Romans 5.6-While We Were Still Helpless, At the Appointed Time, Christ Died as a Substitute for the Ungodly
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday April 1, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:6-While We Were Still Helpless, At The Appointed Time, Christ Died As A Substitute For The Ungodly
Lesson # 148
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:1.
This evening we will study Romans 5:6, which teaches while we were still helpless, still, at that particular appointed moment, Christ died as a substitute for the ungodly.
Romans 5:1-8, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces Paul’s statements that appear in Romans 5:6-8 that “explain why” the Holy Spirit’s ministry of communicating to the believer that he has been loved by God assures the believer that his confidence in the Lord is not misplaced.
“While we were still helpless” means that “at the same time” Paul’s audience were sinners who were helpless to justify themselves in the eyes of a holy God, Christ died for them as a substitute.
“Helpless” is the adjective asthenes (a)sqenehv$) (as-then-ace), which is used to describe Paul’s audience prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as having no capacity whatsoever to be justified by obedience to the Law of God.
The reason this is the case is that a holy God and His holy Law demand perfect obedience, which sinners have no capacity to do whatsoever because they were spiritually dead because of being enslaved to the old Adamic sin nature and the lies of Satan’s cosmic system.
“At the right time” refers to not only a particular moment in history when the entire human race was helpless to justify themselves before a holy God but also refers to the particular moment in history ordained by God when He demonstrated His love for sinful mankind by sending His Son to die on the Cross as their substitute.
“Christ” is the proper name Christos (xristov$), which is a technical word designating the humanity of our Lord as the promised Savior for all mankind who is unique as the incarnate Son of God and totally and completely guided and empowered by the Spirit as the Servant of the Father.
“Died” is the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which is used of the unique voluntary substitutionary spiritual death of the impeccable humanity of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union.
“Spiritual death” means that our Lord in His perfect human nature was “separated from God the Father” during those last three hours on the Cross.
His spiritual death was “unique” in that He suffered spiritual death as a “sinless” human being whereas every member of the human race suffers spiritual death the moment they are born into the world.
Our Lord’s spiritual death was “voluntary” in that our Lord in His impeccable humanity “chose” to be separated from His Father during those last three hours of darkness upon the Cross because He loved the entire world.
His spiritual death was “substitutionary” in that He died in the place of all men in order to bring all men to God.
Our Lord’s physical death was “not” the payment for our sins but rather it was His spiritual death, even though it was for our justification and that He might receive His resurrection body and be the first fruits in resurrection.
Romans 4:25, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
Our Lord’s spiritual death is recorded in Matthew 27:46.
Matthew 27:45-46, “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’”
When the Lord Jesus Christ cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He was experiencing spiritual death meaning that in His human nature he was separated from His Father.
The fact that our Lord’s spiritual death was the payment for our sins and not His literal blood is illustrated in Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53:10-11, “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
“Anguish of His soul” refers to the intense suffering of our Lord’s human soul as a result of being separated from the Father on the Cross and experiencing spiritual death as a perfect sinless human being.
This suffering no angel or man will ever be able to identify with since no angel or man has kept themselves experientially sinless.
Notice that Isaiah says that the anguish of the Son’s soul while experiencing spiritual death “satisfied” the Father, which refers to propitiation.
This passage further substantiates that it was the Lord Jesus Christ’s spiritual death that propitiated the Father and not His literal blood.
The greatest suffering the humanity of Christ endured on the cross was “not” the physical and mental torture of the cross but rather when He experienced separation from His Father during those last three hours on the Cross as a result of receiving the imputation of the sins of the entire world by the justice of God the Father.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the Cross was infinitely more painful to our Lord than the physical suffering He had endured and was enduring.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the Cross was valued infinitely more by the Father than the shedding of His literal blood or His physical suffering.
This is not to say that the Father did not value the physical suffering of His Son, or His literal blood, which was sinless, He did, but literal blood though sinless cannot resolve man’s problem of separation from God under real spiritual death.
The separation from God of a perfect human being whose soul was never contaminated by sin was the penalty that had to be paid in order to redeem human souls from the curse of Adam sin of disobedience and real spiritual death.
Our Lord died spiritually and was separated from His Father during those last three hours on the Cross so that we might never be separated from God for all of eternity due to sin.
During the last three hours on the cross, God the Father imputed every sin in human history-past, present and future to the impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic union.
Consequently, Christ voluntarily suffered the penalty for this imputation as our Substitute, which was spiritual death.
When Christ cried “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He was suffering the “consequences” for our sins, which was separation from the Father and was “not” coming into contact with our sins, nor was He becoming literal sin.
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is (spiritual) death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross defeated Satan in the angelic conflict by disproving Satan’s claims that God lacks integrity and does not love His creatures (see Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8).
It reconciled both men and angels to God (See Colossians 1:19-20) and fulfilled righteous requirements of the Mosaic Law (see Romans 8:3-4).
The Cross of Christ dealt with man's sins, which have all been forgiven and have been “nailed to the cross” (Col. 2:13-14).
The Lord’s spiritual death purchased the entire human race out from the slave market of sin in which every human being is born physically alive but spiritually dead as a result of the imputation of Adam’s sin (1 Tim. 2:6; Mark 10:45; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9).
Our Lord’s spiritual death propitiated or satisfied the righteous demands of a holy God that are sins be judged (Rom. 3:22-26; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10).
Therefore, the Cross of Christ is called the “power of God” and “foolishness” to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18) because it has crucified the old Adamic sin nature and therefore, freed the believer from its power.
Romans 5:6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
“For the ungodly” is composed of the preposition huper (u(peVr) (hoop-er), “for” and the genitive form of the adjective asebes (a)sebhv$) (as-eb-ace), “the ungodly.”
The noun asebes, “ungodly” refers to someone with a lack of reverence for God as manifested in thinking, speaking and acting in a manner contrary or against the laws of God or His character and nature.
The word for “ungodly” is the adjective asebes, which is used to describe unregenerate humanity who possess by nature a disrespectful attitude toward God and His laws.
Lack of respect for God will manifest itself through acts of injustice towards one’s fellow man.
The ungodly is the man who has little or no time for God in his life and is someone who has ruled God out of his affairs and his thinking even though he is accountable to God who is the sovereign Creator.
Asebes means lack of interest in the things of God and a behavior and lifestyle consistent with such an irreverent attitude.
It pertains to violating divine standards and living as if God did not exist and with no regard for Him.
God exercised kindness or compassion towards His enemies, i.e. unregenerate humanity in that He sent His Son to the Cross to die for them as their Substitute while they were yet His enemies!
God’s compassionate concern for His enemies was manifested again when He raised and seated with Christ those who placed their faith in His Son Jesus Christ and yet were formerly His enemies (See Ephesians 2:1-7).
The preposition huper, “for” is used with the genitive form of the adjective asebes, “ungodly” and not only marks unregenerate, sinful humanity as “benefited” by the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the Cross but also it denotes Jesus Christ died as their “substitute” as well.
Thus, huper with the genitive form of asebes denotes that Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross was not only “for” us but also He died “in our place.”
He was separated from His Father during the last three hours of darkness on the Cross so that we might never be separated from God for all of eternity.
1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for (huper) all, the testimony given at the proper time.”
Therefore, Paul’s statement in Romans 5:6 would be shocking to the unregenerate human mind in that Christ died for those whom God had condemned to face His righteous indignation (See Romans 1:18).
The fact that God the Father would send His Son to the Cross for those He had condemned to eternal condemnation demonstrates the unique and impersonal nature of God’s love in that He can love those who are antagonistic and obnoxious to Him, who is holy!
By “impersonal” I mean that God loves the sinner from His own integrity or in other words, God says, “I love you but you have nothing to do with my love.”
Therefore, God’s love was on behalf of the undeserving.
If God loved the believer in such a manner prior to being declared justified by faith in Jesus Christ, then it follows that the believer can rest assured that God will continue to love him now that he has been declared justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Thus Paul makes the corresponding statement in Romans 5:10:
Romans 5:10, “For 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.”
Thus, if God reconciled Paul’s audience to Himself through the death of His Son when they were enemies of God, it follows that since they have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, they will delivered from the wrath of God by the life of Jesus Christ.
This is important for Paul’s audience since it would reassure them that their confidence in the Lord was not misplaced.