Origen, on Rom 5:6

“For why did Christ, when as yet we were weak, according to the time, die for the ungodly?”

“In order to show more fully what power the love which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit has, Paul expounds the way we ought to understand it by teaching us that Christ died not for the godly but for the ungodly. For we were ungodly before we turned to God, and Christ died for us before we believed. Undoubtedly he would not have done this unless either he himself or God the Father, who gave up his only begotten Son for the redemption of the ungodly, had superabundant love toward us.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.