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Romans 5:1-2 meaning
It is only chapter 5 (of 16), and this is the tenth occurrence of the Greek word "dikaioo" (translated here justified). Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (v 1). The following is a list of the verses where "dikaioo" occurs up to this point and a paraphrase of the point Paul makes in each verse:
Looking at this sequence of the uses of "dikaioo" (justified or justifies) provides a nice summary of Paul's argument against the competing Jewish "authorities" to this point. This letter to the Roman believers will also help Paul's ministry partners Aquila and Priscilla, who host a church in their house in Rome, to counter the arguments of the competing Jewish "authorities" (Romans 16:3; Acts 18:2, 18, 26). Paul has hammered home that righteousness before God comes only by grace through faith and not by the law. None of our actions matter in gaining this justification in God's sight, only God's; God is the one who counts our belief as righteousness. We can only be justified by faith. But now Paul takes a new direction and begins to discuss the practical outcome of being justified before God by faith.
The first reality is that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. How does this tell us what the rest of our lives should look like? How should we then live? Chapter 5 will examine this question. Now that we have peace with God, as Paul states in verse 1, we can continue to live in His grace. So now Paul's emphasis will be on how we should live by faith in our daily lives, tapping into the resurrection power of Jesus.
To be justified in God's sight is a gift we receive, and does not depend upon our deeds. But the life we live depends wholly upon the choices we make. Therefore, we need to keep these two concepts separated: we are born of the Spirit through a gift freely given, but it is left to our choice whether to live in that Spirit, or to continue to walk in sin and in the flesh. Paul will acknowledge this, and admonish us to choose to live in the Spirit.
Chapter 5 will set the table to address another of the allegations made against Paul's gospel—of righteousness by grace through faith—by those slandering his gospel message of justification (Romans 3:8). This objection will be raised in Romans 6:1, where Paul's opponents will claim that Paul's gospel message leads to the conclusion that we ought to sin as much as possible so God's grace will abound all the more, and therefore show God to be all the more merciful. Paul will counter this by arguing that this is totally wrong because it is self-destructive.
Since we now stand in God's grace, we are in the safest and most permanent place possible, because God is dependable and unchanging: Through [Jesus Christ] also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God (v 2). The Greek word translated have in verse 2 is in the perfect tense, so the access we have obtained to stand in God's grace is continual and unceasing. That is certainly something to cause rejoicing.
That we stand in God's grace means we are positioned in God's grace. It is our station, our permanent position in Him. Our position in Christ is steady and unchanging, because of the unchanging nature of God. Although our position in Christ is permanent and unchanging, our condition depends upon our actions. God has granted us stewardship of three types of choices: who we trust, what we do, and the perspective we choose.
Because we stand in this grace, we ought to choose a perspective of gratitude, and exult in hope of the glory of God. The phrase glory of God as Paul uses it here is something that is not yet seen but is eagerly hoped for. What is it that we hope for once we stand in the grace of God? To discover what this might be, we can study the phrase glory of God, which is a translation of the Greek "doxa theos." "Doxa theos" appears several times in the Bible. The following is a list that includes "doxa autos" or glory of them (when them refers to God) as well as "doxa pater," glory of the Father.
Which of these applications does Paul say they are exulting and looking forward to with hope? It could be all of them.