While We Were Still Weak

Observe the time words in Romans 5:6-11. Paul is unusually precise about when things happened. Christ died at just the right time. He died while we were still powerless, still sinners, still enemies. Three descriptions of our condition, each one worse than the last, and each one placed before the cross rather than after it. The love came first. The change in us came second.

Interpret this in light of Paul's small illustration in verse 7. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person; for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. Human sacrifice, when it happens, tends to be for people who seem worth it. God's love runs the other way. It was demonstrated toward people who had nothing to recommend them. That is what makes it a demonstration and not a reward.

Then Paul reasons from the greater to the lesser in verses 9 and 10. If God did the hard thing, reconciling enemies by the death of his Son, he will certainly do the easier thing, saving friends by the life of his Son. The logic is meant to be reassuring. The past is the guarantee of the future.

Apply it by noticing where you still try to make yourself acceptable before you approach God. Where in your life do you act as though God loved you because you improved, rather than that you improved because God loved you? What would change in your prayers this week if you began from verse 8 instead of from your own record? Who is someone you find hard to love, and what would it mean to love them while they are still what they are?