Romans 5:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

It may seem that these words contain repetition, but careful reading will not find it. Observe, then.

The Apostle wishes to convince the Romans concerning future blessings. First he persuades them by the thought of the righteous man, saying that he is fully assured that "what God had promised, He was also able to perform" (Rom 4:21).

Then he proves this by the gift of grace. Next he proves it by afflictions, saying that they are able to bring us to hope.

Again he proves it by the fact that God gave us the Spirit, whom we also received. Finally, he proves it by Christ's death and by our former wickedness.

Although, as noted above, it first appears that the same thing is being said, in reality two, three, and more distinct thoughts are revealed.

The first is that Christ died. The second is that He died for the ungodly. The third is that He reconciled, saved, justified, and made us immortal sons and heirs.

Therefore, says the Apostle, we must be strengthened in hope not only by Christ's death, but also by what was granted through that death.

Even the fact that Christ died for us while we were such sinners was the greatest proof of His love.

But when the One who dies is also shown to be the Giver of gifts, and very great gifts for those who did not deserve them, such a benefit surpasses every measure. It should lead even the utterly insensible to faith.

It is not another who wishes to save us, but He who loved us while we were still sinners, even to the point of delivering Himself up for us.

Do you see how here also there is proof concerning hope for the future?

Before this, there were difficulties regarding our salvation: that we were sinners, and that we had to be saved by the death of the Master.

But the latter, before it took place, was unbelievable and required great love in order to occur. Now that it has occurred, the rest has become much easier. For we have become friends, and the Lord's death is no longer needed.

Then He who so spared His enemies that He did not spare His Son, will He not protect those who have become friends, especially when He no longer needs to deliver up His Son?

Someone often does not save because he does not wish to, or because he cannot, even if he wishes. Neither can be said of God after He gave His Son.

That God is also able to save, the Apostle proved by the fact that God justified us when we were sinners.

What obstacle, then, remains for us to attain future blessings? None.

We were sinful. We dishonored the law of nature, served the passions, and did shameful deeds.

Since these three conditions are contrary and hateful to God, they were like partition walls or barriers separating us from God and making us His enemies.

Scarcely, he says, can anyone be found who would agree to die for a righteous man. Perhaps someone might even agree to die for a good man.

But the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on the tree of the Cross in due time, that is, at the proper and appointed time. He died for men weak in will, ungodly in faith, and sinful in deeds.

This constitutes, that is, proves and confirms, God's infinite love toward us. Neither the fall of the first man, nor idolatry, nor sinful defilement could extinguish God's love for man.

Now hear how this wise teacher draws such a conclusion from what preceded.

Clearly, having undergone such a shameful death for the wicked and lawless, He will free those who believe in Him from the wrath to come."

Moreover, we are now no longer the former sinners. Therefore we can hope even more in the love of God.

In addition, we are now children of God. In the person of His Son, risen from the dead, we always have a living Intercessor, and we even proclaim to all our reconciliation with God, giving praise to Him and to His Son for all this.

After all this, shall we not be saved?

According to Saint John Chrysostom, "when the One who died, Christ, is shown to be the Giver of gifts, and very great gifts, such a benefit surpasses every measure and leads every insensible person to faith."

Thus the whole force of the Apostle's words is directed toward persuading those who lack faith of the meaning and power of faith.

Yet some believers misuse these and similar words of the Apostle. Repeating that they are saved, they do not do the works required by Christian faith.

Therefore they perish in their vain hope in faith without works, as in a dead faith (Jas 2:17).

Against these self-deceived people speaks the entire inner course of the Apostle's thought. He teaches that Christ died for us when we were weak, but now we are no longer such.

We rejoice in the inner gift of God's love, poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit, and in the closest union with Him. At the same time, do we wish to reserve for ourselves the right to a sinful life?

Even ordinary love is active. All the more must love for God be active.

"Justification, reconciliation, and inheritance are great and lofty blessings. Yet if there were not with them such communion with God, so that God is ours and we are God's, they would be colorless," says Bishop Theophan.

According to the Apostle, we rejoice in God. "To rejoice in God, or by God, means to rejoice in nearness to Him and close communion with Him.

It means rejoicing that He is ours and we are His, that we love Him and are loved by Him, and that in Him we have a ready Defender and Protector."

"Take a guilty servant whom his master has forgiven and received into the house. Tell me, should he and can he think again of being negligent? Is it not the opposite?

So also we, looking upon the great mercy of God manifested in cleansing us from sins, must think not only that we are forgiven. We must also think of becoming worthy of the mercies shown to us."

The holy Apostle especially wishes to establish this unshakable hope in hearts. He has already established it by experience, or by the testing of how good the path of faith is, and by confidence in God, given through the outpouring of love into believers’ hearts by the Holy Spirit. But since both these confirmations rest on inner feeling, whose testimony is not vividly conscious in everyone, the Apostle hastens to establish the unshakable character of hope by yet another means. This is by setting forth how we were justified.

One must note that the Apostle does not lose sight of the main thread of his reasoning, which began with the indication that the wrath of God is ready against those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Following this thread, he reached the assurance that this wrath is turned away by the death of the incarnate Son of God. We who believe, having hidden ourselves beneath the shelter of the Cross, should not fear this wrath. On the contrary, we should boast in hope of glory.

After confirming this last point by the testimonies already indicated, he now says, as it were: does the punishment of wrath still frighten you? Do you still waver in the hope of glory? Consider how everything took place, and you yourself will see how groundless your fear is, and how groundless your wavering in hope is.

We were ungodly, sinful, and enemies of God, and Christ died for us, in order to justify us and turn away the wrath of God. Do you not see that now, when we have already been justified, we shall all the more be saved by Him from wrath? And again, if His death justified and reconciled us, will not His life much more save us?

Such is the meaning and connection with what precedes in this small section (Rom 5:6-11). Nothing new is proposed. The same truth about the death and resurrection of the Lord for salvation is indicated as the foundation of the unfailing character of hope.

“For while we were still weak,” that is, when we were still weak morally. We were overcome by sin and had no strength to free ourselves from its power. This is the same as what follows: ungodly, and further below, sinners. By “we” the Apostle means the whole human race.

That we were weak, sinful, and ungodly needed no proofs or explanations after what was said in the first chapters of this Epistle about the moral state of Gentiles and Jews, who together composed our whole race. “The phrase ‘in due time’ means at a fitting and predetermined time, for the Lord died when the fitting time had come” (blessed Theophylact).

The particle “for” places this saying in connection with what precedes, explaining wherein the special manifestation of love consisted, a love that cannot allow hope to be put to shame. It is as if he said: “Let us think on this, that when we were still lawless and held by the sickness of ungodliness, Christ the Master accepted death for us. From this let us know the abyss of His love for mankind” (blessed Theodoret).

This, however, is said in addition to that manifestation of love which is shown by the gift of the Spirit. “Having said that the love of God is shown to be poured out in us through the Spirit, whom we have within ourselves as a gift from God, he also shows the greatness of this love. He does so from the fact that Christ died for us while we were weak, that is, sinners. For sin is weakness, and righteousness is health. He died not only for sinners, but, what is still worse, for the ungodly” (blessed Theophylact).