Understanding Peace with God in Romans 5
The Text and Its Context
"Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" [1]. This opening verse of Romans 5 marks a pivotal transition in Paul's letter. Having established the doctrine of justification by faith through four chapters of dense theological argument—drawing on Abraham, David, and the law—Paul now turns to the experiential consequences of that justification [4]. The "therefore" signals that what follows depends entirely on what precedes: peace is not a separate benefit but the direct result of being declared righteous through faith.
The verse appears in a section (Romans 5:1–11) that frames the security of the believer's relationship with God, a theme that extends through chapter 8 [4]. Paul is writing to a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome, addressing those who have already embraced the gospel but need assurance of their standing before God.
The Nature of Peace
The peace Paul describes is not primarily emotional tranquility but a legal and relational reality. Sin creates enmity between humanity and God—"a strangeness, but an enmity," as one commentator puts it, noting that "the holy righteous God cannot in honour be at peace with a sinner while he continues under the guilt of sin" [3]. Justification removes that enmity by removing guilt. The peace is objective before it is subjective: God is no longer at war with the justified sinner.
This understanding aligns with the biblical concept of reconciliation, which involves "a change from enmity to friendship" that is "mutual, i.e., it is a change wrought in both parties who have been at enmity" [2]. In Romans 5:10, the focus falls on God himself as "the party reconciled" [2], though elsewhere Paul emphasizes the change in the sinner's disposition (Colossians 1:21–22; 2 Corinthians 5:20) [2]. The peace is established through Christ's mediating work: "through our Lord Jesus Christ" specifies the exclusive channel through which this peace comes [1].
A Textual Question
Manuscript evidence presents a notable variant at this verse. While most English translations read "we have peace" (indicative mood), the strongest manuscripts support "let us have peace" (subjunctive mood) [5]. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown acknowledge that "if we are to be guided by manuscript authority, the true reading here, beyond doubt, is, 'Let us have peace,'" yet they note that many scholars reject this reading because "the apostle is not here giving exhortations, but stating matters of fact" [5]. The tension reflects a genuine interpretive challenge: does Paul describe a settled reality or exhort believers to embrace what God offers?
Instrumental Faith and Effective Grace
Paul's phrase "justified by faith" requires precision. Faith is not the ground of justification but "the instrumental cause" [6]. As one tradition carefully distinguishes, "faith is not the efficient cause of it, it is God that justifies, and not faith; it is not the moving cause of it, that is the free grace of God; it is not the matter of it, that is the righteousness of Christ" [7]. Faith receives what Christ's righteousness provides. The justified person stands pardoned, having "no works of righteousness that we can plead" [6].
The peace that results is one of several "precious benefits and privileges which flow from justification" [3]. These fruits—peace, access to grace, hope of glory, endurance in suffering—are "exceedingly precious" and should motivate believers "to make it sure to ourselves that we are justified, and then to take the comfort it renders to us" [3].
God as the Source
Paul's description of God as "the God of peace" elsewhere in Romans (15:33) underscores his active role in establishing reconciliation [9]. Peace was "first upon his thoughts, which are therefore called thoughts of peace; a council of peace was held between him and his Son upon this head; the scheme of reconciliation was drawn by him in it" [9]. The peace believers experience originates in divine initiative, executed through Christ's atoning death, and applied through faith. The result is not merely relief from condemnation but a restored relationship in which believers "glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ" [8]—a "purely disinterested" benefit that moves beyond gratitude for personal salvation to delight in God himself [8].
Sources
- Romans “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; -- Romans 5:1”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Reconcilation — A change from enmity to friendship. It is mutual, i.e., it is a change wrought in both parties who have been at enmity. (1.) In Col. 1:21, 22, the word there used refers to a change wrought in the personal character of the sinner who ceases to be an enemy to God by wicked works, and yields up to him his full confidence and love. In 2 Cor. 5:20 the apostle beseeches the Corinthians to be "reconciled to God", i.e., to lay aside their enmity. (2.) Rom. 5:10 refers not to any change in our disposition toward God, but to God himself, as the party reconcile”
- Romans (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Romans 5:1: The precious benefits and privileges which flow from justification are such as should quicken us all to give diligence to make it sure to ourselves that we are justified, and then to take the comfort it renders to us, and to do the duty it calls for from us. The fruits of this tree of life are exceedingly precious. I. We have peace with God, Rom 5:1. It is sin that breeds the quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity; the holy righteous God cannot in honour be at peace with a sinner while he continues under the guilt of sin. Justific”
- Romans (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Romans 5:1: 5:1–8:39 Paul now turns from the Good News about how people enter a relationship with God to the security of that relationship. Christians have a strong and unassailable promise because of God’s work in Christ, God’s love for them, and the power of the Holy Spirit. This theme frames the teaching of these chapters (5:1-11; 8:18-39) as Paul grounds that promise in the transfer of believers from the realm of Adam to the realm of Christ (5:12-21). No power—whether sin (ch 6), the law (ch 7), or death (8:1-13)—“will ever be able to separate us from the love of God” (8:3”
- Romans (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Romans 5 (introduction): THE BLESSED EFFECTS OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. (Rom 5:1-11) Therefore being--"having been." justified by faith, we have peace with God, &c.--If we are to be guided by manuscript authority, the true reading here, beyond doubt, is, "Let us have peace"; a reading, however, which most reject, because they think it unnatural to exhort men to have what it belongs to God to give, because the apostle is not here giving exhortations, but stating matters of fact. But as it seems hazardous to set aside the decisive testimony of manuscripts, as to w”
- Romans (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Romans 5:1: Therefore being justified by faith - The apostle takes it for granted that he has proved that justification is by faith, and that the Gentiles have an equal title with the Jews to salvation by faith. And now he proceeds to show the effects produced in the hearts of the believing Gentiles by this doctrine. We are justified - have all our sins pardoned by faith, as the instrumental cause; for, being sinners, we have no works of righteousness that we can plead. We have peace with God - Before, while sinners, we were in a state of enmity with God, which was sufficiently ”
- Romans (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Romans 5:1: Therefore being justified by faith,.... Not that faith is at the first of our justification; for that is a sentence which passed in the mind of God from all eternity, and which passed on Christ, and on all the elect considered in him, when he rose from the dead; see Rom 4:25; nor is it the chief, or has it the chief place in justification; it is not the efficient cause of it, it is God that justifies, and not faith; it is not the moving cause of it, that is the free grace of God; it is not the matter of it, that is the righteousness of Christ: we are not justified by f”
- Romans (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Romans 5:11: And not only so, but we also joy--rather, "glory." in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by--"through" whom we have now received the atonement--rather, "the reconciliation" (Margin), as the same word is rendered in Rom 5:10 and in Co2 5:18-19. (In fact, the earlier meaning of the English word "atonement" was "the reconciliation of two estranged parties") [TRENCH]. The foregoing effects of justification were all benefits to ourselves, calling for gratitude; this last may be termed a purely disinterested one. Our first feeling towards God, after we h”
- Romans (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Romans 15:33: Now the God of peace be with you all, Amen. As God is in this chapter before styled the God of patience, Rom 15:5, and the God of hope, Rom 15:13, because of his concern in these graces; so he is here styled "the God of peace", because of his concern in that peace which is made between him and his people, by the blood of Christ. This peace was first upon his thoughts, which are therefore called thoughts of peace; a council of peace was held between him and his Son upon this head; the scheme of reconciliation was drawn by him in it; he entered into a covenant of peace”