Communion: At the right time (Rom 5:6,8)

AT THE RIGHT TIME (Rom 5:6,8)

pdf

Dr. Paul Manuel—2007

We live in a time-conscious society, where much of life runs on a schedule. We have to be here or there at a certain time in order to get this or that accomplished before we move to the next appointed task. Some things are flexible, in that it matters little if we are early or late (e.g., doctor appointments). Other things, though, are on a strict timetable, and to deviate even a little would cause a problem. How would you feel...

• If the airplane you booked left fifteen minutes before you arrived at the gate?
• If your dinner guests came thirty minutes after the meal was out of the oven and on the table?
• If the electricity went off while you were watching the season finale of your favorite T.V. program?

The Greek poet Hesiod (c. 700 BCE) said, "right timing is in all things the most important factor" (The Theogony I. 694, quoted in Bartlett 1992:55), which has entered modern parlance in the abridged version, "timing is everything."

 

God is also concerned about timing, and His timing is impeccable. That is, when He decides to do something, it is never too early or too late but always "at just the right time." Because God does not necessarily explain His actions to us, much of what He does or why He does it remains a mystery. There is one event, though, that the apostle Paul explains in his letter to the church at Rome, an event

whose timing was crucial to its success and critical to our salvation. He says in...

Rom 5:6 ...at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.... 8b ...God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We do not normally regard a person's death as timely, because the end of life signals the end of a person's productivity. When he has "shuffled off this mortal coil" (Shakespeare, Hamlet III, I, 56; quoted in Bartlett 1992:196), sometimes prematurely, before reaching his "threescore years and ten" (Ps 90:10). Then, especially, we regard such a person's death as untimely. Many in Jesus' day probably viewed his death that way, as untimely. Killed in his early thirties when his career had only just begun—it was the tragic loss of a promising figure. What made Jesus' death different, though, was that it was not about him, about what he lost; it was about us, about what we gained.

 

So, what made Jesus' death timely? Why did he come in the first century and not in some other century? All we can say is that "the right time" is when "the Providence of God and the history of man" came together. Whatever the specific reason, Paul's concern is about what God saw in us and about what we should see in ourselves, a condition that cut us off from God and that would not have improved without His intervention. No matter how long we worked on it or how hard we tried, Paul notes that we faced two obstacles.

 

The first obstacle we could not overcome was that...

• We were still powerless (helpless, incapable, impotent).

We could not save ourselves. Having turned from God, we became "ungodly" and could not simply retrace our steps back to Him. Repairing the damage we caused to that relationship required a powerful remedy, much more than we could muster. Even sacrificing our own life would have been insufficient; our condition demanded the death of God's son. Thankfully, Jesus "did not wait for us to start helping ourselves, but died for us when we were altogether helpless" (Cranfield 1980 1:264). The first obstacle was that we were still powerless.

 

The second obstacle we could not overcome was that...

• We were still sinful (unworthy, defiled, wicked, corrupt).

We had fallen, and we could not get up. Again, God did not wait to intervene until we got our act together, until we were good enough to deserve His help. Were that the case, the cross would not yet have happened, and He would still be waiting (as would we). There was no incentive for Him to act on our behalf. Jesus did not die for us "because we were Jews or Greeks, rich or poor, [certainly not because we were] righteous or good, but [because we were] sinners" (Robertson 1931 4:357), and the sole motivation for that selfless act was love. The second obstacle we could not overcome was that we were still sinful.

 

As you observe Communion today, remember whence you came. What were you when Jesus saved you? You were certainly not in a strong negotiating position. You were powerless and sinful, completely undeserving of anything God offered. Yet in His love, and "at just the right time," He sent His son to change that.

 

Elsewhere in Paul's epistles, he repeats this interest in God's timing. In a letter to Timothy (NAS), the apostle again mentions Jesus' death but says the same timetable applies to Jesus' return.

1 Tim 2:6 [Jesus] gave Himself as a ransom for all...at the proper time.

A few chapters later, Paul says...

1 Tim 6:14b [T]he appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15a IGod] will [also] bring about at the proper time.

Communion is the celebration of God's timing, that His son came when we needed him most, and it is the anticipation of God's timing, that His son will return, again, when we need him most.

For the Endnotes see the pdf here.