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
What does it mean to be ungodly? It’s really not all that complex. It simply means to be unlike God. But it does go deeper than that.
Imagine a child wandering into The Louvre in Paris with a Sharpie and drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa.
What would you call that? A mistake? A felony?
One appropriate word would be desecration. At its core, desecration is a failure to respect a masterpiece, to not respect or uphold what is sacred.
From the earliest pages of Scripture we learn that we are made in the image of God. The original creation was a masterpiece. But our willful rebellion and disobedience failed to respect the sacred within us and we ruined what God has wonderfully created.
At some point in each of our lives, we failed to honor and recognize God for who he is.
We were ungodly.
Yet, although we were nothing like God, he loved us anyway. That’s why God is God and we’re not. We normally love those who love us. Not God. He loved those who didn’t love him — who were unlike him.
———- For Further Reflection ———-