Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
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The Questions
1) Who is the “we” and why were we helpless?
2) Why is it important that Christ came “while we were still sinners”?
3) What should the response be to these verses?
Romans 5:6-11
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Original Intent
1) Who is the “we” and why were we helpless?
Paul opens chapter 5 by addressing those who are declared righteous by faith, that is, all believers who have fully trusted Christ for their salvation after recognizing their own sinfulness and inability to save themselves from the consequences of sin. He is writing specifically to believers in Rome, a group of mostly Gentiles although there were some Jews as well. The “we” he is addressing are those who believe in Jesus and have been saved through faith. That leaves the question why were those who believe helpless. Paul is referring back to their lives before faith. He is reminding them Jesus came with the plan of paying the price for their sins when they were still helpless and unsaved.
2) Why is it important that Christ came “while we were still sinners”?
As Paul addresses the believers in Rome, he reminds them Jesus came to pay the price for their sins while they were still in the midst of their sin. God knew they would never be “good” enough on their own, but because of the love He had for His creation He sent Christ to show that love and redeem them even when His creation was not expressing love back to Him. He knew many would come to Him and accept His gift of love, but He also was willing to die while knowing that many would still choose to reject Him. He was willing to pay the ultimate price of death in our place, a sentence He did not deserve, God’s perfection and holiness required justice and Jesus came to be that justice. Christ’s humble willingness to lay aside His rights as God (while still maintaining His absolute divinity) and sacrifice Himself while we still chose sin, emphasizes how there is absolutely nothing we can ever do to earn our own salvation. Every part of it is God and His work, not ours.
3) What should the response be to these verses?
Paul states pretty clearly in verse 11 what our response should be. The sacrifice of Jesus should lead to rejoicing. Paul wants his readers to remember what Jesus did for them and be overwhelmingly grateful. He is reminding them their sins have been paid for and their relationship to God is restored. They are a new creation and reconciliation has taken place! He literally saved their lives and redeemed them from the death they should have been responsible to pay by allowing Jesus to die that death in their place. Now all that is left to do is rejoice and live a life honoring to that truth.
Everyday Application
1) Who is the “we” and why were we helpless?
While the immediate “we” was the believers in Rome, believers today also fit into this word. Paul is addressing all believers and so his words are just as important to us as they were to his first audience. We are helpless, just as those original believers, because without the grace of Jesus paying the price for our sins, we are left without hope. That’s an important realization! You and I are completely helpless to save ourselves. There is nothing we can pay in our own merit that will cover our sins and repair our relationship to the Father. Ever! We are absolutely helpless if left on our own because each of us are sinners, which means we will never be flawless and holy. We are helpless. We need Jesus and the gift He offers in salvation in order to have a restored right relationship with God; the gift of His death in our place is the only way to be made right with God because God’s justice requires a perfect sacrifice. Only Jesus, as fully God and fully man, who never chose sin, but always chose obedience to God’s will, is the only one who can possibly fulfill all of God’s righteous requirements as a holy sacrifice.
2) Why is it important that Christ came “while we were still sinners”?
“While we were still sinners…” Let those words sink in for a moment. Christ came, willing to die for our sins and redeem us, while we were still sinners. There is such incredible news in that statement! So often we think we must clean ourselves up and become “better” people before we can be worthy of the love of Jesus. We feel there is work we must do. However, that is completely untrue! Paul reminds us Christ came in the midst of our sin in order to pay the price we could never pay. He didn’t wait for us to realize our lostness or to try and fix ourselves on our own. He didn’t even wait until we realized how desperate we were or the despair we were in because of our sin. He did not wait for us to cry out to Him, He first loved us by giving Himself for us! (1 John 4:19) God knew from the beginning of Creation that Adam and Eve would choose to sin and He already had a plan to redeem His creation back to Himself. His plan was always Jesus, but Jesus came in the midst of sin to take on the consequence of sin He did not deserve, but we did. All we need to do is accept the gift of salvation being offered to us no matter where we are in life or what our life looks like. For such a rich gift, we should be utterly grateful, and give our lives to Him and His service because He has been so good and kind!
3) What should the response be to these verses?
We were given the ultimate gift. We owed death and Jesus paid it. There isn’t anything better to receive than life itself! Our response should be nothing less than complete rejoicing! There should be a thankfulness that pours out of our souls for the gift we have been given. We deserve to spend eternity separated from God, and instead, Jesus provided complete reconciliation through His death. We now have a new life and the ability to live in relationship to God! When we live in this understanding, it creates both a thankfulness and obedient action. We should not be able to contain the joy in our lives that stems from this restoration and we should desire to share it with any and all who will listen. As we live in this right relationship with God, others begin to see we are different from the world. We should be jumping to share this amazing news with them! Our response is rejoicing, but this rejoicing should lead to action to bring salvation to a lost world. I challenge myself, and each of you, to ask who are you sharing this amazing truth with?
What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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