Monday 30th March
Read Romans 5:6-8
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIVUK)
Actions speak louder than words. Or, in Paul’s thinking, actions speak as loud as feelings. God has poured out His love in our hearts by His Spirit (v5). But He has also demonstrated His love for us in actions. He died for us. The cross is the fullest and most perfect declaration of love one can conceive of.
Paul wrote to the Galatian believers explaining that God sent His son in the fulness of time, at the perfect time in history, to save us. Here he intends something more than just that here. The ‘right time’ was when we were weak and powerless. Before we had ‘sorted ourselves out’. Whilst we were still incapacitated by sin. He loved us when we were at our ugliest.
Brides prepare themselves for their wedding day with the utmost care and attention. They seek to make themselves as beautiful as possible for the moment in which they declare their love. They do this for their future spouse. The temptation is that we seek to approach God in the same way. We seek to make ourselves worthy of being loved before we commit.
Jesus declared His love for us when we were unlovable, filthy and squalid – and then he begins making us beautiful…
“…, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) (NIVUK)
