Three times in Romans 5 we read that Christ died for us. Verse 6 tells us that He died for us in our weakness, Verse 8 that He died for us in our sin, and Verse 10 that He died for us in our rebellion.
First, Verse 6 says: “For when we were yet WITHOUT STRENGTH, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”.
Men sometimes try to make themselves acceptable to God by human effort, but they never succeed. We can’t walk or run to heaven, we can’t even fly there, and we certainly can’t climb there — not even by doing good works, for good works is what we ought to do, and we should not expect them to counter-balance our sinful thoughts and deeds. Anyway, heaven is God’s and He says we cannot gain it by works:
“For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.2:8,9).
Next, Romans 5:8 says: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet SINNERS, Christ died for us”.
Many people feel shut out of heaven, not merely because of a sense of helplessness, but because of a sense of sinfulness and condemnation. To such God proclaims the glad news that “Christ died for sinners”, and “came into the world to save sinners” (ITim.1:15). At Calvary He paid the just penalty for sin — for the sins of all mankind — so that we, by faith, might be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom.3:24).
But Romans 5:10 goes even further, offering hope and grace to those who have resisted God’s grace and rejected His Son, for here the greatest Christ-rejecter of all time, now gloriously saved and changed, declares:
“When we were ENEMIES, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom.5:10).
And so the helpless, the sinful, yes, and the rebellious, can find acceptance with God if only they will turn to Him from their sin and failure. “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED…” (Acts 16:31).
To the Reader:
Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:
"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."
To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.