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Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 5-1] Introduction to Romans Chapter 5
The Doctrine of Justification is not the truth
Paul proclaims by faith in this chapter that only those who believe in God’s righteousness “have peace with God.” The reason for this is because Father God made Christ get baptized for us and even made Him shed blood on the Cross.
However, we often witness that most Christians today are unable to have peace with God because they do not have the slightest bit of knowledge on God’s righteousness. This is the reality of those who believe in today’s Christianity. Therefore, the Doctrine of Justification is not right before God.
Obtaining God’s righteousness by having faith in it is more proper than to believe in the Doctrine of Justification. Father God did not say that He would call the believers in Jesus His people even though they possessed sin in their hearts. God does not accept sinners as His children. God is not such a Being. He is the Savior who never regards a person possessing sin in his/her heart as one of His people. The God we believe in is Almighty. Wouldn’t the omnipotent and omniscient God know about anyone’s false faith correctly? We should then know and believe that He does not call a Christian-sinner, who has a false faith, as one of His people.
Everyone should be truthful before God. The Doctrine of Justification, which people falsely know and believe in, is something that ridicules God. Therefore, we should believe in Jesus as our Savior after correctly understanding the truth about God’s righteousness. Father God doesn’t say it’s all right for one to possess sin, regardless of the fact whether one believes in Jesus or not. He is a Being who definitely judges a sinner for his/her sin.
Therefore, in order for you to get your problems of sin solved, you need to know and believe in God’s righteousness. God will see our faiths in Jesus’ baptism and blood on the Cross and absolve our sins. Because we believe in God’s righteousness, God calls us His people, embraces us and even blesses us. Father God acknowledges that our faiths in His righteousness are right.
God is not an earthly judge
The faith believing in God’s righteousness is based on the faith of Abraham, who purely believed in God’s words. Most Christians misunderstand about the Doctrine of Justification, and thus we need to have clear understanding of it at this point. You surely know that there is no such thing as a perfectly correct or right judgment made in any court in this world. You need to keep in mind that a judge of this world can always make mistakes in his/her decisions.
The reason for this is because all human judges are insufficient and even ignorant of God’s righteousness, which is the absolute criterion of good and evil. Most Christians are apt to misunderstand God’s righteousness that judges us “righteous by our faiths” (Romans chapter 5), because they think His judgment uses the same logic as a sentence passed onto a sinner by a judge.
The Doctrine of Justification is a doctrine of misjudgment. It is because this doctrine was created based on human thought. People are good at making misjudgments because they are not almighty. Therefore, they falsely believe in God, who has actually made them righteous, with their thoughts based on the Doctrine of Justification. This leads them to believe that God says, “I regard you as sinless because you somehow believe in me.”
However, God can never do something like this. People often believe that even though they possess sin, God still acknowledges them as His people because they somehow believe in Jesus. This is something based on their own thoughts and nothing more than a false faith, which is the result of having been deceived by a demon.
Therefore, they should rebuild their houses of faith on their faiths in God’s righteousness. How could the holy and Almighty God judge one who possesses sin in his/her heart as sinless? Does God decide that those who possess sin in their hearts are sinless? Thinking and believing that something like this could be true is nothing more than one’s own human thought. God is the God of truth and never misjudges. How could God, who is the Truth itself, make errors in His judgments just as humans do? This can never happen. God is the righteous God who judges those who believe in His righteousness as sinless, based on His righteousness.
Do you know about God’s righteousness? Do you know and believe in His righteousness? This righteousness can fully be found in the words of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In order to comprehend God’s righteousness talked about in Romans, you should understand and believe in the gospel of water and the Spirit. You can never comprehend God’s righteousness without doing so. Everyone should realize this truth. One who understands God’s righteousness is one who correctly understands the truth that made him/her righteous.
We should all believe in God’s righteousness that is revealed in the Bible, otherwise, your faiths will go astray based on false human judgments and thought. If you have had this kind of false faith so far, you should believe according to the words of God’s righteousness from now on.
Most Christians have learned the Doctrine of Justification from theology and have thought it to be true until now. However, you should now return to the true faith by believing in God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is clearly revealed through the faith in the baptism Jesus received from John and His blood on the Cross.
It is said that tribulation produces perseverance
It is written in Romans 5:3-4 that, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” All born-again Christians have the hope that God will surely save them from all kinds of tribulations. This hope produces perseverance and perseverance produces character. Therefore, the righteous, who believe in God’s righteousness, rejoice even in times of tribulations.
Paul said that the faith in God’s righteousness hopes for God’s Kingdom and it does not disappoint the hope. What kind of hope does the righteous have? They have the hope by which they can enter and live in the Kingdom of God. Where does this kind of faith come from? It comes from believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ through Father God’s love.
The Lord is saying that we used to be ungodly
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
From the time before we were conceived, or when we were in our mother’s wombs, or when we were born but did not know the Lord, we had no other choice than to commit sins throughout our lives till death and eventually end up in hell.
When our ancestors Adam and Eve had sinned, God promised to send us the Savior saying, “He shall bruise your head, and you (the serpent) shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). According to this promise, Jesus Christ came to this world, even before we sinned, and saved us from all our sins. He got baptized by John to take over the sins of the world, and blotted them out by shedding His blood on the Cross. He eliminated our sins by His resurrection from death. The Lord took over the sins of mankind and the sins of the ungodly, such as you and I, through His baptism and saved believers from all their sins by dying on the Cross.
Are we godly? A godly person is one who stands in awe of God and keeps him/herself away from sin. It was the perfect righteousness of God that allowed Jesus to be baptized for you and I, the ungodly, and was crucified and then resurrected. It was also God’s love that saved us when we were still without strength.
Just like the Israelites’ one-year’s-worth of sins that were passed on to the sin offering by the imposition of the High Priest’s hands in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:20-21), Jesus Christ not only took over all the sins of mankind at once by getting baptized by John the Baptist, but He also went to the Cross to be crucified because He was carrying the sins of the world in the New Testament. God’s righteousness refers to the fact that Jesus Christ washed away all the sins of sinners by getting baptized and shedding His blood.
Are you and I godly? Didn’t the Lord come to save us sinners because we are ungodly? God knows very well that we are all ungodly. We are ungodly because we cannot help but to commit sins from the day we are born until we die. However, by getting baptized by John and shedding His blood on the Cross, Christ demonstrated His love for us when we were still sinners.
Jesus has changed our destiny
We should think about what kind of fate we as humans face, starting from the day of birth. What were our fates from the day we were born? We were destined to go to hell. Then how was it possible for you and I to be saved from this fate of going to hell? Our fates changed because we believed in God’s righteousness. The truth that changed our fates is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our fates became blessed because we believed in Jesus Christ, who had completed God’s righteousness.
You may know the famous verses of the following hymn, “♪Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, ♫That saved a wretch like me! ♫I once was lost, but now am found, ♫Was blind, but now I see.♪” God’s mercy and righteousness is the truth that testifies our salvation. Anyone can get all the sin in his/her heart forgiven and enjoy heavenly peace when he/she knows and believes in God’s righteousness. Now everyone in this world who still possesses sin in their hearts, even though they believe in Jesus should return to the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to know God’s righteousness.
In fact, Christians who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit are also unaware that their sins have been passed over to Jesus. Therefore, they are unable to obtain God’s righteousness. Though they believe that Jesus came to this world and saved them from their sins by dying on the Cross, they are not sure of their salvation. Thus, they just feel relieved by vaguely conjecturing that God has probably chosen them before the creation of the world. In other words, they believe in Christianity only as if it were merely another religion in the world.
Verse 11 states, “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Who reconciled us, the sinners, with God? Jesus Christ reconciled us with the Father. How? By coming to this world Himself, getting baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30, being crucified, then resurrecting from death, thereby completing the work that has fulfilled all of God’s righteousness. Jesus became our Savior, for believers in God’s righteousness, by coming to this world as the heavenly High Priest and taking over the sins of mankind. By getting baptized by John the Baptist, the earthly High Priest, shedding blood on the Cross and then resurrecting from death, Christ became our Savior.
Since Jesus Christ has already eliminated all of our sins, we were able to obtain God’s righteousness through our faiths. Anyone who believes that Jesus has absolutely saved us from all our sins will rejoice in God. Anyone with even the slightest bit of sin in his/her heart is not a child of God.
You brethren probably already know that people of this world think the Doctrine of Justification and the Doctrine of Sanctification are true. Is it right if God rules that we are sinless if we only say that we believe in Jesus, even though we have sins in our hearts? Or is it even more correct to be referred to as God’s people because we just identify ourselves as Christians?
We say, “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” in the Lord’s Prayer. This phrase means that those who possess sins in their hearts cannot possibly call God ‘Our Father.’ Should we still believe in the Doctrine of Justification? Can a person who is currently a sinner call the Lord his/her Savior? He/she may call to the Lord for a couple of years, but will eventually leave the Lord because he/she conscientiously feels ashamed to be a Christian. Therefore, you should know that the Doctrine of Justification will separate you from God’s righteousness.
The Doctrine of Sanctification is also wrong. This doctrine says that we can gradually go through changes until we become perfectly holy at the last moment before we die and thus, we can meet God as a holy person. Do you think you can gradually become holy for yourself enough to meet God without your sins? No way. The truth tells us that one can only enter God’s Kingdom by knowing and believing in God’s righteousness.
Even though through one man sin entered the world!
Let’s now read verse 12. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Through whom did sin enter the hearts of all people and through how many people did sin enter the world? The Scripture says, “Through one man sin entered the world.”
In other words, it is said that sin came to exist because of one man, Adam, and we are all his descendents. Then through whom did the sins of the world disappear? It can be said that it happened in the same way sin first entered the world.
The sins of mankind came to exist because a man did not believe in the law God had established. Even now, one who does not believe in God’s words will remain sinful and end up in hell.
Therefore, we should know the following. We are not sinners due to our own sins, but due to our ancestors who possessed sin. You should know that the reason people sin is because they are weak and have sin in their hearts. The sin people commit are called iniquities. The reason they sin is because they are born into this world possessing sin. Because everyone is deficient and born into this world bearing sin, he/she cannot help but to commit sins.
We originally became sinners, the seeds of sin, because we inherited all the sins from our ancestors. However, you should know that anyone can become a holy and righteous being at once by believing in God’s righteousness.
When did sin first start to exist in man?
“For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). Was there sin before we came to know the law of God? Before we knew the God’s law, we didn’t understand what was condemned as a sinful act before God. God told us, “You shall have no other gods before Me, you shall not make for yourself a carved image─any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, and remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Before recognizing such laws of God and the 613 clauses of commandments that tell us what we ‘shall and shall not do,’ we really didn’t know of our sins.
Therefore, “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Because we Gentiles did not have the law and thus did not know it, we committed sins without being aware of it. Most Koreans have been praying to a rock, thinking it is Buddha, yet they still don’t realize that they are serving a carved image. They didn’t know that bowing to other gods was a sin before God.
However, before the law came about, sin already existed in the world. God gave us the law about 2,500 years after He created Adam. Even though God gave the law to the Israelites through Moses approximately 1,450 B.C., sin had already entered the world through one man, Adam, and came to exist in the hearts of all people from the beginning, even before the law came.
Jesus is the Savior of His people
Did Jesus Christ eliminate all the sins of the world by Himself alone? Yes. Here in verse 14, it is said that death reigned over those who had not sinned or committed offenses according to the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Therefore, Adam was a type of Him who was to come. Mankind became sinners through one man. Likewise, Jesus Christ came to this world and saved us from all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus became the Savior who saved His people from their sins. There is only one Savior who saved us, descendents of Adam, from sin. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). His name is Jesus Christ, our eternal Savior.
We must understand that we automatically became sinners through one man, Adam. Do you know that Jesus Christ is the Savior who eliminated the sins of the world at once? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior who blotted out all the sins of the world by His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross all at once? Do you believe that Jesus became the true Savior of all humanity by eliminating the sins of this world, just as Adam became the source all sins by committing one transgression?
Jesus came to this world to save all those who had become sinners due to the one man, Adam, and took over all the sins of mankind by getting baptized by John, receiving judgment for the sins on the Cross by shedding His blood, and fulfilling all of God’s righteousness, which eliminated all our sins. He thereby became our perfect Savior.
We did not obtain salvation by believing in the Doctrine of Justification or the Doctrine of Sanctification after believing in Jesus. Jesus gave us eternal salvation at once. Jesus said that only those who have been born again of the water and the Spirit could enter and see God’s Kingdom.
What is the fixed idea that exists in the bottom of the human conscience? It is the principle of causality. They think that deep down in their thoughts, their efforts and endeavors will work toward salvation somehow. However, everyone receives true salvation from sin only by having faith all at once when he/she believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Moreover, Jesus came to this world and was crucified to save us from sin. He became the Savior of all those who believe in the true gospel.
Free yourself from the unreasonable thought that one can reach sanctification and eventually become righteous through prayers of repentance. In the Bible, one Man, Jesus Christ, came to this world, got baptized to take over all our sins and fulfilled all of our salvation through His atonement of sins on the Cross.
Jesus gave us the eternal remission of sin that was not like our offenses
Verse 15 states, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded too many.”
Have the sins of you and I been passed onto Jesus when He was baptized? They have. Jesus went to the Cross carrying the sins of the world and received judgment for those sins in our place.
God’s salvation is a free gift and it is said to be different from the offense.
Jesus has saved us, who cannot help but to commit sins throughout our whole lives, through His baptism and blood on the Cross during His 33 years of life. Even after we obtain salvation by believing in the remission of sin that was fulfilled at once, our flesh may continue to sin because it is insufficient and fragile. Although our flesh still continues to sin, we can still obtain the eternal remission of sin if we believe in the fact that Jesus took over all our sins at once by getting baptized and that He has fulfilled all of God’s righteousness by shedding His blood.
The gift of salvation of the remission of sin is not like Adam’s offense. God’s gift of the remission of sin is not granted daily, like the daily sins people commit. The truth of the remission of sin says that the Lord has already saved us from all our sins at once by getting baptized and shedding His blood about 2000 years ago.
God’s gift of salvation that saved us from all our sins is the righteousness that was fulfilled at once by Jesus’ baptism and blood on the Cross. The eternal remission of sins is not like the daily pardoning through prayers of repentance, which most Christians seek nowadays. This truth says that the Lord has foreseen that we would sin everyday and has therefore taken over all the sins of this world at once when He got baptized. Therefore, Father God fulfilled all of His righteousness by the Son’s baptism and crucifixion. All of God’s righteousness has been completed because Jesus got baptized, shed blood on the Cross and was resurrected.
Nowadays most Christians believe that their sins get remitted when they offer prayers of repentance. Is this really true? Certainly not. A person who thinks that he/she can get his/her sins atoned after murdering someone by offering prayers of repentance is wrong. This way of thinking is nothing more than human thought. In order to eliminate the sins on God’s side, one always needs to pay the wages of the sin. In order to do so, God made His Son Jesus get baptized by John and He blotted out all the sins by shedding blood on the Cross. The sins of humanity can be washed away and eliminated by believing in Jesus’ baptism and blood on the Cross; not by offering prayers of repentance.
Therefore, the Bible says, “For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” God’s gift of salvation overflows. Just as water overflows when the tap is left running all night, no matter what sins we have committed, His salvation overflows enough to save us from all our sins.
Jesus has taken over all the sins of the world by getting baptized. Also, because God’s salvation is much greater than the iniquities we have committed, His salvation is in abundance even after we have been saved. Is this clear?
Through the one Man, Jesus Christ
Verses 16 and 17 state, “And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Death has reigned over all of humanity through one man’s offense. This indicates that a sin of one man, Adam, caused all to be sinners and due to that sin, everyone needs to face God’s curse. Anyone who has sinned had to die and go to hell. In a similar sense, God’s righteousness reigns in life due to the One, Jesus Christ. Those who have received the overflowing gift of grace and righteousness are those who have been granted the gift of salvation for their faiths in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They receive a much greater grace from God, and will reign in life.
Verse 18 states, “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
Here, we need to ask a question and answer it: “Is it true to think that by one person’s sin, we have all become sinners?” Have you become sinners from your own sins, or on account of your ancestor Adam’s offense against God? If we all have become sinners due to Adam’s offense, then those who believe in the righteous act Jesus Christ performed to save us from our sins, become righteous. If one believes in God’s righteousness, does his/her sin truly get eliminated? ─Yes.─ He/she becomes sinless.
“Through Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” Receiving the free gift of God’s righteousness does not mean that one has to offer prayers of repentance every day to reach sanctification, after somehow being saved by believing in Jesus. Never! Neither does it mean a so-called Christian doctrine of ‘acquiring justification by faith’ when Paul the Apostle talked about ‘having been justified by faith.’
Most Christians have sin in their hearts because they only believe in Jesus’ blood on the Cross. Therefore, they accept and support the Doctrine of Justification in order to hide the sins in their hearts, while comforting themselves, “Although there are sins in our hearts, He considers us to be sinless.” However, this doctrine is preposterous and shall be cursed.
Verse 19 states, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Here appears one who disobeyed and another who obeyed. One was Adam, and the other One was mankind’s Savior, Jesus Christ. Adam’s disobedience made all of mankind sinners, and therefore Jesus obeyed His Father’s will to reconcile people with God by receiving baptism from John, dying on the Cross for the sins of the world, and resurrecting to save us from our sins. God the Father made all the believers in Jesus absolutely righteous through His righteousness.
Verse 20 states, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”
It is said that the law entered to add to our iniquities. As a descendant of Adam, people are originally born with sin, yet they haven’t known of sin even while sinning. Without the law, one does not realize a sin to be a sin at all, and only through God’s law one came to see his/her sins. However, when we came to know the law, we started realizing our sins more and more. Even though people were originally full of sins, they didn’t know about their sinfulness until they came to gradually realize their sinful deeds after receiving the law. Therefore the Bible states, “The law entered that the offense might abound.”
“But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” This means that through God’s law, one realizes his/her sins and becomes His child by believing in His righteousness. Mankind can realize God’s grace through the true gospel that contains God’s righteousness only when they become aware of their shortcomings and sinfulness through the law. Those who are well aware of their sins before the law acknowledge that they are meant to end up in hell, and therefore, with greater gratitude, believe in Jesus, who has saved them through His baptism and death on the Cross. The more we realize our sinfulness through the law, the more grateful we become for the establishment of such a great salvation by God’s righteousness.
Verse 21 states, “So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
It is said in the Bible that sin reigned in death. However, God’s grace that consists of the water and blood of Jesus is of His righteousness. Because His righteousness has completely saved us from all our sins, we have become God’s children.
The Doctrine of Sanctification and the Doctrine of Justification are nonsensical hypotheses that were made of human logic and created by those who ignore God’s words. It is not too much to say that such doctrines are no more than the sophistries of philosopher-theologians, which can never be unraveled. God’s truths are clear and solid.
We are saved from the sins of the world by believing in the fact that Jesus, who is God in the likeness of human flesh, has saved us from all our sins. Those who have faith in Him are saved. Do you believe in this? ─Yes.─
If you believe in God’s righteousness, you are saved. You are definitely delivered and saved from all your sins. If you insist that endlessly offering prayers of repentance and living a flawless life to reach sanctification can save you, then you are stubbornly persisting that you can be saved without Jesus. Jesus is the only gateway towards salvation, no matter what deceptions the Doctrine of Sanctification teaches about being able to be saved by one’s own deeds and efforts, regardless of the truth.
Being unable to carry out even 0.1% of the law is the same as being unable to carry out 100%. God tells us that we are unable to obey even 0.1% of His laws. Those who think they are carrying out approximately 5% of the law and plan to raise it to 10% in the course of time are completely ignorant of their own abilities, and are standing against God’s righteousness. Do not try to understand God’s righteousness with your own conception and logic. His righteousness has saved us from our sins and awaits us to believe in it so that we can become His children.
God is almighty and merciful, so He has saved us with His righteousness at once. We give thanks to God for Jesus’ baptism and blood on the Cross, which absolutely saved us from all our sins.
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