Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Five
THE UNGODLY
Scripture Reading: verses 6-9
FOR WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. FOR SCARCELY FOR A RIGHTEOUSNESS MAN WILL ONE DIE: YET PERADVENTURE FOR A GOOD MAN SOME WOULD EVEN DARE TO DIE. BUT GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT, WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US. MUCH MORE THEN, BEING NOW JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, WE SHALL BE SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM.
One can hardly go through this chapter without a feeling of constantly mounting a golden stairway of truth, reaching higher and higher in the realms of divine grace. The sense of this comes from reading such words as “not only so” and “much more then,” occurring frequently throughout the chapter.
Beginning at the solid foundation of “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God,” this stairway of truth goes upward through the varied steps of Christian experience, and, as the Christian mounts upward he becomes more exultant.
However, let us not forget we are still witnessing a grand courtroom scene, where the criminal has been taken from the prisoner’s dock and made to stand side by side with the One who has been his Judge, and Paul is indicating the legal steps whereby this has been made possible. So in verse 6 he says: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” He is reminding us that the criminal has not been justified because of anything he has done, nor anything he is. He calls him by an ugly name, “the ungodly.” As far as his ability to pay is concerned, the condemned sinner’s debt has been found thoroughly bankrupt. And, while in that condition; while without strength and unable to improve his position one iota, it is recorded that Christ died for the ungodly. We cannot pass over a marvelous verse like this without proclaiming the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, who has devised a way of magnificent grace wherein ungodly men may come to His throne and find peace as a result of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.
It is as though Paul was impressing on us the sinner’s total depravity, the criminal who has stood before the bar of God’s justice utterly condemned. He says:
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the glad and glorious Gospel. By way of contrast, still as legal counsel for the defense, Paul declares that in the ordinary affairs of men we will scarcely find, at any time, one who would lay down his life for a righteous man. And then he says you might peradventure, by chance as it were, find a person who was willing to lay down his life for a good man. However, by way of contrast God commends his love towards us, in that while we were neither good nor righteous, but sinners, Christ died for us.
In view of the simplicity of this Gospel, one wonders why there is still an unbeliever left on earth. Unequivocally we have been declared unworthy of the least of God’s favors. In His presence we are rebels. The Jew, first arraigned before the bar of justice, has been pronounced guilty because he has broken the Law that God gave for his guidance. The Gentile is equally guilty because he has refused God’s testimony in creation and gone his own way into idolatry. Both should have been servants of their Creator, but instead they have become unprofitable. There is not a single item of merit in favor of the criminal – he is worthless, condemned, guilty, deserving of nothing but condemnation.
This question might be asked: if the criminal were given an opportunity, could he not demonstrate there is some good in him? But, in these chapters of Romans, it is too late for that. The legal evidence brought before the court has examined the criminal from head to foot. As a master surgeon, Paul has gone to the operating table and made a complete analysis of the criminal’s physical make-up, finding him corrupt in every member of his being. From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, he is nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. That is the spiritual description of the sinner – he is pronounced hopeless and helpless. It seems that through the Holy Spirit Paul brings in a master stroke, as he reminds the court that occasionally one might find a righteous man for whom someone would scarcely die, and peradventure one might find a good man for whom someone perhaps would die, but here is the evidence that the Lord Jesus, knowing how incorrigible we are by nature and practice, even while we were yet sinners, died for us.
In viewing this scene, let us not forget we are the criminals, utterly failing to live up to the requirements of God. In God’s presence we stand condemned. In all this passage there is not a word about good within us. We must keep in mind that we are dealing with the Lord here, that “All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” He has looked us over; His eye has penetrated to the deepest recesses of our hearts and He finds us ungodly and sinners. He is speaking of the natural impulses of the heart of unregenerate man. Man is not only bad, be is incorrigible; he cannot be improved.
It is on those premises that the Lord Jesus Christ in magnificent grace steps from heaven’s highest throne. Born in Bethlehem, He starts on a career of some thirty-three years, every step taking Him inevitably closer to the Cross of Calvary. His ministrations of kindness, love, and mercy during His public life could only confirm man, His creature, as incorrigible, beyond all improvement, and it was expedient One should die for the people. Unasked and unwanted, the Lord Jesus Christ took our place on Calvary’s tree, paying the penalty of our sins and the tremendous debt to Jehovah – on Him was laid the iniquity of us all. It was while we were without strength and hope that Christ died for the ungodly.
