The reign of grace
Read: Romans 5
1) vv1-2 describe several privileges of believers. What are they?
- Is Christianity the only religion that promises peace with God?
- What distinguishes Paul’s view from other notions what such ‘peace’ means? => Why are our Lord and faith in him key to have such peace?
- Besides reconciliation, what is mentioned in v2 that can only be found in the gospel?
- What does it mean to ‘rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’?
- How does this differ from mere wishful thinking, e.g. of those who ‘hope’ to earn 72 virgins in heaven if they die as so-called martyrs?
- v2 speaks of ‘access to this grace in which we stand’. What did Paul mean by access? cf Eph 2:8-10
- How can this access become yours?
2) vv3-4 proceed by considering what such peace and hope will produce. What do you expect?
- How will it change our attitude toward sufferings?
- The noun translated as character (or experience, KJV) derives from a verb that means ‘to test as genuine ‘: Can any ‘test results’ take anything away from or add to our salvation? Why or why not?
- Why does passing a test produce hope?
- How about your own certainty whether you really are saved (= assurance of salvation): Why will such hope grow in proportion to your ‘test results’ (and not more), even though salvation itself is independent of those ?
3) Read again vv5-8: If the contrary were true, how could you tell? i.e. how would it manifest if the hope of Christians in fact would ‘put them to shame’? [Being proven wrong in the court of God to have set our hope for saving regeneration on Christ alone, rather than on works of the law, Tit 3:5].
- v4: Why is this shameful outcome impossible?
- vv6-8: What does our certainty/assurance of salvation have to do with the timing when Jesus died?
4) vv9-11 are structured as questions: “If A, than how much more B?” What did Paul compare in this way?
- Why are we reconciled by Christ’s death?
- Why are we then even ‘…much more saved by his life’? cf Lev 17:11
- Does the Bible mean by ‘salvation’ only a ‘ticket to heaven’? Why not? cf Tit 3:5 […saved us …by regeneration & renewal…]
- => How does e.g. the story of Zacchaeus in Lk 19:1-10 define what Jesus understood by salvation? [Not only salvation from the guilt of sin, but also from its power – through a new heart]
5) vv12-19: Even though sin until Moses was not counted (v13), death as a necessary consequence of sin nevertheless reigned already: How so?
- In what sense is death ruling like an all-powerful despot?
- v15: How did many die through the trespass of one man (Adam)?
- vv16-19: Death resulting from the disobedience of Adam is compared to what believers receive through the obedience of Christ: What is that?
- v19: What does it mean to be constituted righteous (Young’s Literal Translation, YLT)? [gr. katisthemi, single occurrence in NT: Properly, set down (in place), i.e. “put in charge,” give standing (authority, status) which enables someone to rule (exercise decisive force)].
6) vv20-21: How much credit did Paul give to the law in making anyone more godly, or in directing their ‘progress in holiness’?
- Read again Ro 1:16-17. Why does the gospel have that power which the law was lacking to rule the life of Christians?
- v21: Why can grace (and only grace) change what the law cannot?
- Hint: Why did Paul add: “(grace reigns)…through Jesus Christ our Lord”?
7) Personal & application
- The Bible calls even seemingly good works dead when they come from a heart restrained only by the law and not ruled by grace. Do you agree with such a verdict? Why or why not?
- How inclined are you to resort to rules as a guide to reign in life, and to master its traps and temptations?
- How do you find does the gospel uproot this inclination and break down its dynamic of enslavement?
- When moral imperatives proved powerless, where have you already felt grace to empower you to obey God from the heart (i.e. with the right attitude, freely and not to make anyone owe you, or proud of your achievement)?
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