1Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. 8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10For 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.
11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned. 13For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
15But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification. 17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, 21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The events of Acts 5:1-11 must be understood along with the communal living practiced by the early church (Acts 2:44-45). This explains Ananias and Sapphira's decision to sell their property and give the proceeds to the church. Here, they sold their property and gave part of the proceeds to the church but the couple publicly misrepresented that they had given all the money to the church. Their sin was not that they had kept back part of the proceeds for themselves. Peter notes, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control?" Rather, their sin related to the fact that they had misrepresented their level of generosity, which involved a lie to God (Acts 5:4b).
Although the church had experienced external attacks, this event marks the first of several internal attacks against the church. Since the church was at a vulnerable place in its infancy, God dealt drastically with this sin by prematurely terminating the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. Such drastic discipline had a purifying effect on the church by deterring other believers from committing the same sin (Acts 5:11).
Ananias and Sapphira seem to have been believers since the church became afraid as a result of what happened (Acts 5:11). The church feared, since one of its own had been killed. The fact that Satan had filled their hearts (Acts 5:3) does not disqualify them from being believers since Satan can influence believers who yield to the sin nature (Eph 4:26-27). Although a believer can never be a candidate for eternal retribution (Rom 5:9), God can discipline believers in order to deter them from sin (Heb 12:5-11). Sometimes this discipline can be severe, even taking the form of death (1 Cor 11:30).