Continuing on the theme of chapter 4, that our right standing God comes only through faith in Christ, we see in the first couple verses of chapter 5 that we are "at peace with God" and that we have "gained access" to Him and His grace by faith.
Then we took at two issues that become major themes in Paul's writing and the rest of the New Testament:
1. Struggles and trials are to be embraced and celebrated.
2. Our Heavenly Father's love for us must be absolutely off the charts amazing for Him to send His Son to be punished for our justification. Verse 8 is a well-known, often quoted verse to that effect.
In verse 10 we are described as God's enemies. And yet, the Son of God is offered as a sacrifice to save those enemies. I picture a battlefield, and some soldier laying down his life and taking a bullet for someone on the other side of the battle lines. But not just for someone on the other side, but actually EVERYONE across enemy lines. It's crazy if you think about it. But that's just it -- God's love for us is totally crazy from our worldly perspective, where we really have no idea how to love the way He does.
Finally, Paul positions Jesus as the new Adam. Jesus is the one through whom all can be made righteous, since through Adam all are born sinful. And in verse 20, we see that where sin increases, the grace of God through Christ increases "all the more". That's something of a controversial statement that Paul will address in chapter 6.
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