Romans 5:8: while we were still sinners Christ died for us…

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 26 July 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Click HERE to read Romans 5.

Our next stop on our walk down ‘Romans Road’ is Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love for us, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Can anyone tell us any of the earlier stops we’ve made along the ‘Romans Road’ or the scriptures we’ve look at. The first one we looked at wasn’t exactly on Romans Road but I thought we needed to have it before we embarked on this journey.

That is Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”

Next stop, Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Last week we stopped at Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

INTRODUCTION

Today is Susan’s birthday. I was looking at some of those ‘today in history sites and I found out some other interesting things that happened on this day in history.[1]

Here are some of the things. Actually maybe I’ll give you a little bit of a quiz to go with it. Can anyone tell me who Jimmy Hoffa was?

- Teamsters President. On July 26th 1964, Jimmy Hoffa was convicted of fraud & conspiracy.

Who was Winston Churchill? (British PM during WW II) On July 26th 1945, Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister.

More difficult maybe: Can anyone tell me who Rembrandt was? (Famous 17th Century Dutch artist) On July 26th 1656 Rembrandt declared he was insolvent.

We don’t seem to have too many good things…here’s one. Can someone tell me who the Scottish James I was. (King of Scotland) He became King on this day in 1524. His descendent –of course was James VI (AKA James II of England) who oversaw the translation and unified standardization of the English Bible (the AV or KJV).

What else have we got? On this day in 1758, British battle fleet under General James Wolfe conquered Louisbourg and…

197 years ago this month was the famous capture of Detroit. This was a key battle in the early part of the War of 1812: a significant war in which Canada repulsed an American invasion.[2]

92 years ago this month began the Third Battle of Ypres, more commonly known as the battle of Passchendaele where Canadian troops captured the town of Passchendaele in World War I. Recently there was a Canadian movie released by that name. I haven’t seen it yet.

These two battles, Passchendaele and Detroit, though not as famous as Vimy Ridge and Queenston Heights are very important for Canada. The Third Battle of Ypres (Passendale) cost us over 500,000 casualties: Allied soldiers that were captured, missing, wounded or killed.

Romans 5:7,8: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die (8) but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

SALLY ANN’ RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR US

The Salvation Army often plays a big role in Remembrance Day ceremonies in this country because of the great work that the Lord did through us during the so-called the First and Second World Wars.[3] "It would be easier to forget one's name than fail to remember the times without number when The Salvation Army was, in truth, our comforter and friend," remarks General Harry Crerar (Former Commander of the First Canadian Army, Second World War)[4]

During both world wars and throughout the Cold War, The Salvation Army provided Canadian military personnel with comforts such as hot drinks and snacks and helped maintain morale by establishing leave centres for rest and recreation.

Very close to the battle front, The Salvation Army showed films, established canteens, organized sporting events and other recreational activities, provided reading material, stationary, cigarettes and other items which the troops greatly appreciated. The Salvation Army also offered spiritual guidance and personal counselling to all military personnel seeking it: comforting the wounded, even helping bury the dead. In short, they did whatever was necessary to help maintain military morale. The Salvation Army instructed its supervisors to “care for the body, mind and soul of every [service person] irrespective of creed or personality.” The Salvation Army tried to offer a ‘touch of home’ in the midst of the horrors of War.

In Canada, The Salvation Army Home League raised funds and sent tens of thousands of comfort packages containing socks, underwear, Christmas presents, and other items directly to The Salvation Army chaplains for distribution. Salvationists also visited the homes of departed soldiers to look into the welfare of their dependants and comfort many bereaved families. In short, The Salvation Army “provided the reassuring link between the fighting man and his world of peace and kindness and sanity.” [5]

Personally, in the very short time we have been here, I have heard individual accounts from no less than 3 veterans of WWII or their widows about just how much God used ‘Sally Ann’ during ‘the war’.

Canadian Salvationists were sent overseas to serve Christ by serving the soldiers in the hopes that some might be saved. Canadian soldiers were sent overseas in the world wars to fight and to die for ‘God, King, and country’. Many were saved and many did lay down their lives in the name of God, our King, and our country (cf. John 15:17).

CHRIST LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US

Romans 5:7,8: ‘Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die (8) but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.’ Christ died for all of us when we were still sinners (cf. Romans 4:5).

Romans 5:10 tells us that not only were we still sinners but we were more than that: we were his enemies (cf. 1 John 4:10). Christ died for us while we were still his enemies. What is an enemy?[6] An enemy is one who means us harm. An enemy is one who is in opposition to us. An enemy is against us. When we were still in our sin we were indeed Christ’s enemies. When we were not under Christ’s lordship and leadership, we were necessarily under our own and/or someone else’s. We were not part of his kingdom and indeed by our actions, our deeds, our words, and our thoughts, we were his enemies. By our actions, our deeds, our words, and our thoughts, we fought against Christ even though his only desire in this was for all of us to be saved and come to a full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). It was in this condition that we were when Christ died for us.[7]

WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS

One might say, “… that while I didn’t know Christ, I was not his enemy, really. I led a good life. I didn’t hurt anybody. I just happened to get to know God later on in life and then become ‘born again’…that doesn’t mean that I was God’s enemy does it?” The Apostle Paul argues here that the sinner is an enemy of God and a sinner here is anyone who is not experiencing the joys of ‘life with Christ’ (Cf. Romans 5:1, 12:12, 14:17, 15:13) – the sinner here is anyone who has not yet grabbed hold of the salvation that Christ offers. The Greek word in verse 7, ‘hamartōlŏs’, comes from ‘hamartanō’ that we looked at two weeks ago[8] and, as we remember, it means to ‘miss the mark’, to be short of the standard,[9] which is what we are when we don’t serve the Lord. Paul makes a real distinction between the ‘sinner’ and the ‘saint’. The former (the sinners) are God’s opponents. The latter (the saints) are the ones on his side; this is where we want to be.

GOVERNMENTS MAY MAKE ENEMIES OF PEOPLE

A good way to understand how we were as sinners and indeed even as enemies of Christ could be expressed in an analogy of military conflict. We know of the horrors of war and the crimes that our enemies commit. We, and our allies, however, are far from innocent. In WWII, the UK and the US mercilessly created an horrific firestorm in Dresden killing many innocent women and children and, of course, the US dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan at the time of day when the Japanese mothers were walking their children to school in order to maximize casualties.

Indeed in Canada during the Second World War, we treated anyone who was of German, Italian and especially Japanese ancestry as our enemies. We most certainly went overboard in this and placed many Canadians of Japanese descent in internment camps. (Famous Canadian scientist and environmentalist, David Suzuki, even spent part of his life in a Canadian internment camp.) We treated innocent people as our enemies. I say ‘we’ intentionally. As is shown through the official government apologies and tax money paid by future generations of Canadians, who had nothing to do with these actions, the responsibility for this does rest with all of us.[10]

In recent times in the US, with their ‘War on Terror’, their president declared that ‘whoever isn’t with us is against us’ and proceeded to establish torture chambers in Guatanamo Bay (and elsewhere) with the explanation that in this remote location, it is okay to flout international law. These actions of the US government and her allies, no matter how well intentioned (and I have no doubt some people involved in these actions were well intentioned!), these actions have made many enemies all over the world for the rest of us. And as a result, terrorism, suicide-bombing, and mass political murders are on the rise precisely because countries in this world are falling short of the standard of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

You and I may never actually drop a bomb on a family sitting down for dinner but just like there are consequences for the family who receives the bomb, especially in a democracy the guilt of our countries rests to some extent with each of us. The consequences of our countries’ actions do affect us all. When I was younger, Canada was still seen as a peacekeeping nation. At that time we saw more clearly not only the blessings of being a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9) but also the consequences of overt military aggression. I don’t know if you remember but in those days American students when travelling around the world would wear Canadian flags on their backpacks, so that no one would want to harm them. Canada as peacemakers, which we were back then, didn’t make the enemies that the US did. And even though the American students never killed anyone themselves, their government – rightly or wrongly – had waged (or sponsored) many wars, killed many people, and in the process made enemies for all of its citizens -even those not yet born!

SIN MAKES US ENEMIES OF CHRIST

Likewise, sin makes us enemies of Christ. When we sin, we are warring against Christ. Before we served Christ, our moral self-government was perpetually warring against Christ. When we were sinners, though we may not have even been totally aware of it, we were very much Christ’s enemies and we obviously could never win this war and the consequence of this war, this rebellion against Christ is death (Romans 6:23). Paul in his letter to the Romans explains it in terms of Adam (Romans 5:12-21; cf.1 Corinthians 15).[11]

Adam and Eve were the original sinners.[12] They were the first to transgress the will of God. God told them that they could pretty much do anything that they wanted in all the world so long as they ‘go forth and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28, see 9:1) and abstain from eating the fruit from just one of the many trees in God’s garden that he let them look after(Genesis 2:17). And then what is one of the very first things they do after a short conversation with some snake they meet? They disobey God; they sin. In doing this in essence our fore-parents declare war on God and humankind has been in rebellion against him ever since (Romans 3:23).[13] Furthermore, as the author of Hebrews tells us, every time we sin we are taking up arms against Christ (Hebrews 10:28-30).

CHRIST DIED FOR US

But even so, at a point in our history, at a point in history that was probably about as bad as it is today in terms of disobedience to God, at a certain time, Romans 5:6, “…at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” And Verse 8, “but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

I have heard on more than one occasion a true story about a preacher in an English church who one day caught the attention of two young boys who were in the pews. The illustration he used to explain to the congregation about Christ’s death for us went something like this:

There was a father and his son who often went fishing together in the waters off the coast of England. On this one particular occasion the father told his son that he could bring a friend along. Now the father was a parish priest or something like that. He was a deeply religious man anyway. He and his son were speaking about the Lord quite a bit. The boy’s friend did not know the Lord and he did not know entirely what to make of all this.

While they were out on the water one of those terrible sudden storms came up. The storm tossed their little ship to and fro and among the rocks in the English Channel. Try as they might, the three of them were not strong enough to regain control of the boat. When the storm reached its fiercest at one point both boys were thrown overboard. The father ran to grab the life preserver. There was only one (and there wasn’t much time so even if there was more than one he couldn’t possibly throw two in two different directions then pull them both to safety). There was only one. The sea was frantically trying to claim the life of both boys. It would get one for sure. There was no time to save them both. The father grabbed the preserver and he threw it. He threw it … he threw it to… his son’s friend. The friend grabbed the preserver and was pulled onto the boat – but by the time the father had gotten his child’s friend aboard, there was no sign of his own son. The father sacrificed his own son, his only son so that the other boy could live.

This is what it is like for our heavenly father and his son (Ephesians 1:7; John 15:1-17). God let his son -whom he loves- die so that even those of us who do not know him, even those of us who are sinners, even those of us who are his enemies can be saved. God’s son died for us at just the right time so we all could be saved.

After this sermon, the boys queried the old preacher. They asked if that was a true story or if he was just making it up. He said it was true. They were unconvinced. One boy asked why a father would let his own son die for a kid he doesn’t even know.

The preacher told him that the father knew that his own son knew Jesus. He knew that even if his own son were lost, yet he would be saved. He knew that his own son, even if he died, yet would he live; he would see him again at the resurrection of the just. His son’s friend however did not know Jesus then so if he died, he would be lost forever. The father sacrificed his son to save the other boy.

‘How do you know that that story is true?’ demanded one of the two boys listening to the story.

‘I was the boy who was saved that day,’ replied the old preacher.

And so it is with all of us. Today we have the choice before us of life and death. God the father has already sacrificed his one and only son so that we can live. All we need to do now is to grab hold of the life preserver of our salvation, hold tight in holiness, and not let it slip away. Christ died so that we can live.

So today I urge us all not to let Jesus’ death to have been in vain in our own lives. If there is anything we are holding onto today that is preventing us from grabbing hold of our salvation, let us cast it aside. If there is any aspect of our lives that we are holding onto so tight that we are not fully clutching that preserver of our salvation, today let us cast it aside. If there is any sin in our life that we have not confessed to God, let us today take this time, confess it to Him and in so doing, reach out and grab hold of that life preserver of His salvation so that we can all be gloriously saved.

Let us pray.

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[1] TodayInHisotry. On-line at: http://www.todayinhistory.com/
[2]Victories like this one helped us to remain independent of the American Empire for more than 100 years; It wasn’t until August 18, 1940 the Prime Minister of Canada submitted to the Ogdensburg Agreement which provided for Permanent Joint Board for the Defence for Canada and the United States. Cf. US Naval Chronology of WWII, 1940. Available on-line: http://www.navsource.org/Naval/1940.htm
[3] Both the Napoleonic Wars and the Seven Years War before were also very much world wars – even more so than WWI.
[4] General Harry Crerar (Former Commander of the First Canadian Army, Second World War). THE SALVATION ARMY, A PRESENTATION BY THE CANADIAN WAR MUSEUMon-line: http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/salvationarmy/index_e.html
[5] WarMuseum.ca – A Touch of Home: The War Services of the Salvation Army http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/explore/military-history/dispatches/a-touch-of-home-the-war-services-of-the-salvation-army - MORE: ‘…In all, Red Shield services in Canada and overseas cost $21 million and provided Canadians with more than 270 million sheets of writing paper and envelopes, 38 million hot beverages from mobile canteens, and 35 million meals served in huts and hostels. More than 68 million people attended Salvation Army films and concerts. Over 200 Salvation Army supervisors served overseas, the last one not returning home until December 1946.
[6] Cf. Everett F. Harrison The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Romans/Exposition of Romans/IV. Justification: The Imputation of Righteousness (3:21-5:21)/D. The Benefits of Justification (5:1-11), Book Version: 4.0.2 for a more in-depth look at this question
[7] Cf. F.F. Bruce, ‘Romans’ (TNTC: Leicester, U.K.: Leicester Press, 1985), 118.
[8] Michael Ramsay, 'Romans 3:22b, 23: There is no difference for all have sinned’ Presented to Swift Current Corps, 12 July 2009. Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/07/romans-322b-23there-is-no-difference.html
[9] The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘268: ‘hamartōlŏs’ and ‘264: hamartanō’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.5.
[10] The residential school settlement is another example of a generation paying (money) for the sins of a previous generation.
[11] See N.T. Wright, ‘The Letter to the Romans’ (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 470.
[12] See John Stott, ‘Romans’ (Leicester, UK, IV Press, 1994), 162-166 for an interesting discussion about the ramifications of Adam’s sin.
[13] Cf. F.F. Bruce, ‘Romans’ (TNTC: Leicester, U.K.: Leicester Press, 1985), 96.