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In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are in Rom 5:6; with the phrase "while we were still helpless."
The present active participle of "eimi" (were)) is in the genitive case, it is a retroactive progressive present tense that describes what started in the past and continues into the present time so it means "we keep on being."
The active voice: mankind produces the action. This is a temporal participle that is translated "while we were" from the possessive genitive plural of the personal pronoun "ego" (we) referring to the entire human race.
The personal pronoun emphasizes the fact that if we are ever going to understand what grace is all about and haven't understood it based on the cross we aren't going to understand it or the Christian way of life.
"We" is emphasized so we must learn and understand and accept the absolute reality that from God's point of view we are weak. From God's point of view we are weak, we are helpless, we are hopeless, we are useless, and that means that are totally unable to solve our problem of spiritual death apart from God.
So we have the genitive plural of "asthesia" (weak or powerless) it is a reference to lack of inherent or acquired ability that can be used for us to enter into a relationship with God's perfect integrity.
There is no plan or system of self-righteousness whereby we can impress God in order to be saved. In status quo of unbelief we are in the status of spiritual death and have no relationship with God's integrity and no way to acquire a relationship with God on our own.
The second word that is used to describe us is "asebes" (ungodly). It means godless, impious, and irreverent. It is a technical term for unbelieving humanity that emphasizes spiritual death that has no relationship with God's integrity and no way to establish without God's grace.
In verse 8 we are also called "hamartolos" (sinners), an adjective that is used as a substantive that emphasizes man's failure to conform to or be compatible with God's perfect righteousness.
It presents the problem of God's integrity where a relationship with us is concerned because God's integrity is comprised of His perfect righteousness and justice and He cannot have anything to do with unrighteousness.
There is no way that perfect God can have a relationship with unrighteous sinning man on the basis of what man can do and not be compromised.
In verse 10 we have the fourth description of mankind as "echthros" (enemies). This word emphasizes that there is a barrier between God and man that can only be removed by an intermediary under the principles of redemption and reconciliation.
So we have "eti" "yet (yet) while we were helpless" Then we have a repetition of the adverb "eti" (yet) that emphasizes not what we are but what Christ did for us. So it is repeated, "yet Christ died for the ungodly."
The verb "apothenesko" (died) is taken from the end of the verse because that is where the verb connects with the subject "Christos" (Christ) then the aorist active indicative of the verb "apothnesko" (died) emphasizing the intensity of our Lord's spiritual death on the cross.
It is used with the substitutionary preposition "hyper" (for or on behalf of) that refers to His spiritual death. The aorist tense of "apothnesko" (died) is a constantive aorist that gathers into one entirety the entire three hours on the cross when all of mankind's sins were poured out upon Jesus Christ's and God's justice judged all of them.
This judgment included Jesus Christ not only bearing our sins but it included everything necessary for the entire human race to be saved.
The active voice tells us that Christ produced the action of the verb of being judged in place of humanity. The indicative mood declares a dogmatic statement of fact.
Next comes "in due time" the preposition "kata" (at) plus the accusative of "kairo" (time), an idiom meaning at the right time. God's timing is always perfect, so this was at the perfect time.
"for the ungodly" the preposition "huper" (for) plus the ablative of "asebes" (ungodly).
"Huper plus the ablative of "asebes" is substitutionary so it can be translated in at least four ways: "for the sake of the ungodly"; "on behalf of the ungodly"; "instead of the ungodly"; or "in place of the ungodly."
Expanded Translation Rom 5:6; "Yet in fact, Christ, while we were weak, yet he died at the right time in place of the ungodly."
This describes Jesus Christ's substitutionary spiritual death not His physical death.
We see in this verse that the judgment of Christ for our sins on the cross occurred exactly at the right time in history. God is perfect, so His timing is perfect. That means that God is never early or late, He is always right on time.
God's time is the only time; God's timing is the best time. Man is imperfect so man's timing is imperfect. The only way to be on God's time is to adjust to God's justice on the basis of His grace so that your time is in accord with God's perfect timing.
Verses 7 and 8 are a parenthetical that uses motivation to describe an analogy. Verse 7 describes human motivation in physical death and verse 8 describes God's motivation for resolving mankind's spiritual death.
This is a representative analogy rather than an exact analogy. Human motivation regarding physical death for another person is described in verse 7 and it is compared to God's motivation for resolving the problem of spiritual death for the entire human race in verse 8.
Rom 5:7; "For one will hardly die for a righteous man" In the Greek the first word is an adverb of function, "molis" (hardly) indicates that it can be done and it has been done but it is rarely done. It could be translated, "Only rarely."