Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 11. What Christ has done for us, verse 6," For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Christ died for the ungodly. One reason Romans is the longest of Paul's letters is that he repeats the same points over and over to make sure his readers are thoroughly grasping them. One of the key points in his great argument is that all humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are saved and justified only by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
He introduced this point in chapter 3, and he returns to it repeatedly. If only the Jews had grasped the fact that they needed justification by faith, as much as the Gentiles did, they could have fully and joyfully embraced the gospel. The reason Paul dwells so much on this key point is that the Jews struggled mightily to let go of circumcision and the law. They also strongly resisted the notion that the ungodly Gentiles could be freely justified without prior works.
Jesus had said," The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." As Paul reveals in this verse, the many for whom Christ died were the ungodly. Origen writes," Christ did not die for the godly, but for the ungodly. For we were ungodly before we were converted to God, and Christ willingly died for us before we believed." Certainly, He would not have done this unless He was filled with an immense, immeasurable love for us.
Theodoret adds," We must always reflect on the fact that when we were yet sinners and suffering under the infection of sin, the Lord Christ endured the death that was inflicted on Him for our benefit." From this, we can see the depth of His loving mercy. The great tragedy of first-century Christianity is that the Jews spurned this indescribably good news about Christ dying for the ungodly. They rejected the fact that God grants us salvation as a gift, apart from the law, if we have faith in His Son.
The unbelieving Jews viewed the gospel as bad news. As a result, the Gentiles flocked into the Church, while the Jews held back. Within a few decades, the Church became predominantly Gentile. The more the Gentiles embraced Christianity, the less the Jews wanted to have anything to do with it. In his letter to the Romans, Paul is fighting hard to keep this trend from spreading further. Romans 5:7 and 8," For scarcely will one die for a righteous man?" Yet perhaps someone would dare to die for the good man.
But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Scarcely will one die for a righteous man.
Chrysostom comments," If no one would hastily choose to die for a righteous man, consider your master's love, for it was not for righteous men that he was crucified, but for sinners and enemies." Theodoret comments," God displays the greatness of His love towards us in that Christ underwent death, not for those who were righteous, but for those who were yet sinners." To be sure, we are now justified by faith in Him. But when He undertook that death for us, we were still subject to every kind of sin.
Yet perhaps someone would dare to die for the good man. This clause has puzzled Christians probably ever since Paul's letter was first read to the Roman Church. If scarcely, no one will die for a righteous man. Why would they die for a good man? What is the difference between a righteous man and a good man? Various theories have been offered over the centuries. Origen and Constantius focus on Paul's choice of words in these two opposing clauses.
In the first clause, Paul says," Scarcely will one die for a righteous man." However, in the second clause, Paul says," Perhaps some would dare to die for the good man." The good man is Jesus Christ, and millions of people have been willing to die for him.
Origen writes," Since everyone has recognized the great generosity of Christ toward us, and since love for Him is inspired in every heart, each of us is ready not only to die on behalf of this good man, but even to die courageously." We often see this happening when those to whom the love of Christ has been shed abroad and with great courage present themselves to their persecutors and confess the name of Christ openly before angels and humans. So scarcely anyone is prepared to die for a righteous man.
But on behalf of this good man, someone might be ready to die and to confront death with confidence. Romans 5:9," Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we will be saved from wrath through Him." Jesus told us," For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged.
He who does not believe has been judged already because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. God justifies us through the blood of Christ, not merely so we can escape present condemnation, but so we can escape future condemnation as well. Theodoret writes," He will free those who believe in Him from future punishment. For that future punishment is what he here calls wrath." Today, John 3:16 is perhaps the most quoted verse in all of Scripture.
Unfortunately, most modern Christians like to recite that verse alone without quoting the rest of that passage. They thereby make it sound as though all a person must do to receive eternal life is to believe. However, the rest of the passage says," This is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light. For their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
But he who does what is true comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. So rather than teaching easy believism, this passage emphasizes the fact that our faith must be followed by godly works. Being now justified by His blood, we will be saved from wrath through Him. Based on these words, advocates of unconditional eternal security maintain that once we are saved, we are guaranteed to be protected from God's future wrath.
However, the early Christians knew this was not true, for they did not read this statement in isolation. They balance Paul's statement in this verse with the totality of what Paul says throughout the book of Romans and throughout all his letters. Not only that, but they also weighed these words against what the entire Bible teaches about the need for endurance.
For example, they knew that Peter tells us," If after they have escaped the defilement of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 2 Peter 2:20 and 21.
So the early Christians recognize that Paul is not giving a guarantee to Christians that they will be saved from future wrath. Rather, he is stating what the normal result should be once somebody has been initially saved. Paul is saying that God does not justify us merely so we can enjoy His blessings in the present life. Rather, He continues to work with us so that we can be saved from the wrath to come.
The following verses are only a small sampling of the many Scriptures that demonstrate that after our initial conversion, our security in Christ is conditional. It is conditioned on our walking faithfully with Christ until the end of our lives. These scriptures are presented in biblical order from the Old Testament to the New. They demonstrate that God has not changed. He has always required faithful endurance on the part of His people.
As the Scriptures tell us, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Lord is with you while you are with Him, and if you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 2 Chronicles chapter 15:2," When the righteous turns from His righteousness and commits iniquity, He will die therein.
When the wicked turns from His wickedness and does that which is lawful and right, He will live because of it." If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
One said to him," Lord, are they few who are saved?" He said to them," Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. If a man does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Because of unbelief, they were broken off, and you stand by faith.
However, do not be arrogant, but fearful, for if God did not spare the natural branches, take heed lest He does not spare you either. Therefore, behold the goodness and severity of God, on those who fell, severity, but towards you goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. You yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers? Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sodomites, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 8 through 10." I beat my body and bring it into submission lest by any means after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected." 1 Corinthians 9:27," Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we do not give up. Know this for sure that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
Therefore, do not be partakers with them. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us 2 Timothy 2:12." For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment.
How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. Nevertheless, you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments." They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels." These verses are only a small sampling. They establish that our being saved from future wrath depends on our continued faithful walk with Jesus. Obviously, then Paul's statement in Romans 5:9 is not meant to be taken as an unconditional guarantee of our future salvation. Rather, it is stated as the normal rule for faithful Christians.
All the early Christians understood Paul's statement in this manner. The following are some representative quotations from them. Every one of these statements were made to Christians who were already saved, not to the unsaved. Clement of Rome, writing to Christians," Since all things are seen and heard by God, let us fear Him and forsake those wicked works that proceed from evil desires." By doing so, through His mercy, we can be protected from the judgment to come.
Epistle of Barnabas:" The whole past time of your faith will profit you nothing, unless now in this wicked time, we also withstand coming sources of danger. Take heed, lest resting at our ease as being those who are called, we fall asleep in our sins. For then, the wicked prince, acquiring power over us, will thrust us away from the kingdom of the Lord." Second Clement," Let us therefore repent with the whole heart so that none of us perish by the way.
Let us then practice righteousness so that we may be saved unto the end." Hermas, the apostates and traitors of the church, have blasphemed the Lord in their sins. Moreover, they have been ashamed of the name of the Lord by which they were called. Therefore, these persons were lost to God at the end.
Justin Martyr," I hold further that those of you who have confessed and known this man to be Christ, yet have gone back for some reason to the dispensation of the law and have denied that this man is Christ, and have not repented before death, you will by no means be saved." Irenaeus. As a certain elder remarks, we should not be puffed up nor be severe upon those of olden times.
Rather, we ourselves should fear, lest perhaps after coming to the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but are shut out from His kingdom. And for that reason, Paul said," For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you." Irenaeus," Those who do not obey Him being disinherited by Him have ceased to be His sons." Tertullian, the world returned to sin, and so it is destined to fire.
So is the man who, after baptism, renews his sins. Hippolytus, hoodwinking multitudes. Marcus, a Gnostic teacher, deceived many persons of this description who had become His disciples. He taught them that they were no doubt prone to sin. However, He said that they were beyond the reach of danger because they belonged to the perfect power. Being a believing man, if you seek to live as the Gentiles do, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ.
He who has not denied Himself, but has denied Christ instead will experience the saying," I also will deny Him." Origen: He reconciled men to God by His blood on the condition that they keep the covenant of reconciliation sacred by sinning no longer. Cyprian, you are still in the world. You are still in the battlefield. You daily fight for your lives. Therefore, you must be careful so that what you have begun to be with such a blessed commencement will be completed in you.
It is a small thing to have initially received something. It is a greater thing to be able to keep what you have attained. Faith itself and the saving new birth do not make us alive by merely having been once received. Rather, they must be preserved. Cyprian, assuredly, the Lord would not threaten that the crown of righteousness might be taken away if it were not that the crown must depart when righteousness departs.
Revelation 2:10." He who endures to the end will be saved." So whatever comes before the end is a step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation. It is not the finish where the full result of the ascent is already gained. Lactantius, a son who deserts his father in order not to pay him obedience, is considered deserving of being disinherited and of having his name removed forever from his family.
How much more so does a person deserve to be disinherited who forsakes God in whom the two names meet that are entitled to equal reverence, Lord and Father? Of what punishments, therefore, is He deserving, who forsakes Him, who is both the true Master and Father? Apostolic Constitutions:" He who sins after his baptism, unless he repents and forsakes his sins, will be condemned to hell." Again, the quotes above are only a small sampling.
The fact that our security in Christ is conditioned on our faithful, obedient endurance, is the unquestioned historic Christian faith. Christians taught this doctrine from the days of the apostles until the Reformation. To be sure, Augustine taught that man plays no role in his own salvation. It is all of God. According to him, if a person is of the elect, then it is impossible to be lost.
However, Augustine also taught that even if a person has come to genuine faith in Christ, there is no guarantee that he will faithfully persevere. He can still be lost. The only way a person can be sure he is of the elect is if he faithfully perseveres until the end of his life by God's power. So the notion that we can never fall away from Christ or deny Him by the way we live is a major departure from the historic faith.
In the early centuries, the only ones teaching this doctrine were the Gnostics, Romans 5: 10." For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we will be saved by His life." We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Christ's death on the cross, the innocent Son of God dying in our place, is one of the central tenets of Christianity. Through faith, we are cleansed by His blood and thereby reconciled to God.
The amazing truth is that Christ died for us while we were still enemies of God. Now that we are His friends, how much more God wants to see us faithfully finish the race to the end? The exciting thing is that God is on our side. He desires our salvation, not our destruction. Yet as Paul and the other apostles repeatedly testify, the battle is not over once we have been reconciled to God at our initial conversion.
Paul explains to the Colossians," You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind and your evil deeds, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and without defect and blameless before Him if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Peter reminds us," If you call on Him His Father, who without respect of person's judges according to each man's work, passed the time of your living as foreigners here in
reverent fear, knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ." Being saved by His life, what does it mean to be saved by His life?
First, it means that the living Christ dwells within us, and He gives us enabling power to live the Christian life. Jesus says," He who remains in Me and I in Him bears much fruit, for apart from Me, you can do nothing." Man's free will, cooperating with God's grace, is often referred to as synergism. Jesus demonstrates how synergism works in His parable in John 15:1 through 6. First, we must believe and receive the gift of salvation. Through this gift, we become a branch on His vine.
Even in this initial step, God's prevenient grace aids us to come to faith. As Jesus said," No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him." However, Jesus does not say that God does our believing for us. Rather, He tells us that God takes the first step in our salvation by reaching out to draw us to Him. Yet with our free will, we must choose to respond to His drawing. If it were all of God without man's cooperation, then everyone would be saved.
For the Scriptures tell us, the Lord is not slow concerning His promise as some count slowness. But He is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So if man plays no role in his own salvation, then God would save everybody, because that is His desire. Once we become a branch on the vine, Christ provides enabling power to live the Christ life. However, He only gives us this power if we abide in Him, maintaining an obedient love faith relationship with Him.
As Paul told the Corinthians," He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but for Him who, for their sakes, died and rose again." Living no longer for ourselves means surrendering ourselves to Christ's power over our lives. Even after we have been saved, this does not happen automatically. We must surrender daily to Him to abide in Him. So although Christ plays the major role in our being able to live the Christ's life, He requires us to play an important part as well.
When we abide in Him, He abides in us. As Paul told the Galatians," I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Origen comments," Christ is said to live to God so that we also may live not for ourselves, nor for our own will, but for God. In this manner, we can be saved by His life." Cyprian describes this relationship of God and man working together. Liberty and power are given to you in proportion to the increase of your spiritual grace.
If you do the following things, if you keep the way of innocence and the way of righteousness, if you walk with a firm and steady step, if you continue to be what you have begun to be, if you depend on God with your whole strength and with your whole heart. For there is not, as is the case with earthly benefits, any limit or shortage in the dispensing of the heavenly gift. Only let your hearts be thirsty, let them be ready to receive.
For in the degree in which we bring to God an ample faith, in that measure, we draw from Him an overflowing grace. From that source, we are given power, along with modest chastity. We are given a sound mind, a simple voice, and unblemished virtue. The continuing role Christ plays in our salvation. The wonderful part of the Christian life is the enabling power Christ gives us. As we have said, this is perhaps the primary way we are saved by His life.
Chrysostom comments," For there is no one else who will save us except the one who so loved us when we were sinners that He gave Himself for us." Now that His death has taken place, the other requirements are easier. For we have become His friends, and there is no further need for His dying.
He who has so loved his enemies as not to spare His Son surely shall not fail to defend those same people now that they have become His friends." Ambrosiaster adds," Someone who is generous for the good of his enemies cannot be stingy in the love of his friends." Being saved by His life also refers to the continuing intercessory work that Jesus does for us as our living High Priest.
Chrysostom comments," Christ had compassion on us." Paul says," So that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." What does it mean that He is faithful? It means that He is both true and able." For the Son is a faithful high priest, able to deliver from their sins those for whom he serves as high priest." He became man for this reason so that he might offer a sacrifice that is able to purify us, Romans 5:11.
And not only that, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. Even though we were saved while we were yet sinners, God does not want us to continually dwell in remorse and sorrow about our past life. Rather, He wants us to joyfully exult in the reconciliation we have received. Chrysostom comments, not only were we saved, but we even exult for this very reason.
Now, some Christians might imagine that we should hide our faces because we had once lived in such great wickedness. However, for us to have been saved in that condition was a great sign of our being exceedingly loved by Him who saved us. For there is nothing that counts so much in the way of glory and confidence as being treated by God as His friends.
The audurette adds," Not only do we look forward to immortal life, but even in our present life, we proudly rejoice in having been brought near to God." However, now that we have generously received this reconciliation through the grace of God, we must never return to our prior life of sin. Origen writes," I have to wonder about those who still continue in the works that God detests." Because of those works, there exists enmity between God and men.
Can we rightly say that such men are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ? For how can a person be reconciled who does the things of an enemy? Concerning himself and others in a similar situation, Paul rightly says," When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son," Romans 5:10. It is a great shame where such reconciliation has taken place. And then a person returns to the former state of enmity. For the enmity between God and men was not absolved by the plea of the sinner.
Rather, reconciliation was through the blood of the mediator. For we were reconciled in no other way than through the shedding of His sacred blood.