The Timing of God
Some Sermon Notes and Thoughts
(From the People of Mars Hill Church- Mobile, AL)
Romans 5:1-11
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” –Romans 5:6
From the previous chapters in Romans, Paul wrote of whom and what we were before Christ, so that he could set the stage for true depth of the love and work of what Christ accomplished on the cross. It is not what we did, that we may boast, but what was done for us… at the right time. In the midst of our ungodliness, while we were helpless enemies of God, he sent His son to save us from the power of sin.
Romans viewed self-sacrifice as an honorable action. They believed that sacrificing oneself in battle would improve a warrior’s position before the gods in the afterlife. However, this idea was often still built upon selfishness for a soldier or citizen to build their stock in death. But in these verses, Paul is highlighting the fact that Christ was willing both to die and to endure the horror of death in life to save the life of his enemies.
This would be the equivalent not of being willing to be tortured to protect the secrets and lives of your friends, but to be tortured to death in order to save the life of the very person fighting against you.
“The more the gift costs the giver, and the less the recipient deserves it, the greater the love is seen to be.”
-John Stott
As John Stott highlights, this is how we can see the depth of the love that God has for us. When looking upon Christ’s death and resurrection in light of all of Romans leading up to these verses, we can see not only the cost of this gift, but the state of our helplessness and our unworthiness to receive it.
From a God that is not constrained within the boundaries of time, who can immediately dwell in past, present, and future, we were saved, are saved, and are continuing to be saved due to this sacrifice.
Christ’s sacrifice achieved/achieves the following:
Saved us from the penalty of sin- justification
Saves us from the practice of sin- sanctification
Will Save us from the presence of sin- glorification
Just like God’s presence, the sacrifice of Christ spans eternity and is not held captive by the constraints of time.
Moving forward, we can clearly see that God’s timing is perfect. We can trust that he will not abandon his work of salvation in our lives, and we can boast in Christ through our obedience to follow along the path he has laid out before us.
This gift is not confined to only the do-gooders; in fact, if you try to wait until you can wash yourself clean, you will never stand before the Lord. Paul highlighted all through Romans that all are sinful and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23).
The truth is that we are all poor and helpless souls, telling others where they can go to freely dine at the table of the King.
**I am not a pastor, nor do I have the official qualifications and seminary training to be considered one; these thoughts are simply a summary and some thoughts from what I have been learning from those with the training to share God’s word more accurately. If you’d like to hear the whole message, it is available at www.pomh.org.
Written By: Tyler Vaughn
Owner, Pathology Apparel
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