<p>5:9&nbsp;<i>Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the anger of God through him</i>- If He died for us whilst we were unborn and before we had repented of our sins; if right now we are counted right before God&rsquo;s judgment seat; then we can confidently expect to being saved from &ldquo;the wrath&rdquo; (Gk.), the condemnation at the last day. Note how Rom. 5:1 spoke of justification by our faith; here, by &ldquo;His blood&rdquo;. His blood shed for us only becomes powerful and of any value&nbsp;<i>if we believe</i>. It&rsquo;s a tragedy that His sacrifice for us goes wasted unless we and others believe. &ldquo;Much more then&rdquo; seems to be rejoicing in playing some kind of logical game of extension, which continues in 5:10.</p><p>In the future, at the Lord's return, we will be saved from wrath (i.e. condemnation) through Christ (Rom. 5:9). Whilst this has already been achieved in a sense, it will be materially articulated in that day- in that we will feel and know ourselves to be worthy of God's wrath, but then be saved from it. We are all to some extent in the position of Zedekiah and the men of Judah, who was told that if they accepted God&rsquo;s condemnation of them as just, and served the King of Babylon, then they would ultimately be saved; but if they refused to accept that condemnation, then they would be eternally destroyed (Jer. 21:9; 27:12). And the Babylonian invasion was, as we have shown elsewhere, a type of the final judgment.</p><p>We are justified by many things, all of which are in some way parallel with each other: the blood of Christ (Rom. 5:9), grace and the redemption which there is in His blood (Rom. 3:24), our faith in Christ (Rom. 5:1; Gal. 2:16), the name of the Lord Jesus, the spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11), by our confession of sin (Ps. 51:4; Lk. 18:14). All these things revolve around the death of the Lord Jesus, the shedding of His blood. This becomes parallel with the name of Jesus, &ldquo;Christ&quot;- because the cross presents us with the very essence of the person of the Lord Jesus. But it is also parallel with the spirit or mind / essence of God. Because in that naked, bleeding, derided body and person, in that shed blood, there was the essence of all that God was to us, is to us, and ever shall be for us. It was the cross above all which revealed to us the essence of God Almighty. And it is the cross, the blood of Jesus, which elicits in us the confession of sin which is vital for our justification.<br />The idea of a Saviour dying for us (5:8) and God&rsquo;s wrath being turned away by His blood is all very much the language of &ldquo;noble death&rdquo; found in the stories of the Maccabees, which Paul had been brought up on. The idea was that the Jewish martyrs in their struggle against the occupying power had shed their blood &ldquo;to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty&rdquo; against Israel (2 Macc. 7:37 &ndash; 38); and thereby reconciled God with His people. But Paul is deconstructing these ideas, fiercely popular as they were amongst first century Jews. Paul&rsquo;s point is that the wrath of God is against all human sin, and that the Lord Jesus through His willing death, rather than the Jewish heroes through their death in battle, had brought about reconciliation and the turning away of God&rsquo;s wrath. Note in passing how the Maccabees spoke of their martyrs having reconciled God, whereas Paul&rsquo;s emphasis is upon how God has reconciled&nbsp;<i>us</i>- the change was not of God but of His people.</p>