6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
We once lived in great peril, having no strength to help ourselves out of our sins, misery and condemnation. Our impotency to help ourselves out of our utter wretchedness was an eternal peril that snared our souls. Our condition was pathetically awful, as we were “without strength”.
Our utter inability to please God – because of our sins – had left us completely open to the full force of God’s curse and wrath. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Our wretchedness reflected our cursed state – “for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10).
Our sins had left us in dreadful spiritual, moral, emotional and even bodily weakness. Ungodliness had brought upon us many evils, namely the wild passions, the miseries of life, gloomy and dismal prospects, banishment from God and condemnation. It had wrecked our lives and left us in total spiritual and moral paralysis. Oh, how true it is that we had been “without strength”! What a terrible, tragic condition was ours! This malady is not a calamity befallen upon us, but a condition brought about by our own deeds. Nevertheless, how consoling it is that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly”! The divine intervention on our behalf did not come too late. Christ came to this world at the divinely appointed time. The time had been declared by the Old Testament prophets (cf. Daniel 9:26). As Paul said in Galatians 4:4, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law”.
When no man could help, Christ came. Christ means “Anointed One”. Christ, the Son of God, came as God’s appointed Saviour. He was endued with God’s perfect wisdom, power and authority to be our Saviour. He cannot and will not fail. Oh, what great news it is that God’s anointed one, Christ, has come to rescue us from our certain peril! How gracious it is that Christ “died for the ungodly”! He laid down His life on the cross, bearing upon Himself the divine justice against our sins. By His death, we have redemption. Truly, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).