While We Were Yet Sinners (Romans 5:6-11), Part 1/4

“When we were yet without strength… Christ died for the ungodly.” That single line in Romans 5:6 is either a warm religious slogan or a wrecking ball for how we talk about salvation and assurance. We take it as Paul meant it: a clear statement that the ground of our confidence is Christ’s atoning work, not our ability, not our spiritual ambition, and not a story we tell ourselves about the day we “decided” to believe.

We slow down on the phrase “without strength” and connect it to total inability and human depravity. Not “as bad as you can be,” but unable to do what is required to be justified before God. From there we challenge common decisionism in American Christianity, including the habit of saying we “accepted Jesus,” as if the sinner is the initiator and God is the responder. We also call out man-made conversion formulas and altar-call culture when they replace biblical categories like justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and sovereign grace with techniques that can produce emotion without new birth.

Then we turn to the pastoral question: what do you say when someone asks how to be saved? Romans 5:6 pushes us to tell the truth about helplessness and to point people where salvation is actually possible, because with man it is impossible. We also unpack “in due time” as God’s appointed timing, showing why the initiative in salvation belongs to God from start to finish and why that is the only foundation strong enough for real assurance.

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Transcript

Setting Romans 5 In Context

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Romans chapter five, and I'm going to be picking up where we left off at on verse six of Romans chapter five. So what we have here is a new section which looks forward to the full realization of salvation, which is grounded in the assurance of what has already been accomplished by our Lord and Savior on our behalf. And so, just to set the stage, I'll read the last five verses by way of reminder so that we can get into the next section of this chapter. So Romans chapter five, beginning at verse one, Paul says, 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 wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by which the Holy Ghost, which is given by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. So that was where we left off. And that section took up the last segment on the book of Romans, and now we pick up here in verse 6.

Why Romans 5:6 Matters

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And I gotta tell you, verses 6 through 11 of Romans chapter 5, and you know we always say this. These are some of the most important verses in the entire scripture. We have a tendency to say that about everything that we read, and we wouldn't be wrong. But here is comfort raised to the highest degree for our understanding. And yet these words of comfort still strike major confusion in the understanding of Christendom at large, most of which know nothing of what this actually means. And I know this because of so much opposition of those who come against those of us who believe in the doctrine of human depravity. In not understanding these verses that I'm about to read, it makes it difficult for you to understand where you stand in Christ. So let's begin in verse six of Romans chapter five, Romans five, verse six.

What “Without Strength” Really Means

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And here the apostle begins. For when we were yet without strength, when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. When we were without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Four elements. And in this verse alone, we see the condition that those who are saved were in when they were saved. And I hope that all of you catch this. He is saying that those for whom Christ died, he died for them when they were without strength. They also were still in the condition of ungodliness. All of this when Christ died for them. Christ died for them once again, when they were without strength. And they were yet in the condition and state of ungodliness. Read the verse carefully. When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Let's get into it. What Paul is saying here, brethren, is that the ground of believers' insurance, assurance, is now traced to the objective work of Christ. And it would have to be. Why? Because we were without strength. We were yet ungodly, yet in our sins. And when Paul says that when we were yet without strength, he establishes and describes this as a condition that we were in. In that we were without strength. And what does it mean when it says that we were without strength? This is what is fundamental to be understood. What does it mean when the apostle says that we were without strength? This is a major statement, especially in the face of those who oppose what we teach, what the scripture teaches, which is that men are in absolute unable to do that which is required to be atoned for, to be justified. He says that those for whom he died, he did so while they were in the state and condition of being without strength. The big question is what does that mean to be without strength? It means that men are totally unable. They are without the ability to be justified by themselves. They have no ability to be justified of their own accord. And this shows us clearly that it is an absolute impossibility for man through the exercise and exertion of his will to be justified before God. This shows that man has no ability to quote unquote accept Jesus. Can you imagine? Jesus, I accept you. Jesus, I accept you. Imagine saying that to the Lord of glory, which is what is predominant in American Christianity. You, I, me, us, accepting Jesus. If you can accept Jesus, if you have the ability to accept Jesus, there is no way that Paul could say you were without strength. There was no way you could be considered one who is in the state of ungodliness. If you have that aptitude to accept Jesus, having recognized what he's done, having recognized what you have done, this does not sound like a person who was without strength. I accept you, Jesus. I will let you have me. I will let you have me. I will allow you to have me.

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I will accept you. That's not what this passage is teaching. It's not teaching that at all.

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Like Sister Lisa says, there are no decisions made on the part of man for Christ. The only decision for Christ can be made after they were made, they were regenerated and given a new heart and a new birth. And even then, it wouldn't be called a decision because you've been given the new heart, which only knows one thing, and that is to glorify the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So if you believe that you made a decision for Christ and that your salvation is based on your acceptance of Him, then we're talking about two different gods. We're talking about two different people that we worship. Because Paul is clearly teaching here that we were without strength, and this reveals to us one thing: total inability.

Why “Accept Jesus” Falls Apart

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Total inability, which means that man is incapable of seeking, desiring, needing, wanting Christ. You can say what you will, all of you Arminians, but you are wrong. And if you believe otherwise, I don't know how you call yourself a Christian. This is fundamental to the Christian faith, to understand and to know. And there is no leniency here on the part of God where He whereby He accepts you as saying that my salvation is partly because of the result of my own spiritual ambition, which I recognize to be tied up with you. Man does not have that ability. Why? Because Paul says, you are without strength. There was no capacity within us to move toward God or to remedy our condition. Condition being, we were without strength. Still ungodly. Ungodly men don't make decisions for Christ. Being yet without strength doesn't mean in some special secretive way, it's not a fancy way of saying that I do have the ability to believe, even though I'm without strength. If that is true, then what does it mean when we say without strength? Ask your Arminian friends what does that mean? What does that mean? What would be the significance of Paul saying you have no strength? That you can't bench press 110 pounds? Is that what he means? That you don't have the strength to get out of bed in the morning? Is that what it means? That you can't take your trash can outside? I mean, I don't know what without, I don't know what could what situation this could possibly mean. And it sounds ridiculous trying to manufacture ideas and thoughts about how it could mean anything other than the inability to come to Christ. There was no capacity within us to move toward God or to remedy our condition. There was nothing in us that makes us capable of accepting or making a decision for Christ. Billy Graham was wrong. And all those who followed that form of gospel preaching and that gospel narrative, it is false on its face, not buried deep, it was false on its face. All of these people who talk about coming down this aisle and saying this prayer for me have formulated a position that this formulaic process somehow justifies. It does not. We were without strength. And we cannot make excuses or exceptions for the formula and go, well, we do know that there are some people who definitely became saved out of this. We can't endorse a process like this. This process was man-made. Go read up on Charles G. Finney, and you will see where it originates. Paul makes it clear that the condition of those for whom Christ died is described in the most strongest possible terms. To be without strength means what it says. Everyone is always talking about how I just go by what the Bible says. Well, the Bible says that when it comes to justification, when it comes to justification, we are without strength. It's funny the complex areas of the scriptures that people believe that they know so well and that they have nailed it, they've understood it, but yet this thing here, they don't understand. That when it comes to salvation and justification, we are without strength. There is no ability. We are totally depraved. And being totally depraved does not mean you are as sinful as you can be. It means that there is nothing that you can do that is pleasing and acceptable to God in his sight, and that's what matters. Is it possible for you to be pleased in God before he does a work in you? That is the question. What happens first? This is not a dilemma as it would be when it comes to the chicken and the egg. Either God moved first in your salvation and was the initiator, or you were first and initiated salvation. It is one or the other. Amen, brother. If you came to Christ through the exercise and the exertion of your free will, then that means you are the initiator. You are the one who is the first cause of your salvation, not God. He waited for you. And that is a foolish assessment if you call yourself a Christian. And it's even worse if you tell people the same thing. Jesus is just waiting for you. God has a wonderful plan for your life. How do people, Christians, tell people who are dying in their sins that God has a wonderful plan for their lives? How do you know? We know that the greater part of humanity is going to hell. How many people who are going to hell have you told, have you told that God has a wonderful plan for your life and you lied to them? It's a lie. And Paul couldn't state this in more strong, in stronger terms. He says they were without strength. We were without strength. And this means utterly powerless, completely

Altar Calls And Emotional Pressure

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and wholly and utterly powerless to remedy our condition before God. Your perception of salvation is only that. You felt good when you were sitting in that in that pew at a church somewhere, when the pastor ordered the music to start playing, and ordered their maintenance people to turn down the lights, and the mood music plays, and the pastor starts speaking in soft language, in a low tone. And then when he says, The Lord has told me that there's somebody here, there's somebody here who wants to be saved, there's somebody here who needs the Lord Jesus Christ. I know they're here. And then he says, with eyes closed, with eyes closed and heads bowed. Slip your hand up into the air. Slip your hand up into the air. And whether they see anyone or not, they say, Oh, there's one over there. Oh, there's one over there. Oh, there's one over there. And then the emotional, the emotional disease becomes contagious. It's emotional manipulation, as my brother says.

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It's the same type of hype and emotion that you get at a music concert.

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Paul says, We were without strength. Romans 5, verse 6. Please rehearse that over and over. Meditate upon that. Especially when you are taking it upon yourself to witness to someone that you love and care about. You know what we tell them? When they want to know how I can be saved, you tell them, we are without strength. You are without strength. You are ungodly. And this language brings the soul to their knees and it makes them feel helpless and hopeless as they rightly should feel.

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What must I do?

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The Lord Jesus Christ. What did he say? He said, With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So what does that leave this downcast soul to do? Go to where it is possible. Where is that? Go to the Lord and ask him to save your soul. That's where it is. This weakness that we have, this weakness that sinner has, sinners have. It's not simply physical. And it's not just intellectual, although it is both of those things. There's nothing that you can do physically that warrants God's acceptance of you. And there is certainly nothing that the intellect can derive that will make God go, wow, he is so smart and so brilliant. I need to save him right now. I have no options. I must reconcile this person to me. I must justify this person because he's smart. She's smart. But the problem goes deeper than that. Christians, it's deeper than that. It is moral and spiritual impotence that keeps us from the Lord. When Paul says that with men, men have no strength. Without strength, ungodly. Paul is saying that men are impotent when it comes to doing that which is required to find acceptance with the Lord, to be justified, to be reconciled. It's impossible. Jesus himself said that in Matthew 19. Moral and spiritual impotence. And that's where that's the aspect of men that is required if he that needs to be dealt with if he's going to be accepted to God. But how does he get that? That's what we're going to talk about. But Paul is presenting. A position that puts men in a helpless state, an irredeemable state. Notice what else it says in verse 6. Christ died for the ungodly. He died for the ungodly. These are they whom Christ died for, the ungodly. Now you might think, well, that means all mankind because we're all ungodly. But what he is specifically addressing is this that those who know themselves

Moral Impotence And True Need

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and have been made to see their ungodly condition, these are those whom Christ has died for. We know that all men are ungodly. But what did Christ say? They that are whole do not need a physician. That is that in their minds they feel they are okay. So what Paul is addressing is that those who do not see themselves as ungodly is a different group of people for whom Christ died. He died for those who see themselves as ungodly. And to see yourself as ungodly is something that God has to make you see. He has to cause you to see this. He has to roll up the blinders and open your eyes. This is a helpless state. Christ died for the ungodly, not for those who had begun in their own eyes to improve themselves. You can't, there's no measure of improvement that a sinner can do to make himself able to be justified in God's sight. You cannot improve yourself. But this death that Christ died, this atoning death that he died for the ungodly, is for those who still are characterized by irreverence and sin. He died for the ungodly while they were still in that state. And if you understand this, you begin to understand the fundamental principle, the root of soteriology or the root of salvation. Which means that if man is totally incapable, it means it warrants, by necessity, a sovereign work of God to move first upon your soul. It warrants it. And you have all these quote-unquote believers, these unbelieving Christians, who think that they're being so smart and wise and profound when they tell men it's up to you. Christ did what he was supposed to do, he did all that he can, and now it's up to you. To do what?

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If you are without strength, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?

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Because that strip this strips all meaning for what Paul is saying. And those who are justified are justified and atoned for by the death of Christ while they are ungodly, while they are without strength. If there is a condition, that is it. If there is a condition for your salvation, the condition is simply this you are already without strength and ungodly, and wouldn't even know this is the situation. And then the next we have in this statement here for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

“In Due Time” And Sovereign Grace

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In due time, what does he mean? He means that there was a day that was appointed by the Godhead. There was a day, due time, a set appointment to where this act would be performed. The atoning act, the atoning work of Christ. That's what due time means. There was an appointed time. Christ had a reservation to go to that cross to die for the ungodly and those who are without strength. He had an appointment.

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One he could not counsel.

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And this act of his occurred, occurred according to God's sovereign purpose. And the time of his act was perfect timing. Perfect timing. So the initiative, the initiative in salvation, we see plainly, belongs entirely to God. And its accomplishment is rooted in grace toward those who are undeserving. Completely undeserving. The object of his death is remarkable. Amazing. Unbelievable. Because he died for the ungodly. That's what makes this, that's what makes the work of Christ so profound and so heavy and so deep, is that he died for men and women while they were in their ungodly state, while they were without strength. Christ did not die for anyone who was already righteous, nor for those who were seeking to make themselves worthy. There was none good, none righteous, none seeking after God. Paul made this clear in chapter 1. There was none who seeks after God. How can none, how can how can he say that there's none that seeks after God, and yet people are telling other people that they all they need to do is ask Christ into their heart to allow Christ to have them? How are they without strength, not seeking him, going to make a decision for Christ? How are they going to have a need and sense a need for salvation if they haven't looked into the perfect law of God or looked into God's perfect law that condemns, which is his purpose, to condemn and to reveal sin and to make man conscious of that which he was not aware of before. Christ died for those whose entire condition was irreverent, still, rebellious, still, and they were alienated from God, completely and totally separate and alienated from God, still in the conditions of irreverence and rebellion. And so we see here that what Paul is revealing is the absolute freeness on the part of God's divine grace. It is not man's free will that saves him, it is God's free grace and free will that saves the man, not the other way around. This is the message that we tell the lost. This is the message that those of us who believe, this is the message that we believed. If you believe any other thing than this, that we were ungodly, and that we were without and that we were without strength. If you believe anything other than that, you have got a misguided gospel and cannot therefore be saved by that gospel, which is a perversion of the truth. And we as believers have no authority to cut corners on what God has said is required to be justified. That being without strength and being ungodly, and being amongst those who were never seeking after him and not looking for him. But those who were made to see by a sovereign, regenerative work of the Holy Spirit of God being sent by Christ to saturate the soul that enables them to see all these things. If you understand that even repentance is a gift from God, surely that should make sense to the average mind. If repentance is a gift, that means that God has to work even before you are able to repent. You need the Holy Spirit dwelling in you in order to repent. Don't let these people tell you different. Because it's a lie. If you hear anything other than what I'm just telling you right now, and it's not that I am telling you anything that you shouldn't already know. It is plain as day right here in the scripture. Right here, plain as day. So the origin of salvation lies completely in the Lord Himself, in God's love and his mercy, not in anything foreseen or found within man. There are those who say, these Arminian, those of the Arminian persuasion, who are all liars in what they teach. Whether you want to believe they're saved or not, that's between you and God, that's between them and God. I have no, it's not my role to say. I have my opinion, but I'll tell you this much that the idea that God sees what you're going to do because he is all seeing, he sees into the future, knows that you're going to be so wise and intellectual that you're going to choose him. So then he then chooses you based on that. Well, that would imply that you were not without strength. Because you're saying that God.