Sunday 23 Sep 2012

Sunday Reading: Romans 5:6-11

Key Verse: Romans 5:8
8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Devotion:
If there is one thing that should stand out about God’s love toward us is that it was there before we knew it. Love is not one of those things that should be counted or measured on the outside; if we were to try to account for it in some manner then we should maybe look at how it has stood over time because our failings are measured over time and that is what we would compare things to.

When we look at love and how it should be defined we always seem to come down to time because we see everything through these “time tinted eyes”. If it is going to last for a length of time then we think maybe it is worth looking into, but if it is going to break down over time then why should we be worrying about it? The same cannot be said about God’s love because the roots of His love do not come from time or within time but reach down into time from above. God’s love has always been because He is eternal. Before we were, His love for us existed – why else would He have continued to create us unless that love was to be realised?

But when we start to look into God and His Holiness, we begin to realise that we do not have any place in His life because of our sin nature and because of our sinful ways. And yet His love for us was there! Yes it does matter that we are sinners because that does separate us from God, but His love reaches down to us in this state that we are in and encourages us to come through Christ for forgiveness. Christ came to this earth to lay His life down for us so that our sins could be forgiven; that is the only way that we can get to be with God.

It is because of what Christ has shown us, what He has done for us, that we are able to come to God. We start off in our weakened state because we have already given in to sin; there is no way that we ourselves can win against that weakness. God knew that! That is why Christ came to lift us up, so that we can realise just how deep and without limit His love for us is. When we realise that we have the wherewithal to be lifted up.

Points to Ponder:
How many times could you lift yourself up before you fail?

How deep has God’s love already come for you?