Romans 5

1. Since we are made clear before God by faith, let us understand that we also have peace with God through Jesus

Getting to heaven by doing good things would not give you lasting peace. You would need to start over every day. Also, you might do something wrong without thinking first and then you would not have peace.

So even if I do something that I should not have, my faith in Christ never changes and gives me peace and the confidence to try again.

2. Through Him we have confidence in this new life of grace, and here we stand and glory in the things that He has for us in the future.

Some people say that truth is a personal thing. They say that what is true for you may not be true for me. This means that they have given up on ever finding any real truth. The men who teach these things have said that the real world only brings hopelessness so you need to escape from the real world.

They have many ways to escape: drugs, immorality, suicide, or some kind of meditation that brings energy through your imagination.

We have seen the lives of men rescued from this kind of thinking by the Gospel, and this is why we glory and have confidence in Jesus.

3 – 4

This does not mean that we only glory in the future, but we also glory in our troubles because we know that troubles teach us patience. And patience brings character, and character brings confidence.

Glory means "rejoice." The original word for trouble here means pressure. It reminds us of when a factory does a "pressure test" on a product. We have confidence and we glory because we know that we are going to pass the pressure test through Christ.

Here is what we say about our troubles. "This is another chance for God to make me stronger and bring me closer to Him. I cannot wait to see how it is going to come out!”

5. Our confidence does not give up because God's love has flooded our hearts when the Holy Spirit was given to us.

If you think that God has given up on you, you will commit any evil that the devil suggests. God has proven His love for us in many ways. This is why we know that we are not going to be disappointed.

6. At the time when we needed it the most (and were powerless to help ourselves) Christ died for sinful men.

This does not say that He died because we were good, sweet, nice people who deserved to be rescued.

7 – 8

It would be very unusual for a man to give his life for another, but someone might have the courage to die for a good man. Yet to prove how amazing God's love is, Jesus died for us while we were still sinning!

When did God start loving you? When you said a prayer? Does it speak to your heart that He loved you even when you were doing things that were against Him? If God did all this for us while we were enemies, just think what He will do now that we are friends!

9. If he did this for us while we were still sinning and now we are covered by His blood. Why would we need to fear God's wrath?

We do not become more saved as we grow. We never deserved it in the first place.

10. If when we were enemies Christ made us clear before God by dying for us, how much more do we know that we have been rescued by His living in us?

Giving us a gift of forgiveness was easier than going to the cross. So, if God was willing to do a hard thing for us why do we not believe He would do an easy thing for us?

11. And not only this, but we glory in God's love because Jesus has made us clear before God.

The devil says that God is against us. God is not our enemy. Jesus is called Emmanuel which means “God is for us.”

12. This is what is happened, sin came into the world through one man and through this sin came death.

When we were children nobody needed to teach us to be selfish or to tell lies. From Adam we inherited nature of sin. If you do not agree that one man made us all sinners, then you will not agree that one man made us all clear before God.

I did not choose to be in Adams family, but I can choose to be in God's family. I did not choose to eat the fruit but I chose to do other evil things.

It is the same for us that in the day you would eat of it you shall die. Genesis 2:17

When I was born in the human body I inherited Adams nature when I am born into the body of Christ inherit his nature.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22

13. Sin was in the world long before there was a law, and sin is not clearly seen when there is no law.

Many years ago there were no laws about driving too fast. If the police stopped you, the only thing they could say is that you were not driving carefully. Now that we have speed limit laws, the police can tell you exactly how you have broken the law.

The Law of Moses did not bring sin, and it did not cure sin. There were still results from sin even though there was not a list of Ten Commandments with penalties written down. What the law of Moses, did do is to show man very clearly what rebellion against God looks like.

14. But death was ruling over men from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way that Adam did. There some things that are the same and some things that are different about Adam and Jesus.

There was personal sin going on before Moses which had nothing to do with Adam eating the fruit. This proves that death was passed on.

So also it is written [in Genesis], “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life–giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45

15 – 17

The free gift of having your sin covered by Christ is not like the sin of Adam. Because of Adam's sin many died, but by God's grace through Jesus many can live.

God's gift is not like the results that came because of Adam's sin. God's judgment came on Adam and so all men were born with this problem, but many are set free by God's grace and can be reborn.

For if one man's sin meant that men would be slaves to death how much more will we live through Christ because He has made us free from slavery and given us grace!

We were helpless and all we could say was, “I cannot help it that I have an anger problem” or “They made me do it because they pushed me too far!” We do not say anything these things anymore because we have a new nature, the nature of Jesus.

By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant will make many clear before God, and He will carry away their sins. Isaiah 53:11
18 – 19

One sin brought guilt on all men, but one act of God brought life to all men. We see that when Adam did not obey God. It brought guilt on all men. But when Jesus obeyed God. It made many men clear before God.

The word “sin” means to miss the target. If you do not see the target [which is something like the Ten Commandments] then how can you hit the target? How can you know how far you have missed the target? If there is no target then you will not believe that you have missed what you were shooting at.

Calvin said that God's grace was offered to all but not extended [spread] to all. Not only does this false teaching at a word to the Bible that is not in the text, it is double–talk. These kind of words come from a man's imagination who wants to say that only certain people can be saved.

20. The law brought sin into the light of day so that it can be clearly seen for what it is. But if sin was like a flood, God's grace was a bigger flood and overflowed and washed away sin.

Sin was no longer a general idea after the Law was given. There was a man who did not want the Ten Commandments to be read in church because maybe it will put ideas to the wrong things into people's minds.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” Romans 7:7

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin. Romans 7:13

21. Sin used to be the master of men and gave them over to death, but now grace is in charge and it makes men right with God and hands them over to eternal life through Jesus.

Your sin can be forgiven, even if the results of what you did are still there, the sting is removed.

O death, where is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55