Passage

Romans 5.9

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die. 8. But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life; 11. and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. 8. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. ^{atonement: or, reconciliation} (Romans 5:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. for scarcely for a righteous man will any one die, for for the good man perhaps some one also doth dare to die; 8. and God doth commend His own love to us, that, in our being still sinners, Christ did die for us;

9. much more, then, having been declared righteous now in his blood, we shall be saved through him from the wrath;

for if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in his life. 11. And not only [so], but we are also boasting in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we did receive the reconciliation; (Romans 5:7-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the mixed Jewish and Gentile house churches at Rome, a congregation Paul had neither founded nor yet visited
Location: composed at Corinth, addressed to Rome
Time period: c. AD 57

Theological reading

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. The verse compresses three of the letter's technical terms into one sentence and sets them in a definite order.

Justified is past and settled, a verdict already handed down. By his blood names the ground, which is the death of Christ understood sacrificially, connecting back to the mercy-seat language of 3:25. Saved from wrath is future, which is significant: Paul routinely uses salvation vocabulary for what is still to come, while justification vocabulary is already complete. Readers who treat the two words as synonyms lose the structure of his argument.

The wrath here is the same orge revealed from heaven at 1:18, so the letter is internally consistent: the problem announced in chapter 1 is the problem solved in chapter 5. This matters against the common claim that divine wrath is a primitive Old Testament theme superseded in the New. It is Paul, in his most carefully argued letter, who makes it the thing believers are rescued from.

The argument's force is again much more. If the greater act has occurred while we were enemies, the lesser follows for those now reconciled. Note what this does to assurance: it is grounded in what God has already done rather than in the believer's present performance, which is why Paul can speak of a future deliverance in the confident indicative rather than the hopeful subjunctive.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G1344 - dikaioo, dikaioo, Strong's G1344
G4982 - sozo, sozo, Strong's G4982

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Jesus, via Romans 5.6-11

Lexicon:

Passages:

Romans 3.25

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.