Chapter 5 – One God Translation

Romans

   5 So then, having been made right by belief,[914] we now have peace with God through our lord Jesus Messiah. 2 It is through Jesus that we have our access by belief into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. [915] 3 Not only this, but we are also rejoicing in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance. 4 Perseverance in turn produces proven character, and proven character, hope. 5 And hope will not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy spirit which was given to us. [916]
    6 For while we were still powerless, at the right time Messiah died[917] for the ungodly. 7 Hardly anyone would die for even an upright person, though perhaps for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in this way: while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us. 9 Much more then, being now made right by his blood,[918] we will be saved through him from God’s anger. 10 For if while we were His enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son; much more now, having been reconciled, we will be saved by the life of His Son. 11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our lord Jesus Messiah, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
    12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, death came to all people because all sinned. 13 For before the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14 But death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins were not like Adam’s disobedience. Adam is[919] a shadow of the one who was to come.
    15 But the gracious gift is not like the sin. For if through the sin of the one man many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Messiah, multiply to many! 16 And the gift is different from the effect of Adam’s sin. For judgment after one sin led to condemnation, but the gracious gift after many sins led to us being made right. 17 For if as a result of one man’s sin, death reigned through that one man, so how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of being made right reign in Life[920] through the one man, Jesus Messiah!
    18 In conclusion then, just as through one sin all were condemned, in the same way through one right act all may be made right leading to Life. 19 Just as through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, in the same way through one man’s[921] obedience many will be made right. 20 The Law entered in to increase sin, but where sin increased grace multiplied much more. 21 So just as sin reigned, meaning death for us, grace will reign, making us right with God, leading to the Life of the Age to Come through Jesus Messiah our lord.[922]

Romans

[914]

That is by obedient faith, obeying and believing Jesus. Hence Paul’s key phrase in 1:5 and 16:26: “the obedience of faith.” Heb. 5:9 should be consulted continuously, since it links obedience to salvation.

[915]

The Kingdom of God, to appear at the 7 th trumpet when Jesus returns (Rev. 11:15-18; 5:9-10; Mt. 5:5).

[916]

1 Cor. 12:13 is the key verse showing that the spirit is received at baptism into the body of Christ. It is never a “second level” which only certain believers attain to (the notion that speaking in languages is the chief sign of having received the spirit is false). The situation in Acts 8:14-16 is not the NT pattern. In that passage only Apostles from Jerusalem could bring the spirit to them. This is impossible today.

[917]

The idea of “GOD dying” should appear impossible and alien to readers of the NT! Jesus as Son of God died (v. 10), and Jesus the Son must have been mortal. God cannot die: He is immortal (1 Tim. 6:16).

[918]

The death of Jesus not only provides an atonement for our sins, it also inaugurates the New Covenant, ratified in Messiah’s blood, and this covenant offers us rulership in the Kingdom to come (Lk. 22:28-30).

[919]

Literally “Adam is a type of the one to come.” The sense in English is that Adam was a direct parallel of the one to come. In the same way in Col. 2:17 the Jewish calendar is a shadow of what was to come (and has now come). The sense as in Romans is that the calendar was only a shadow of the Messiah who has now come. The calendar shadow is now superseded. Adam and Jesus are equally human beings, which is untrue if Jesus had an origin outside the human race. Jesus is “the second man” (1 Cor. 15:47) and “the last Adam” (15:45). Paul is keen to tell us that Jesus did not precede Adam, but the other way round (1 Cor. 15:45-47).

[920]

This is a central doctrine of the Gospel that we will reign as kings with Messiah in the Kingdom to be established on earth when Jesus comes back (Dan. 2:44; 7:14, 18, 22, 27; Mt. 19:28; Lk. 19:17; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26; 3:21, 5:10; 20:1-6). Cp. Wisdom of Solomon 3:8; 5:15-16.

[921]

The parallel between Adam and Jesus, both human beings, is inescapable. The post-biblical equating of Jesus with a preexisting Deity spoiled the simplicity of the divine program, obscuring monotheism and the human Messiah, the second Adam.

[922]

Reflecting, as must be continuously stressed, the “my lord” (adoni, 195 times never a title of Deity) of Ps. 110:1. It is the umbrella text over the whole NT and defines Jesus as the human king Messiah (Lk. 2:11). Cp. 1 Tim. 2:5 which confirms this in an easy creedal statement, and John 17:3 where the Messiah is distinct from the Father who is “the only one who is true God” (cp. Mk. 12:29).