PASSAGE · BSB

Romans 5

15 positions in the corpus lean on this chapter. Cited verses are marked.

1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

3Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

4perseverance, character; and character, hope.

5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

6For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

8But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!

10For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

11Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

13For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

14Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.

15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!

16Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification.

17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

18So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.

19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

20The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Who leans on it

Aquinas on original sin & the human willSTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Original sin is the loss of original justice. Human nature is wounded, not destroyed — it retains real capacities, and grace perfects rather than replaces nature.Aquinas on indwelling of the holy spiritSTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Draws the sharpest technical distinction of anyone here. God is present in all things by essence, power and presence — a common mode true of every creature — but indwelling is a distinct and new mode whose only cause is …Athanasius on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The fall is ontological decay rather than primarily forensic guilt or inability. Man was made from nothing and so mortal by nature; the image and the indwelling Word held corruption off, and the transgression forfeited t…Augustine on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCELEANS°Sin is transmitted by propagation, not imitation — Augustine argues that if Paul meant bad example in Romans 5:12, he'd have named the devil, the first sinner, not Adam. The will's bondage is pictured as a 'heart of ston…Augustine on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCENOT FRAMED°Not engaged in later definite/universal terms. Augustine calls Christ's death universal in scope ('Christ died for the ungodly') in the same breath as restricting the point to explaining why unbaptized infants need it ap…Augustine on baptismPRIMARY SOURCELEANS°Every person, infant to elderly, dies to sin in baptism — infants to original sin alone, adults to their added sins too. But the real center of On Baptism, Against the Donatists is a validity/profit distinction: schismat…Augustine on indwelling of the holy spiritPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Baptism is the ordinary means, but sacrament and the conversion of the heart are explicitly separable in both directions — the sacrament can exist in an infant without the heart's conversion, and the thief on the cross h…Chrysostom on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°What Adam passed down is death, not guilt. Facing Romans 5:19 he asks outright how another man's disobedience could make me a sinner, notes that on such a reading the man would not even deserve punishment, and settles on…M. Heiser on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Holds that before regeneration a person cannot choose the gospel and that the quickening which enables that choice is irresistible — which is the substance of the bondage position. But he arrives there while denying inhe…Irenaeus on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Adam's sin brought death, but Irenaeus's actual argument in Against Heresies IV.37-38 is that man was newly created and therefore necessarily immature, like an infant needing milk before solid food — not created finished…Second London Baptist Confession on justificationPRIMARY SOURCELEANS°Chapter 11.1 denies infusion and affirms imputation in Westminster's own words, then goes further than Westminster does by naming what is imputed. Faith is the alone instrument but never alone in the person justified (11…John MacArthur on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Total depravity with explicit federal headship: humanity was united with Adam as its representative, so both the guilt of his sin and a corrupted nature are transmitted to every subsequent person. The corruption is total…Philip Melanchthon on the nature of saving faithPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The Apology argues the case that later Lutheran dogmatics compressed into notitia, assensus and fiducia. Faith is not bare knowledge of the history, which the devils have; it is assent to the promise; and lest assent its…Charles Haddon Spurgeon on original sin & the human willPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The will is in bondage and needs sovereign, effectual grace — not merely wounded or freewill-capable. Argued both exegetically (from Romans 5:6, glossed as leaving no room for any human strength contributing to salvation…Westminster Confession on justificationPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°WCF 11.1 is unusually explicit for a confession: it denies infusion by name, denies that the act of believing is itself what is imputed, and names imputed obedience and satisfaction as the ground. Faith is the instrument…