Without Strength – Part 2

Rom 5:6-8

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In verse 6 Paul has given us a groundwork or point of reference. We are without strength. We are unable to help ourselves out of the mess we are in, and it is a desperate place because we have been found to be ungodly by our very nature. At this point Paul goes into some details about human-on-human interactions to provide the reader some real-life comparisons. In verse 7 Paul acknowledges that there are those individuals who, for whatever reason, feel it worthy to commit themselves (even to the point of death) in helping someone else. You know the type of people I’m referring to; all those instances where individuals (like fire fighters, police, soldiers and even bystanders) commit much – and sometimes even their lives – to help others in need. People are the same now as they were then. Just like then we have some people who are paid to do the things they do, such as civil servants like cops and paramedics. And just like then we have others who go beyond the incentive of pay and act out of a sense of duty or compassion, like the innocent bystander. Natural disasters and catastrophes like earthquakes or hurricanes, raging fire storms and plagues offer chances for us to see some selfless actions on the part of those who feel a need to get involved. It’s easy for us to understand that there are those situations where people lay down their lives for others, especially when it may involve the life of a child or in aiding a loved religious or political leader. We can even grasp why some people would give of their resources, time and energy (and more infrequently their lives) in order to protect or help another person, even though they may have never met. This is exactly the type of dedication we expect from those employed as fire fighters, policemen or other professionals like that. Isn’t that what they are paid to do in the first place? But it seems pretty special when a ‘civilian’ takes up the challenge to offer that kind of help in a time of need. How about people who give some time in feeding the poor, helping children in trouble or in volunteering time at hospitals and charities? Are any of these people being selfish or self-centered? No, quite the opposite. We tend to hold people like these in high regard because (for whatever reason) they give of themselves in the service of others. It seems there is a universal understanding that the kind of benevolence they display is over and above the norm we see on a regular basis. That kind of service is considered to be a virtue and almost all civilizations encourage and support these acts.

This type of service is good and worthy of consideration, yet it is something entirely different when you consider what God has done for us! God has gone beyond the expected, or even the unexpected, and has set a new standard. He doesn’t just help the unfortunate but He has gone the extra mile and provided aid and relief even to those who hate Him!

Let’s consider a few situations to put it into perspective. How many police officers have you heard about that willingly give their lives while saving someone who is actively trying to kill them? How many doctors or nurses seek out ways to help those people who intentionally and maliciously try to infect others (including the doctors and nurses!) with a deadly incurable disease? The type of dedication required to follow through in those kinds of situations goes far beyond human understanding and expectation. Yet that is exactly what God has done for Mankind! He has offered help to all of us; from the least to the greatest, from the most ‘righteous’ to the lowest villain on the planet. He has done this because He knows that the real source of our problems is the lack of a right and continuing relationship with Him!

You need to fix the source of the problem, not just correct the behaviors which stem from the problem. It’s like trying to kill weeds in a garden. You can chop the head off of a weed but it will quickly grow back. To eradicate it completely you have to destroy the root and not just the top of the plant. God has taken the time to clearly and correctly identify the source of the problem, which is the sinful nature of mankind. We are ungodly! The actions we do are a direct result of our nature. Unless we come to God and receive a new nature we are trapped by the old nature of sin and rebellion. Although we may be successful in attempting to modify some of our behaviors (as in becoming religious), the root problem is still present. We may have ‘chopped off the head of the weed’ but the root still remains. Only a new nature made in the image of Christ will correct the root problem, and thereby correct the actions and motivation of the person. So we are given a couple examples which show the limitations of phileo, or brotherly love. Would someone be willing to die for a righteous man, like a religious leader or other prominent person? The answer is scarcely so, or in other words not very often. How about laying down your life for a really good person, perhaps a really generous person of somebody who is known for a lot of good deeds? Paul states that peradventure this may be true. “Meh,” Paul exclaims, I guess it could happen, but I’m not sure about that. So where does this lead us? If we question the motivation or ability of someone to die in the place of person regarded as somewhat worthy, where does that leave us? It leaves us at the place where we realize we are in trouble; the place in which God enters into the picture and straighten things out for us.

Verse 8 provides one of the defining characteristics of God’s love – His pursuit of the unworthy and ungodly! “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Let that sink in for a minute. While we were ignorant of Him and His gift of love and acceptance, God sent Christ. While we were actively rejecting Him, He sent Christ. While we ignored His repeated appeals (and in some cases actively opposed Him in spite of those appeals) He sent Christ. He sent Christ, not because we were righteous, and not because we were good; He sent Christ because we were without strength. We could not change things on our own, and so we were (and still are) powerless to do anything to change our situation. In spite of our indifference and animosity, He went the extra mile and pursued us when we weren’t even looking for Him. Not only that, He has made this provision of change and salvation available to all those who seek Him. The good and the bad, the ‘righteous’ and the unrighteous, the godless, ungodly and rebellious; we all have the same offer of His forgiveness, a new nature and the reestablishment of a right relationship.

Can you imagine doing something like that for your enemy? Let’s use some more real-life examples to make the point of how special this is. How about a Jew willingly giving his life for Adolph Hitler? Have we ever heard of that happening before? Or for that matter, how about a hard core Nazi laying down his life for a Jew? How about a member of al Qaeda offering his life for a blasphemer against Mohammed? What about one of his victims (if they were able) or their close family member willingly dying in the place of Jeffrey Dahmer? I can’t imagine that any of those situations would ever take place, and yet God demonstrated this very type of love when Christ died for the ungodly. This type of self-sacrificing love – even and especially when shown to your enemies – comes from God. There are very few religions which teach this level of self-sacrifice, but they are ineffective because they operate out of modifying behaviors and not from a new nature. The new nature is formed by an act of love – because God is love – and so those who have received this new nature are motivated by the same compassion and inspiration as the One Who created them. This is what gives individuals the power to stand up under persecution for their faith or even be put to death, all the while genuinely praying for forgiveness toward those who oppose them. These past and present real-life demonstrations give us a glimpse into the heart of God, which is love. Not the self-serving, conditional or reciprocating love of the world, but true love.