Every love we have ever known has had a condition buried somewhere within it — spoken or unspoken. But Paul confronts us with something our experience has not prepared us for: a love that moved toward us precisely when we gave it no reason to. Not after we repented but while we were still sinners. That is not how love is supposed to work — and yet, that is exactly the point.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Romans 5:1-2 (NIV)
Even though we have been justified by faith, why do so many of us still lack peace?
The peace Paul speaks of here is not the peace we feel — it is the peace that now exists between us and God. Before Christ, we were enemies of God. Now, because of what Jesus has done, the hostility is over. But being at peace with someone and being in communion with them are two very different things. Think of it this way — if you have reconciled with an old friend after years of conflict, the reconciliation itself is only the beginning. What follows is the rebuilding of relationship — the shared meals, the laughter, the honest conversations.
However, while with our friends and family we desire a restored relationship, with God we have settled for only reconciliation and have never pursued a relationship with Him. If we are at peace with God, why are we not dining with Him? Why are we not communing with Him? We have gained access to the Father through the Son’s death, yet we do not use that access. Salvation is not simply a binary condition of our soul; rather, we must experience salvation by making use of the access given to us to restore our broken relationship with God.
A Hope That Does Not Disappoint
We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)
We all have experienced disappointment by getting our hopes high, but why does Paul say that hope will not put us to shame?
We have all placed our hope in things that have failed us — in people who let us down, in circumstances that did not turn in our favour, in plans that unravelled no matter how carefully we had prepared. And so over time, hope becomes a luxury we cannot afford. We begin to cap our expectations and limit what we believe God can do. We navigate our expectations around our disappointments rather than around His faithfulness. We have shaped our understanding of hope from our past negative experiences and in doing so, we have unconsciously placed limits on God also.
But the hope Paul speaks of is of an entirely different order. It is not built on the likelihood of favourable outcomes — it is secured by the Holy Spirit, who has been poured into our hearts as a guarantee. This is why this hope cannot disappoint. It is not resting on anything that can fail, because the one who holds it is God Himself. Once we begin to truly place our hope in Jesus, God gives us His Spirit, who becomes the guardian and protector of that hope within us. Everyone else will eventually fail us. Every earthly anchor will eventually give way. But hope anchored in God does not sink — because God never fails.
In His Time
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 (NIV)
How was it the right time for Jesus to die for our sins?
From the perspective of God, everything that happened on the cross was settled long before the creation of the earth. The crucifixion was not a reaction — it was a plan. The right time was not determined by how righteous or how sinful humanity had become. It was set according to the counsel of God alone, independent of anything we did or failed to do.
But consider this through the eyes of Paul and the people of his generation. For them, it felt like precisely the right moment — because it happened in their lifetimes. They had lived long enough to carry the weight of sin, long enough to feel the inadequacy of the law, and then in their very own generation, this gift appeared. So while we understand it to be an eternal plan, for those who witnessed it, it arrived like a perfectly timed intervention. Just as Paul himself was on his way to Damascus to do his worst, God met him on the road at exactly the right moment. That is how God works — what is eternally planned appears personally timed. His intervention in each of our lives, always feels like He arrived at precisely the moment we needed Him most.
The Depth of His Love
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
Why did God not wait for us to transform our lives before giving us the greatest gift?
He could not wait because waiting for us to transform ourselves would have meant being separated from our Creator forever. That was precisely the lesson of the law — God gave His people commandments not to condemn them, but to show them something essential: that on their own, they could never meet His standard. The law was a mirror to reveal our lives, not a ladder to heaven. It showed us what we were, not a path we could climb by sheer effort.
And yet, even after receiving the greatest gift ever given — the death of God’s own Son in our place — many of us have still not truly transformed. God knew what we would do with His grace, that we would take it for granted. And still, He gave it anyway — freely, through grace, without conditions. Not because we deserved it, but because that is the nature of His love. The gift was never contingent on our worthiness; it was always an expression of His love.
The Love Grows Stronger
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Romans 5:9-10 (NIV)
If Jesus’s death on the cross paid for our sins in full, how much stronger is our relationship with God now that He is risen?
Paul uses a beautiful logic here. If God was willing to do the hardest thing — reconcile us to Himself while we were still His enemies, through the death of His own Son — then how much more will He do for us now that we are no longer enemies but His beloved children? Think about what that means. At our absolute worst — rebellious, unrepentant, spiritually dead — God moved toward us. He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up. He did not extend a conditional offer. While we were still sinners, Christ died. That is the baseline. That is where God started with us.
And if that is where He started, consider where He intends to take us now. The cross dealt with our past — every sin, every failure, every moment of rebellion was settled there. But the resurrection deals with everything that comes after. Jesus did not simply die and leave us with a cleared record. He rose, and in rising, He became the one who now walks with us through every ordinary and extraordinary moment of our lives. His death brought us to the Father. His life keeps us there — daily, personally, moment by moment.
This is what Paul wants us to feel the full weight of. Salvation is not merely the story of how we were rescued. It is the ongoing reality of how we now get to live. We were saved from death by His dying — but we are saved into life by His living. Every morning we wake up, we wake up into a relationship with a risen Christ who intercedes for us, walks before us, and dwells within us. The very life that conquered the grave is the life that now sustains ours. If God gave us His Son when we were His enemies, how much more does He pour out His presence upon us now that we are His children? How much more does He guide, sustain, restore, and carry us — not because we have earned it, but because of His unfailing Love?
Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:11 (NIV)
The Jordan Valley 
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