Exposition of Romans 5:6-11

Welcome

Good morning everyone!

I’m so happy to see all of you here. I hope you noticed on your way in that the shed has been moved from beside the building next to the tree. I think it really looks nice and I know quite a lot of work has been put into shoring up the shed’s frame to make it stable enough to move. Next we’ll plant some grass and I think it’s going to look very nice.

I want to take a moment to welcome our visitors and returning guests! You have blessed us by joining us to worship God, and we hope you’ll stick around for a minute or two after services so we can get to know you. There are cards on the hallway table if would like to provide us your information or have any way in which we can stand beside you. You can fill them out and place them in the trays or hand them directly to me.

I also want to wish all our mother’s a happy mother’s day! I hope this day is warm with love from your loved ones!

Assignment

Romans 5:12-21

I’ve modified our teaching schedule so this week changed. The purpose of these assignments is to help you cultivate your heart to receive the message that God is speaking to this church through his word.

I know people don’t really talk like that anymore, but I think they should. I don’t believe our working through Romans is an exercise in futility. I think God is really speaking to us. So we should prepare our hearts to receive his word. And I hope you do.

Challenge

Our challenge in may is to be intentional about making yourself accessible to the community. We cannot carry God’s mission forward if we do not engage anyone. And, for Christians, that means overcoming social barriers and connecting to people.

There are many ways to do this: I recommend finding an outlet for some kind of outing that is suitable to your personality and making an effort to be accessible to those people.

The thought occurred to me while preparing these comments that I should probably correct one possible misunderstanding of our church’s vision: we’re putting a lot of effort into reaching new people, but “new” does not necessarily mean “young”. We welcome young souls, but we welcome all people into our family. So make yourself accessible to your community and trust God to bring glory to his name.

Now let me invite you to open your Bibles to Romans 5:6-11 as we prepare for today’s lesson.

Pause to go live > > >

Reconciled

Welcome again and good morning!

Today we’re going to unfold God’s plan for our reconciliation and see how God is bringing people who were once separated from him into his holy presence by his grace in Jesus Christ. Or more precisely, we will begin unfolding this plan as the good news that we are beginning to unfold will be the consuming thought of Romans from here onward. And this is precisely the turn and Paul’s narrative that one would expect at this point in his discourse.

You’ll want to make sure your Bibles are open so you can follow along.

Exegesis

In writing to the Christians and Rome, Paul’s purpose is to show how the righteous will live by faith (1:17). But he must necessarily deal with the imposition of sin in humanity. So, he demonstrates how everyone, both Jews and gentiles, have fallen short of the glory of God (3:23). Indeed, our sin frustrates all of our attempt to reconcile with God by means of our own works.

So Paul’s first argument establishes the universal condemnation and guilt of all humanity. He shows how everyone is guilty before God, either through the law or through their conscience. This is the argument in Romans 1:18- 2:16.

Which necessitates the second argument (Romans 2:17-3:20), which explains why the law is unable to resolve human guilt because of the weaknesses of our flesh. The law does not atone for our sin, it only exposes guilt.

After proving the universal guilt of humanity and the insufficiency of the law to resolve our guilt, Paul necessarily restates his argument that the righteous will live through faith, and expands this argument in Romans 3:21-31.

Then Paul uses the story of Abraham as a case study on the righteousness of faith to present his third argument in Romans 4:1-25. The story of Abraham illustrates how God’s grace, and his grace alone, is sufficient to set the world right again through faith when we believe and trust in him.

This sets the stage for Paul’s short fourth argument in Romans 5:1-11, where the triumph of faith is determined to be the grace that God gives us through Christ, which is realized in our life by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Unlike the law, which succeeds or fails according to our own strength, faith triumphs over sin because of God’s grace, which overcomes our sin through his mercy, and inwardly renews our brokenness through his love.

This triumph accounts for Paul’s emphasis on our celebratory confidence in God’s presence. We come boldly before the throne of grace being escorted into God’s holy presence by Jesus Christ himself! This is the idea that we see in Paul’s use of the word “boast”, which is also translated as “exult”, “celebrate”, and “rejoice”.

This is the them of today’s message as Paul continues to unfold the basis for our reconciliation to God in Christ. This reconciliation stands, not in our inherent goodness, but on God’s faithful love.

So let’s see how the triumph of faith finally reconciles us to God so that we can now confidently enter his presence with shouts of joy!

Romans 5:6 CSB

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

“For” (“γὰρ”) (v. 6): Paul now explains how the hope of our celebratory access into God’s presence does not disappoint us. Unlike the vain hopes of this world that stand on vanishing dreams, this hope does not disappoint because it stands on the real sacrifice and proof of God’s love in Jesus’ crucifixion.

“While we were still helpless” (v. 6): in this case, “we” does not simply have in mind a collective of “individuals” for whom the comment is true, though I’m sure this statement is also true of each one of us before we know Christ, but, more specifically, this has in mind the condition of the whole human race.

So, in what manner was the human race helpless before Christ came?

First, we were under God’s holy wrath because of our wickedness:

Romans 1:18–19 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

God’s wrath stems from his holy nature: his wrath is not provoked along arbitrary lines, but by the evil spawned by wicked deeds. God is tormented and provoked by such sin. Not only would God himself never do the terrible things we do to one another, but, as I so often emphasize, God actually suffers with us under sin’s cruel oppression of humanity. And this explains the nature of God’s relationship to the human race. He is not distant from us, nor does he wish to, but we are separated from him because of our sin, though is never far from any one of us!

However, that we have simply sinned against God and so deserve his wrath doesn’t fully describe the human predicament. We have also become estranged from God, and, in fact, we have become so depraved in our thinking that humanity has fully lost sight of our Creator:

Romans 1:22–23 CSB

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

You might recall how the argument Paul is making at this point is not simply that their idolatry was one of their sins among many, nor even that idolatry was their chief sin, but that idolatry was the source of human corruption. The reason for this is that we are made in the image of God, therefore, to turn away from God and draw our sense of identity, understanding, and perception of the world from anything else - whether a stone idol or the enlightenment of science - results in the ultimate corruption of the human race which was designed to experience life in correspondence with God!

This would be enough to terrify any thinking person. But we have not only rebelled against God and become so depraved that we have lost sight of him entirely, but, where God once defined our identity, now we are so lost that now the very essence of humanity is defined by our corruption.

Romans 1:28–32 CSB

28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

This is the condition of the human race into which the good news of Christ triumphantly resounds!

“At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6): God sets his wisdom apart from human wisdom by his patience in that he never does anything before its proper time. He understood the ramifications of sin for the human race.

In this sense, the scene from Avengers Endgame is a fitting illustration of the point. Dr. Strange uses the time-stone to look through all the possible eventualities of their battle with Thanos (whose name actually means “Death” in Greek), and sees the one possible path to victory. But it requires their sacrifice and willingness to play the long game.

In my impatience, I probably would have attempted to initiate the redemption of the human race sometime a little bit closer to Adam and Eve. I would have thought, “hey, let’s try this before they forget me!” But God’s plan charted another course.

When viewed in this way, we actually see that “faith” was chosen from the beginning as the means by which the world would be reconciled to God, and so, everything God has done has been fashioned in such a way as to bring forward this perfect faith to us all.

So we see:

Galatians 4:1–7 CSB

1 Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

So, God has providentially crafted the whole outcome of history for this purpose:

Acts 17:26–31 CSB

26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

This removes any doubt of God’s control in this world. “Yes” we face an adversary who is described as “the god of this age”. But God is not scrambling to react to Satan’s schemes, instead, through his foreknowledge, wisdom, and sheer power, God works out his plan from the very beginning for the glory of his name and the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

So we are not saddled with the burden of working God’s plan out. Instead, we are called on to trust him and follow Christ where he leads us in this world. To God’s glory, “victory” is in his hands!

Romans 5:7 CSB

7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.

“For” (“γὰρ”) (v. 7): Now Paul explains the significance of this grace by contrasting it with human action.

“Rarely will someone die for a just person, though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die” (v. 7): On this verse more than a few people have noticed Paul’s contrast between the “just person” and the “good person”, and wondered about his purpose here.

Most scholars agree that Paul is momentarily setting aside the normal theological force of these words and using them in their common sense to make a point. Paul’s not contradicting the point he made previously that no one is righteous or good (3:10, 12). He’s simply speaking from our human perspective. But his point in making this contrast where things get interesting.

Some scholars see Paul illustrating a point from ordinary life about how rare it is to find someone ready to die for an upright person, but that people might conceivably die for a “good” person, whose kindness and benevolence has been received or well recognized by others. Paul’s point would then be that “good people” are more highly esteemed in society than “upright people”. But, while this observation is probably true, it doesn’t seem to serve the overall point that Paul is making, nor is Paul in the habit of providing arbitrary social commentary as he goes along.

Other scholars suggest these attributes are presented as ascending pairs. Rarely would anyone’s uprightness be so good as to inspire others to die for them, though maybe there have been times when someone is so good that people might dare to die for them.

We would see in this line of thinking the story illustrated in the movie Hacksaw Ridge, where Corporal Doss stayed atop the cliff as a medic to clear out the wounded. His bravery and gentle goodness so inspired the men around him that when he was wounded by a grenade during the final assault, as he was being carried away on a stretcher, he called for his Bible, which was precious to him because it was given to him by his wife. When one of the soldiers realized that Doss had dropped it back on the battlefield, he voluntarily risked his life to run back into the heat of battle to get Doss’ Bible. Paul’s point would then be that there are actually very few people whose personal goodness is so great that it can inspire such a noble sacrifice on their behalf. But even in such cases, this is not the manner of God’s sacrifice for us.

I think this better serves Paul’s point because it tells us that Jesus did not die for our sins because we were so noble or good. There’s an altogether different reason for his sacrifice.

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“But” (“δὲ”) (v. 8): Now Paul contrasts our normative human experience with God’s divine actions. By this contrast, Paul demonstrates that God’s love for us is not like human love.

“God proves his own love for us” (v. 8): So much of how Christians should understand the purpose of the cross hinges on this point. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross not only cleared our guilt - it certainly did - but it also proves God’s love for us. And this proof is necessary on our part because of the wretched condition we find ourselves in!

I think this is in mind when Jesus speaks in Revelation to Church in Ephesus:

Revelation 2:4–5 CSB

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

I think there is a tendency in us over time to forget the love that this sacrifice inspired in us at first. We forget how brightly this love burned within us when we, being the broken sinners that we were, first came to Christ and drank deeply of his refreshing grace. We forget how the cares of this world became but a forgotten memory to us. We forget the joy by which our spirits cried out to God, “Abba! Father!” And so, year by year, we grow cold towards Christ because we do not often fix our gaze upon the cross. We merely glance thereupon.

And it is this testimony of God’s love that radically transforms our understanding of Christian discipleship:

1 John 4:10–11 CSB

10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

So our entire understanding of Christian life is defined by this act and this act alone. From the person of Christ, then, comes our understanding of what it means to know God and abide in God’s presence.

1 John 2:6 CSB

6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

“In that while we were still sinners” (v. 8): Far from the kind of love that might dare to die for an exceptionally good person, God loved us while we were still sinners! This is the unmistakably holy love that God has poured out on us through Christ.

You see, his disposition towards his enemies is very different:

1 John 2:11 CSB

11 But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Hatred is by nature blinding and it is at the heart of so much sin. What proves that someone has known Jesus is that the light of his love has opened their eyes. They do not hate even their enemies.

Look at the transfer of love:

1 John 2:15 CSB

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 4:7 CSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Hate blinds our eyes when we divert our love from God and his children to the things of this world. As the result of this exchange, we become defensive, forgetting who we are, and begin to react in hostility towards those who wrong us. So we attack and destroy one another because we love the things of this world instead of God.

But it was in this condition that God proved his love for us. Just as God spoke in the very beginning and light burst forth, illuminating the surface of the waters, so God’s love bursts forth into our hearts and illuminates our souls with the glory of God. He did not wait for us to first become good, but did this while we were still sinners and full of every kind of hate.

“Christ died for us” (v. 8): Some people never stop to question that Christ would die for them. So it seems strange that we might need some proof of this love. But the only reason this seems so strange to them is because they don’t realize how sinful they are or understand the nature of God Almighty. But when we finally see God so high and lifted up, enthroned in unapproachable glory, then we understand how weighty this question really is. To speak of sinners entering boldly into God’s presence is inconceivable outside the sheer grace of God. Suddenly the grace of God not only makes sense as the means by which we can be reconciled to him, but it also becomes the only thing that makes sense!

So, upon hearing the good news preached by Paul that God’s love has been poured out for us, any humble sinner would surely ask, “how can I be sure that God loves a sinner like me?” The only satisfying answer that can be given to this question is seen in the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus died to prove beyond any reasonable doubt the love God has for us and reassure us that we can now approach his throne of grace with confidence through Christ.

Romans 5:9 CSB

9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.

“How much more then” (v. 9): Those who have objected to grace are now asked to weigh their response: whereas their only reasonable expectation under the law was the wrath of God, how much more does the justification that God has provided through his grace save them from the wrath they deserve as pronounced by the law that condemns them?

“Since we have now been justified by his blood” (v. 9): Our rebellion against God was so severe that we all completely lost God from our understanding. We became defined by our worst attributes as we exchanged the truth of God for various lies. God enters the scene of our brokenness and sets humanity right through the love that he has poured out in his blood when he sacrificed his Son to make atonement for our sins through his own love.

“Will we be saved through him from wrath” (v. 9): Now our expectation is shifted from wrath to salvation because of his grace. We now anticipate the day of salvation instead of the day of wrath!

2 Corinthians 6:1–2 CSB

1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

I really want us to weigh this apostolic plea right now: “don’t receive the grace of God in vain!”

What kind of justification have we received from the grace that was shed for us upon the cross? Being saved from his wrath and anticipating the day of salvation, do we now simply do our weekly duty in attending church, tithing, and then going on with our lives until our next assigned meeting? Or does this kind of salvation call for more?

Such a salvation that so far outstrips anything that could be done by human might certainly anticipates an altogether different response.

Let’s read on!

Romans 5:10 CSB

10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

I want to do this verse all together.

Paul is contrasting with verse nine the eventual end of sinners and the means of salvation through the life of Jesus Christ.

Humanity was so estranged from God that we all were by nature objects of his wrath. Our only reasonable expectation from God was, therefore, his “wrath”. And God was certainly under no obligation to enable human corruption and sin in-perpetuity. But, Jesus enters into our corruption as the spotless Lamb of God to set right sinners through his death. So he declared righteous those weary souls who come to him to receive his love. Now our reasonable expectation from God is salvation because of the immeasurable grace that has been given to us from our resurrected Lord!

And this confidence is the confidence that Paul argues every Christian should live out being delivered from God’s wrath by his grace.

Discipleship

Now Paul’s fourth argument brings together his previous three arguments to present the alternative to the works of the law for the superior righteousness of faith. So we have one more point to develop before we conclude and move next week into Paul’s shortest argument.

Romans 5:11 CSB

11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

“And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 11): The implications of Jesus’ sacrifice do not stop at “justification” because there is much more powerful effect in the cross of Christ!

“In God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 11): I’m going to zoom in to this phrase and propose something rather unexpected here, not for novelty’s sake, but because I believe there’s a thought in this phrase that we often leave unexpressed. I believe our celebratory confidence “in God” is one of the necessary outcomes of Jesus’ death upon the cross that describes the nature of Christian discipleship.

Jesus’ good news envisions the kind of reconciliation to God that changes how we see the world. This has a profound impact on our thinking. We no longer weigh things against the law, which we know are a shadow and copy of the things to come, but we see this world in relationship to God. We know him. We walk with him. We follow him through Christ.

My contention is that this phrase “in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” actually foreshadows the discipleship that is to be described in chapters 12-15. And this means, that Christian discipleship isn’t meant to be viewed in terms of the law, but in light of the reconciled relationship we have with the Father through Jesus!

So for our conclusion I want to turn to something Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wrote about “Discipleship”:

Discipleship is commitment to Christ. Because Christ lives, he must be followed. An idea about Christ, a doctrinal system, a general religious recognition of grace or forgiveness of sins does not require discipleship… One enters into a relationship with an idea by way of knowledge, enthusiasm, perhaps even by carrying it out, but never by personal obedience to discipleship… Discipleship is bound to the mediator, and wherever discipleship is rightly spoken of, there the mediator, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is intended. Only the Mediator, the God-human, can call to discipleship. Discipleship without Jesus Christ is choosing one’s own path. It could be an ideal path or a martyr’s path, but it is without promise. Jesus will reject it.

To be “in God” in the manner that Paul describes means to be committed to the living Christ as our Lord. We are not merely committed to an idea, but a person; to a living being whom we follow in this life.

I think the phrase “in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” necessarily excludes any notion that we simply have some theological or religious system about grace that we are following. Now, if this were the case, think about how one would enter such a system: one acquires knowledge, perhaps some enthusiasm, and obedience to various principles. And, to our surprise, we find that this is what characterizes much of Christian discipleship today. We follow “various systems”. We make disciples of men rather than disciples of Christ.

True Christian discipleship is bound to the mediator. So whenever we speak of discipleship - of being “in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” - the person of Jesus himself is intended there! And, within this way of discipleship, we find ourselves “in the presence of God through Christ”. I am in his presence, not because I have accurately expressed some religious dogma, creeds, or various systems of thought. But, rather, I find myself in the very presence of God through Christ when I follow the person of Jesus Christ by faith wherever he leads!

I really believe this thought is necessary to understand the rest of Romans.

So, we celebrate with confidence in God’s presence through Jesus Christ, whom we follow by faith. This explains how “the righteous live by faith”. And this is the real contrast between the righteousness that comes from “the law” and that which comes through “faith”.

“Through whom we have now received this reconciliation” (v. 11): So we receive this reconciliation through his love, which is the basis for how we understand Christian discipleship, which is in turn the substance of God’s grace in the Christian’s life. And this discipleship will be one of the major themes explored in chapters 6 and 8.

And in one word Paul loudly proclaims the good news that this reconciliation is “now received”. My beloved brothers and sisters, there is nothing that holds you back from coming to Jesus right now. Allow Christ to bring you into the joyful presence of your Father, and learn from Jesus the way of life that has triumphed over the terrible power of sin and death through the grace that has been poured out upon the cross and forever proven the love of God to you.

Whether this calls you to wake up from your spiritual slumber and return to Christ as his living disciples, or if this speaks to you in another way, do not wait or delay if you hear Christ calling you. Become his disciple and learn from him.