Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.*
Jesus didn’t die for the righteous. He didn’t come for the righteous. He was righteous and lived a righteous life, but there were no other righteous but him. Not one. All had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
He came for the sinner. He died for sinners. All sinners. The whole world full of sinners, past present and future.
‘The death that he died, he died to sin once for all’. Once. For all. For all sinners. For all the world.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
We died with Christ. While we were yet sinners. “Even when we were dead in sins, [God] has made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). The world died in him. He died for the world. Once. For all.
*Romans 6:8-11
Steve Rowe 