Boasting: A Survey of Romans 5:1-11
Author’s note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series about the book of Romans. To see other Romans resources, click here.
The burden of Romans 1-4 was to unite Jews and Gentiles by showing that, just as they all shared the same depraved state, so they have now all received justification in the same way, through faith. This being accomplished, all God’s people are now the recipients of a whole boatload of spiritual blessings: right relationship with God (chapter 5A), eternal life (chapter 5B), newness of life (chapter 6), freedom from the law (chapter 7), the Spirit and adoption (chapter 8A), and the love of God (chapter 8B).
Spiritual Benefits which Accrue through Christ Jesus (5:1-5)
Imagine that you were accused of a heinous crime, and you were soon going to stand in court because of it. If you were to meet your judge in passing, it would be a tense encounter. You don’t know what he thinks of you, and he has suspicions about your innocence. But once he rules on your case, declaring you innocent, nothing hinders a relationship of peace and harmony between you and the judge. This, Paul says, is what we have with God because we are now declared justified.
This justification is ‘by faith,’ as he reminds us. All of chapter four was given to arguing this relationship between justification and faith. We are declared innocent, not because of our works – by ‘earning’ that verdict – but by believing in the God who gives the verdict freely. Paul wants this on our minds, and it is foundational to everything that comes after. However, it isn’t something that Paul will emphasize much in the upcoming chapters, since he is now focusing on the effects and blessings that come from this verdict of innocence.
What he will continue to emphasize is the role of Jesus in making all these blessings come about. All through the upcoming chapters, the person and work of Jesus are held up as the reason why we have any spiritual hope. Jesus is the hero who has accomplished it all for us. Just as a man who brings warring parties together and negotiates peace might be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize, Jesus has accomplished the ultimate peace, and he deserves the greatest honor as a result. He is the one who has orchestrated our peace with God
If the first spiritual benefit is ‘peace with God,’ then the second is ‘access into this grace.’ This probably refers to the ‘realm of grace,’ being in a position where we are able to experience God’s variegated grace in all aspects of our lives.
The third spiritual benefit is predictable – we have reason to boast or glory in ‘hope of the glory of God.’ This refers to our certain commitment that we will experience the glory of God, the same glory of which we naturally fall short (see Romans 3:23).
The fourth spiritual benefit is most unexpected – “we rejoice in our sufferings.” While it would make sense if Paul means that we rejoice ‘despite’ or ‘in the midst of’ our sufferings, his language leads us to an awkward conclusion: the suffering is itself the object of Paul’s rejoicing or glorying.
While Paul isn’t saying that all Christians do rejoice in their suffering, he does make the point that it’s possible, reasonable, and right for Christians to do so. This is not because suffering is inherently good, pleasant, or desirable. It is, however, the beginning of a ‘silver chain’ which results in the glory of God.
In Romans 8 the apostle will introduce us to the ‘Golden Chain.’ Here we see the ‘silver chain.’ Suffering creates endurance. Endurances builds character. Character promotes hope. Hope results in glory.
Sufferings can be rejoiced in because they create endurance, the quality of tenacity, ‘stick-to-it-iveness.’ In other words, Christians learn to hold tight to God through their trials. As they cling to God and learn to rely on him, this leads Christians to develop a tested character, the unique virtues that grow only in the soil of constant reliance on God. As these characteristics develop, Christians find that they have an increasing certainty that God has a unique relationship with them, meaning that they are filled with hope for eternity and what it will bring. Finally, this hope does not disappoint – Christians will indeed experience the glory of God.
The reason why hope does not put us to shame, of course, is because what we hope for will certainly come to fruition. But Paul does not say it this way. Instead, he says it does not put us to shame “because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.” This refers to God’s love for us, and his meaning is this: since we experience God’s love in our hearts in the present time, mediated by the Holy Spirit, the hope that we nurture is certainly not false, but real.
While it would be a mistake to assume that Christians always enjoy the feeling of being loved by God, it is not a mistake to say that the Holy Spirit does provide us with a subjective, experiential certainty, at times, of our beloved status by God. Significantly, it is not because we experience this that we are sure that our hope is genuine; rather, our hope is genuine for the same reason that our experience of God’s love occurs – because our standing before God is different through what Jesus has done for us. This is an important, but significant, distinction.
The Certainty of Hope (5:6-10)
All these blessings are sure because of the objective work that Jesus performed for us. We are told that we have hope, that we have peace with God – but what can we point to beyond subjective experience or Paul’s arguments? We can point to the death of Christ. This is an immoveable rock, against which all uncertainties vanish.
There are several aspects of Christ’s work that should deeply affect us. For one thing, he died for us while we were ‘still weak’ – at a point in time before we made any move toward him, showing that the initiative for our salvation lies with him.
He also died at the right or appropriate time – not only right in terms of God’s plan for the world, but also right for us, in time to rescue us from destruction. It was at the very moment “When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown” that “Christ laid aside his crown for my soul” – before my destruction had been finalized.
Christ’s death for us is significant because it is so different from what is normal in our world. To volunteer to die in place of a ‘righteous person’ is something that one would ‘scarcely’ do. A righteous person is someone who is legally innocent, who is not guilty of a crime. But even such an upright personage will find few volunteers willing to take his place at the gallows. More hope is to be had for the ‘good person,’ who is not only legally innocent, but who is a benefactor for his fellow-man, and who has a reputation of being kind and generous to others. But even for this person, we get the sense that substitutes for death are in scarce supply. For such a one, perhaps, one might even dare to die.
Christ, on the other hand, dies for sinners. This word highlights our moral culpability, and the way that God thinks of us. Sometimes we have the idea that God’s love is remarkable because of how insignificant we are. Like ants, we think that God could do away with us without a second thought, as though we are not worth his attention. But Paul highlights that we are very much taking God’s attention. And what catches God’s attention is our moral bankruptcy, the disgusting quality of our actions. This is why it is so remarkable that he demonstrates love for us, rather than pouring wrath on us. As Thor Madsen points out, “Even while we were still mad, rebels, wishing we could kill God – if the grace of God can find you way down there, it can find you anywhere. God is like the parent who is hugging their child even while the child is trying to swing at Him. So if God’s grace reached us at that time, it surely reaches us even now at our worst moment. So even if we are suffering, we can rest in Him and not doubt that there is a relationship.”
Significantly, it is God (the Father) who “shows his love for us.” While the emphasis on Christ throughout this passage may lead us to the conclusion that Jesus reconciled us to an angry God who was intent to destroy us, this verse says otherwise. While God’s justice demanded satisfaction, it was God himself who took the ultimate initiative to bring us to him.
Because Christ’s death is objective proof that God loves us, our justification is certain. This means that our future salvation, from God’s wrath, is also certain, since this is a package deal. Plus, the implication of justification is reconciliation, another important element.
In verse 10 we reach the climactic phrase to describe our fallen description: “we were enemies.” First we were described as “weak” (v. 6), highlighting our moral inability; then we were “sinners” (v. 8), highlighting our moral culpability; finally we were “enemies,” highlighting our moral hostility.
The Restored Relationship with God (5:11)
Paul summarizes all of this in verse 11 – we rejoice in God. Whereas God is a fearful, wrathful, and incomprehensible Being for those who are not reconciled to Him, Christians have such a transformed relationship with him that they are able to boast and glory in him. All of this is because of “our Lord Jesus Christ,” the one who has brought us reconciliation.
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