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.
Romans 5:11
- Non solum autem, sed etiam gloriamur
in Deo per Dominum Iesum Christum, per quem
nunc reconciliationem accepimus. - And not only so, but we also joy in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
now received the atonement.
11.And not this only, etc. He now ascends into the highest strain of glorying; for when we glory
that God is ours, whatever blessings can be imagined or wished, ensue and flow from this fountain;
for God is not only the chief of all good things, but also possesses in himself the sum and substance
of all blessings; and he becomes ours through Christ. We then attain this by faith, — that nothing
is wanting to us as to happiness. Nor is it in vain that he so often mentions reconciliation: it is, first,
that we may be taught to fix our eyes on the death of Christ, whenever we speak of our salvation;
and, secondly, that we may know that our trust must be fixed on nothing else, but on the expiation
made for our sins.
Romans 5:12-14
- Quamobrem sicut per unum hominem
peccatmn in mundum introiit, et per peccatum - 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:
(^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 Romans 8:34. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” John 14:19. — Ed.