Answers to
Chapter 5
Review
Questions:
- What does it mean to have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Romans 5:1)?
Answer: Man
is guilty of sin. The act of sin
and the guilt it brings leaves man separated from God (see Isaiah 59:1-2) or
as Paul states it, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Since Jesus paid the price for our sins by his death on the cross, when
we come into a saved relationship with Christ and our sins are forgiven, the
separation is repaired and the guilt is removed.
Thus we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Above we referred to several scriptures regarding that Jesus died at
“the right time”. Discuss
what the term “the right time” means to you.
Answer: Jesus
has always been the cure for sin. However, because of the rebelliousness of man, God had to
prepare the world for Jesus’ coming. The
purpose of the Old Testament with its laws and ordinances, including the
animal sacrifices, was to show man how sinful he really was and that he could
not make it on his own (see Hebrews 10:1-4).
When this goal had been accomplished, when it was “the right time”
to do so, God sent his son into the world as the perfect sacrifice for sin
(see Hebrews 10:11-14).
- Review the list that you made of ones that you would be willing to
die for. What is the main
difference between ones you would die for and ones Christ was willing to die
for?
Answer: If
your list is like most, the names contained in it are those of people who are
very important to you such as children, spouse, parents, siblings and very
close friends. The list that
Christ would have made included the names of everyone who ever lived, from the
ones closest to him to the ones that spit in his face and mocked him to the
vilest of sinners throughout history to you and to me. That is the beauty and significance of the scripture,
“while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) and
“while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”
(Romans 5:10).
- What was the price that was paid for our reconciliation with God?
Answer:
The price that was paid was the sinless life of Christ to take the place
of the sinful life of each one of us. Isaiah
had prophesied this in Isaiah 53:4-5 when he said, “Surely he has borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.” Paul declared that, “For our sake he made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”
(II Corinthians 5:21). In the words
of the old hymn, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.”
- In the passage we find that what was lost in Adam was gained in
Christ. What was this loss and
gain?
Answer: When
Adam sinned, mankind incurred the sentence of physical death, that is, because
of the sin of our great grandfather Adam each one of us will suffer physical
death. This was one of the gains
that we receive in Christ because he was able to conquer death (see I
Corinthians 15:21-26 and 50-56, see also Romans 1:4).
This was one gain, but we need to understand that in Christ, we gained
“much more” (Romans 5:15 and 17) than just overcoming physical death.
- What was the “much more” (Romans 5:15 and 5:17) that was gained
by Christ?
Answer: While one of the things accomplished by Christ was overcoming
physical death, he provided “much more” which includes that there would be
those who receive “an abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness”
(Romans 5:17). In other words, what
was lost in Adam was gained in Christ, but “much more” also.
These are ones who will reign in eternal life through Jesus Christ (I
Corinthians 15:53-56).
