This being the 2nd Sunday in Lent, the readings are Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 5:1-11 and Mark 8:27-38. The text chosen to preach on is Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

While this text may be helpful to most Christians, for those uninitiated in Bible-speak, it appears that Christ’s death is somehow for us because while we were still sinners, God demonstrates His love toward us. Some have taken that to mean that God so loved us that He wanted us to follow the example of Jesus Who died and suffered for others so that we can be saved by our suffering.

The question to ask is what does it mean that “Christ died for us”? The text itself actually provides four answers. The first is Law; the last three are Gospel. The first answer as to the necessity of Christ’s death is verse 6 that Christ died for the “ungodly.” That just doesn’t mean that we are bad sinners; it also means that there was nothing we could do to get saved. Ungodly as we were and are, there was and is nothing we could do to invite, choose, decide, work, speak or think properly to climb up to heaven.

Christ HAD to die for us because there was no way that we could do anything to take care of our problem with God. But precisely what was that problem? Most people would say that sin is what separated us from God. No, verse 9 says that what really brought us under His Judgment was His wrath. Christ’s death somehow saved us from God’s wrath. How so?

The wrath is the result of the curse of the Law that in the day we sin, death is the result. God’s wrath is the spiritual death that Eve and Adam realized when they fled from the Almighty in the Garden. Jesus’ death substituted for our death in that He took upon Himself all the wrath of God that could have been leveled at us. The evidence that Jesus experienced that wrath is heard from His lips, “…why have You forsaken Me?”

Saved from His wrath means we are forgiven. But that needs to be understood with all the radical input that can be provided. Throughout the Bible, (eg. Psalm 32), being forgiven means that God is no longer holding the world accountable for sin. It was that accountability that really separated us from God. Now, according to 2 Corinthians 5, God is reconciled to you, as verse 11 reveals. No longer is the problem God–as in all other religions of Law. The problem is you and me who prefer not to be reconciled to God!

Which leads to another piece of the Gospel promises as found in verse 1 that we have “peace with God” through our Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His dying for us. This is not a peace promised between nations or quarreling family members. This is the peace between you and God. Recall the first words spoken by the angels to the shepherds and the first word of Jesus on the night of His resurrection–”Peace be to you.”

Since every Christian is a teacher-in-training, we need not just to learn about the Bible but also to teach the reason God reveals for the death of His only-begotten Son. That death was not for an example for us to follow. No, it took care of every reason for separation from the holy Trinity as Jesus became sin in order that you might be the righteousness of God in Him. That’s a Lenten theme worth sharing!