Think About It

As horrible as was the cross, it is still the most powerful image of the love of God for each one of us.  As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, it is understandable that someone might die for a good person, but it is not easy to figure how someone would die for a person who had chosen to waste his or her life.  One might choose to die to save a child, but who would choose to die for a serial killer, an abuser of others, and someone guilty of the worst kinds of sins against good people.  It would be an one thing to die to save a great peacemaker and still another to die for a terrorist.

 

What the Apostle Paul wrote is an amazing truth about God's love.  In verse 8 of chapter 5 he wrote, "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."  Think about that single word for a moment.  God does not wait until we are good to love us.  He does not wait for us to prove we are worthy of His love.  He does not allow our sins, no matter how terrible they might be, to keep Him from loving us.  In fact what the Word says is that even while we were choosing the way of the evil one, He was loving us.  Think about it for a moment.  There has never been a time in our lives that God was not loving us.  Even in the worst day we have lived as a sinner, even when we disappointed Him the most, He was loving us.

 

Is that not what Simon Peter learned that morning on the beach when he had breakfast with the  risen Lord?  Three times Jesus asked Peter about his love for Him.  Three times.  Surely, it was not lost on Peter that he had very recently denied Jesus three times.  Jesus was intentionally bringing that moment to mind, not to condemn Peter, but to let Peter know he was forgiven and still loved.  Think about it a moment.  He does the same thing for us.