Romans 5:6-11 PERFECT TIMING
“6For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
THE RIGHT TIME
God did not wait until we were perfect – for that would never happen. But Christ died for us “while we were still helpless” and “while we were yet sinners” and “while we were enemies.” Salvation indeed does supply our need. It is not as though Christ died for a “righteous man” or “a good man” but rather for the “ungodly.” This is a marvelous consideration. This was perfect timing. “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a women, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:3-5).
Concerning this redemption it is written, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:18-21). The plan of God to redeem His mankind was foreordained before the foundation of the world. He always planned to do that, it wasn’t a reactionary plan. Jesus was always going to be the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8KJV). God prepared His people to recognize His plan by instituting a sacrificial system as a means of atonement. All of this ministry was a foreshadowing of the time to come when we would have a better high priest, a better covenant, a better ministry, with better promises and a better sacrifice. This better sacrifice “once at the consummation of the ages…to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). This was perfect timing.
Likewise, the great salvation we have in Christ was predestinated. God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:3-5). This is in accord with God’s will and His eternal purpose (Ephesians 3:4-12). “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30). Man is called through the preaching of the gospel which is even “at the proper time.” Paul wrote to Titus “for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior” (Titus 1:1-3). This plan to take a corrupted man and wash away his sin and put a new spirit in Him and make him holy and blameless, all to the praise of God’s glory is pleasing to God and man. And was all done with precise and perfect timing.
DIED FOR THE UNGODLY
We would be hard pressed to find someone who would die for a righteous or good man. In fact, they are so rare that in our day and age we call them heroes. Interestingly enough we have already learned that “there is none righteous, not even one” and “there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Romans 3:10, 12). But considering if there was one or a good and righteous man in the world’s estimation, still someone would “hardly die” for him. Here in lies the great love with which Christ loved us. It was “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” One can hardly even conceive the righteousness in that act alone. Would man today consider this act a waste of one’s life? Perhaps, but in the predetermined plan of God it was the perfect sacrifice at the perfect time and will yield perfect results. We now begin to see salvation not simply as a blotting out of sin but also as a stripping of the power of sin. Salvation is not just justification but also involves sanctification “without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14), “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Therefore, God is able to take a sinner as bad as Saul of Tarsus and make him a powerful preacher in His church. For Christ died for the ungodly, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Grace, mercy and love like that came at the perfect time in world history and at the perfect time in our personal history.
DEMONSTRATED LOVE
This is demonstrated love. Not just love that is spoken about or hoped for but actual love demonstrated. “God demonstrates His own love toward us!” It is found in the conversion of our wicked souls. What a great work of God. The giving of Jesus of Nazareth as a propitiation for sin is a demonstration of God’s love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is the love with which nothing can separate us (Romans 8:38-39). This is the love that produces willing men to give their lives for God, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). We want to “walk in love, just as Christ also love you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Ephesians 5:2). This is how we understand the love of God, “that He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16) and again “by this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:8-9).
It is not just the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary that was perfect timing and a demonstration of God’s love – although it was both of those things. But our salvation is also a demonstration of God’s love. “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In other words, “we also were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:3-5). This has to do not just with the saving act of the cross but the saving of the individual in the new birth.
“9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD
Justification is being judged not guilty. It is the process of being made righteous. It is being put into a state of unblemished character in which we can draw near to God with full assurance and confidence. It is the most important thing in the world. If a man is not justified it doesn’t matter one bit what else he is. For those in Christ it is the state that they are “now” in. They have been justified. They have “been justified” by His blood. It is the blood of the Lamb that makes us over comers (Revelation 12:11) and washes our robes to be white as snow (Revelation 7:14). If we walk in the Light “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). “We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). The blood of Christ cleanses our conscience (Hebrews 9:14). Those who were far off are “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). Jesus blood is the “blood of the covenant” (Mark 14:24). It is by His blood that we are justified.
SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM
“Much more then,” we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. He who is in sin and not obedient to God “has the wrath of God abiding on Him” (John 3:36). This wrath will come upon the sons of disobedience (Colossians 3:6; Ephesians 5:6). But those in Christ are not destined for wrath, “but for obtaining salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Therefore, we are saved through Jesus. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. He released us from a curse by becoming a curse (Galatians 3:13). “He made Him who knew no sin to be on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He took our place and saved us from the wrath of God.
RECONCILED THROUGH HIS DEATH
Jesus said “he who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30). There are enemies of God and those who are outside of Christ are enemies. But God’s perfect timing will take the individual from the state of hostility and alienation and reconcile them to God. “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:21-22). Reconciliation is the bringing back together of a severed relationship. Sin caused us to be severed from Christ and the cross caused us to be reconciled. Jesus came to end the Law that He “might reconcile them both [Jews and Gentiles] in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:16). Not only does Christ destroy the enmity between Jew and Gentile but also between man and God. This is all done through His death on the cross. “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:19-20). God, through Christ’s sacrifice, is reconciling the world to Himself. This is the purpose of Jesus coming in the flesh. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Not only is God reconciling the world through Christ but God was in Christ doing that very thing. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
SAVED BY HIS LIFE – “no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6)
And still there is “Much more!” Now that man who is in Christ has been reconciled to God, he will now be saved by His life. The rest of this chapter is going to deal with the point of having life in Christ. This is of utmost importance. For Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Grace, salvation and provision of God, among other things, is always in abundance. In Christ, life is supplied to us in abundance. We have been brought to God through the death of Christ and now in His life He is saving us completely. He is at work now for the saints. He is making intercession for them and funneling heavenly resources to them. 1 Peter 3:18 says “Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” He is bringing us to God. “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:10-11). Christ is currently acting as our Advocate (1 John 2:1) but also our High Priest.
23The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever. 8:1Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "SEE," He says, "THAT YOU MAKE all things ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN." 6But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 7:23-8:6)
EXULTING IN GOD THROUGH JESUS
“And not only this”…you can’t help but see the abundance of the salvation in Christ. The Spirit is inspiring Paul to talk as though salvation with words like “Much more then” and “much more” and “not only this, but we also.” Just when you think he has covered the bases in salvation there is some other great benefit being distributed to mankind through Christ. And here is the result, “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
The nature of this salvation and the timing of it, causes us to exult in God through Jesus. Boasting is gone, except for our boasting in Christ. When a minimal realization of or emphasis on what God has done and is doing in Christ exists, little praise will come to God through Jesus. Where there is not a precise understanding of salvation and God’s workings and Christ’s workings and the Spirit’s workings toward us to accomplish it – there will be very little exulting in God through Jesus. I know this from experience. Instead there is a lot of talk about what men are doing. There is a focus toward others’ walk with the Lord and even a desire to pattern what they are doing. Men are lifted up and Christ is put on the back burner. In this situation men react and respond to man’s teachings and worldly discussions but are like a deer in the headlights when spiritual things are discussed. A great deal is said about what man should do and little is said about what God has done. This will yield results but falls very short in promoting exulting in God through Jesus. Only those who recognized that “salvation is from the Lord” would sing praises to Him. Paul knew this well saying “we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).