomes reconciled to another. It was God Himself who began by doing everything to establish His righteousness and secure the majesty of His position, that He might then be able to pardon. Here there was a mode of action which does not enter into human processes of reconciliation; and hence the apostles, in speaking of God, have avoided the ordinary expression.
If for the word blood Rom 5:10 substitutes death, which is more general, it is in order to call up better the Passion scene as a whole. The words: of His Son, exhibit the immensity of the sacrifice made for enemies! Conclusion: If God (humanly speaking) did not shrink from the painful sacrifice of His Son in behalf of His enemies, how should He refuse to beings, henceforth received into favor, a communication of life which involves nothing save what is ineffably sweet for Himself and for those who receive it! Thus is proved the certainty of final salvation (salvation in the day of wrath), toward which everything pointed from the first words: we have peace.
The clause , by His life, must not be regarded as indicating the object of the being saved (introduced into His life). The , in, can only have the instrumental sense, like that of the , in His blood, Rom 5:9; saved through His life, from which ours is henceforth drawn; comp. Rom 8:2 : The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. In fact, justification is not the whole of salvation; it is the entrance on it. If sin continued to reign as before, wrath would reappear at the close. For without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb 12:14. But the mediation of the life completes that of the blood, and makes sure of holiness, and thereby of final salvation. Comp. chaps. 6-8, intended to develop the thought which is here merely enunciated in connection with the grace of justification. The expression be saved therefore denotes salvation in the full sense of the wordthe final sentence which, along with justification, assumes the restoration of holiness. A sick man is not saved when the trespass which has given rise to his malady has been pardoned; he must also be cured. There are therefore, as we have elsewhere shown, a sentence of initial gracejustification, in the ordinary sense of the wordfounded solely on faith; and a sentence of final grace, which takes account not only of faith, but also of the fruits of faith. The first is the fruit of Christ’s death; the second flows from participation in His life. For both of these graces faith is and remains, of course, the permanent condition of personal appropriation. If this is not expressly mentioned in our passage, it is because it refers solely to believers already justified (Rom 5:1).
We cannot help remarking here, with Olshausen, how entirely at variance with the view of the apostle is the Catholic doctrine, which is shared by so many Protestants of our day, and which bases justification on the new life awakened in man by faith. In the eyes of St. Paul, justification is entirely independent of sanctification, and precedes it; it rests only on faith in the death of Christ. Sanctification flows from the life of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of Rom 5:2, Paul had passed from the absence of fear (we have peace, Rom 5:1) to the positive hope of glory, in which already we triumph. This same gradation is reproduced here from the passage from Rom 5:10 to Rom 5:11, after which the theme contained in the first two verses will be exhausted, and the proposition: hope maketh not ashamed (Rom 5:5), fully demonstrated.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
10. For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, should we be saved by his life.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 10
By his life; by his living power. The idea is, that, since he redeemed us from past sins in the hour of his humiliation and death, he certainly will not abandon us, now that he lives and reigns in the exercise of such exalted powers and dominion.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
The fourth and worst term used to describe those for whom Christ died is "enemies." People are not only helpless to save themselves (Rom 5:6), neglectful of God (Rom 5:6), and wicked (Rom 5:8), but they also set themselves against God and His purposes. Even though many unsaved people profess to love God, God who knows their hearts sees opposition to Himself in them. Their antagonism toward Him is the proof of it.
Jesus Christ’s death reconciled us to God (cf. 2Co 5:18; Col 1:21-22). The Scriptures always speak of man as reconciled to God. They never speak of God as reconciled to man. God reconciles people to Himself, He redeems them from sin, and He propitiates Himself, all through the death of His Son. Man has offended and departed from God and needs reconciliation into relationship with Him. It is man who has turned from God, not God who has turned from man. [Note: See Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology, 3:91-93.] There are two aspects of reconciliation: one for all mankind (2Co 5:19), and another for the believer (2Co 5:20). Jesus Christ’s death put mankind in a savable condition, but people still need to experience full reconciliation with God by believing in His Son.
Jesus Christ’s death is responsible for our justification. His continuing life is responsible for our progressive sanctification and our glorification. Having done the harder thing for us, delivering Christ to death to reconcile us to Himself, God will certainly do the easier thing. He will see that we share Christ’s risen life forever.
We experience continuing salvation (progressive sanctification) and ultimate salvation (glorification) because of Jesus Christ’s ongoing life. These present and future aspects of our salvation were not the direct results of His death, but they are the consequences of His life after death and resurrection (cf. Rom 6:8-13). We have salvation in the present and in the future because our Savior lives. He is still saving us. This verse shows that we are eternally secure.