Romans 5

Therefore—on the justification already proved—being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wesley: this is the sum of the preceding chapters. We have peace with God—being enemies no longer (v. 10), neither fearing his wrath (v. 9). Peace, hope, love, and power over sin are the fruits of justifying faith: where these are not, that faith is not.

Arminian interpreters hear peace as the fruit of those justified by faith. Both camps must say this together first: grace, not works; peace through Christ, not a tranquillity we earn. Faith remains the living condition—enabled by grace, not a meritorious work. Match Romans 3:24 and Titus 3:7: we are justified by his grace as those who believe; the verdict is received by living trust. Do not flatten peace into a feeling that could sit beside an unchanged enmity.

Calvin: when we have obtained righteousness by faith, we have peace with God; this is the peculiar fruit of the righteousness of faith. Those who seek tranquillity of conscience by works labor in vain—either the heart is asleep to God’s judgment, or it is full of trembling and dread, until it reposes on Christ, who is alone our peace. Peace means tranquillity of conscience that feels itself reconciled to God.

Peace is fruit of justification, not a ladder to it. God actually justifies; faith is His instrument, not an independent lever that makes the mercy take. Match Romans 3:24 and Titus 3:7: the whole is from God, and nothing from us. Works cannot buy this quiet; Christ alone is our peace.

Through him we have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Wesley’s fruits continue: peace, hope. Access is through Christ; standing is in grace, not in our works. Hope of glory is the believer’s gladness, not a wage still unpaid.

Listen here for an access held out to those who believe. Faith is how we enter and stand—enabled, not coerced. The hope is as wide as the grace into which we are invited. Do not treat standing in grace as a private room the gospel never meant the neighbor to enter.

Access, standing, and hope come through him—through the Christ of v. 1, in whom we have already obtained righteousness by faith. Calvin’s peace-as-fruit continues: we stand because we are reconciled, not because we keep our balance on works.

The access is Christ’s gift, received by faith as instrument. Hope of the glory of God is the justified people’s hope, secured by the God who justified them. Standing in grace is not a cooperative maybe; it is where those reconciled actually stand.

Not only hope of glory: we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance. Peace with God (v. 1) is not cancelled by present pain. Wesley’s fruits—peace, hope, love—can sit beside tribulation; they are not a fair-weather proof.

Wesleyans hear a knowing that trains the believer. Suffering produces endurance in those who remain in the grace in which they stand (v. 2). Rejoicing here is not denial; it is the posture of a people whose peace is with God, not with circumstance.

Suffering does not unmake the peace of v. 1. We rejoice in sufferings because we know their appointed fruit: endurance. The chain is God’s, not our stoicism.

The justified already have peace with God; tribulation cannot reopen the courtroom. Endurance is produced in a people already reconciled. The knowing is faith’s arithmetic under the God who first loved us (v. 8).

Endurance produces character, and character produces hope. The chain is moral and spiritual: provenness feeds hope, and hope will not shame (v. 5). Wesley: these are fruits of justifying faith.

Classical Arminians refuse both a hope that never suffers and a suffering that never hopes. Character here is the tested life of those who stand in grace. Hope is living and forward; it is not a ticket cashed at first faith and then ignored.

Endurance, character, hope: the sequence belongs to those already justified (v. 1) and already standing in grace (v. 2). Hope is not manufactured from grit; it is produced along a path God uses.

The chain does not climb into justification; it grows out of it. Character is the tested fruit of a people whose peace is already Christ. Hope at the end of the chain is the same hope of glory named in v. 2, now confirmed under suffering.

Hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Wesley: hope shameth us not—it gives the highest glorying. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts: the divine conviction of God’s love to us, and that love to God which is both the earnest and the beginning of heaven. By the Holy Ghost—the efficient cause of all these present blessings, and the earnest of those to come.

The passage carries a Spirit-work. The Spirit is given; love is shed abroad; hope is not ashamed. He is the efficient cause, not a metaphor for trying harder. Match Titus 3: the Spirit poured out richly, a washing and renewal that enables. The work is true and still may be resisted; it is not an irresistible force that locks the heart irrespective of continuing faith. Where these fruits are not, Wesley says, that faith is not. Do not flatten the Spirit into a private seal no gospel could name, or into a feeling we raise without Him.

Hope does not shame us because God has poured His love into our hearts through the Spirit given to us. Calvin on the love in this paragraph: God exhibits his love to us as most certain and complete; being not moved by love on our part, he of his own good will first loved us. The love poured out is God’s love toward us; the Spirit given is His gift to those already justified (v. 1).

The Spirit’s work here is effectual. God actually gives the Spirit; He actually pours love into the hearts of the reconciled. Match Titus 3: He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Hope cannot finally put them to shame because God has done this, not because they have kept a mood. The earnest is God’s own down payment in the justified, not a resistible maybe hovering over every hearer.

For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Wesley’s later clause belongs here already: while we were sinners—so far from being good, that we were not even just. The death is for the ungodly, not for the already righteous. It is not merely a pattern of love to copy; it is Christ dying for the weak.

Classical Arminians find a sincere extent. Match 1 Timothy 2:6: the ransom is for all; match Romans 3:25: the propitiation is sincerely set forth for all who will receive it by faith. ‘For the ungodly’ names the objects as they were—weak, not worthy—and as wide as ungodliness. Those who perish do not perish because the death was never for them, but because they will not receive it. Grace, not works: He died at the right time for the ungodly, not after they had become good.

Christ died for the ungodly while we were yet weak. Calvin: for the sake of the ungodly he spared not Christ his own Son. The timing and the objects shut out merit: not moved by love on our part, God of his own good will first loved us. The death is no mere example; it is the Son not spared.

‘for the ungodly’ is effectual for those God actually justifies (v. 1) and will save from wrath (v. 9)—the elect ungodly. Match 1 Timothy 2: the testimony is preached to all kinds; match Romans 3:25: the propitiation effectually redeems those for whom it was offered, faith the Spirit-given instrument. The wideness of preaching does not make every ungodly person a person for whom the death is in reality extended. Both camps must still say: not a pattern only; a death for the ungodly.

One will hardly die for a righteous man; perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. Human love, at its rarest, dies for the worthy. Paul sets the contrast so v. 8 will shock: God’s love is not that arithmetic.

Wesleyan Arminians hear the scarcity as honest. If we measure the cross by whom we would die for, we have not yet seen it. The next verse will name sinners, not the righteous or the good. Do not sand the contrast down into a slightly better human love.

The verse is the human ceiling, named so that God’s love in v. 8 can stand above it. Calvin’s point is already in view: God was not moved by love on our part.

There is no ‘good person’ here for whom God waited. The comparison shames every scheme that would have Christ die for the improveable. The love exhibited is God’s, toward the ungodly of v. 6.

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Wesley: while we were sinners—so far from being good, that we were not even just. The showing is public: love demonstrated in a death, not inferred from our improvement. Christ died for us as sinners, not as a pattern for the already just.

Arminian interpreters hear a sincere love toward sinners as such. Match 1 Timothy 2:6 and Romans 3:25: the death is an offer, not a payment calculated only for a secret list. ‘For us’ is the ungodly of v. 6, the sinners of this verse, the enemies of v. 10—as wide as the need. Those who will not come do not prove the love was never shown to them. Grace, not works: He died while we were yet sinners.

Calvin: God exhibits his love to us as most certain and complete, inasmuch as for the sake of the ungodly he spared not Christ his own Son. In this his love appears, that being not moved by love on our part, he of his own good will first loved us. The love shown is God’s love toward us, not our love climbing to Him.

‘for us’ names those justified by faith (v. 1) and by his blood (v. 9)—the people He actually reconciles. Match 1 Timothy 2: the testimony is preached to all kinds; match Romans 3:25: the blood effectually redeems those for whom it was offered. The demonstration is historical and public; the love, on this reading, is effectual. He first loved us. The cross is not a pattern we complete; it is the Son not spared.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. Wesley already tied peace to this verse: neither fearing his wrath. Justification by blood is the ground; rescue from wrath is the ‘much more.’ Both camps: grace, not works; the blood, not our record.

Arminians catch a living people in view: those now justified by his blood. The a fortiori is pastoral—if He justified sinners by the blood, He will save those so justified from wrath. Match Romans 3:25: the propitiation received by faith. Stay in the grace; do not treat ‘much more’ as a charm that makes continuing faith irrelevant.

Calvin’s peace is already this: tranquillity of conscience reconciled to God, no longer full of trembling at judgment. The blood that justified will save from wrath; the argument is God’s consistency, not our stamina.

God actually justified; He will actually save from wrath. The ‘much more’ is the certainty of those He has reconciled, not a possibility perched on their performance. Faith is the instrument that received the blood; the future rescue is the same mercy, not a second wage.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. Wesley: we have peace—being enemies to God no longer. Reconciliation is by the death; salvation by his life is the greater after the lesser. Enemies, not almost-friends: grace, not works.

The verse presses enemies as we all were, and reconciliation as sincerely accomplished in the death for the ungodly (v. 6) and received by those who believe. The ‘much more’ of his life is for the reconciled—those no longer enemies, standing in the grace of v. 2. His risen life saves; it does not make the former enmity a small thing.

While enemies, reconciled through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, saved by his life. Calvin: peace comes from righteousness by faith; Christ is alone our peace. The death reconciled; the life saves. God was not moved by our friendship—we had none.

The ‘we’ are those God has actually reconciled. Enmity was true; the death ended it for them. Saved by his life is the living Christ keeping those He justified. The a fortiori is effectual mercy from first to last, not a ladder the former enemy must now climb.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. The end of the paragraph is joy in God Himself, not only in hope or in sufferings. Reconciliation is received—through Christ, now.

Arminian readers hear receiving as the living act of those who believe. Wesley’s fruits land here: peace, hope, love, and this rejoicing. Both camps glory in a reconciliation we did not earn. The through-whom is Christ; the received is gift. Do not turn the rejoicing into a work that keeps the reconciliation.

We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Calvin’s fruit is complete: quiet conscience, love exhibited, the Son not spared. Rejoicing in God is the end; reconciliation is the gift already received.

The people who have peace (v. 1) have this joy because God first loved them (v. 8). The whole paragraph ascribes the reconciliation to Christ’s death and life, nothing to our merit.