Romans 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 57, during the reign of the emperor Nero
Location
Written by Paul from Corinth in Greece to Christians living in Rome, the capital of the empire
Audience
A mixed group of Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Rome, a church Paul had not yet visited
Situation
Paul argues that people made right with God through trust have peace with him, and that suffering produces endurance and hope rather than shame. He then compares Adam, through whom death entered, with Christ, through whom a gift of life comes to many.
Key Background
Peace with God would have landed pointedly in Rome, where the emperor's propaganda advertised the pax Romana, the peace Augustus claimed to have brought by force of arms. The comparison of two representative figures whose actions determine the fate of everyone descended from them was a familiar way of reasoning in Jewish teaching of the period. Paul's line about dying for a good person reflects a real Greek and Roman ideal of the noble death for a friend or a city, which makes his claim that Christ died for enemies deliberately break the expected pattern.
So now that we've been with God through we have with God through our Lord Jesus, The
Through him we've also gained by trust into this we now stand in, and we celebrate in the hope of sharing in God's
And that's not all — we also in our because we know that produces
and endurance produces and produces
And this hope doesn't let us down, because God's has been our hearts through the of who has been given to us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still The One died for people who had
It's rare for someone to die even for a person — though maybe for someone truly a person might actually dare to die.
But here's how God his own love for us: while we were still caught up in our The One died for us.
So since we've now been made right with God through his how much more certain is it that we'll be from God's to through him!
Because if while we were our relationship with God was through the death of his Son, how much more, now that it's been will we be rescued through his life!
And not only that, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus, The One, through whom we've now received this
So here's how it works: entered the world through one man, and came through that and in this way spread to everyone, because everyone has been caught up in failure —
because corruption was already in the world before the was given, but corruption isn't counted against people when there is no
Yet death still from Adam until Moses, even over those whose failure wasn't the same kind of deliberate violation that Adam committed. Adam was a of the one who was coming.
But the of undeserved kindness is nothing like the failure. Because if the many died through one man's failure, how much more has God's undeserved kindness and the that came through the undeserved kindness of one man, Jesus, The One, to the many!
And the gift isn't like the result of one man's failure. Because the judgment that followed one failure brought but the gift that followed so many failures brought the of
Because if by one man's failure, death ruled like a king through that one man, how much more will those who receive the of undeserved kindness and the gift of being made right — they will in through the one man, Jesus, The One.
So then, just as failure led to condemnation for everyone, so of what was leads to being made and having life — for everyone.
Because just as through one man's the many were placed in the category of failures, so also through one man's the many will be placed in the category of those made right.
Now the law in so that failure would increase. But where failure increased, undeserved kindness more,
so that just as corruption through death, so also undeserved kindness would rule through being made right with God, leading to through Jesus, The One, our Lord.