Romans 5

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (verse 8)

Christ died for us, and He died for us while we were still sinners. He did not wait for us to “clean up our act” enough for us to love Him – we could never clean up our act enough for that. Instead, He came and died for us while we were filthy, diseased, wretched sinners, rebels against His rule, and He rescued us, reconciling us to God the Father by His death.

It is so tempting to attempt to get to God by our own works – after all, that is what the religions of the world are based on: do enough good works, make enough sacrifices at the altar, and maybe, just maybe, God will accept us.

But Christianity is different. Christianity is not us reaching up to God, it is Him reaching down to us. It is us being saved to do good works for God’s glory, not being saved by our works for our glory. God is first and foremost in the world, and one of the ways that He shows this is by dying for us, showing that only His perfect death can turn away His wrath from us unrighteous sinners, and make us pure and blameless in His sight.

Oh LORD, thank You that You died on the cross for me, while I was a sinner, that You did not expect me to fix my life first, but that You came down and rescued me. I thank and praise You in Jesus’ name.