I had no idea that Romans 5 was such a wonderful chapter! Really. It tells God's Story from beginning to end, in one chapter. Paul had a great gift for condensation, summarization and juxtaposition. In Romans 5, he began with Adam, the first man, and painted in broad strokes the story of God's ongoing relationship with mankind. In so doing, he threw a lot of multi-syllabic words around and contrasted theological concepts by presenting them in the same sentence (e.g. the "So...but" statements in vs. 15-21). After we read through the whole chapter together in just a moment, I'm going to use Paul's literary devices today to put Romans 5 in a more chronological, understandable order. To do that, we are going to look at a lot of “-ion” words, words that end in -ion. So, grab your Bibles and let's read Romans 5 together. (All scriptural references are from TAW.). Then, we will begin to deconstruct and rearrange.
{Read chapter aloud here.}
Collaboration and Creation
The first -ion is not explicitly mentioned in Romans 5. But, I'm going to start with it because it is integral to "The Story". In Genesis 1:26, the Hebrew is this:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכׇל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכׇל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
In the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) translation, it says this:
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”
And said Elohim, "Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness..."
"Elohim" in the Hebrew is a plural noun, as reflected in the pronouns "our" which follow it. The “eem” ending in the Hebrew language is the masculine plural ending. The Name encompasses all of the Divine, Majestic Mystery we call collectively ”God“, all of whom collaborated in the creation of the first man. Collaboration resulted in creation, the second -ion.
Transgression
Our next –ion occurs not at all long after the Creation of Adam and Eve. It is “transgression”. Look at Romans 5:12.
As by means of one man, sin entered into the world; and, by means of sin, death; and so death passed upon all the sons of men since all of them have sinned: (Romans 5:12)
This refers to Adam's disobedience and sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Adam's and Eve's disobedient acts caused all their descendants (all the rest of humanity) to be born with a "sin nature". Thanks be to God this does not have to be a permanent condition.
Condemnation
Next, we see the response of our holy God to man’s sin, and that was the next –ion “condemnation”.
Romans 5:18 - - Therefore, likewise, on account of the offense of one, condemnation was to all men; so also on account of the uprightness of one, will the victory to Life be to all men.
Who is being spoken of here? Who are the two “ones”? The first one refers to Adam who, although he did not eat the forbidden fruit first, was the head of his family and in the end, he ate it after his fallen wife did. The second “one” was The Only Unique Son of God, Yeshua.
What was the condemnation that came from Adam's sin? God's judgment: death, both physical and spiritual (6:23). This is spelled out clearly in Romans 6:23, in our next chapter.
Degradation
On to our next –ion in Romans 5:14. Let’s look at it:
Your death reigned from Adam until Moshe, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of the command of Adam who was the image of him that was to come.
The whole of human history can be divided into three epochs: before the Law, under the Law and under Grace. There were 11 generations between Adam and Noah. That translates to 1100 years. (Remember, before The Flood people lived for hundreds of years.) During those centuries, mankind became so evil and the human bloodlines so corrupted by the disobedience of fallen angels or by other explanations that the Messianic bloodline itself was nearly lost! It was because of this that God had to destroy the world, except for Noah's family, through which the Messianic bloodline would continue. The spiritual battle was extremely intense in those days. Degradation, for sure.
As far as we know, there was no written Scripture revelation given to mankind in those times.
From Noah to Moses were 15 generations. Noah built the ark because he believed God. It was his faith in God which saved his family, according to God's plan. Abraham, likewise, believed God, and it was credited to his spiritual account as righteousness.
By and large, though, during these 26 generations, mankind floundered, wallowing in spiritual death.
Written Revelation
Our next –ion is “written revelation”. The first written revelation God gave to mankind was the 5 books of the Law, also called The Pentateuch, aka The Torah, delivered to Moshe. The word Torah can also be applied to the entire OT, however. God chose Moses as the one to pen these books, which have guided Judaism (and later, Christianity) for millennia. The rest of the Old Testament followed, as God's further revelation. Paul reveals the purpose of The Law in Romans 5:20:
Now the entrance given to torah was that sin might increase: and where sin increased, there increased grace.
This might sound somewhat nonsensical , but not if you have ever had/raised children. If you give a child one or two directives, they likely will do them, as you ask. However, the more rules and regulations you give, usually the greater their rebellion. Rules absent relationship breeds rebellion. Now, the Torah was never meant to be just a set of rules to follow. Chief, always, was the “drawing near” to God, in other words, the relationship.
But, what the Law DID do was to reveal mankind's lawlessness to a greater degree. The Law gave an "impossibly high" standard, which pointed out just how fruitless it was for people to try to "be good enough" or “work hard enough” to satisfy a perfectly holy God unable to tolerate even the merest sin.
The next two –ions you won't find explicitly in Romans 5. I expound upon them because they are key to The Story.
Bastardization
While seemingly an unseemly word, the meaning here is "the process of making something illegitimate; to lower in value or worth; to debase". This is exactly what the religious leaders of Jesus' day had done to the Jewish faith. They had perverted the Law and the writings of the prophets to suit their own purposes. The system God had established through the patriarchs had completely broken down. We see Jesus' anger at this perversion in passages such as Matthew 21:12, when he overturned the money changers' tables at the Temple or in Matthew 23, when He called the scribes and pharisees "whitewashed graves" and "brood of snakes".
Some of my Messianic teachers who have studied this extensively believe that a rogue faction of priests had come to power shortly before the beginning of Yeshua’s public ministry. These priests of the House of Shammai had by evil, murderous means overcome the more righteous House of Hillel and after their hostile takeover had added to the commandments of God, added to the Torah such that it was a severe burden on the people. It had become something God never intended.
Something had to give. Or, rather, Someone had to give.
Propitiation
Matthew 1:23 says “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanu’el, which is interpreted ‘our El is with us.’” This verse is a quote from Isaiah 7:14.
Here Elohim has manifested His love towards us, because, if, when we were sinners Mashiyach died for us, how much more will we now be made righteous by his blood and be rescued from wrath by him? (Romans 5:8)
I love words, in general, in case you have not figured that out. But, I especially love "propitiation", in the Greek "hilasmos". You won't find this word in the Pauline letters because it is only found twice in the New Testament. Both times, it is used by the apostle John, in his letter called 1 John (2:2 and 4:10).1 Basically, the word means "an offering to appease an angry God", and that offering is the spilled-out blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. A good synonym for "propitiation" would be "atonement", the word that occurs in TAW.
Previously, God had given mankind his Written Revelation and glimpses of Himself. In Jesus, the Godhead gave to us His physical revelation, God-With-Us, God-With-Skin-On. The just-mentioned verse, 1 John 2:2 - - “For he is himself the atonement for our sins; and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
Reconciliation
God the Father, through God the Son Yeshua HaMashiach, made it right. Romans 5:10-11
For if, when we were enemies, Elohim was reconciled with us by the death of His Son, how much more will we in his reconciliation, live by his life? 11 And not only so, but we also rejoice in Elohim by means of our Master Yeshua the Mashiyach through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
AGR says this in his footnote #51, at the end of verse 11. “The key Hebrew word for “reconciliation” is kaphar which is the root word for kippur (atonement).” My additional comment there is that a kippa is the Hebrew name for the small round cap that covers a Jewish man’s head. Atonement at its most basic word essence, means “covered”. Elsewhere, Paul issued this plea: (2 Cor. 5:20b-21)
Therefore, we plead to you to be reconciled to Elohim, 21 For, on your account, He has made him who knew no sin to be sin that we might, in him, become the righteousness of Elohim.
Were it not for the reconciliation, there would be no justification, the next –ion.
Justification
Even though we talked about the differences between justification and sanctification recently, it is good to review. We have come to the most personal "-ion" word of them all: justification. All those which have come before are irrelevant unless this one is applied to the heart and soul. All previous fall under the category of intellectual belief until the soul lands here. At this point, the "forever" transformation of the spirit occurs, if the heart is open and willing. Because this is the crux of the matter, it is with these words Paul opens Romans 5, with verses 1 and 2.
Therefore, because we are being made righteous by faith, we will have peace with Elohim through our Master Yeshua the Mashiyach. 2 By whom we are brought by faith into this grace, in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of Elohim.
Paul makes it clear that our hearts become Yeshua's by faith alone. It is by our faith in His finished work that we are declared righteous by a holy God. God's grace cannot be administered through any other conduit than through the conduit of faith, specifically, faith in His only begotten Son.
As we learned in Rom. 4:5, we must believe in Him who justifies the ungodly; it is then that His righteousness is credited to us.
Hallelujah!
Allright, we are going to finish it up, by focusing on the last two
"-ion" words: sanctification and glorification.
Sanctification
When I was in college I got to sing my first classic choral masterwork, a mass. Not having been raised Catholic, I had no idea what a mass was, other than I knew it was the Catholic church service. A choral mass is a large work, comprised of 5 major sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei. Latin is a dead language, they say. But, it lives on in the masterworks of Bach, Beethoven, Verdi, Mozart and others. And, in those masterworks, Latin is gorgeous. It "sings"! A little early for puns, you say? I agree.... moving on!
So, you may have noticed that one of the sections of the mass is called "sanctus", a word that basically means "holy". It is the same root that gives us the English word, "sanctification" - - being set apart to become more like Yeshua, more "holy".
Here's how God designed it: we can't "holify" ourselves by our own good works. After becoming Christ's, however, His Holy Spirit within us sanctifies us, through supernatural power. Sounds wonderful, right? Look at verses 3-5 of Romans 5.
And not only so, but we also rejoice in adversities because we know that adversity perfects us in patience; 4 and patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope makes us not ashamed because the love of Elohim is poured out in our hearts by the Ruach haKodesh, who is given to us.
When we identify with, align our hearts with Elohim, sufferings, trials, tribulations inevitably result. This is because we have then put ourselves in opposition with the majority of people in this world, standing against their philosophies, practices and beliefs. Satan immediately puts us on his radar. (As long as we were not in the army of God, we were no threat to him, you see.) Even if we do not fully realize it, when we become a believer in Yeshua, by experiencing that forever-change-of-heart, we become utterly powerful to tear down the strongholds Satan has erected in this world. This conquering power is from Christ Himself, through His Holy Spirit (Philippians 4:13). TAW’s translation of that “famous” verse is interesting. Here it is:
I find strength in everything through Mashiyach who strengthens me.
If we "sink deep" into Yeshua, drawing on the supernatural power He gives us, He transforms us from being righteous in Him to being a warrior for Him. That is what it means when Paul says that our problems produce endurance, character and hope.
Now what about that last bit: hope?
Remember: hope as defined in the Bible has a different connotation from our customary use of the word in modern English. One of my friends, J.D., has a donkey whose name is Elpis. The Greek word "elpis" (ἐλπίς) means "an expectation of what is certain." This is the Greek word translated into our English word, “hope”. So, biblically speaking, “hope” does not mean, “well, maybe it will come to pass.”
Mothers will understand this. We call a pregnant woman an "expectant mother". She is "expecting". Now, without getting overly graphic, let's just say that what is inside her is going to come out, one way or the other. Right? There's no "Perhaps the baby will come out". It's coming. No doubt.
Think about a successful job, perhaps the first one you got as a young person. You were probably scared to death at first. But, each success on the job gave you more confidence, didn't it? The harder you worked, the better you got. Well, it is sort of like that with sanctification. When you yield to the Spirit, He produces spiritual "fruit" (successes) in your own spirit. This is what Paul means by "character". And, the more He is allowed (through your surrender) to sanctify you, the more confident of "who you are, in Messiah". This state of ever-becoming more like Jesus is what Paul calls "reigning in life" (vs. 17), resplendent daughters and sons! Hallelujah!
In TAW, verse 17 says this:
For if, on account of the fault of one, death reigned; much more, they who receive the abundance of the grace and the free gift and of uprightness, will reign in Life by means of one, Yeshua the Mashiyach.
When you experience justification, the last "-ion" word we talked about, you KNOW that you have been changed forever. You KNOW that your eventual destination is Heaven. But, through sanctification, you become even more confident and excited about "that blessed hope", the certainty of Heaven. It's like a runner running a race: you see the finish line in the distance. The closer it gets, the clearer you can see it and the more excited you are to reach it! It’s like working a traditional 5-day, M-F work week. When Friday came for me, I could see hope on the horizon. If I lived, I knew I would be soon at the weekend. There was no doubt. The weekend was an elpis. Allright, let’s move on to the last –ion, although ...
Glorification
Sanctification and glorification cannot be separated. They go together, inseparably. Romans 8:30 tells us that if you belong to Christ (justification), you will not be sinless; rather, you will be becoming more and more like Christ in some way. You will not be a "fruitless fig tree" (Luke 6:30). It is impossible. Oh, you may go through "phases" where you are temporarily walking in disobedience; but, you will be miserable the whole time, deep down in your soul. Sanctification is the "default setting" for each believer.
This is the beginning of glorification! One flows into the other. The final transition is made when physical death comes to the believer, the Christ-follower. But, there is no fear in death for the believer! Our Savior has conquered it for us. Physical death is merely stepping from sanctification into full-on glorification, the "new operating system"! When we were dead (spiritually) in our sins, death reigned in us. When we were made alive (spiritually) in Christ Jesus, grace reigned and will reign in us forever. Look now at Romans 5:21.
So that, as sin had reigned in death, so grace might reign in righteousness to eternal life, by means of our Master Yeshua the Mashiyach.
Eternal life - - ultimate glorification. Psalm 16:11 sums up the union of justification-sanctification-glorification beautifully. Think about that as you ponder this verse:
You make me know the path of life;
in your presence is unbounded joy,
in your right hand eternal delight.
Eternity is now. We need to grasp that truth and apply it to our lives. Physical death is merely a mile marker on the road to glory. And, every step we take brings us closer to our Elohim! We are so very, very cherished and loved. I pray he is doing his supernatural conversion in each of us.
