Christ's Sacrificial Love

“For Christ, while we are still infirm, still in accord with the era, for the sake of the irreverent, died. For hardly for the sake of a just man will anyone be dying: for, for the sake of a good man, perhaps someone may even be daring to die, yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes.” (Romans 5:6-8)

While we were immersed in our sins, God loved us so much that He had His Son—His very image—die for us and give Himself up for our sakes. He gave of Himself sacrificially while we were entrenched deep in our wrongdoings.

Christ held nothing back.

He didn’t tell us to get our act together first.

Christ didn’t call us to righteousness before He gave Himself up for us.

He didn’t yell, point His fingers at us and tell us that if we straightened up then He might decide to die for our sake because then we might be worth His effort.

Christ did it beforehand.

We were considered worthy of His full effort before we straightened up.

We were worthy of His effort while we were still dirty, soiled, and unable to help ourselves out of our own muck.

He considered us worthy of His sacrificial love while we were still content to live and breathe and lie in our own mess.

Christ’s cost: priceless…beyond our capacity to fully understand.

Our cost: zero.

“While we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes”

For those who follow after Christ, for those who’s Lord in this life is Christ…that is the kind of love we are called to embrace others with…

“…because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”