What an amazing thought. We are beloved of God. I wish I knew how rich the word beloved is in the Greek. Anyone who knows is welcome to share it :-)

In verses 16-32 of chapter 1 we see the two sides of the impact of the gospel.
1. The salvation and righteousness of God is revealed (vs. 16-17).
2. The wrath of God is revealed (vs. 18-32).

Justification
Chapter 2 begins Paul's discussion of justification in Christ through faith. Verses 12 and 13 say, "For all who sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified" (NASB). There is only One who ever did the whole Law. Only One can be justified. Paul here laid the groundwork for chapter 3 where he says, "for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (NASB 3:26). What does this mean? In verse 25 of chapter 3 we see what it means. God is just because He made Jesus the propitiation for our sin, thereby retaining His justice, and since, as Paul says in verse 22, all those who believe have the righteousness of Christ, He has justified us through His death. God is very clever isn't He? At one and the same time, God punished sin and showed mercy. He is so good to us.

Death to Sin
Verses 20 and 21 of chapter 5 say, "The Law came so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This leads us into chapter 6.

I want to start with verse 2. "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (NASB). The interesting thing to me is that he immediately goes into baptism here. Verse 3 says, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" We died to sin when we were baptized into Christ's death. "...our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin" (NASB vs. 6-7). The baptism referred to here must be effectual. Through this baptism we have died with Christ to sin so that we would be free from sin and we have been raised with Him in His resurrection. "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
(note: I have to pick on infant baptism here for just a minute. Can we say that a baptized infant has died to sin? If you believe that this passage refers to water baptism, then you must believe that it is a regenerative act, based on the passage, i.e. dead to sin, alive to God)

There is so much here that deserves a fuller treatment. Hopefully someone better than I will be able to give it to you and hopefully you will read it for yourself as well.