Because we were still sinners God, to put us together with him in love, had Christ die for us.
—Paul,
This idea that Jesus died to save sinners, not righteous people, doesn’t pack the wallop it used to.
It used to. Used to be a huge scandal. Pharisees figured they were gonna be saved because they followed the Law. Gentiles figured they were gonna be saved because they didn’t outrage the gods. Even many pagans still assume if they’re “good people”—however they personally define “good”—they’re automatically going to heaven, ’cause heaven is for good people.
But times have changed. The older generation of pagans still assume “good” merits heaven. The current generation, more and more, assume suffering merits heaven. And to their minds, sinning and suffering go hand-in-hand.
People believe there’s merit in suffering.
In ancient times, suffering meant the gods had cursed you. That was the worldview of Job’s friends: “You’re suffering. Well, you must’ve done something to deserve it. Repent and God’ll take away the suffering.”
The Greeks and Romans figured people suffered because they’d offended the gods—they’d dared to flaunt their independence of the gods, or broken one of the gods’ rules, or did something even the less-than-moral gods found outrageous. (The Norse and Egyptian gods were more moral, so divine displeasure was more explainable.) The Hindus figured people suffered because of bad karma, past-life evil deeds they now had to make up for. And the Chinese figured people suffered because their lives were out of harmony with the will of heaven.
Christianity teaches otherwise. Suffering has nothing to do with rightness or wrongness. Proverbs teaches, all things being equal, the wicked and foolish suffer. Ecclesiastes teaches, all things being equal, anybody can suffer. And Jesus teaches his followers that in this world, we’ll suffer. It’s part of life. Blessed are those who suffer for doing good, not so much for doing evil.
And Buddhism teaches otherwise: Life is suffering, and the goal is to overcome it. There, Christianity agrees, but where we part with Buddhism is how we overcome it: Christianity through the power of God, and Buddhism through eliminating all our desires. I’m biased in favor of Christianity, if the blog’s name More Christ didn’t tip you off. But eliminating our sinful desires actually does help eliminate suffering a great deal.
Problem is, thanks to the prevalence of Christians, many of us, including many pagans, recognize that putting up with suffering—whether it’s for a good cause, or even just ’cause life is suffering—is good and righteous. Not fun, of course; not something we want to seek out. (Although there are masochists who are into that kind of thing.) But suffering is seen as noble. Not a sign of divine displeasure. Not a sign of bad karma. Now, if you never overcome it, social Darwinists will hold it against you—but if you do, they’ll never stop praising you for it.
So when pagans hear that Jesus died for sinners, it fits right in perfectly with their worldview: They believe people sin, not because they’re inherently sinful, but because their suffering leads them to sin. And God wants to help them. So of course Jesus died for sinners. Who better? Certainly not all those self-righteous would-be saints who think they’re better than regular people.
If this worldview surprises you… well, it did me when I first ran into it. But it actually makes it easier to share Jesus with people, so I’m not complaining.
Sympathy for the suffering.
If you ever watch competition shows or sporting events, sometimes the producers will profile one of the athletes or contestants, and tell their inspiring story. And by “inspiring,” they often mean “sad.” This person has struggled.
Despite their talent—which is why they’re on the show in the first place—they’ve had hard times. Years of poverty. Illnesses they overcame. Military relatives deployed for years. A long, long time with success always eluding them. Some sort of struggle.
Producers do this because it makes viewers sympathetic to the contestants. “Aw, look at the poor little guy. Wouldn’t it be nice if she won.” These contestants might be talented enough to win, but the producers want to get people to want them to win, ’cause they deserve some good fortune after such a rough life.
If they didn’t have a rough life? ’Cause you know some of the contestants were raised rich, or upper middle-class. They went to all the best performing arts schools, or hired the best coaches and trainers, and even had a bit of professional success before they joined the competition. But if the viewers knew it, they wouldn’t be as sympathetic. Talented or not, they’ll think, “They’re doing just fine without this show. They don’t deserve to win. Let the hard-luck case—let the underdog—win.” People love to see underdogs win. (Even though few of us watch literal dogfights anymore.)
We’re so used to these sob stories, whenever we’re in any sort of competition—for a job, for a scholarship, for a position, in a contest—we often try to paint ourselves as one of these hard-luck cases. Even when we totally don’t deserve it, when we’ve lived an utterly privileged life thus far: We accentuate the negative.
So to tell people, “Jesuss died for sinners” works for them. Of course he did. Those poor sinners need all the help they can get.
Well, unless they’re murderers or rapists or child molesters, or just mean people in general. Pagans are totally fine with them going to hell. Which shows the deficiency in their worldview.
Correcting the wrong ideas.
Still, there are plenty of pagans out there who have the same view as the ancients: Good people deserve saving—so be good, and merit your salvation. Paul grew up Pharisee, and used to have the same view. But then Christ Jesus appeared to him, right as he was headed to Damascus to persecute Jesus’s people. So he knew from experience that Christ Jesus came to save sinners—and he, the rottenest apple in the barrel.
It wasn’t out of merit. We hadn’t done anything for God yet.
When Christ died when he did for the ungodly, we were weak. People will rarely die for a right-minded person; for a good person, maybe they’ll risk death. Because we were still sinners God, to put us together with him in love, had Christ die for us.
—Paul,
Yeah, we had potential, and some Arminians teach God saves us because he foresees our potential. But they’d be wrong. ’Cause that potential comes entirely from God: We’d be nothing without him. God doesn’t save us because of past merit (which we don’t have), or future merit (which he grants us, so once again, we don’t have it). He saves us solely because he loves us.
When God saved the Hebrews from Egypt, there’s no evidence he’d done it because they followed him in Egypt. There’s plenty more evidence they hadn’t followed him in Egypt; their behavior after the Exodus shows they were the least obedient, least grateful, least deserving freed slaves in history. Like Moses said,
- “For to your LORD God, you’re a holy nation.
- Your LORD God chooses you to be his treasure
- from all the nations on the face of the earth.
- The LORD doesn’t love and choose you
- because you outnumber other nations;
- you’re smaller than all nations.
- The LORD loves you and keeps his oath
- which he swore to your ancestors:
- The LORD took you out with a strong hand,
- and ransomed you from slavery’s house,
- from Pharaoh’s hand,
from Egypt’s king.”—Moses,
- Your LORD God chooses you to be his treasure
God saved the Hebrews for the same reason he saved us: Love. His love. His unmerited, undeserved, generous love. Nothing more.
Not, like today’s pagans think, because we’re suffering, and pathetic, and got his sympathy. That’s just another way of earning it—and we didn’t earn it. It’s entirely grace.
It’s why this is a good memory verse. It reminds us of God’s love, and his grace. We didn’t earn it. We can’t un-earn it. He helped us when we were down. He’ll help us again when we’re down again. Grace upon grace.
Other translations.
Original. Synístisin de tin ehaftú agápin eis imás o Theós, óti éti amartolón ónton imón Hristós ypér imón apéthanen.
Geneva Bible. But God setteth out his love towards us, seeing that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
King James. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
New Revised Standard. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
New Living. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Even more translations are at Bible Gateway.