The Direct Consequence Of Our Being Accounted as Righteous Through Faith (5:1-11).
Paul now outlines some of the consequences of our being ‘accounted as righteous' through faith. These he represents as follows:
1) We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).
2) We have access by faith into the grace in which we now stand (Romans 5:2).
3) We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2).
4) We rejoice in tribulation because of what we know it will work within us through our confidence in God's love, and through the work of the Holy Spirit Who sheds abroad His love in our hearts (Romans 5:3-5).
5) We are made aware of the greatness of God's love which is commended towards us in that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
6) We know that we will be saved from the consequences of God's antipathy to and hatred towards sin because we are accounted as righteous through His blood (Romans 5:9).
7) We rejoice because, having been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, we will be saved by His life (Romans 5:10).
8) We rejoice in God Himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have received reconciliation (Romans 5:11).
Note the centrality of ‘hope' (confident certainty about the future) in the passage. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2). Our tribulations and what results from them fills us with hope (confident certainty) of what God will accomplish in us and of what our final end will be with Him in glory (Romans 5:2; Romans 5:4-5). For our justification is with a view to eternal life (Romans 5:21), which is elsewhere described as our ‘hope' (Titus 1:2; Titus 3:7).
In this we see the twofold aspect of ‘the righteousness of God' emphasised in the Old Testament Scriptures (Psalms 24:5; Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah 61:10). It comes to us as His free gift so that we may be judicially acceptable before Him (Romans 3:24 to Romans 5:1), and it comes to us to effect within us His righteousness so that we might enjoy His glory (Romans 5:2-5; Romans 5:17, compare also Romans 6:13-20). Thus His love is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5) in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2), which we had previously forfeited by sin (Romans 3:23). We will be saved by His risen life (Romans 5:10). Having received the ‘abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness' we will reign in life through Him (Romans 5:17). And it is this grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21) which will be the basis of our lives. It is thus impossible for us to receive God's righteousness without the intention on His part of our being made righteous. In no case, however, is it our righteousness. It is His righteousness, accounted to us, and active in our lives, which produces righteousness within us.