"It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a
righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person. But God
has shown us how much he loves us -- it was while we were still sinners that Christ died
for us!" Speaking to the nation following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the event - "a day of infamy." Today,
Good Friday, the day of our Lord's crucifixion, is the ultimate day of infamy. And yet,
that which took place on that day rises above a day of infamy to become a day full of
grace. (Read Romans 5:6-8)
St. Paul, writing to the congregation of Christians in Rome, first sees through human
eyes. He says "Scarcely would one die for a righteous person." Now a
"righteous person" was considered to be one who would do what was right and
rightly demanded of him. Then Paul suggests "Perhaps for a good person one might have
the courage to die." A "good person" was considered to be one who would go
beyond the requirements for righteousness. Such would, in other words, go the second mile.
Do you get the picture? From a human point of view, dying for another is an awesome
challenge. In fact, for a "righteous person," one would not even consider it,
and for a "good person," one might have the courage to die, but never would it
be a certainty that one would do so.
Now St. Paul points to the total contrast - "While we were still sinners Christ
died for us." Catch the whole picture that St. Paul paints. "While we were still
weak" - the word "weak" rightly translates as one who is spiritually lost.
The next phrase makes this clear when Paul speaks of the "weak" as "the
ungodly." There you have it. While we were yet lost in our sinfulness, Christ died,
not just for one of us, but for ALL of us and without exception. Now that is grace. At the
cross God commended his love to us through the death of his Son. It was a vicarious death.
It was on behalf of all of us. And as the next verse that follows our text declares, we
are thus justified by the blood of Christ and saved from the wrath of God that is sure to
come.
Good Friday! Indeed it is, for it indeed is God's Friday. O the wonder of God's love!
