Romans 5:9-11 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Much more then Since, therefore, it hath pleased the blessed God to give us such an unexampled display of his love as this, how high may our expectations rise, and how confidently may we conclude, that much more, being now justified by his blood Shed for us: that is, by his death, which is the meritorious cause of our justification, while faith in that blood is the instrumental cause; we shall be saved from wrath From future punishment, from the vengeance of eternal fire; through him If he so loved us as to give his Son to die for us, when we were mere guilty sinners, we may assure ourselves that, having now constituted us righteous, and accepted us as such, pardoning all our sins for the sake of the sacrifice of Christ's blood, he will certainly save us from eternal damnation; us who continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. For if when we were enemies Through the perverseness of our minds, and the rebellion of our lives, (see Colossians 1:21;) we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Which expiated our sins, and rendered God reconcileable, and which procured for us the Holy Spirit, to remove the enmity from our minds, giving us, at the same time, such a display of the love of God to us, as won our affections over to him; much more, being thus reconciled, we shall be saved Sanctified and glorified; by his life Restored in order to our being thus saved: that is, by his ever living to make intercession, and his thereby receiving for us, and communicating to us, continual supplies of grace. He that has done the greater thing, which is, of enemies to make us friends, will certainly do the lesser, which is, when we are friends to treat us as such, and be kind and gracious to us. But the opposition is not only between reconciling enemies, and preserving friends, the latter being less difficult than the former, but also between Christ's death and life; his life here spoken of, being not his life in the flesh, but his life in heaven, that life which ensued after his death. See Romans 14:9. Now if his death, when he was crucified in weakness, performed the harder work, that is, reconciled his enemies, shall not his life, which is stronger, (for he liveth by his divine power as the Prince of life, that could not be held in death,) effect the easier work, and preserve and save to the uttermost, those that are already made his friends? For, we are reconciled by Christ humbled, and finally saved by Christ exalted, it being in consequence of his exaltation to the right hand of God, and his being invested with all power in heaven and on earth, and made head over all things to his church, that he completes and consummates our salvation. And not only so Namely, that we should be reconciled and saved; but we also joy, Greek, καυχωμενοι, glory, in God In the relation in which he stands to us as our God, and in all his glorious and boundless perfections, which we see are engaged for us; through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom we are introduced into this happy state, who is our peace, and hath made God and us one; by whom we have now That we are believers; received the atonement Greek, την καταλλαγην, the reconciliation. So the word signifies, and in all other passages where it occurs is so translated, being derived from the verb καταλλασσω, which is twice rendered reconcile in the preceding verse, and to which it has so apparent a reference, that it is surprising it should have been here rendered by so different a word as atonement, especially as it is quite improper to speak of our receiving an atonement which God receives as made for our sins. But, when we are made true believers in Christ, we receive the reconciliation, and that not only averts the terrors of God's wrath, but opens upon us all the blessings of his perpetual friendship and love; so that the Father and the Son come unto us, and make their abode with us, John 14:23; and we know and believe the love that he hath to us, and in consequence thereof dwell in love, and therefore dwell in God, and God in us. The whole paragraph from Rom 5:3-11 may be taken together thus: We not only rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but also in the midst of tribulations, we glory in God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation.