Romans 5:1,2 - Standing in grace

5:1

Remember there were no chapter divisions in the original. Paul has just finished saying Christ has been delivered over for our sins and raised for our justification. The focus of the letter now moves on. In the first part we had Paul’s demonstration of the sinfulness of all of mankind, and how we are all, Jews and Gentiles, under God’s wrath. Then he moved on to how all can be justified by faith in the sacrificial death of Christ and His resurrection. What is required of us in order to be justified is not works, but faith. Now Paul moves on to the practical consequences for the Christian life. A faith which has no effect on our everyday lives is no faith at all.

The first thing he notes is that we have peace with God. This is not the peace of God (though that will be a consequence of it) but peace with God. We were at enmity with God, we were under wrath, but now we have peace with Him because we have been justified. Ie we are in good standing with God. We have this through “our Lord Jesus Christ”. Note that it says our Lord. Jesus Christ is our Lord, we make Him the “boss” of our lives.

5:2

“We have gained access” is actually better translated “We have gained introduction”. The thought is not that we have merely gained access, but we have been introduced to the Father by the Son. When someone introduces you to someone else there is a much greater sense that we are in the right place, that we belong. The Son has introduced us to the Father, He speaks on our behalf.  We stand in the grace of God. This is where we stand right now, in the grace of God. The dominant factor in your life is not your sins, not your mistakes, not the things done against you, not the things that have gone wrong, but the unlimited grace of God. If we want to understand life we need to understand that it is God’s grace that governs our life. Whatever our circumstances are right now we need to know that the grace of God is more important. “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God”. Earlier Paul has said that we all fall short of the glory of the God. Now in Christ we have the sure hope that because of Christ we will actually attain all that God intends for us.