Therefore being {1} justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

(1) Another argument taken from the effects: we are justified with that which truly appeases our conscience before God: and faith in Christ does appease our conscience and not the law, as it was said before, therefore by faith we are justified, and not by the law.

People's New Testament

5:1 Reconciliation Through Christ

SUMMARY OF ROMANS 5:

Justification by Faith. Peace, Hope, and Joy. Christ Died for the Ungodly. His Surpassing Love. Death Through Adam's Sin. Life Through Christ's Righteousness. Law and Grace.

Therefore being justified by faith. Paul has just shown that men are counted righteous before God, not through obedience to the law, but through faith in Christ. Not law, but faith justifies. The faith that justifies is (1) a faith in Christ; (2) a faith of the heart (Ro 10:9) which brings the whole life into obedience (Ro 1:5).

Peace with God. While sinners, we are rebels against God. When our rebellion ceases and we are forgiven we are at peace. This blessed peace with God, which brings peace to the soul, is through Jesus Christ.

Wesley's Notes

5:1 Being justified by faith - This is the sum of the preceding chapter s. We have peace with God - Being enemies to God no longer, Rom 5:10; neither fearing his wrath, Rom 5:9. We have peace, hope, love, and power over sin, the sum of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapter s. These are the fruits of justifying faith: where these are not, that faith is not.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 5

Ro 5:1-11. The Blessed Effects of Justification by Faith.

The proof of this doctrine being now concluded, the apostle comes here to treat of its fruits, reserving the full consideration of this topic to another stage of the argument (Ro 8:1-39).

1. 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 what the apostle did write, in favor of what we merely think he ought to have written, let us pause and ask-If it be the privilege of the justified to "have peace with God," why might not the apostle begin his enumeration of the fruits of justification by calling on believers to "realize" this peace as belonged to them, or cherish the joyful consciousness of it as their own? And if this is what he has done, it would not be necessary to continue in the same style, and the other fruits of justification might be set down, simply as matters of fact. This "peace" is first a change in God's relation to us; and next, as the consequence of this, a change on our part towards Him. God, on the one hand, has "reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ" (2Co 5:18); and we, on the other hand, setting our seal to this, "are reconciled to God" (2Co 5:20). The "propitiation" is the meeting-place; there the controversy on both sides terminates in an honorable and eternal "peace."

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-5 A blessed change takes place in the sinner's state, when he becomes a true believer, whatever he has been. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The holy, righteous God, cannot be at peace with a sinner, while under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. This is through our Lord Jesus Christ; through him as the great Peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man. The saints' happy state is a state of grace. Into this grace we are brought, which teaches that we were not born in this state. We could not have got into it of ourselves, but we are led into it, as pardoned offenders. Therein we stand, a posture that denotes perseverance; we stand firm and safe, upheld by the power of the enemy. And those who have hope for the glory of God hereafter, have enough to rejoice in now. Tribulation worketh patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful grace of God working in and with the tribulation. Patient sufferers have most of the Divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works needful experience of ourselves. This hope will not disappoint, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. It is the gracious work of the blessed Spirit to shed abroad the love of God in the hearts of all the saints. A right sense of God's love to us, will make us not ashamed, either of our hope, or of our sufferings for him.