SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:6
¶ Porque el Cristo, cuando an ramos flacos, a su tiempo muri por los impíos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Romans 5:6
Verse 6. For when we were yet without strength] The apostle, having pointed out the glorious state of the believing Gentiles, takes occasion to contrast this with their former state; and the means by which they were redeemed from it. Their former state he points out in four particulars; which may be applied to men in general. I. They were asqeneiv, without strength; in a weak, dying state: neither able to resist sin, nor do any good: utterly devoid of power to extricate themselves from the misery of their situation.
II. They were asebeiv, ungodly; without either the worship or knowledge of the true God; they had not God in them; and, consequently, were not partakers of the Divine nature: Satan lived in, ruled, and enslaved their hearts.
III. They were amartwloi, sinners, ver. 8, aiming at happiness, but constantly missing the mark, which is the ideal meaning of the Hebrew afj chata, and the Greek amartanw. See this explained, Gen. xiii. 13.
And in missing the mark, they deviated from the right way; walked in the wrong way; trespassed in thus deviating; and, by breaking the commandments of God, not only missed the mark of felicity, but exposed themselves to everlasting misery.
IV. They were ecqroi enemies, ver. 10, from ecqov, hatred, enmity, persons who hated God and holiness; and acted in continual hostility to both. What a gradation is here! 1. In our fall from God, our first apparent state is, that we are without strength; have lost our principle of spiritual power, by having lost the image of God, righteousness and true holiness, in which we were created. 2. We are ungodly, having lost our strength to do good; we have also lost all power to worship God aright. The mind which was made for God is no longer his residence. 3. We are sinners; feeling we have lost our centre of rest, and our happiness, we go about seeking rest, but find none: what we have lost in losing God, we seek in earthly things; and thus are continually missing the mark, and multiplying transgressions against our Maker. 4. We are enemies; sin, indulged, increases in strength; evil acts engender fixed and rooted habits; the mind, every where poisoned with sin, increases in averseness from good; and mere aversion produces enmity; and enmity, acts of hostility, fell cruelty, &c.: so that the enemy of God hates his Maker and his service; is cruel to his fellow creatures; "a foe to God, was ne'er true friend to man;" and even torments his own soul! Though every man brings into the world the seeds of all these evils, yet it is only by growing up in him that they acquire their perfection-nemo repente fuit turpissimus-no man becomes a profligate at once; he arrives at it by slow degrees; and the speed he makes is proportioned to his circumstances, means of gratifying sinful passions, evil education, bad company, &c., &c. These make a great diversity in the moral states of men: all have the same seeds of evil- nemo sine vitiis nascitur-all come defiled into the world; but all have not the same opportunities of cultivating these seeds. Besides, as God's Spirit is continually convincing the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and the ministers of God are seconding its influence with their pious exhortations, as the Bible is in almost every house, and is less or more heard or read by almost every person, these evil seeds are receiving continual blasts and checks, so that, in many cases, they have not a vigorous growth. These causes make the principal moral differences that we find among men; though in evil propensities they are all radically the same.
That all the preceding characters are applied by some learned men to the Gentiles, exclusively as such, I am well aware; and that they may be all applied to them in a national point of view, there can be little doubt. But there are too many correspondences between the state of the modern Gentiles and that of the ancient Gentiles, to justify the propriety of applying the whole as fully to the former as to the latter. Indeed, the four particulars already explained point out the natural and practical state of every human being, previously to his regeneration by the grace and Spirit of God.
In due time Christ died for the ungodly.] This due or proper time will appear in the following particulars:-1. Christ was manifested in the flesh when the world needed him most. 2. When the powers of the human mind had been cultivated to the utmost both in Greece and Rome, and had made every possible effort, but all in vain, to find out some efficient scheme of happiness. 3. When the Jews were in the lowest state of corruption, and had the greatest need of the promised deliverer. 4. When the fullness of the time came, foretold by the prophets. 5. When both Jews and Gentiles, the one from their jealousy, the other from their learning, were best qualified to detect imposture and to ascertain fact. 6. In a word, Christ came when his advent was most likely to promote its great object-glory to God in the highest, and peace and good will among men. And the success that attended the preaching of Christ and his apostles, together with the wide and rapid spread of the Gospel, all prove that it was the due time, kata kairon, the proper season; and that Divine wisdom was justified in fixing upon that time in preference to all others.
Died for the ungodly] uper asebwn apeqane, He died INSTEAD of the ungodly, see also ver. 8; so Luke xxii. 19. The body of Christ, to uper umwn didomenon, which is given FOR you; i.e. the life that is laid down in your STEAD. In this way the preposition uper, is used by the best Greek writers.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 6. For when we were yet without strength , etc..] The apostle having mentioned the love of God proceeds to give an instance, and which is a full proof and demonstration of it, which is, that in due time Christ died for the ungodly . That Christ died is certain; the death of Christ was foretold in prophecy, typified by the sacrifices of slain beasts, was spoken of by himself, both before and since his death; his enemies have never denied it; and this was the sum of the ministry of the apostles, and is the great article of faith: and that the death of Christ is a singular instance of the love of God, is evident by considering the person that died, the Son of God in human nature, his own, his only begotten Son, his beloved Son; the concern which God had in it, by willing, ordering, and appointing it, awaking the sword of justice against him, not sparing him, but delivering him up for us all; also the nature, kind, and manner of his death, and particularly the persons for whom he died, here described: he died for the ungodly; not for himself, he had no sins of his own to die for, nor did he want any happiness to procure; nor for angels, but for men; and these not holy, just, and good men, but ungodly; and not as a mere martyr, or only by way of example to them, and so for their good; but as the Syriac version reads it, a[yr Plj , in the room, or stead of the ungodly, as their surety to make satisfaction for their sins. The Jews have a notion of the Messiah's being a substitute, and standing in the place and stead of sinners; and they say f69 , that Aaron filled up the place of the first Adam, and was brought near in the room of him; which is true of Christ, the antitype of Aaron. On those words, I will give a man for thee, ( Isaiah 43:4); the doctors say, do not read Adam, but Edom; for when God removes the decree (or punishment) from a particular man, he provides for the attribute of justice in the room of the man that sinned, wdam ab rja ya , another man that comes from Edom; referring, as I think, to ( Isaiah 63:1). And this their character of ungodly shows, that not goodness in man, but love in God, was the moving cause of Christ's dying for them; and that the end of his dying was to atone for their ungodliness: and to illustrate the love of God the more towards them in this instance, they are said to be without strength at that time; being so enfeebled by sin, that they were not capable of fulfilling the law, of atoning for the transgressions of it, of redeeming themselves from slavery, of beginning and carrying on a work of holiness their hearts, nor indeed of doing one good thing. Add to all this, that Christ died for these persons in due time; in the most fit, proper, and convenient season to illustrate the love and grace of God; when man appeared both weak and wicked; when the weakness of the legal dispensation had been sufficiently evinced, and the wickedness of man, both among Jews and Gentiles, was at a very great height: or rather by due time is meant the fulness of time, ( Galatians 4:4 Ephesians 1:10); the time appointed in council by God, agreed to by Christ, and fixed in prophecy; before the departure of the sceptre from Judah, the destruction of the second temple, and at the close of Daniel's weeks.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 6-11 - Christ died for sinners; not only such as were useless, but such a were guilty and hateful; such that their everlasting destruction woul be to the glory of God's justice. Christ died to save us, not in ou sins, but from our sins; and we were yet sinners when he died for us Nay, the carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself chap. 8:7; Col 1:21. But God designed to deliver from sin, and to wor a great change. While the sinful state continues, God loathes the sinner, and the sinner loathes God, Zec 11:8. And that for such a these Christ should die, is a mystery; no other such an instance of love is known, so that it may well be the employment of eternity to adore and wonder at it. Again; what idea had the apostle when he supposed the case of some one dying for a righteous man? And yet he only put it as a thing that might be. Was it not the undergoing thi suffering, that the person intended to be benefitted might be release therefrom? But from what are believers in Christ released by his death Not from bodily death; for that they all do and must endure. The evil from which the deliverance could be effected only in this astonishin manner, must be more dreadful than natural death. There is no evil, to which the argument can be applied, except that which the apostl actually affirms, sin, and wrath, the punishment of sin, determined by the unerring justice of God. And if, by Divine grace, they were thu brought to repent, and to believe in Christ, and thus were justified by the price of his bloodshedding, and by faith in that atonement, muc more through Him who died for them and rose again, would they be kep from falling under the power of sin and Satan, or departing finall from him. The living Lord of all, will complete the purpose of his dying love, by saving all true believers to the uttermost. Having suc a pledge of salvation in the love of God through Christ, the apostl declared that believers not only rejoiced in the hope of heaven, an even in their tribulations for Christ's sake, but they gloried in God also, as their unchangeable Friend and all-sufficient Portion, throug Christ only.
Greek Textus Receptus
ετι 2089 ADV γαρ 1063 CONJ χριστος 5547 N-NSM οντων 5607 5752 V-PXP-GPM ημων 2257 P-1GP ασθενων 772 A-GPM κατα 2596 PREP καιρον 2540 N-ASM υπερ 5228 PREP ασεβων 765 A-GPM απεθανεν 599 5627 V-2AAI-3S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
6. For the ungodly (uper asebwn). It is much disputed whether uJper on behalf of, is ever equivalent to ajnti instead of. The classical writers furnish instances where the meanings seem to be interchanged. Thus Xenophon: "Seuthes asked, Wouldst thou, Episthenes, die for this one (uper toutou)?" Seuthes asked the boy if he should smite him (Episthenes) instead of him (ant ekeinou). So Irenaeus: "Christ gave His life for (uper) our lives, and His flesh for (anti) our flesh." Plato, "Gorgias," 515, "If you will not answer for yourself, I must answer for you (uper sou)." In the New Testament Philemon 13 is cited; uJper sou, A.V., in thy stead; Rev., in thy behalf. So 1 Cor. xv. 29, "baptized for the dead (uper twn nekrwn)." The meaning of this passage, however, is so uncertain that it cannot fairly be cited in evidence. The preposition may have a local meaning, over the dead. 34 None of these passages can be regarded as decisive. The most that can be said is that uJper borders on the meaning of ajnti. Instead of is urged largely on dogmatic grounds. In the great majority of passages the sense is clearly for the sake of, on behalf of. The true explanation seems to be that, in the passages principally in question, those, namely, relating to Christ's death, as here, Gal. iii. 13; Rom. xiv. 15; 1 Pet. iii. 18, uJper characterizes the more indefinite and general proposition - Christ died on behalf of - leaving the peculiar sense of in behalf of undetermined, and to be settled by other passages. The meaning instead of may be included in it, but only inferentially. 35 Godet says: "The preposition can signify only in behalf of. It refers to the end, not at all to the mode of the work of redemption." Ungodly. The radical idea of the word is, want of reverence or of piety.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
5:6 {For} (eti gar). So most documents, but B reads ei ge which Westcott and Hort use in place of gar. {While we were yet weak} (ontwn hemwn asqenwn eti). Genitive absolute. The second eti (yet) here probably gave rise to the confusion of text over eti gar above. {In due season} (kata kairon). Christ came into the world at the proper time, the fulness of the time (#Ga 4:4; Eph 1:10; Tit 1:3). {I or the ungodly} (huper aseb"n). In behalf, instead of. See about huper on #Ga 3:13 and also verse #7 here.
