While We Were Yet Sinners (Pt. II) (An article by Christian Henry)

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:8-9)

We return to analyzing one of the most loved passages in the Bible, this time focusing primarily on Verse 9. To recap what was talked about last week. Paul points out that we can hope in God because He loves us and that we can easily find evidence of that love, which is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ took the judgment for our sin on Himself on the cross. He suffered and died in our place. Paul insists that we should take that act as evidence of God’s great love for us, in that, those who have been saved were sinners and thus enemies with God. It is only through Jesus that we have a way to have salvation. In this, God proved His love for us.

Verse 9 begins by saying that Christ’s blood has justified us. To be “justified” in God’s eyes means to be “declared righteous” or to be made right with God. This is important since earlier verses have made it clear that we are not, actually, “righteous people.” Based on our actions and attitudes, we are not “good.” To be reconciled to God, we need to be forgiven and “declared” as righteous; this means being justified.

The way that we were justified is by Christ’s blood, by His death for our sins on the cross. In fact, Paul has shown that there is no other way to become right with God than by Christ’s death for us. Since that is true, Paul writes that it is even more true that Christ will save us from the wrath of God.

We need to be careful how we read this. Paul is not implying that there is a question about whether those in Christ will experience God’s wrathful, angry judgment on sin. Those who have expressed saving faith – true believers – absolutely will not. Instead, Paul argues that the second idea is evident once the first is accepted. Writing today, Paul might have said, “Since A is true, then B is true.” Both ideas are connected, and both are true.

In other words, those who are justified in God’s eyes, through faith in what Christ has done, will certainly never suffer God’s wrath for their sin. This is the context of Paul’s use of the word “we” in this passage: those saved by grace through faith.

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