“Christ Died for Us” -- Romans 5:1-11

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Timing is everything.”

Recently, someone posted on Facebook a series of accidents that, if they had happened a moment earlier or if someone hadn’t reacted as quickly as they did, would have been disastrous. But, because they had good timing, being at the right place at the right time, the disaster turned into an amazing story of escape.

Comedians will tell you that timing is everything. Knowing when to let the silence build a punch line, or knowing when to give the punch line can be the difference between hilarious laughter and puzzled looks on people faces.

Timing is everything. And no one understands the significance of the right time than God the Father. The Bible tells us in Galatians 4:4 tells us God sent His Son into our world when the time was right. The Gospels tell us in several passages that Jesus knew the time was not right for Him to be crucified, and in John 13:1-2, we are told that Jesus knew His time had come.

Timing is everything, but it is particularly true in the Bible. Today’s passage speaks of God’s timing and Jesus’ crucifixion.

Background

Beginning in Romans 1:18ff, we learned that God, in His grace and mercy, sent Christ to die for those who had sinful desires, shameful lusts and depraved hearts. Christ died for the immoral person.

In Romans 2:1-16, we learned that Christ died also for the moral person who, deciding they didn’t need God’s direction, would live life on their terms and by their moral code. The passage shows us that the moral code of a person is not equal to the moral code and expectations of the One who will judge us all. Christ died for the moral person.

In Romans 2:17ff, the Bible shows us that Christ died for the religious. There are people who feel comfortable in their religion and rely upon that religion to bring them into a right relationship with God. These people are the ones who, based upon the religious rites and codes they obey, seem to think that it makes them worthy to stand before God. But we learned from this passage that religion is not the way to a right relationship with God. Christ had to die for the religious person. Romans 3:1-20 teaches us that no one is righteous before God if we seek to rely on our own abilities. The Bible paints a dark picture of humanity in these verses and lets us know that, without divine intervention, we have no hope. Christ had to die for us to bring us that divine intervention.

Romans 3:21ff tells us that God, in His mercy and grace, redeems and justifies us through Jesus’ death on the cross. By the price of His Son, God paid the price for our sins and brings us into a right relationship with Him. Justice is served and sins are paid because Jesus died for us. Jesus had to die in order to cover our sins and bring us into righteousness before God.

Romans 4, which we didn’t look at over the past few weeks, speaks of Abraham’s relationship with God. Abraham predates the Law as given to Moses, so no one can point to obedience to the law for him. Instead, Abraham walked by faith in God. He left his home to travel to an unknown land because he believed and obeyed God’s call. It was an act of faith in God that led Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and it was faith that believed that God would provide a substitute sacrifice for his son. Christ died for us and we receive Him by faith.

Central Truth: Christ had to die for us in order to reconcile us to God.

1. To give us hope (1-5)

Christ died to justify us before God. This justification is by faith—faith in God’s love, grace and mercy, and Jesus’ redemptive act of crucifixion. As a result of this faith, Paul tells us we have peace with God by Christ’s redeeming act. Jesus’ death on the cross also gives us access to God and to God’s grace. And He gives us hope, all because we have faith in what Jesus has done and what God has willed.

Hope is an interesting thing. As Paul points out in Romans 8:24-25. He writes that hope is for what we have yet to receive or to see. And it’s true. When a couple announce they’re expecting a child, they express their hope for a healthy child, and usually express their hope for a boy or a girl. This hope is unrealized until they see the sonogram or the child is born. When people look forward to a time when they will receive gifts, such as a birthday or Christmas, they hope for specific items to receive. Once they open the gifts, though, the hope is turned into reality.

When we place our faith in Christ, our hope in being in a right relationship with God is realized and we no longer need to hope for that. But there is also the hope for the final fruition that comes with being saved by faith. While Jesus’ death on the cross justifies us by forgiving our sins, we have yet to find final sanctification and glorification—we have yet to finish growing in Christ and we have yet to see Him face-to-face. This will come to be, but for now we have hope.

Paul also reminds us that while we rejoice in this hope, we also rejoice in our sufferings. Now, we need to understand that Christians don’t go out of their ways to suffer, but when suffering comes our way, we know to turn to Christ and seek His guidance through trying times. That’s why Paul writes that suffering produces perseverance. As we continue to walk in God’s grace even through periods of suffering, we learn that He is worthy of our trust and we are able to continue in that faith and in that hope. We persevere. Our perseverance leads to greater character, and that character gives us greater hope.

Finally, Paul reminds us that those who have faith and who have hope, who persevere finds out strength through the love of God that is poured out into us by the Holy Spirit that lives within us. When Jesus died for us, He also rose again, giving us hope and the assurance of eternal life, and He also promised that He would ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit.

It is for these reasons that Christ died to give us hope.

1. For the powerless sinners (6-8)

The amazing thing about Christ dying for us is just how low we had fallen by the time He came and died for us. Paul reminds us that God’s timing is perfect, and it is that perfect timing that sent Jesus to die for us. He reminds us that we were powerless to do anything about our relationship with God. There was no way we could redeem ourselves, no way we could stand before God and claim to be righteous by our actions or our deeds or our efforts. We were powerless. And that’s when Christ came to die for us.

He used His power to transform us from ungodly to godly. He used His power to transform us from powerless to powerful in Him.

And we were sinners.

To understand the magnitude of the gap that develops between ourselves and God when we sin, we need to understand that God’s hatred of sin is paramount. The reason God hates sin is this. Sin is what we do when we turn our backs on Him, when we declare we can do things on our own and that we do not need Him. Sin is rebellion against God. In v. 10, Paul tells us that we were God’s enemies, and this warfare between ourselves and God began when we committed that first sin.

Speaking of first sin, the Genesis account of the first sin reveals to us the depth of God’s hatred of sin and His love for sinners. We are familiar with the story. A serpent asks Adam and Eve about God’s instructions for living in the Garden of Eden. Eve tells the serpent that they are free to eat from any tree in the garden except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent questions the fairness of a God who would limit His people, and Eve falls for the argument. She takes a bite; she gives some to Adam, who also takes a bite.

God comes to the garden and confronts Adam, Eve and the serpent about what transpired. Adam and Eve confess they ate of the tree. The result is that they are banished from the garden, forever separated from the tree of life, meaning they will die.

Now, think about this. What exactly did Adam and Eve do? They stole some fruit from a tree. Is taking fruit from a tree really a capital offense? Can you imagine grabbing a peach off a neighbor’s tree, only to be arrested, convicted and exiled from your home and given a death sentence? All for one little peach?

It wasn’t the act of stealing some fruit from a tree that caused the harshness of the sentence. It was the willful rebellion against God that ushered in their banishment. In part, God sent them away because He did not want them to live eternally in a state of sin. Even as they rebelled, God’s love was evident in the banishment, in the clothing and in the conversation God had with Adam and Eve. Nonetheless, God sent Adam and Eve away from the tree of life because of their sin, and the result is that they eventually died. It wasn’t the fruit; it was the attitude behind it.

And so it is significant that, while we were still sinners, God demonstrates His own love for us by sending Christ to die for us.

Paul adds in v. 7 that we might die for a good person. And there’s truth to that statement. We’ve all heard about people who willingly endangered their own lives for the benefit of someone else. The firemen who entered the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York that dark September day. The soldier that throws himself upon a grenade to spare his buddies. The French policeman who recently lost his life when he made himself a hostage to terrorists in order to free other hostages. We are willing to die for some people. But we won’t die for just anybody. There are some people that we really don’t have time for, much less a willingness to die for them.

But Jesus willingly carried His cross to Calvary for even the vilest offender. He allowed Himself to be nailed to that cross, to suffer in ways that you and I cannot even begin to imagine. He lay down His life even for powerless sinners so that we could become children of God.

That’s why Christ died for us.

1. To save us through His life (9-11)

The importance of Jesus’ death justifying us is underscored by Paul’s use of the phrase “God’s wrath.” You see, God’s wrath will be poured out upon those who sin against Him and refuse to accept the truth of His glorious gift of love by sending His Son to die for us. To those who, for one reason or another, decline to accept the gracious life-saving gift of Christ’s crucifixion, a judgment far beyond what we can imagine awaits.

Think of the implications. Imagine if you had made a sacrificial gift available to a group of people and offered it to them without any strings attached. All they had to do is take the gift and let it transform their lives. You paid the price at a great cost to yourself, far greater a price than any of those offered the gift could pay. And yet, they turn it down. Not only do they turn it down, but they deny they need the gift; they dismiss the gift and its cost as unnecessary. How would you feel?

But Christ’s sacrifice frees us from God’s judgment and His wrath. Again, to see how God views the relationship between Himself and the unrepentant sinner, Paul uses the words “while we were God’s enemies.” Not just that there was a minor break in the relationship, a mere tiff that, with a good night’s sleep and time to think on it will resolve the issue. No. We were God’s enemies, violently and eternally opposed to Him and His ways. And yet, while we were God’s enemies, He brought us into fellowship with Him through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He took His enemies and adopted them into His family so that we become the children of God.

It is here that Paul chooses to emphasize the resurrection. You see, it’s not enough that Jesus lay down His life for us; He picked it up again. The tragedy of Calvary was transformed by the elation of the empty tomb. Because He lives, we have the assurance of eternal life. Because He lives, we have the hope that was mentioned in the first few verses of this passage, and it is a hope built upon the promises of God. God, whose promises are all “yes” in Jesus Christ.

And His resurrection restores our relationship with God. No longer is He distant, but now He draws near and we can call Him, “Abba, Father” through the indwelling presence of the Spirit. We are now united with God the Father through Christ the Son by the presence of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. The promise of life, of His constant presence and of His attentive watchcare is found because Jesus lives.

And that is why Jesus’ death saves us through His resurrected life.

Conclusion

There is so much that goes into the reason why God sent His Son to die for us. It is built upon His deep, unconditional love that extended to us while we were yet powerless, lost in our sins, enemies of God. At just the right time, God sent His Son to die for us. And in dying for us, He sets us free from sin and free to fellowship with the loving God. It is ours for the taking. He offers His promises freely and without condition. All we have to do is accept the offer.

Christ died for us that we can live again. He died for the immoral, for the decent and for the religious. He died for everyone one of us because we cannot save ourselves from God’s wrath. But He can. He does.

Because Christ died for us.

The question we have to answer now is, “What have we done for Him?”