God didn't wait to pay the price
This week's Bible study is on Romans 5:6-8:
These verses demonstrate just how shocking the gospel is. Christ died for mankind before we had the Holy Spirit to help us change. We were in a pattern of sin almost as old as mankind itself. Christ chose to die for us then, in that state, not once we'd gotten better.
In our inner narrative, I think we sometimes think as though we changed first, and then Christ died to forgive us. But that's not the order in which things happened. Grace didn't wait for us to be clean to be valid. It happened while we were still filthy. It would have been pointless otherwise.
Christ helped us when we needed help, not just once we had got on our feet. We didn't even realize we needed help. If we had already gotten ourselves together, or had managed to not get into trouble in the first place, what would the point have been? What good is help for someone who is already done needing it? It's useless for anything except as a shallow token of goodwill.
Having love for someone who has their life together is easy. It's the people who are still works in progress that are difficult. It's a whole different thing to adopt a healthy child than it is to help one with problems. We've got problems.
God's love is perfect. Even in our worst state he decided we were worth keeping.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
These verses demonstrate just how shocking the gospel is. Christ died for mankind before we had the Holy Spirit to help us change. We were in a pattern of sin almost as old as mankind itself. Christ chose to die for us then, in that state, not once we'd gotten better.
In our inner narrative, I think we sometimes think as though we changed first, and then Christ died to forgive us. But that's not the order in which things happened. Grace didn't wait for us to be clean to be valid. It happened while we were still filthy. It would have been pointless otherwise.
Christ helped us when we needed help, not just once we had got on our feet. We didn't even realize we needed help. If we had already gotten ourselves together, or had managed to not get into trouble in the first place, what would the point have been? What good is help for someone who is already done needing it? It's useless for anything except as a shallow token of goodwill.
Having love for someone who has their life together is easy. It's the people who are still works in progress that are difficult. It's a whole different thing to adopt a healthy child than it is to help one with problems. We've got problems.
God's love is perfect. Even in our worst state he decided we were worth keeping.
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