Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Jesus came to save a world that could not save itself. We saw that in the Gospel for this Sunday. He could heal people of every disease and every sickness- something that no doctor on earth can do. He saw the people coming toward him and was filled with compassion because he saw that the people were troubled and downcast- like sheep without a shepherd- people incapable of finding their way to God. Then, he sent out his disciples into the world to bring people to God. But these men would show themselves as slow to learn and to be men of “little faith.” They would even run away from Jesus in fear when he was arrested, and Peter would deny ever knowing Jesus. Then, later, Jesus would call an enemy of the gospel and Christianity, a man named Saul, to become an apostle and one of the greatest Christian missionaries of all time and the man who wrote the epistle to the Romans.
Do you see what Jesus teaches us? He helps the helpless. He came to earth to die for his enemies. He calls sinners to bring the ungodly to God. It is this truth of Jesus Christ that the apostle Paul teaches us as well in our lesson for today from Romans 5, and by the grace of God we will see the ancient and enduring Gospel message that Jesus came to die for the ungodly.
Our lesson begins with these words: For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. This is the Gospel- Jesus came to die for sinners, and you qualify. Throughout this lesson, do you see the way that the Bible describes us in our natural, sinful condition? It uses the words “helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies.” We come into this world spiritually helpless- not able to do anything to change our own sinful condition. We are ungodly- not on God’s side but separated from him. We come into the world as sinners- guilty of not keeping the law of God and incapable of doing so. In our sinful condition, we are also enemies of God. Romans 8:7 tells us “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
This is how God sees our sinful condition. This is what the entire world is seen as apart from Christ. This is the evil that still lives in our sinful nature. But maybe you think this is a little harsh, or you’ve heard this truth so much that you lose track of what this means: We are not pretty good people who have some flaws. Apart from the forgiveness of Christ, we are ungodly, helpless, sinners and enemies of God. Just imagine for a minute if we had a screen here and your ten worst and most shameful actions were portrayed on the screen for everyone to see. Or imagine that all our words were recorded. At a summer job in college, a man with whom I was working was using a lot of foul language, and then he asked me what I was going to school to study. I said, “I’m studying to be a pastor.” He was shocked and said, “Why didn’t you tell me that! I would have cleaned up my language!” As if our words could somehow escape the notice of an all-knowing God. Or worst of all, imagine if all your thoughts were displayed above your head like a thought bubble in a cartoon book. What would people think of you? What harm would you do to others? What would happen to your relationships with your family and friends- with people that you even like! Hebrews tells us that the word of God judges the “thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
When the word of God calls us helpless, sinful, ungodly, and hostile to Him, he is not talking symbolically. This is reality. So, we need to hammer this truth home that Christ died for, or in place of the ungodly, in place of us. We need to hear this because it is so different from what we would expect. Listen to what Paul says, “It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We love hearing stories from history about someone giving up their life for others. There are heroic stories of men jumping on grenades to save their fellow soldiers. There are parents or grandparents that have or would be willing to die for their children or grandchildren. We perhaps would die for someone that we loved or that we considered to be good. It’s rare. It’s not common, but we’ve heard stories about it, and we could imagine it.
But the love of God is different. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Could you imagine President Putin of Russia giving up his life for President Zelensky of Ukraine? No way! God’s own love is different than ours. Christ died for the guilty. Christ died for his enemies. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, go to the cross of Calvary. Look at the darkness of that day. Hear the taunts of those crucifying Jesus. See the horror of the son of God gasping for breath, bleeding and finally dead on the cross. Hear Jesus crying out, “Father forgive them” or “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Do you think that he suffered this for pretty good people who just have a couple minor flaws? No! He died for sinners. He died for his enemies. He died for the helpless! He died for the ungodly. He died for you! He took all your wicked actions, evil words and disgraceful thoughts and paid for them with his death. You are forgiven. Your sin is gone in Jesus. This is the love of God for you.
Since Jesus died for the ungodly, since he died for us, what does this mean? Listen to what Paul says: 9 Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11 And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation. Did you hear the way Paul describes the blessings that we have through Jesus’ death? We are justified, saved, and reconciled. We are justified, declared not guilty. We can give up all the games of self-justification that we play to try to give meaning to our lives, our decisions or what we have done. We can stop the very tempting game of trying to get others to declare us righteous and innocent. The justification that matters and that will endure isn’t the justification that happens by our decisions or works, it’s the declaration of “not guilty” of justification that God won for us on the cross. It’s the justification that he has delivered to us in our baptism and through His Word.
Because we are justified, we are saved! Saved from what? God’s wrath! It’s not popular to talk about God’s wrath. But the fact is “being saved” means nothing if we don’t understand the wrath of God. God is immensely angry over sin and the way that people disrespect him by disobeying his law. God has every right to punish everyone with eternal punishment. This is our biggest issue. The biggest issue is not financial uncertainty in our lives, a health crisis, the threat of war or any other earthly calamity- as difficult as these can be. The biggest issue is that the wrath of God should still be hanging over every one of us. The biggest issue is that there is a hell with eternal suffering for those who do not believe in Christ. This is what Jesus has saved us from. On the cross, God turned away the wrath of God, so that all who believe in him will not only be saved from hell but be saved to eternal life in paradise with God forever. We are saved. Jesus keeps us in His salvation as he continues to serve us with his word, as he continues to bring us into his family in baptism and as he gives us his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
Finally, we are reconciled to God. In the death of Jesus Christ, God has restored our broken relationship with him. God’s anger against sin has been lifted. Usually, the one who commits the offense is responsible for restoring a relationship. But God, the offended, took on the work of bringing us to himself. So, we can call God our Father. Through faith, we are his children. We can go through our lives under the guidance, protection, and honor of having God as our Father, and Jesus as our Savior and brother.
This is certain. Since Jesus has died for us- the ungodly- this justification, this reconciliation are ours. As Paul says in verse 11, we can rejoice confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear Christian friend, this is good news: Jesus died for the ungodly. He helps the helpless. He came for sinners. You qualify. What a message that saves us! What good news we get to proclaim to others! There is no one for whom the son of God has not died- He died for sinners! He died for you! Through the proclaiming of the gospel, he turns enemies into his friends. This confidence is from God’s Word for us, not from our work for God. So, with the disciples, and with the sick who were healed by Jesus and with the apostle Paul, let us approach life in this world, in God’s kingdom as we live in this confidence of Jesus Christ, forgiven and loved by God. Amen.