Today’s Bible Gateway verse of the day describes an aspect of God’s love that I wish I was eloquent enough to adequately write about. Drink this in:

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 man, though for a good man 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 (NIV)

“Very rarely will anyone die . . .” – so true. Martyrdom is a rare thing. I’ve often wondered how I will react if ever given the chance to lay my life down for another. My great fear is that I will not act as Christ did, but will rather desire my own life above all others. I hope not! As Paul points out, very rarely will anyone die, even for someone who deserves to be saved.

What then can we make of God’s sacrifice for us? I’m afraid that I can’t fathom it. At all! As I confessed in the paragraph above, I wonder how I will react if ever given the chance to die for another. I think about this quite a bit, actually. But there is another thought that is so frightful that I never venture toward it. It is the thought of sacrificing one of my children. I simply can’t imagine a situation where I could do that. It is the one area of death and pain where the choice is pretty much a no-brainer. I don’t believe I could do that. Ever.

Which is why I stand in awe of our Lord. He demonstrated His own love for us in this fact: while we were still sinners and powerless to help ourselves, He sent His own Son to die for us. And yet even that statement, as true as it is, doesn’t capture the full horror of the event or the extremities of sacrifice to which our Lord was willing to go for you and me. Christ didn’t just die for us, He was killed by us.

Here is love. Amazing, self-sacrificing, forgiving, gracious love. Paul continues:

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

– Romans 5:9-11

“How much more” indeed! We have a God who loves us in a way that we’ve rarely seen demonstrated. In fact, this kind of love is not just rare, it’s almost unheard of! We weren’t just helpless; we were His active enemies at the point of rescue. An analogy that comes to mind is that of a fireman rushing into a burning building to save a victim, only to find that victim actively engaged in arsoning the building with a flamethrower. And, not content to bring about his own destruction, the victim then turns the flamethrower on his rescuer. Yes, we were Jesus’ enemies, and we played our part with deadly efficiency.

When we were still His enemies, we were reconciled. Reconciliation is such a beautiful word. And it is a beautiful thing to see. In that word we get a picture of whispered reassurances of forgiveness and love, tears of joy, arms opened wide to receive the prodigal back home, peace, a life begun anew. We are born desperately needing to be reconciled with our Creator, and desperately powerless to do anything about it. Reconciliation is only something that God can do.

And it’s what our God has done.

Here is love!