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. – Romans 5:6-8
While we might readily acknowledge that we are powerless to change our condition and that we were indeed ungodly, we struggle to admit the third truth – that we were sinners.
I may make a few mistakes but I’m not a bad person. It’s why we can sing Amazing Grace without really thinking about the words …
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”
None of us like to think about how wretched we are.
We’d rather live in the self-delusion that compared to others we aren’t all that bad. We go to great lengths to look and feel good about ourselves. We exercise and diet to lose weight so we’ll look good in shorts. We put makeup on in the morning so that we look good when we get to work.
The reality is … we’re like this guy.
We see what we want to see … but not what God sees.
The truth is, we are sinners. We miss the mark. We fall short of our own expectations, not to mention the expectations of God.
Which makes this truth about God so incredible – he loved us while we were still sinners.
God didn’t ask us us to clean up or straighten up. He loved us when we were unlovely.
Powerless. Ungodly. Sinners.
Loved. Forgiven. Set free!