By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
By whom also we have access, х teen (G3588) prosagoogeen (G4318) escheekamen (G2192)]. Our translators, following the Vulgate and Luther, have gone wrong here. The true sense, as given by Beza, is, 'By whom we have had the access,' or 'our access.'
By faith into this grace wherein we stand. [Tischendorf omits tee (G3588) pistei (G4102), and Lachmann and Tregelles bracket them, on the authority of B D E (apparently) F G, tour copies of the Old Latin, and later witnesses. But they are sufficiently attested, we think, by 'Aleph (') A (which has en (G1722) tee (G3588) pistei (G4102)), and many cursives, the Vulgate ('fide,' 'in fide,' 'per fidem,' in different copies), the Syriac, the AEthiopic, and many Greek and Latin fathers. That the words might more easily slide out of the genuine text, as superfluous, than creep in as an interpolation, will surely be admitted.] The question here is, Have we in this clause a second privilege of the justified (as Beza, Tholuck, and others think), or only a thought suggested by the first one? The latter we regard (with Meyer, Philippi, Mehring, Hodge) as the right answer; and in that case the whole statement may be thus conveyed, 'Not only do we owe to our Lord Jesus Christ this first and greatest blessing of a justified state - "peace with God" - but to Him we are indebted even for our "access into this grace" of gratuitous justifications, "wherein we stand," and which is the ground of that peace.' We must not (with Tholuck) press the word "access," or 'introduction,' so far as to suppose that it alludes to the usage in Eastern courts of strangers being conducted into the king's presence by an official Introducer х prosagoogeus (G4318)], Jesus Christ acting this part for us with God (as in Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12 - the only other places in the New Testament where that word is used). The word signifies access or approach to any object-whether a thing, a state, or a person, though more commonly the last. What is meant here is the permanent 'standing' of a justified state, which we owe (says the apostle) to "our Lord Jesus Christ."
Second: Exultant hope of the glory of God
And [we] rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The word here rendered "rejoice" х kauchoometha (G2744)] properly denotes that swell of emotion which leads to loud speaking-either in the way of 'vaunting'-`bragging'-without any warrantable ground-or of legitimate 'exultation' or 'triumph.' This last is the thing here intended; and as the same word is thrice used in this section, it had been better if it had been rendered by the same English word, instead of three different ones - "rejoice" (Romans 5:2), "glory" (Romans 5:3), and "joy" (Romans 5:11). The meaning is, that as our gratuitous justification gives to us who believe present peace with God, so it secures our future glory, the assured prospect of which begets as triumphant a spirit as if it were a present possession. (See more on "hope," Romans 5:4). Third: Triumph in Tribulation (Romans 5:3)