Friday, 17 January 2025

Romans part 52 - No Longer Helpless Sinners

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Romans 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly. For rarely will anyone die for a righteous man - though perhaps for a good man someone might even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.

Here we are today, praying over these three verses; asking the Lord to illuminate their meaning and deepen our understanding. Paul refers to us as "helpless ... sinners." A few things jump out at me. First, it is easy to misunderstand in what sense we are helpless. Not in the sense that we might as well give in to sin, since we are "helpless." We were helpless in the sense that we needed God's help to be healed from our sin problem. That's the point of this passage. God has provided for our healing by "demonstrating His own love for us."

I'm also intrigued in another way by these two phrases ... "we were still helpless" and "we were yet sinners." Could it be that now we are no longer helpless and no longer sinners? After all, Paul does say "we were" in both phrases.

Isaiah promises that God will help us to be righteous. Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Rabbi Trail: And don't miss this - the "Righteous Right Hand" of God is the "Arm of the Lord" of Isaiah 53:1b To whom is the arm (in Hebrew, zeroa) of Adonai revealed? In Hebrew, the hand and the arm are the same appendage; notwithstanding, there is a palm of the hand (a kaf), but this is not that. The zeroa is what we call the lamb shank bone of the seder plate. End RT.

Paul is building his argument, in Romans chapter 5, that will explode at the beginning of the next chapter ... Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? And he follows that up in his second letter to the Corinthians like this ... 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So, let's go forth in the victory of His might, no longer helpless sinners. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who keeps giving us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! Therefore, my dearly loved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord - because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Shalom shalom.