Chapter 5
V1-2 Paul revels and rejoices in this truly amazing grace afforded to the worthless, undeserving, sinners that we are, grace of which is entered into by simply having faith and belief in Yeshua as our Saviour and His atoning blood. This realisation brings peace/eirene into our souls as we develop hope of glory in Elohim. This glory as we shall discover throughout the epistles is not in this lifetime as is erroneously preached, and differs from gifts of the Holy spirit, although they are glorious. This glory is after the Son has put all things under Him and be subject to our heavenly Father that He may be all in all 1 Cor 15:28, Eph 1:10.
V3-5 Paul then encourages us to glory in tribulations/thlipsis-better translated as pressure, affliction, oppression from the enemy -as this is a clear sign of us rattling Satan’s army, meaning that we are definitely in league, devoid of delusion on our part, with Yeshua’s army of saints. The patience nurtured from this, increases our experience in our walk, leading to further growth spiritually and more realistic hope of Elohim’s impending glory, despite the fact that it may seem afar of.
V5 With this hope set in our hearts, we won’t feel ashamed to be representatives of Elohim on earth and will gladly suffer persecution without dishonour, unlike the seed planted on stony ground Matt 13:20-21. The love of Elohim is much greater than that of man, and can only be experienced when the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts. This love transcends all emotions responsive to tribulation, leading to nothing short of rejoicing in our trials as it is for the strengthening of the body of Messiah cf Col 1:24: Matt 5:10-12.
V6-9 v6 Yeshua died for us, the unholy, in order to be redeemed from the clutches of Satan. Yeshua did not die for the saved, otherwise it would have been pointless. We had no strength i.e. Holy Spirit power in our degenerated state, and hence had no hope whatsoever to be freed from the chains of Satan’s bondage. Hence why we needed to be bought with the price of Yeshua’s blood 1 Cor 6:20, in order to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, to have strength to fight evil, through spiritual warfare by effective prayer, to set captives free.
V7-8 It is already difficult to trade your life for a righteous man, yet Elohim loved us so much that He traded the life of His flawless Son, for decrepit mankind Jn 3:16.
V9 If Yeshua was prepared to die for scoundrels such as us, and redeem us by His blood, imagine how much more we stand a chance of being saved from wrath in our justified regenerated self! Christians readily have faith in the redemptive blood of Yeshua of the degenerate man, which is logically the greater and more difficult achievement to believe, yet tend to doubt the power of the Holy Spirit that follows, working through the regenerated man e.g. healing, deliverance from demons to set captives free, which logically should be the easier of the two achievements of Yeshua’s blood to believe!
V10-11 Paul in different phraseology reiterates the same point as the last 2 verses for reinforcement. If Yeshua was prepared to die for Elohim’s enemies to redeem their souls by His blood, how much more easily believable should it not be for us to grasp the truth of being reconciled to Elohim in Yeshua being alive again. Instead of smugly and proudly being content with redemption we never deserved, let us rather cry tears of joy for reassurance of atonement of our sins.
V12 All mankind inherited Adam’s sin-tainted DNA and hence why we are all appointed to die Heb 9:27
V13 This is a very difficult verse to fully comprehend if the whole context of the passage and Paul’s train of thought is not taken into consideration. Unfortunately, nit-picking anti-Torah preachers, butcher the meaning of this verse and take it out of context to demonise the law as being sinful! Paul is simply stating that when the law came into effect beginning with the single commandment given to Adam (note Eve was not created yet) to not eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil Gen 2:17, breaking of the law led to sin entering the world. The law is not sinful. Sin arises out of breaking the law.
If the law was truly done away with by Yeshua’s death on the cross as most preachers claim, then why are we still dying, when it is more than clear that we die because of transgression of the law, which is the very definition of sin 1Jn 3:4!!! Our sin is imputed by simple belief in Yeshua of which David envied so much Rom 4:7-8. If there was no law, then there would be no tool or means to expose sin, and hence there would be nothing to impute, as by definition no law would mean that there would be no sin to define.
In essence Paul is preaching the exact opposite of false church doctrine, whereby he is expressing the necessity of Torah to be present to define and expose sin, in order for us to be imputed of it by the very justifying blood of Yeshua the righteous, by or through faith in Him. Hallelujah and all praise and glory to the Most High Yehovah Elohim for such a provision to fallen man.
V14 Despite future generations from Adam till Moses having not eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they still sinned, as the full Torah would undoubtedly have been passed down by word of mouth or otherwise, before it was codified on Mt Sinai. Cain for instance would have known that there was the law ‘thou shalt not kill’, otherwise killing Abel would not have been perceived as sin by him. Throughout Genesis, we read countless narratives of law breaking e.g. Genesis 6, and also adherence to Torah prior to it being written on tablets of stone and on scrolls. The ‘One that was to come’ referred to is Yeshua the last Adam, the second man cf 1 Cor 15:45-47
V15 Despite death coming into the world to all by one man, the greater is the free gift of grace given to us by simply believing in Yeshua the Son of righteousness, to be redeemed of our sins and ultimately return on the road that leads to salvation. All of mankind is offered this gift.
V16 One sin on Adam’s part led to condemnation. Almost an infinite sum of sins has been committed since, yet belief in Yeshua cancels them all if the free gift of justification through/by faith is taken up.
V17-19 Again Paul uses repetition to reinforce his point.
V20 Note that Paul states that the law entered i.e. it had and has a role to play. He never at any point in time states that the law then disappeared. Its role is to expose and define sin or offences. Where these offences abounded, through exposure by the law/Torah, the grace of Elohim through allowing His innocent Son’s death and shedding of blood for these offences to occur, superseded the abundance of sin in stature i.e. sin lost.
V21 Having said that, where sin has been victorious in death upon the sinner, the provision of grace of Elohim through justification by faith in His Son, gives us greater victory in that we shall be resurrected one day unto eternal life by Yeshua our Saviour.