My current working explanation of Romans 5 is based on my current understanding of The Good News.
The Son of God came in the flesh into a fallen and messed up world. We see witness of his works. He had the power to fix creation.
Man rejected God's effort towards fixing this fallen world (both Jew and Gentile.) But then - instead of destroying Man - Jesus - in obedience to God the Father - accepted full responsibility for the failure of Mankind to uphold God's covenant with man at Sinai and for the rejection of God's Messiah. This includes a failure of "The First Command" The Shema - the command to hear God and to love God.
And standing as God - as a sign of fully accepting this responsibility - He himself accepted the full measure of punishment including the abuse, shame, and scandalization for man's failure to "Hear God" and to keep God's law and uphold man's required covenant terms... The price was death. Actual death. On the cross at the hands of the Romans.
And this is completely unthinkable in any other worldview of God. The greatest power fully accepting personal responsibility for the failure of the lesser, weak, fallible man... And especially accepting responsibility for failure of man to Hear God and Love God... And then following through and paying the full price for man's failure with his own death...
With God's death (God being the greater power) - the Sinai covenant was now void - broken, and the price of failure "Paid in full". And it's over and done. And as explained in Hebrews - as with a marriage, once the Husband is dead, the wife is no longer bound to him and can choose what to do next for herself....
The new covenant was simultaneously enacted through Jesus blood... Signified by the cup at the passover in Matt 26, Mark, and Luke. This new covenant is explained in Jeremiah 31 (and Hebrews 8 and 9).. And it's only offered to those who want it - those who are called.... It's an offer of a personal relationship with God. Paul goes on further to explain that the new covenant also includes adoption as sons into God's kingdom.
That's some pretty good news....
What then of "Justification by Faith"... That goes back to Eden where mankind chose a "moral compass" that exists outside of God... We are incapable of fulfilling God's will because of our own independent moral compass that (often) contradicts God's... With the Law written on your Heart - the idea is to substitute God's moral compass (the Holy Spirit) for our own morality... As with a slave obeying a master - we follow God wherever he takes us and accept that it is right even if it maybe makes no sense to us.... And God accepts responsibility for the results.... Aka God justifies us because we believed him and followed Him.
Sorry if it's a bit confusing.. But it's where I am now...
The Son of God came in the flesh into a fallen and messed up world. We see witness of his works. He had the power to fix creation.
Man rejected God's effort towards fixing this fallen world (both Jew and Gentile.) But then - instead of destroying Man - Jesus - in obedience to God the Father - accepted full responsibility for the failure of Mankind to uphold God's covenant with man at Sinai and for the rejection of God's Messiah. This includes a failure of "The First Command" The Shema - the command to hear God and to love God.
And standing as God - as a sign of fully accepting this responsibility - He himself accepted the full measure of punishment including the abuse, shame, and scandalization for man's failure to "Hear God" and to keep God's law and uphold man's required covenant terms... The price was death. Actual death. On the cross at the hands of the Romans.
And this is completely unthinkable in any other worldview of God. The greatest power fully accepting personal responsibility for the failure of the lesser, weak, fallible man... And especially accepting responsibility for failure of man to Hear God and Love God... And then following through and paying the full price for man's failure with his own death...
With God's death (God being the greater power) - the Sinai covenant was now void - broken, and the price of failure "Paid in full". And it's over and done. And as explained in Hebrews - as with a marriage, once the Husband is dead, the wife is no longer bound to him and can choose what to do next for herself....
The new covenant was simultaneously enacted through Jesus blood... Signified by the cup at the passover in Matt 26, Mark, and Luke. This new covenant is explained in Jeremiah 31 (and Hebrews 8 and 9).. And it's only offered to those who want it - those who are called.... It's an offer of a personal relationship with God. Paul goes on further to explain that the new covenant also includes adoption as sons into God's kingdom.
That's some pretty good news....
What then of "Justification by Faith"... That goes back to Eden where mankind chose a "moral compass" that exists outside of God... We are incapable of fulfilling God's will because of our own independent moral compass that (often) contradicts God's... With the Law written on your Heart - the idea is to substitute God's moral compass (the Holy Spirit) for our own morality... As with a slave obeying a master - we follow God wherever he takes us and accept that it is right even if it maybe makes no sense to us.... And God accepts responsibility for the results.... Aka God justifies us because we believed him and followed Him.
Sorry if it's a bit confusing.. But it's where I am now...
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