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I. THE CONDITION OF THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED.

1. They were "without strength."(1) Legally. Before God's bar man had a weak case.

(a) We could not deny the charge that we had broken the law.

(b) We could not set up an alibi.(c) We could not make apologies, for we have sinned wilfully, repeatedly, without any necessity, with divers aggravations, deliberately and presumptuously, when we knew the penalty. So weak was our case that no advocate who understood it would have ventured to plead it, except that one glorious Advocate who pleaded it at the cost of His own life.

(2) Morally. We are so weak by nature that we are swayed by every influence which assails us. At one time man is driven by fashion; at another he is afraid of his fellow men. Then the evil spirit comes upon him, or if the devil should let him alone, his own heart suffices. The pomp of this world, the lust of the eye, the pride of life — any of these things will drive men about at random. Nothing seems to be too wicked, too insane, for mankind. Man is morally weak — a poor, crazy child. He has lost that strong hand of a well-trained perfect reason which God gave him at the first.

(3) Spiritually. When man disobeyed he died spiritually. The blessed Spirit left him. Man is dead in sin. He cannot rise to God any more than the dead in the grave can come out of their sepulchres of themselves and live.

2. They were "ungodly," i.e., men without God. God is not —

(1) In their thoughts.

(2) In their hearts. If they do remember Him, they do not love Him.

(3) In their fears.

(4) In their hopes. Christ came to save the very vilest of the vile.

II. WHEN CHRIST INTERPOSED TO SAVE US. In "due time," i.e., at a proper period. There was no accident about it. Sin among mankind in general had reached a climax.

1. There never was a more debauched age. It is impossible to read chap. Romans 1. without feeling sick at the depravity it records. Their own satirists said that there was no new vice that could be invented. Even Socrates and Solon practised vices which I dare not mention in any modest assembly. But it was when man had got to his worst that Christ was lifted up to be a standard of virtue — to be a brazen serpent for the cure of the multitudes who everywhere were dying of the serpent's bites.

2. Christ came at a time when the wisdom of man had got to a great height. Philosophers were seeking to dazzle men with their teaching, but the bulk of their teaching was foolishness, couched in paradoxical terms to make it look like wisdom. "The world by wisdom knew not God."

3. But, surely, man had a religion! He had; but the less we say about it the better. Holy rites were acts of flagrant sin. The temples were abominable, and the priests were abominable beyond description. And where the best part of man, his very religion, had become so foul, what could we expect of his ordinary life? But was there not a true religion in the world somewhere? Yes, but among the Jews tradition had made void the law of God, and ritualism had taken the place of spiritual worship. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not as other men were, when he had got in his pocket the deeds of a widow's estate of which he had robbed her. The Sadducee was an infidel. The best men of the period in Christ's days said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth!" Now, it was when men had got to this pitch that Christ came to die for them. If He had launched His thunderbolts at them, or swept the whole race away, none could have blamed Him. But, instead of that, the pure and Holy One came down to earth Himself to die, that these wretches — yea, that we ourselves — might live through Him.

III. WHAT DID HE DO FOR US?

1. He made the fullest degree of sacrifice that was possible. He made the heavens, and yet He lay in Bethlehem's manger. He hung the stars in their places, and laid the beams of the universe, and yet became a carpenter's son; and then when He grew up He consented to be the servant of servants. When at last He gave His life, "It is finished," said He; self-sacrifice had reached its climax; but He could not have saved us if He had stopped short of that.

2. In the fact that Christ's self-sacrifice went so far I see evidence of the extreme degree of our need. Would He, who is "God over all, blessed forever," have come from the height of heaven and have humbled Himself even to the death, to save us, if it had not been a most terrible ruin to which we were subject?

3. This death of Christ was the surest way of our deliverance. The just dies for the unjust, the offended Judge Himself suffers for the offence against His own law.

IV. WHAT THEN?

1. Then sin cannot shut any man out from the grace of God if he believes. The man says, "I am without strength." Christ died for us when we were without strength. The man says, "I am ungodly." Christ died for the ungodly.

2. Then Jesus will never cast away a believer for his after sins, for if when we were without strength He died for us, if, when we were ungodly, He interposed on our behalf, will He leave us now that He has made us godly (ver. 10)?

3. Then every blessing any child of God can want he can have. He that spared not His own Son when we were without strength and ungodly, cannot deny us inferior blessings now that we are His own dear children.

4. Then how grateful we ought to be!

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

WEB: For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.