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"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:7-8, ESV)
Transparency moment: this one is hard for me, because a lot of my story is trying to "earn" God's love and kindness. I got saved on May 25, 2014. Now, I was born in September of 1992 to a great and godly family. Why was there such a "delay" in my salvation story?
Effort.
I thought that my effort and obedience to rules was something that could make me finally earn the salvation that I had heard about for my whole life. I knew the verses. I could tell you some of the verses we have looked at this week, John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8, but I had a hard time accepting the truth that God loved me and that to receive salvation, I needed to accept the gift. However the biggest hurdle for me was Romans 5:8.
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Instead of grace and love, this verse made me feel shamed and unlovable. I thought that God certainly couldn't love me because of my sinfulness and disobedience. Upon salvation, this verse has become one of the most humbling for me. I realized that the grace, mercy, and love of God has nothing to do with my efforts or intentions, but it has ALL to do with the undeserved loving kindness of our holy God who made the first effort and reached out in love and grace to every human that has ever existed on the planet.
What about you? What feelings come up in you when you read Romans 5:8? Do you feel shamefulness because of different sin struggles? Do you feel embarrassed because of your sins?
The good news of the Gospel is that Christ died for those sins! Romans 5:8 is not meant to shame us but to give us encouragement! When we feel like we are unlovable and furthest away from God, He is there, still loving us, offering us mercy and forgiveness! CHRIST DIED FOR US!
He didn't choose just our "small sins" or "certain sins" to die for, He died for ALL OF THEM. He knows all of them and paid the penalty for all of them.
Let our response to Romans 5:8 be joy, gratitude, thankfulness, and wonder. Christ, the perfect Son of God, died for all of humankind, even when we were at our worst and most sinful.
Christ, the perfect Son of God, did not stay dead, but the sacrifice for those sins was accepted by the Father, and Jesus was raised from the grave, triumphant over sin and death – OUR sin and death. Let our response be praise because of the beautiful truth that,
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
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