Ro 5:1-11. THE BLESSED EFFECTS OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
The proof of this doctrine being now concluded, the apostle comes here to treat of its fruits, reserving the full consideration of this topic to another stage of the argument (Ro 8:1-39).
1. Therefore being--"having been."
justified by faith, we have peace with God, &c.--If we are to be
guided by manuscript authority, the true reading here, beyond doubt, is,
"Let us have peace"; a reading, however, which most reject, because they
think it unnatural to exhort men to have what it belongs to God to
give, because the apostle is not here giving exhortations, but
stating matters of fact. But as it seems hazardous to set aside the
decisive testimony of manuscripts, as to what the apostle did write,
in favor of what we merely think he ought to have written, let us
pause and ask--If it be the privilege of the justified to "have peace
with God," why might not the apostle begin his enumeration of the
fruits of justification by calling on believers to "realize" this peace
as belonged to them, or cherish the joyful consciousness of it as their
own? And if this is what he has done, it would not be necessary to
continue in the same style, and the other fruits of justification might
be set down, simply as matters of fact. This "peace" is first a change
in God's relation to us; and next, as the consequence of this, a change
on our part towards Him. God, on the one hand, has "reconciled us to
Himself by Jesus Christ"
(2Co 5:18);
and we, on the other hand, setting our seal to this, "are reconciled to
God"
(2Co 5:20).
The "propitiation" is the meeting-place; there the controversy on both
sides terminates in an honorable and eternal "peace."
JFB.
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