Romans 5:6-11

“While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation” (RSV).

Comment:

Paul is here writing to a community of believers in Rome, to tell them that he is planning to visit, and in hopes that they will sponsor his planned missionary work into Spain. He is concerned, first, to counteract some of the “negative press” he's been receiving concerning his beliefs and, second, to clearly set forth his understanding of the ministry and message of Jesus Christ—an understanding that is in some significant ways at odds with that of the church in Jerusalem.

His central point in Chapters 3 and 4 has been that we are not “justified”—brought into conformity with the energy of God—through acts of obedience to pre-established law, but through faith in the Christ, the indwelling creative power taught and demonstrated by Jesus. As he states at the beginning of Chapter 5, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is, by demonstrating the Christ power, and calling us to do the same, he has opened the door to a new understanding of our relationship to God.

Now, in 5:6-11, Paul is explaining his understanding of the significance of the death of Jesus. To say that “Christ died for us” is true, but somewhat misleading. First of all, the Christ, the eternal Presence of the divine, cannot “die.” Second, the point is not that Jesus Christ died for our sins, but that Jesus Christ moved through the experience of death to prove decisively that it is merely an illusion—in hopes that he could thereby dissolve our collective fear of death, which is the greatest obstacle to our spiritual maturity. So to answer your question, the demonstration of Jesus Christ “saves us” by showing us the illusory nature of death, freeing us from any sense of being limited to our physical selves.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed