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Romans 5

Romans 5 grounds hope in Christ’s reconciling death and shows how God’s grace overcomes the reign of sin and death.

Paul explains to the Christians in Rome what follows from being justified by faith: peace with God, access to grace, and hope of God’s glory. He traces how suffering can lead to hope, then grounds assurance in Christ’s death for sinners and his life. The argument widens to all humanity as Paul compares Adam’s disobedience with Christ’s obedience. Sin and death spread through Adam; God’s gift through Jesus Christ brings righteousness and life.

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1Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die.
8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
10For 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.
11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned.
13For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.
14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
15But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
16The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification.
17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly,
21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Key verses
Romans 5:1Peace with God is the first result Paul names, establishing the chapter’s assurance in justification through faith.
Romans 5:3Suffering enters Paul’s account of hope because it produces perseverance, leading toward proven character and hope grounded in God’s love.
Romans 5:8Christ’s death for sinners establishes God’s love before Paul argues for confidence in salvation from wrath.
Where this chapter reaches

John and 1 John share the theme of God’s love shown through his Son, while Ephesians and 2 Corinthians share the theme of reconciliation through Christ. James shares the link between trials and perseverance, and 1 Peter connects suffering with tested faith and hope.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you about Christ dying for people Paul calls weak, ungodly, and enemies?

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How does Paul’s account of suffering and hope compare with what you have experienced?

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Questions people ask about Romans 5

What does peace with God mean in Romans 5:1?

Peace with God describes the reconciled relationship that comes through Jesus Christ to those justified by faith. Paul develops this in verses 9–11: people once described as enemies have been reconciled through the Son’s death. The phrase concerns their standing before God; the chapter still includes suffering.

Why does Romans 5 say to rejoice in suffering?

Paul connects rejoicing with what suffering produces: perseverance, proven character, and hope. He grounds that hope in God’s love poured into believers’ hearts through the Holy Spirit. The passage neither calls pain pleasant nor explains every instance of suffering; it places suffering within the believer’s hope in God.

Why does Romans 5 compare Adam and Jesus?

Paul presents Adam as a foreshadowing of Christ because each one’s act affects many others. Adam’s disobedience brings condemnation and death; Christ’s obedience brings righteousness and life. Paul also stresses the difference between them: God’s gift exceeds the trespass, and those who receive grace reign in life through Christ.

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Romans · 16 chapters
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What the Bible says about guilt →What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about gratitude →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).