Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.15 – April 1968

 

For Whom Did Christ Die?

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Jonker, B.D. on Romans 5:5b,6

SCRIPTURE READING: Galatians 3:1-14.

PSALTER-HYMNAL: 411:1; 123:1; 221:1,2,5; 452; 443:1,4

 

A well-known radio commentator from Sydney, Eric Baume, used to speak under the title, "And this I believe", while he was alive.  In his last broadcast he dealt with the letter of a lady who complained about the sermons heard in churches threatening hell and brimstone because of the sins of people.

Eric Baume fully agreed with her, and gave utterance to his belief that the churches had quite a different task, and should bring a different message.

One wonders where people who openly confess that they never attend church still seem to know so well what is preached in those churches.  One wonders furthermore what kind of Australian churches indeed teach the total depravity of man!

What all church people should know – and what Reformed church- goers anyhow should realize – is this: that it is of the utmost importance what sort of message should be brought from the pulpit!  What is the gospel that should be brought?  What is the message that God wants to communicate to us?

We should be sure about this: that it is NOT THE CHURCH that has to decide what should be preached.  Neither should a THEOLOGY have the right to dictate on its own responsibility what the way of salvation is.  And likewise no DOCTRINE on its own can shape the word to be preached.  A church – as well as a theology, and its doctrines – just have to follow the Word of God itself.  It is only what GOD has to say to us that is important.  And what God has to say has been said by Him and is revealed to us in our Bible.  People living outside the church have their ideas about what Christianity is, or what – according to them – it has to be.  Likewise, members of a church quite often have their own opinions about what the message of the church should be.  They may prefer to formulate it in different ways.

Some say: Christ died for the elect, for the chosen ones.  There you can see the influence of doctrine on people's thoughts!  It is fully true that the Bible teaches us that those who are saved by grace are those who were elected by God.  But that is not all.  That might be said regarding the number of the saved ones (that is, as far as QUANTITY is concerned).  But the Bible also says that Christ died for the GODLESS – and that is something that deals with the QUALITY of those who are saved.  All the chosen ones were godless when they were chosen!  What Scripture says is the issue that should concern us.  It is the message of SCRIPTURE that is the message God wants to bring to our attention.

There you have the importance of our text... which is also interesting, because it mentions all this in connection with the GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.

Here again we touch upon a point that has raised many controversies among believers.  Just remember what is said about it by the Pentecostals!  They see the gift of the Holy Spirit as being closely connected with baptism – and the manner of this baptism – and the gift of speaking in tongues.

So it is time to have a good look at our text, Let us read it again and change somewhat the wording of the Revised Standard Version to come somewhat nearer to the original text as written by the apostle Paul:

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us as certainly as while we were yet helpless Christ died for the ungodly.

There is a connection between the first and the second parts of the text that has not been brought out too clearly by the R.S.V.  It may best be expressed in this way: The Holy Spirit has been given to us, for Christ died for us while we were yet helpless, did He not? – for the ungodly.

How do we have to understand this text?

The starting point has to be where the text starts: God's love has done something for us.  And not only has He done something for us, but HE HAS ALSO TOLD US ABOUT WHAT HE HAS DONE!

FIRST, God has done something; SECONDLY, He has told us about it – and also has said how we should look at what He has done on our behalf.

So let us keep this in mind: God, in His love, took the initiative.  He started the ball rolling.  This does not mean that God simply did it and left it to us to explain the why and the how.  No: our text says quite clearly that God IN HIS LOVE did it.

Why should this be stressed by us?  Well, because many a church is self-righteous and deems itself better, more enlightened, more tolerant and so on than others.  It explains things as if God were a judge who condemns everybody who does not think along the lines of that church, or lives outside that church.  Others speak about salvation as if it were the simplest thing in the world: don't worry so much, they say.  As long as you live decently, nothing will happen to you!  People too easily act as if God IS God – but have to explain WHO He is, and WHAT He does – and WHY.  They qualify God according to their own preconceived ideas.  That must have been the origin of all heathen religions in the past.

But now we have our Bible.  And it is in this book, as in our text, that we are told quite clearly HOW God acts.  That is NOT left to churches or ministers to explain.  No, this Bible explains itself!

It is said here that GOD IN HIS LOVE is the decisive issue in God's relation to man.  And if God wants to approach us with love, then that love is real; it is the genuine thing.

Paul writes here: this love of God is poured into our hearts... please mark those wonderful words well!  The love of God is not like a cloud floating high over our heads.  No, the love of God is like a shower pouring down and drenching our hearts, permeating our personalities and lives.  God's love did not stay confined to heaven, but it came on earth.  Indeed, not only on earth somewhere, but it came INSIDE US, FILLING US.  And what could that be?  It must be something absolutely wonderful.

How did this happen?  And can we know whether this has also happened to us?  What can this be: God's love poured into our hearts?  Is it a certain FEELING you get?  Or perhaps a kind of MOOD you might be living in?  Or is it a special ability to do wonderful things?  Would this enable you to heal the sick?  To speak in tongues?

In the verses preceding our text, Paul writes that it has to do with our hope of sharing the glory of God; we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of nobody less than God Himself!  That is a hope so vivid, that we take for real the future that God is preparing for us.  But how do we come by it?  How is it given to us?

Paul says that God has done this through the Holy Spirit, and this is how we read it in our Bible translation: because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  To understand this rightly, you have to be aware that when you say in the English language SOMETHING HAS BEEN GIVEN, you never know just WHEN it has been given... it may go on even until the moment you are speaking about it.  But that is not what is meant in the Greek original!  There a form of the verb is used that means that it WAS ONCE GIVEN IN THE PAST.  This Greek verb points not to something that can be repeated, but stipulates that it happened ONCE at a specific time in the past.  Consequently, we should translate as follows: that God has done it through the Spirit who WAS GIVEN to us.

Without doubt this points to what happened at PENTECOST, when once and for all time the Spirit was poured out on the Church of Jesus Christ.  Through this given Spirit, the disciples of Christ got to know about what God was doing when He sent His Son into the world, to live and teach and give Himself a sacrifice for our sins.

It was only through this Spirit that the apostles learned to understand what was the meaning and the value of the work of Jesus Christ.  If this Spirit had not been given, not one of Jesus' disciples would have known the meaning of Christ's death on the cross.  We see this in the story of those friends from Emmaus on Easter night.  Without the giving of this Spirit, not a single one of the disciples would have been able to preach to the people about the meaning of Christ's coming, His life, His death and His resurrection.

Let us realize that if the Spirit had not come, we would have known perhaps about a person named Jesus, just as we know about Julius Caesar, Martin Luther or John Calvin.

But never would we have had an inkling about what God in His love was doing on our behalf.  The value of Jesus Christ is that God, in His love, came to rescue us from destruction.  For Jesus gave Himself a sacrifice for the complete remission of all our sins.  He opened the way for us to share the glory of God.  It is only through the given Spirit that the light has begun to shine on Jesus Christ – and on what the love of God is doing for us.

The proof of this is that Jesus died for us when we were yet helpless didn't He?  And that for the ungodly.

WHILE WE WERE YET HELPLESS...  and you can say: didn't He?  Because this has been preached by the apostles ― and written down in your Bible.

Here then we have as briefly as possible the great news from God: God sent His Son who is the Christ.  The word "Christ" means that He has an office to fulfil, a job to do as God's anointed one: God's prophet, priest and king.  He was sent to do all the things that God wanted to be done for the reconciliation of mankind.  The aim of God is to open up His glory for Jesus' people.  This is the gospel brought by the apostolic preaching, and so is poured out into our believing hearts.  It is poured out so that we are full of it.  And see how marvellous this is: while we were yet helpless, Christ died for the ungodly – and He died at the right time.

Helpless and ungodly.  That is how mankind was; that is how we are.

Here we have not so much an analysis of man 's character – of you and me – for an analysis has to go much deeper into details.  No; these words are just a notification of clear cut FACTS.  It is evident that we were helpless and ungodly.

For what is it to be helpless?  It means that we cannot attract God's attention; nor can we do anything to help ourselves.  We have not got the strength to do it nor the knowledge, nor inclination even.  How would we go about asking God what He has to do to save us?  We would not have a clue.  We personally were not even born when Jesus came on earth.

We know that, through the grace of God, there is left among people much that is handy and useful, even graceful for everyday life.  There is much that disturbs us, just think of war and crime.  But, on the other hand, there are many things that uphold some semblance of decency in life.  And we may be really grateful for it, as it is only through the grace of God that it still exists.  However, all of it does not mean a thing for eternity.  One could never say at the day of judgment: I was a good man for I never robbed my neighbour and never strangled my wife, I never stole a cent, So please, God, let me enter your glory!

There is nothing in us that can help God.

Still... Christ died for us, even when we were ungodly.

With the word UNGODLY, another trait of mankind is indicated.  UNGODLY is just this: that we want to do WITHOUT GOD.

It does not say what we want to do or how we want to live.  It only says that we want to do and how we want to live WITHOUT GOD.  Nowadays we have another word for it: we call it being INDEPENDENT.

A colony, for instance, is ready enough to receive all the help and money that can be provided by the mother country... but it wants to govern itself, it wants to be its own boss, it wants to be INDEPENDENT.

Many young people like to have all the good things that parents can give them, but, as soon as they are earning enough dollars, they often say: Well, I'm going to live with friends in a flat!  Why?  Do they hate their parents?  Not at all.  It is only this: they want to be their own boss, they want to be INDEPENDENT.  And, as far as the mother country is concerned for a colony, and as far as dad and mum are concerned for a boy or girl, there may be some good in it.

But, where GOD is concerned, there is NO GOOD IN IT at all!

If people want to be ungodly, this means that they want to do without God as their Lord.  They want to be their own boss; to make their own decisions about what to do with their time, their money, their relaxation, their love life, their everything.  They want to be a God unto themselves.

So there you have the HELPLESS: people who could not even ASK God.  And there you have the GODLESS: people who, even if they COULD have asked, would have REFUSED to do it – for the simple reason that they do not want a God in their life.

That is how people were some 1900 years ago, and that is how people are today.  Their style of life is exactly the same!

But even where people could not care less, GOD did care and HOW!  God seeing the helpless, and letting His eyes wander over the godless – wanted to bring them back to the right target in life.  For God is love, which means that God wants to GIVE.  God wants to help as He cares for His creatures because they ARE HIS creation.  Do you remember what it says in Psalm 103: God has mercy upon us because He knows our frame.  That is, He knows how He has made us.

So what did He do?  He sent His Son and gave Him a task to fulfil according to a plan mentioned already in Paradise, and affirmed in the covenant with Abraham and king David.

And not only did God make a plan to help mankind: He also decided when it had to be fulfilled; what would be the right time for it.

The right time so that it would not only benefit a small nation like the Jews, but could go on to reach the peoples of all nations, who are all descendants of Adam, all children of God's creation.

The fact that Christ came at the right time points up one of the most wonderful benefits that is given to us.  It means that we have been born in a situation where it is possible for us to hear about this Christ, and His mission of love and forgiveness.  For if you or I had been born 2000 years ago somewhere in the mountains of Scotland or among the marshes of the Low Countries, we would never have heard about Jesus Christ.  We would never have had a chance of sharing the glory of God!

But in fact we were born AFTER He came, and AFTER His gospel was preached among our people and in our language.  And so we too are invited to believe upon Him, and to have eternal life.

So whatever this RIGHT TIME may have meant in the scheme of God, in the scheme of our life it means that we have heard this miraculous thing: that God in His love has come to us.

He has come to us, even though we were helpless and godless.  A real joy has been poured out into our hearts.

Amen.