Romans 5:1

Being therefore justified by faith (dikaiwqente oun ek pistew). First aorist passive participle of dikaiow, to set right and expressing antecedent action to the verb ecwmen. The oun refers to the preceding conclusive argument (chapters 1 to 4) that this is done by faith. Let us have peace with God (eirhnhn ecwmen pro ton qeon). This is the correct text beyond a doubt, the present active subjunctive, not ecomen (present active indicative) of the Textus Receptus which even the American Standard Bible accepts. It is curious how perverse many real scholars have been on this word and phrase here. Godet, for instance. Vincent says that "it is difficult if not impossible to explain it." One has only to observe the force of the tense to see Paul's meaning clearly. The mode is the volitive subjunctive and the present tense expresses linear action and so does not mean "make peace" as the ingressive aorist subjunctive eirhnhn scwmen would mean. A good example of scwmen occurs in Matthew 21:38 (scwmen thn klhronomian autou) where it means: "Let us get hold of his inheritance." Here eirhnhn ecwmen can only mean: "Let us enjoy peace with God" or "Let us retain peace with God." We have in Acts 9:31 eicen eirhnhn (imperfect and so linear), the church "enjoyed peace," not "made peace." The preceding justification (dikaiwqente) "made peace with God." Observe pro (face to face) with ton qeon and dia (intermediate agent) with tou kuriou.