Hangin' Out in Karongue

Hangin' Out in Karongue

Friday, June 3, 2011

God's Love Inspired Grace

I have recently been thinking much about the love of God and the grace of God. And it seems to me that God wants to prove His love for us by demonstrating His grace toward us. Throughout Scripture it is as if He is saying, "You know that I love you when you see that I have shown you grace."

That truth is seen in Romans 5:8 where the Apsotle Paul writes, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There are many ways that God could have inspired Paul to write that verse. He could have simply said, "God demonstrates His love for us in that Christ died for us." If that would have been how Romans 5:8 was written then it would have still been amazingly true and would have been infinitely worthy of our praising God for all eternity.

But Paul adds a phrase that magnifies God’s grace. He says that God shows His love toward us in that "while we were still sinners" Jesus died for us. That phrase magnifies God's grace toward us in that it shows us love inspired grace. Jesus did not just die, He died while we were rebels, while we did not love God, while we had nothing good in us, while we were deserving of nothing but hell and punishment, while we were going our own way, while we could care less about God, while we were committing sin after sin against the God of the universe, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus did the dying and the saving while we still did not deserve it.

That is grace. And that is how you know that God loves you: you know that God loves you when He shows you grace like that. It is one thing to see love; it is a more amazing thing to see grace-filled love!

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