Limitless Word
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
  • KJV For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
  • BSB For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, 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 2:1–5You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
  • Rom 5:8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
  • Col 2:13You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
  • Titus 3:3–5For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
  • Rom 5:10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
  • Rom 4:25who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
  • Titus 2:12instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;
  • 1 Th 5:9For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
  • Rom 4:5But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
  • Gal 4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
  • Heb 9:26or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
  • 1 Tim 1:9as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
  • 1 Pet 1:20who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
  • Jude 1:4For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
  • Ezek 16:4–8As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
  • 2 Pet 2:5–6and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
  • Jude 1:15to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
  • Rom 11:26and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
  • 2 Pet 3:7But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
  • Dan 11:15So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city: and the forces of the south shall not stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to stand.
  • Ps 1:1Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
  • Lam 1:6All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion: her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, they have gone without strength before the pursuer.
  • Jude 1:18They said to you that “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 5:6YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.