For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Parallel translations
- WEB For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
- BSB For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
- NKJV For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
- NASB For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
- NLT When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
At the right time Christ died for the ungodly while we were still helpless. His death was for those who could not save themselves.
Overview
Paul grounds the assurance of God's love in the cross: 'at the right time' in God's plan, Christ died for the 'ungodly' who were spiritually 'weak' and powerless. This emphasizes the unmerited nature of grace, for Christ died not for the deserving but for the helpless. It is the supreme proof of the love just mentioned in verse 5.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Eph 2:1–5And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
- Rom 5:8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- Col 2:13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
- Titus 3:3–5For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- Rom 5:10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
- Rom 4:25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
- Titus 2:12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
- 1 Th 5:9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
- Rom 4:5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
- Gal 4:4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
- Heb 9:26For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- 1 Tim 1:9Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
- 1 Pet 1:20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
- Jude 1:4For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Ezek 16:4–8And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
- 2 Pet 2:5–6And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- Jude 1:15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
- Rom 11:26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
- 2 Pet 3:7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
- Dan 11:15So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.
- Ps 1:1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
- Lam 1:6And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
- Jude 1:18How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 5:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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