ROMANS 5:6-9 | CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY

TEXT: ROMAND 5:6-9 | CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY

INTRO

ILLUSTRATION: Nico and his brothers were climbing a mountain in New Zealand.

He had met his family there during a school break, so he didn’t have all of his normal gear with him, but with the trekking poles and a warm jacket, he believed he would be fine.

As they were making their way along a particularly treacherous snow covered mountainside, Nico’s foot slipped and the next thing he knew, he was quickly sliding toward the edge of a cliff that dropped off hundreds of feet to certain death.

As he slid on his back down the steep incline, he tried over and over to stick his ice pick into the snow and ice.

With the edge getting closer and closer, he gave one final swing of his ice pick and it stuck.

He shared with me that he was around 10 feet away from the edge of what would have been the end of his life.

His brothers rushed down to him with their crampons on their feet and were able to help him up and back to safety.

For a few moments as he slid down that mountainside, Nico discovered there was nothing he could do to stop what was coming.

If not for the last second catch of his ice pick axe, his story would have been much different.

EXPLANATION: Paul writes in Romans 5:6

Romans 5:6 KJV 1900

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

When the Bible says that we were “yet without strength”… it doesn’t just mean we were weak in our ability to save ourselves.

It means we were completely hopeless.

Not just low on strength, we were without any strength.

There was no ability in ourselves to even turn to God.

John 6:44 KJV 1900

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Man on his own has no capacity to turn to God.

Romans 3:10–12 KJV 1900

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

That is our natural state.

But here is where God changes things and where some that hold to the belief of Calvinism get it wrong…

God didn’t leave us in that state.

And He didn’t pick and choose certain people to turn to Him while leaving others out.

No, God chose to draw all men to Himself… He doesn’t leave anyone out.

2 Peter 3:9 KJV 1900

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:3–4 KJV 1900

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Acts 17:30 KJV 1900

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

God knew that on our own in our own sin nature we wouldn’t have turned to Him, so He calls and draws every person to Him!

We were sliding down our own mountainside of our own sin, trying all we could to make our own way, and when we were yet without strength… CHRIST DIED… for the ungodly.

Friend, Jesus didn’t die for the ones who could make it on their own… because their aren’t any.

Jesus died for the ungodly.

Mark 2:17 KJV 1900

When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

APPLICATION: Friend, tonight, before we can appreciate the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for you and for me, we have to first recognize our hopelessness outside of God’s mercy and grace.

Yes, God created a way for salvation… but He also created the way that you would come to Him for salvation!

And just so we are clear, there is no one that He hasn’t created the way to come to Him!

If you are here tonight and you haven’t trusted in Christ as your Savior, God wants you to come to Him and be saved.

There is no question He is drawing your.

There is no question He is calling you.

But He will not force you to accept Him, you must choose to make that decision.

He isn’t waiting for you to clean your life up and get everything right before you come to Him… no, He died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:8 KJV 1900

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

EXPLANATION: This is one of the most stunning parts of the Gospel and Christ’s death on the cross.

Christ didn’t die for you when you were on your spiritual high.

He didn’t die for you when you were doing what you were supposed to do.

He didn’t die for you when you were sitting in the church service on Sunday morning singing Him praises.

He died for you when you were a sinner… without strength.

Paul makes it clear just who you and I were when Christ died for us.

Romans 5:7 KJV 1900

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

He is narrowing down for us, just which category we all find ourselves in…

Not the righteous man

Not the good man

But v.8 tells us we were the sinful man… who was without hope.

And when we were in that disgusting hopeless state… God looked down and loved you and me.

ILLUSTRATION: Kynoa told us her stomach was bothering her when she went to bed, but as a parent, you know this is one of the recurring games that gets played when they don’t want to go to bed.

It was a couple years ago, and she was still pretty little, and we just assumed she didn’t want to go to sleep.

I woke up that night to the sound of her getting sick in her bed.

When I got to her room, she had it all over her shirt and on her bed as she sat there and was beginning to cry.

Now I could have stood back and said, “look at the mess that you made.”

“How disgusting… go take care yourself.”

But I didn’t do that…

No, I walked over to her, and I picked her up in my arms and held her for a minute.

And then I took her to that bathroom and got her washed off and cleaned up.

Why?

Because I love her.

APPLICATION: Friend, you and I were covered in the filth of our sin… and God loved you so much that He called your name… and He said, “I’ll clean you up.”

“This is something you can’t do for yourself… So I’ll do it for you.”

And Jesus Christ went to that cross.

The cross you and I deserved to die on.

And Jesus’s body was broken by the cat of nine tails

But the crown of thorns

By the bear ripped from His face

By the punches across His face by the Roman soldiers

By the splintery wooden cross that He carried

By the nails that pierced His hands and His feet.

His body was broken in sacrifice for you and for me.

And His blood was shed as He hung on that cross.

Drip by drip He was paying for my sin on that cross.

And then the Father turned His face away as my sin was placed onto Jesus… the sinless One.

And He cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished…” and He gave His life for you and for me.

Friend, the beauty of Good Friday is not in the gory crucifixion

The beauty is found in the fact that “When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-29

APPLICATION: In a few moments we are going to take the Lord’s table.

It is an opportunity for us to reflect back on the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for me on the cross.

An opportunity to remember why Christ died.

It was because you and I were without strength… we were covered in our sin.

And yet, Christ gave Himself for you.

EXPLANATION: On the night before Christ’s crucifixion, He and His disciples met in an upper room where He administered the Lord’s table and instructed them to observe it in the future that it might remind others of His sacrifice and why He died.

1 Corinthians 11:23–29 KJV 1900

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

We learn a few things from this passage.

It is for Remembrance (v.24-25)

It is for Representation (v.26 “Shew”)

It didn’t become the literal body and blood of Jesus… it was a representation of His broken body and His shed blood.

It is for Reflection (v.27-29)

God wants us to be clean and right before Him.

This is something to be observed by those who have accepted Christ as their Savior.

You cannot truly appreciate the sacrifice Christ has made for you if you’ve never accepted the sacrifice Christ made for you.

It is for a Reminder (v.26)

We will not always take the Lord’s supper… because one day He is coming back and we will be with Him!

And when we take the Lord’s Table it is a reminder that Jesus is coming back!

CONCLUSION

Tonight on this Good Friday, if you don’t know Christ as your Savior, why not make it a great Friday and accept Him.

If you do know Christ, wont you take a few moments to reflect on the incredible sacrifice that was made for you!

When you were without strength and in your sin… Christ died for you!