Romans 5:1 – “… we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now there’s good news!
Romans 5:2-5 – Paul says more than rejoicing in the “hope of the glory of God”, we rejoice in our sufferings. Rejoice in suffering more than in hope? What? But look at what he says though: Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces what – hope. the suffering is important because it leads to a deeper realization of the hope that is already a reality.
Romans 5:8 – “While we were still sinners.” We still run around trying to please God by our goodness when he was pleased to rescue us while we weren’t worth rescuing. He declared through Christ that we were valuable to Him, whether we saw it or not, how are we going to somehow make ourselves more valuable after that?
Romans 5:17 – Much is made in this passage (Romans 5:12-21) in regards to sin entering the world. I think (not sure, actually) that this is one of the passages used to support original sin. Adam sinned, bringing sin to everyone. Yet verse 12 says that death spread because all sinned, not because Adam did. I guess one could say that Adam started it, not making all of us guilty but exposing us to something we could not master – sin.
In that regard, verse 17 says that death reigned because of what Adam did, and everyone who would come after him are subject to it. However, Jesus came and offered anew way of life and all who would follow him would no longer live under death’s reign. Because of Jesus, we can escape the inescapable – death. Sin reigned through death, now grace reigns through righteousness (verse 18).