Paul in Romans 5:8 says “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
I don’t think there is a page in my Bible that is more worn out than the page that Romans 5:8 sits on. There are no more margins to write in; no more space to underline or circle words; no more colours of highlighters or pens that are not already represented and bleeding through to the following pages.
I don’t think there is a page in my Bible that is more worn out than the page that Romans 5:8 sits on.
I have been regularly living in Romans 5.8 and the surrounding verses since I began following Christ in high school. And the thing is that those words have never gotten old; they are never anything short of life-giving and completely compelling to my soul. And how could they not be life-giving and compelling?
I mean look at what Paul says.
Christ died for us while we were still sinners, which is to say that Christ didn’t die for perfect and put together (as if there are such people), He died for the weak, the wicked, the broken, the rebellious, the ungodly, and the enemies of His Kingdom. That is unreal news for people who are weak, wicked, broken, rebellious, ungodly, and sinful!
But it is not even simply that He died for us, but that His death in our place was motivated by His love for us. God showed/demonstrated/proved His love for us in that while we were still sinners, He died for us. Can you even comprehend that? Even in our brokenness, our evil, our enmity He loved us. And he loved us enough to sacrifice His only Son for us, that we could be made whole; that we could be made His.
That is great love. No wonder Paul says in Ephesians 2, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the GREAT LOVE with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (Eph. 2:4-5)
I go back to this verse every day because in my mind there is no more succinct and jaw-dropping summary of the good news of Jesus Christ in Scripture.
I go back to be walloped anew with this simple, earth-shaking truth. And I go back to re-orient my life, that I would live today in light of and be transformed by that earth-shaking truth, that at my worst Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.
