Romans 5 is a very important chapter regarding the scope of God’s grace and the nature of the work of salvation. Some observations on a few key verses will help identify Paul’s perspective about God’s saving grace. In Romans 5:1, 2, we read,
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…” (ESV. Italics mine.)
The NIV reads,
“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.” (Italics mine.)
The CSB reads,
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand…” (Italics mine.)
Note that God’s grace is something we have “obtained” or “gained access…into.” Access into “this grace” is “by” or “through faith.” C.E.B. Cranfield is the author of the International Critical Commentary on Romans. He says the phrase, “this grace in which,” references back to our justification rather than the “peace” mentioned in verse 1. He also notes that the phrase means a “state of being the objects of favour.” So, in that we are justified “by faith;” we gain access into this grace “by faith.” Cranfield adds that the words “gained” or “obtained access” “probably intended to provoke the thought of ‘the privilege of…being introduced into the presence of someone in high station[25]…’[26] Here we see the expression of a presently available divine, justifying grace that is found in the person and work of Christ Jesus for all sinners, to which one “obtains” or “gains” access to “by faith.” The Calvinists’ understanding of grace as irresistibly bestowed on those unconditionally elected or predestined to salvation is at odds with Paul’s theology of the source and nature of grace.
Some commentators stress that this “access…into grace in which we stand” refers to “the sphere of God’s continuing love” for those already justified and “not so much for God’s action on behalf of underserving sinners (N. T. Wright, NIBC, vol. 9, p. 429). But I do not think a hard and fast distinction can be made between the grace that justifies and the grace in which we now stand, especially when Paul uses the full gospel phraseology of “through him” and “by faith” in speaking about the grace we have obtained access to.
Be that as it may, contrast this understanding of grace with that in Calvinist thought. Again, within Calvinism, grace is primarily that decision of God made in eternity past whereby out of all sinners undeserving of salvation, he chose only some to salvation while passing by all others. Only those chosen are so “graced.” No other sinners are either given grace by God or have access to God’s grace in Christ. Therefore, they cannot be saved. Indeed, even these elect persons do not “gain” or “obtain access by faith into this grace.” They cannot even believe so as to be saved. They must first be regenerated (i.e., saved) to be saved, which is an incoherent belief. Also, these elected persons are granted a saving grace that is irresistible. Granted, out of all who are undeserving of salvation, that God would choose and unfailingly work in any person to be saved is an act of his grace. And Calvinists insist that any interpretation other than God having determined who will be saved and working an irresistible grace in the elect fails to account for the “total inability” that sin has caused in human beings, and furthermore, any objection to God overriding the free will of the sinner amounts to the imposition of the ideals of political democracy and human autonomy onto the biblical text. But the non-Calvinist is not ignoring the effects of sin nor imposing foreign political concepts into his theology. The non-Calvinist position strives to take all that the Bible says on these matters and understand them in a coherent relationship with each other. This coherence is essential to the non-Calvinist hermeneutic. In contrast, the Calvinist hermeneutic does not value this coherence as meaningful when evaluating the accuracy of one’s interpretations.
We have seen that the Calvinist understanding of grace does not account for the language Paul uses when talking about the precise nature of God’s grace.[27] The themes of the abundant grace having come with Christ’s appearing, the close association of God’s love and grace in Christ, the universal emphasis created given that salvation is “by faith,” along with persons having “obtained” or “gained access by faith into this grace,” is substantial biblical evidence to conclude that God’s saving grace is open for all and offered to all. This is very different from suggesting that God’s grace refers to his unknown and undisclosed decision, which restricts salvation to a certain number out of all sinners undeserving of any action of God on their behalf. This idea is not found in the Bible but is imposed upon it as a result of an a priori definition of God’s sovereignty as theistic determinism.
The main point is that God’s grace is expressed and made available in Christ. If Romans 5:2 has any relation to saving grace (and I suggest it does because that access to grace comes by faith), how would one “gain access” into a grace the essence of which is an inaccessible and fixed decision God made to save a limited number of particular individuals? Many simply cannot have access because they are not among those God has predestined to salvation. Rather, Paul understands God’s grace as something we have “obtained access into” “through him [Christ].”[28] That the sinner may now gain access into God’s grace by faith in Christ is something existentially present and dynamic. Note what Paul stated in 3:25, that “God put forward” Jesus Christ “as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” The phrase “put forward” can mean “set forth publicly” or “display.” (cf. Gal. 3:1) The implication is that in being publicly set forth by God, the saving work of Christ is being proclaimed and freely offered to all. Such a public display of the person in whom salvation is accomplished has a universal implication to it. It applies to all. That is what is implied in the word “public” – something made known and applicable to all. Redemption is not accomplished merely through Jesus secretly and privately for a limited number of predestined persons. Jesus does not merely implement God’s decision to save his elect, but rather, redemption and reconciliation are actually found “in Christ Jesus. God put Christ Jesus “forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.” (3:24, 25, ESV) We have “obtain access by faith into this grace in which we stand…” (5:2, ESV) Therefore this redemption is accessible and obtainable by all. In contrast, Calvinist grace is both limited and static. It refers to God’s decision in eternity past to save some and not others. Therefore, it is mysterious (in a non-biblical sense), static in the sense that it is already determined for every individual, and christologically inadequate in that, as I have shown from various texts, saving grace is actually to be found in the person of Jesus, and that anyone can find salvation there. On Calvinism, nothing more or less “gracious” can be “obtained” to affect one’s life or eternal destiny by God “putting forward” Christ Jesus. All is fixed. It is hard to grasp Paul’s thought here of being able to “gain access…into this grace” if grace is God’s fixed, unconditional, uninfluenced, predetermined decision to save some sinners over other sinners.
In contrast to this, one may “gain access” only if a way has been opened, and that way is presently available. That way is “in Christ,” which is a major recurring theme in Paul’s thought.[29] We obtain access “into” this grace. Note that this “access” occurs “by faith.” This confirms the nature of faith discussed in previous chapters and will be examined in the next chapter. Faith must mean something more than simply that God willed to “work faith” in his predestined elect. The meaning of having obtained access “by faith into this grace in which we stand…” surely cannot be merely a descriptive reference to what happens to those chosen to be saved who, as the Calvinist insists, are “altogether passive therein.” Rather, for Paul, the response of faith is dynamic and possible for all sinners. And since saving grace has already been given in Christ, then saving grace or salvation is something to be actively entered into by faith in Christ. As such, grace comes to all in the gospel or “good news” call to come to Christ and be saved. That “good news” message is the grace of God in action.
Paul discusses the nature of faith in detail in Romans 4. Faith, as described there, is clearly incoherent with the idea of an unconditional election that restricts the ability to believe to a phenomenon granted by God only for the elect. The confusion in Calvinist thought is to perceive faith as a “meritorious work.” As I will show in the next chapter, this is not the biblical teaching. To say that God’s grace, defined as his predestinating choice, is what causes faith to become a reality in an elect few is to turn Paul’s soteriology on its head. Let’s continue in Romans 5 to confirm Paul’s universal view of grace and salvation.
Go to the next section: Romans 5:6 – Christ Died for the Ungodly
Chapter 14 – The Nature of Grace in Scripture
The Truth of the Gospel 