God's Love for All of Mankind

What I'd like to do today is kind of review the last couple of weeks. So Romans 5, you know, the thing about the Book of Romans is it never quits being impactful from the first verse of the chapter to the very end. And it's really a privilege, I think, to be able to have this as the first text after Acts. Boy, is there no better foundation than Romans for the rest of our biblical understanding. At a Bible study Friday night, actually, Roy was teaching, and we were kind of reflecting on chapter 3 in Hebrews, and how much of that text really depends on a firm foundation of Pauline knowledge and application.

The Lord has made no mistake, I believe, in putting the order of the books of the New Testament and, for that fact, the whole Bible in the order they are. We always ask questions about why Joan is where it is. why Esau and Nehemiah, kind of where they are, Ezra and Nehemiah, where they're at. But anyway, all that aside, let's, and Job's another one, right? Why Job is where it's at. Let's look at Romans 5, and we're going to read now the first eight verses. The text today is 6 through 8.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations, also knowing that tribulation work of patience and patience, experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. For when we were yet 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 some would even dare to die. But God commended his love towards us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

All right, so let's look now at verses 6 through 8 in a little bit more detail here today. I like the amplified here, and the amplified says that while we were yet in weakness, in perens, powerless to help ourselves, at the fitting time Christ died for in behalf of the ungodly.

So we go on to the ILG, which is really kind of the, if you will, the paramount text for interpretation. You get the idea that Christ now is topical. So the ILG moves Christ to the beginning of the verse. It says, for Christ, oh, by the way, we were still weak. We'll turn to weak, what that means in a second. So Christ, while we were still weak, in due time on behalf of ungodly ones, died.

So I think if you look at the Amplified and you turn to the ILG, you kind of get the sense of where the emphasis on the verse really needs to lie. Remember I think for this verse We're depending on the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's look again at verse 5 just for a second Well, we'll read in the 5, you know tribulations become patience patience experience experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given unto us and oh, by the way, what's the Spirit doing? I? for when we were yet without that I mean the Holy Spirit is teaching us these principles of the truth of the Word of God.

So what do you usually think a weakness when you think a weakness? Let's put it in colloquial terms. When you think of weakness, you think of, you know, that you don't have much strength or anything. But in this context, whenever weakness is used about our fleshly weakness, it's no strength. Zero.

Because Christ is our strength. All right, how many of you have prayed ever for God's help? I mean, isn't that kind of evidence that we're kind of contributing a certain amount to the circumstances that we're in, and ultimately He's going to help us get over the hump or solve the problem or at least give us the strength to get through it?

Boy, in the Greek, you're not left with that idea what this term really represents. Aesthetes, or infirm, feeble, without strength, powerless to help ourselves. It's really a very definitive term, meaning the absence of any strength. You know, and this is kind of a tough position to be in, because kind of the pride of life, our own responsibility to ourselves and others tends to put us in a position of wanting to help out just a little bit anyway. So this term, while we were yet in weakness, doesn't mean that we're kind of doing some things okay part of the time. It kind of means that we're in a position of entire dependency. I think that's really relevant.

And as you go through the scriptures, it's kind of like our weakness, his strength, You know, his strength is made perfect in our weakness. This isn't kind of like we get so far, and by the way, his strength then kind of bleeds into that and gives us that necessary help in time of need. It's just his strength is made perfect in our weakness because our weakness doesn't bring anything to the table. So that's the context in which we find ourselves in this verse. While we were yet in weakness or power, that's why I like the amplified, powerless to help ourselves. It's a really nice translation of this.

In due time. So what's due time? Well, there are kind of two translations to the Greek term kata, meaning proper, down from or throughout or according to or toward along. So what are your thoughts here about in due time? Had man reached a point where it was due time? Or is this a time that was, you know, before the beginning of time chosen? And ultimately now it becomes more proper or due because God had declared it to be so. Mine says, at just the right time. All right. And I think that fits with the term proper. And who determines it's proper? Not us.

Galatians 4.4, I think, gives you another look at this. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, da-da-da-da-da-da. So, Galatians 4 brings, I think, this point out in a slightly different way and it relates to the same event, the incarnation.

So, in bold, who are the ungodly? Who are these ungodly? Ruth says everybody. Everybody okay with that one? So I just reflected on this a little bit in several different ways. Strong's concordance is destitute of reverential awe towards God, condemning God, and pious. And by the way, I think that that's a fairly narrow definition, but yet we'll let it stand. Whoops. I think Paul had it right, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and who am I in chief?

I bet you when you read the pages of scripture you have a little trouble identifying with Paul in that statement in terms of everything the Lord had done through Paul. Was Paul reflecting only on his past, do you think? When do you say no? So what was Paul reflecting on then, in part? I think we could extend that to Paul's view and we see plenty of that in Romans and the other epistles don't we?

1st Timothy 1.9 knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man we'll come back to this in a second because the next verse is going to get back to this point but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers and da-da-da-da-da-da.

So, you know, this is the law given to kind of govern the behavior of all of mankind, and included in that are the ungodly and for sinners. But if we, you know, go before that and go after that, we see increasing examples of what this life is all about. All right. Any questions about six before we go ahead and look at seven, eight. So Christ died for the ungodly, and I think the ungodly is all of us. And we're now going to look at this in more detail as to who the ungodly really are. And I think there's no question that everyone is included.

Okay, the New King James Version in verse 7 says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. So let's, in the next few minutes now, kind of distinguish between righteous and good without looking at your notes. The problem is I can sequentially show these things up here, but you've got all the notes already there in front of you. What do you think of when you think of distinguishing righteous from good biblically in context here? Who's a righteous man or woman according to the text? A righteous person is someone who is made righteous because they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alright, so Margaret turns this through a text like Romans 10.10. Let's turn there a second.

Romans 10.10. Alright, it says there, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And I think we could go back to verse 9. For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

And of course, we've been through in Romans 4 in great detail that we've been declared righteous, right? We've been made righteous. So in a sense, Margaret is correct. One interpretation of the term righteous is the fact that we are truly righteous. And that's positional truth, is it not? Before God, we are infinitely righteous. And he looks at us as righteous.

In context, do you think that's what we're talking about here? Is God going to die for those that he's already declared righteous? I don't think so. The other interpretation is, I think, is what we're looking for here. And I think we're talking about the self-righteous, right? The person who in fact is living a life that we would deem as horizontal judges, that is meeting both human laws and potentially divine laws as we best understand them.

So the term righteous is distinguished from the term good. Do you think righteous is a higher term in terms of human performance? Or is good a higher term, or are these equal terms with maybe slightly different definitions? I think it has a totally different meaning if it says self-righteous, for scarcely a self-righteous or a self-righteous man I wouldn't die, because that's a negative connotation. And as Wendy pointed out, in the world, someone who's self-righteous would be negative, but if you say they're really righteous, that sounds better than saying self-righteous.

True. Al? I don't think self-righteous, but it's righteous from a human viewpoint. How about that? One who is such as he ought to be. I mean, that's what Thayer said. I really like that. The righteous in context, I think, is somebody who's doing what they're expected to be doing. They could be self-righteous about it, but at least as we put this framework or yardstick to their performance, we're saying, looking pretty good, right?

Living by the law, keeping the law. Remember that Jewish man that I was on the plane going from Los Angeles to Sydney a couple of years ago? That was last year, wasn't it? Anyway, and this guy felt that he was keeping all of the Israelic law, every single one of the laws, he was keeping that. And this is a guy who, you know, he clearly, from my perspective, was self-righteous, but his belief that he was righteous. This wasn't anything that he was necessarily bragging about, but this is just who he saw himself as, keeping the Jewish law.

Hal, go ahead. I was going to say that there's a person who's going to give his life for someone else. And so he's looking at other people, ones who are righteous, ones who are good. So it's from a human viewpoint that he's looking at this. It's not one who's being self-righteous, it's righteousness as viewed by the party who's going to give it away. Any argument with that? Now, let's look at the other term. Let's make sure we understand this in context.

It says, for scarcely for a righteous man would one die. Yet perhaps, and I kind of want to throw in yet perhaps even for a good man someone would even dare to die. I mean even dare to die kind of takes you on to that next level of comparison. And I get the feeling that in context this good man is doing things more than the righteous man is. The righteous is meeting some sort of requirement. But this good individual is in fact maybe going beyond that a little bit.

There are multiple interpretations for good. Let's look at some of these. of good constitution or nature, useful, salutary, good, pleasant, I love when a term is defined as the term that you're defining, don't you? Good means good. Thank you very much. Good, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, and I think this last one maybe fits the best, upright, honorable, and beneficent.

And let's think about that a little bit more in detail. And I asked the question, which do you think fits best here? And I've already answered the question for you. 1 Peter 2.18 reflects on this a little bit.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. This idea of benevolence, being beneficent, going beyond and doing good things for other people. This righteous person is not necessarily carrying out that type of behavior. He or she is in fact living by some standard. And that standard may not be requiring helping your neighbor or sacrificially giving your life for somebody else. The beneficent person is someone who is subject Good and gentle and all the kinds of things we think of of someone who has that characteristic now that doesn't save you But we're talking about a human behavior that goes beyond yourself and meeting some set of standards We all meet people who think man is basically good, but maybe kind of occasionally has a bad habit or something, right?

They kind of air at times Boy, you know when you're talking with someone about serious things. I don't know, you get beyond the weather and your job and sports and then what do you deal with? Then if you start to have a serious conversation, the Spirit leads you into that position with somebody. You start off with somebody who's believing that man is basically good, you know you've got a lot of work to do, right? At least the Spirit does. I think the majority of educated man, I think perhaps, this is my opinion, but I think perhaps even some Christians sometimes miss this point.

I hope not, but you know the idea we're all basically pretty good people because we treat each other nicely, we're polite, we say thank you and sir and madam particularly from the south, right Margaret? So I think the good in context versus righteous is a type of behavior that extends beyond beyond the righteous performance, if you will. Now, let's look at the, yeah. I'm thinking of an example here. And from a human viewpoint, back in the early New Testament, people would view the Pharisees as righteous. And they would look at the Good Samaritan. That's a great example.

And, you know, we could get tangential and get delayed on this point, but where did Christ, I mean, Christ died for the ungodly, right? That's what the text says. We all believe that that's all of us. But yet from a human performance, God used the Good Samaritan to point out to the righteous. their mistaken conclusion that everything was okay, and he even went the next step, the Good Samaritan, not necessarily saying the Good Samaritan was saved or unsaved, but yet look at your performance compared to this, right? So there's a good, that's an excellent example of how these two might be compared in terms of righteous versus doing good things that goes beyond righteousness. Thanks, Al, that's great.

So perhaps, interestingly enough, the term perhaps is translated often as perventure. It's only used twice in the New Testament. Kind of interesting. We don't want to dwell on that, but it's always kind of peculiar when you see a word like this that's only used rarely.

And the form here, it's a present tense, it's an active verb, and it's indicative and indicating that it's a factual statement. So what are we looking at again? We're looking at the fact that Verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man one would even dare to die. So would even dare is kind of a complicated verb tense, but best simplified, it's a present tense. Would even, I'm going to do it now. I'm the one taking charge of this behavior. And in fact, it's factual that I would even dare to die on behalf of the ungodly.

But God goes further and verse 7 clearly indicates that the human behavior is not the type of example that he's citing here or wants to reference you to. The Holy Spirit through the writings of Paul indicates a superlative comparison or step on behalf of God and his great grace. But God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So commend, again, present tense, active, verb tense, indicative, factual, can mean to place together, to set in the same place together, to set one with another, to put together, unite parts into a whole, lots of potential definitions, to put together by way of composition or combination, lots of different kind of translations of this, but I think the fourth perhaps is the most accurate here. It's commending, meaning to show or to prove or to establish or to exhibit. So God has demonstrated or shown or exhibited his love that while we were yet sinners, ultimately he died for us. Now, if you look at Robertson's New Testament word pictures, the quote there is, not because we were Jews or Greeks, rich or poor, righteous or good, but just plain sinners. I think we get a little bit of a different view of this if we look at a few other texts.

Luke 18, 13, and the publican standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." So he recognized what a sinner was without giving us a lengthy definition of it. Romans 3 20, therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, the righteous if you will, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And then verse 23 in Romans 3, we studied this months ago, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So I think the question is, and who is a sinner? Well, it's not one without sin, it's one with sin. It's just a mistake. So cross out, out. It's one with sin. So what's sin? Let's concentrate on sin. So who's a sinner if we're all included here? So we're describing a sinner as someone with sin. Define sin. Nobody can define sin. We're all sinners, but we can't define who we are, right? What would we do to describe to our skeptic or our ignorant or whomever to whom we're speaking about sin and what it is?

Tough question, isn't it? But yet it's really part of something we should be reflecting on all the time. It says here God died for us as sinners. or at least when we were yet sinners. Are we not still sinners? Opposition, we know we're looked at, you know, in Christ. So we're declared righteous, right? That's Romans 4th truth. We've learned all that, right? So we're all righteous in Christ, and God looks at us as righteous. But we still have a sin nature. That's Romans 6. We're going to be coming to Romans 6 fairly soon, right? And we're going to kind of see the fact that even though we're declared righteous, we often ain't righteous in our behavior. But sin, again, how would we define sin?

Let's, again, believe that we're talking to somebody who knows nothing about anything of the Word of God, is entirely ignorant and uninformed. Okay, so what's God's mark? It's his character, right? So to define sin to the unbeliever, to the skeptic, would require a description of God's righteousness, would it?

And we're often imperfect in doing that, but yet we can at least reflect on that. So in a practical sense, how does sin carry out its role in our lives or the life of anyone, unbeliever or believer who still is in the sin nature at times? Well, it's not meeting the mark, but it's not meeting the mark from what perspective? Is there a set of things that must be done? Those are the righteous, right, that are getting the things done. And so, you know, there are sins of commission and sins of omission, right? So what's a sin of commission?

Yeah, doing something that the righteousness of God declared in His Word would indicate is not acceptable, right? It's not of His character. It's not bringing glory to His name. Things that we do that are wrong. They could be offensive in a large variety of ways. What are the sins of omission? Yeah, there would be things that relate to things that we would be called on to do in his name to his glory that we don't do. Now, keep in mind that we can get legal here, right? And remember the law was given to convict man of sin. I mean, there was no basis by which the law could ever be kept.

This Jewish man that I was on this long flight with. It was a long flight, but it was a very interesting one. I mean, he really thinks he's got it done. He's in a position to please God if he should die. And we got talking about the afterlife, and I'm not quite sure what he really conceptualized that to be, but all that aside.

So sin is really falling short of God's glory and character, and it could be through acts of commission or acts of omission. No way are we in a position ever to be able to meet those needs. And so, let's just keep that in mind as we think about these verses and how they reflect on what Christ has done. I like 1 John 4, 9, and 10 here. And this was manifested, the love of God towards us. God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.

Herein is love. Not that we love God. Impossible. Right? But He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. really wraps up a lot of scriptural truth in just a couple of verses there. Now, you know, if our love for God was enough, He wouldn't have sent His sons.

I mean, the idea of the inadequacy of the human existence in pleasing God is really there in this verse. So I said, let's ponder the profound nature of this truth for just a moment. I mean, just think about this now, that God's love for us. I mean this is such a repetitive thing in kind of our faith and kind of so what's new here you know I mean the idea here isn't that that there's anything new but there's something more and more profound about this the more you consider it.

That remember the weakness was the absence of strength so if we begin with that concept that we as sinners are weak and have no strength then his love is clearly demonstrated by doing something that we on ourselves couldn't do. It says here that we can't, you know, love God. Not that we'd love God, but he loved us.

Now why he ultimately decided to carry out his love in this way is entirely his decision. We can't really position ourselves in his mindset and indicate this was the only way, but the scripture clearly outlines this from the beginning of the Bible through the end, that this path was one that would ultimately be acceptable to him. So this eternal covenant between the Heavenly Father and His Son was really the plan from the very beginning, and that's how God's love would be manifested. We're not asked to understand it. We're asked to believe in it.

Okay. Died is aorist, typically past tense, active, meaning it was Christ Himself who died. This was something that was not... It's interesting. We think of the death as passant. He's nailed to the cross. But the fact that it's active implies to me that he had a choice here. And we know he had a choice, don't we? So his decision to die for the sins of mankind, to reflect the love of God on the entire world for eternity, was an active process. Interesting.

And this was the prophecy of old times. Let's look at a few of the verses that really set the stage for this eternal gift of life through his great love for us on the cross. Genesis 3 15 is perhaps a good place to begin and I will put enmity between thee and the woman meaning the serpent and the woman and between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heels So from very early in the scripture after Adam and Eve's original sin were ultimately prophetically told that Satan would be dealt with and That was the beginning of many scriptures to follow, Isaiah 53, 5 and 6.

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yes, written to the Jew. Remember, the Jew were the chosen people. If they'd gone astray, what happened to the rest of the world? Right.

Matthew 12 40 and 41 for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it Because they repented at the preaching of Jonas.

I love this and behold a greater than Jonas is here These are Christ's own words Now, I was listening to a McGee tape fairly recently. The book of Jonah was just maybe six or eight weeks ago, and he was reflecting back on Jonah. And I think we all have this idea that Jonah is kind of in this belly of the whale, and he's living through this experience. And McGee, I think he's right, had a different perspective.

Jonah died. He was dead in the belly of the whale, and ultimately resurrected. And that really fits very nicely, I think, with Christ, relating his own experience of that of Jonah. Is it any more miraculous that Jonah would live in the belly of the whale alive and be spit up and still living than it is for him to be resurrected to newness of life after being eaten up by the big fish?

I think that's kind of a, I thought it was a refreshing thought. And I think the fact that Christ reflected on the Jonah experience to predict his own being, you know, in the grave, if you will, for three days, you know, or in the heart of the earth, It's okay with me.

That's not the text here today. But these are just a series of prophecies that Christ would ultimately come and die for the sins of mankind. So, the text today, I think, has been commented on already to some extent, but I thought what we might do is just reflect a little bit about communicating this incredibly important truth to the unsaved, the doubting, and the unbelieving world.

What keeps the world from believing? God hasn't chosen them. How do you like that one? Is that good theology? That's a good way to tell the unbelieving world, well, you're not chosen, so we don't really have much to do. I hope that's not where we're at, although I think we all go through in our biblical study kind of one extreme or the other in terms of man's free will and God's choice. But all this aside, we know God those who's with him eternally, but we're never in a position here to understand the process by which that occurs, and every man is to come to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is not a theological debate. God hasn't chosen them is not an acceptable answer. The second again, this is really tricky. Ignorance. Are there people who are not saved simply because they have no knowledge? Ruthie says yes. Do we all do we all agree with that? What about the central Australian aborigines?

I mean, we keep using these as examples all the time. We live in a modern world where ultimately the word's getting out to more people all the time through various means. But there are, I'm sure, a large percentage of the earthly existence that haven't heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, so we have the three Cs, not to be overly simplistic, but Romans 1 and 2 point this out very nicely.

We have the creation. Every man is accountable to God simply by looking around him or her. God speaks to everybody through his creation. Now, you don't have to believe that your earth was created, but God says you have to acknowledge the fact that it was. He says it repeatedly in this word that the creation really brings attention to himself.

The second is the conscience. Now, the creation and the conscience don't save. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that saves. But every man has a conscience. Now the problem with conscience bringing you to salvation is the conscience can be influenced by the environment or the society we live in. So cannibalism could be perfectly acceptable. And if you're really persuaded by your culture, perhaps then murder is justified by your culture. So conscience can be influenced by the world system. But nevertheless conscience you know, is this concept of every man has good in them, right? Where's that come from? That's the ambient presence of the Holy Spirit in the world that we live in.

But then ignorance of the cross. So the question is, can somebody be saved without a knowledge of the cross? Because he or she believes the creation is a work of God, and then secondly their conscience really brings them to the attention that within themselves there is you know, inadequacy in terms of before this creator of the universe. And Hal, to quote him on his way back into the room, he would say that if someone sees God through the creation and through his or her consciences, that ultimately God will bring someone to them to present the cross to them. And I think that's, they'll be reached.

The third reason that what keeps the world from believing is people love their sinful ways. I mean, that's not the person who believes that he or she is basically good and they have their faults, right? This is a person who is Romans 1 truth played out into all the sins of the world system. They enjoy that existence. We know down deep they really don't, but they believe they do and they couldn't leave their lifestyle to accept anything other than that.

And the fourth is pride, and I would contend in an educated society that pride has much to do with separation from God. And we all know people, a couple of my relatives particularly, who believe that they're basically good and this free gift is ridiculous.

I mean, I've my own life to live, I've got to live it the way I see best, and I get credit for what I get done. If there is a God, he or she is going to give me credit for what I've accomplished here. So if you think of your own salvation experience, although it would be from a child on up or if it be as an adult, I mean, ultimately we have to be truth seekers, don't we? And the ultimate of pride is to say that our truth seeking is only framed within a certain arena.

And to have a free gift that relates to my eternity is absolutely ridiculous. I'm too proud about who I am and what I'm doing to allow the truth of the fact that somebody died for me because I don't meet some standard is unacceptable. So I'm just thinking these are four of maybe many other reasons that separate the unbelieving world from God. How we operate with people in these various spheres is a Holy Spirit led scenario. We can't kind of pre-program our gospel sharing to ultimately meet these needs. But I think we have to kind of realize the background from which people come.

And you know, Matthew, Christ at the end of Matthew, the quote, quote, great commission, I think says it very, very nicely. And I know we can interpret this a little bit differently, but it says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And a better translation, perhaps, is in your going. As you're in your going, whether it's in Denver, or Centennial, or Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, or in Uluru, right? In your going, I think we're in a position to be humbly reflecting on what God has done. Now, sometimes that could be the spoken word, could it not?

The fact that God has chosen to send his son to die for the ungodly, and yet went while we were sinners. Not as righteous, not as good, but as sinners he died for us. He didn't die for the righteous, yes he did. He didn't die for the good, yes he did. But he died for the sinners, which is all-inclusive of all of the groups above.

So as we go about our ways, we may be given the opportunity to share the word in spoken word. But then there's that other aspect of in our going, isn't there? And what are we talking about there? It's a life, isn't it? Yeah, it's not just on Sundays. Well, let's ask. How are you? Are you trying to do this? I think we have to be careful there, because I think intellectualizing our life is really a failure in a right.

Because I think as the Christ life lives out in the believer and these truths are made evident, it's made evident by the walk, not by our purposing to walk that way. We're talking about a Holy Spirit energizing a new creation in each and every one of us. And that's something we don't measure with our own yardsticks. This is not saying, hey, I had a pretty good day today.

I mean, in a sense, you're kind of that righteous man. And by the way, somebody would rather die for a good man than a righteous man. So anytime you start putting the law into your own walk, I think we're in a sense failing this truth that God died for us while we were yet sinners. And that sinner concept is one that we've touched basically a little bit today, separated from God by omission and commission, both.

Other thoughts on this passage? Now remember, verse 5, this is the Holy Spirit now providing evidence of these truths in our lives. If we didn't go back to 5 and we just said, oh, these are three verses that are nice to read and study. No, this is the Holy Spirit working in us to realize that, you know, for a righteous man, you know, you wouldn't die. Maybe not even for a good man would you dare to die, but Christ died for all of us. And it's the Holy Spirit that brings out the truth of the Word of God as we walk our daily walks. And again, in your going, teach all nations by your life, by your words, and hopefully by the Holy Spirit.

I would put that under pride, but yeah, that list could go on and on and on. I met a guy down in the locker room this week, from the Greek Orthodox Church, and from their perspective, once you're baptized as a baby, he described it, you're in the ark. and you're safe, and for the rest of your life. And you have to hop to get out of New York. So religion is welcome.

Other thoughts? If you think about, you know, keep in mind that God is a God of eternity. And, you know, as Vern has taught me so well, as we think about eternity, you've got to leave time out of it. Right? So this temporal sequence of BC, AD, and where we're at in 2006 on June the 18th is irrelevant to God in terms of eternity. So was his time chosen to be, you know, when it was for the view of what the temporal sequence of events was going to be? I guess yes, in part.

If you think of the Old Testament, I mean, we don't have much done for about 400 years there, much written about at least the history of Israel. And I often question why wasn't this three or four hundred years earlier? Or maybe even six or eight hundred years earlier, you know, during the separation of the nation of Israel and sort of the northern and southern kingdoms and their ultimate, you know, overtaking by, you know, the Gentile world. And I don't know that the timing of the cross was perfect. And I don't know what was more proper about then than any other time. Anybody else have any thoughts about that?

Because we know that God and Christ had a covenant before the foundation of the world. In my mind, I've always said, in a covenant, that's a contract. And the contract probably spelled out. At this time, that's what a contract is. It's a covenant that gives you all the details.

Christ knew exactly when he was going to die. I think he had a sense of he was going to be on the earth this long, and then he was going to die. I think I understand exactly why it was what it was, but it was the proper time for whatever reason. And the interesting thing is if you go back to the Old Testament, in the Old Testament prophets, it talks about the time that he's going to be cut off. and he finds it precisely at 69 weeks he's going to be cut off. Right, and of course we don't know year and date, right? No. So the human temporal sequence is one that we're not meant to know.

Do you pray each day for his coming? I forget sometimes, but sometimes we do remember to pray for it. Usually we pray for his second coming or at least his rapture at the time when things are going poorly for us, right? I have a friend who does that whenever she thinks, well, what now? And I confess, I've done that recently actually. It's not what he has in mind here, so.

All right, Bob Nassie, great to have you with us this morning. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful today for your word, and we trust that the truth is never-ending as we continue to look at the pages of the Book of Romans, that ultimately your wisdom and your grace and your great love for us is portrayed in these verses will become increasingly known. We're thankful for this. Body of Believers that gathers each week and may we walk a walk that shows the life that we have. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.