“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8
There are few words in Scripture more powerful than these. We were sinners. We had rebelled against Him. We had gone our own way. We did not deserve His love, and we certainly could not earn it. But God loved us anyway.
And Romans 5:8 tells us the extent of His love: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When we were at our worst, God gave us His best. He didn’t wait until we cleaned ourselves up before He loved us. He didn’t wait until we got our act together before He sent Jesus. No, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I think that’s something we need to remind ourselves of when we’re walking through difficult seasons—or when we fall into temptation and sin. Because I know sometimes our struggles can cause us to question God’s love. We fail, we make a mess, and the enemy begins whispering, “You’ve failed too many times. You’ve disappointed Him again and again.”
But Romans 5:8 reminds us of something important: God already knew everything about us when He chose to love us. He knew our failures. He knew our weaknesses. He knew every sin we would ever commit. And He still sent Jesus.
Now, that doesn’t mean God is okay with our sin. It just means that our sin doesn’t catch Him by surprise, and our failures don’t cause Him to suddenly change His mind about us. Think about it this way: If God loved us when we were still His enemy, do we really think He is going to give up on us now that we are His children?
Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” In other words, God isn’t finished with us. We may look at our life and see all the places where we still need to grow. We may be frustrated with how often we stumble. We may wonder why the struggle hasn’t gone away yet.
But remember: we are still a work in progress; and God is still working. The same God who loved us enough to save us is the God who continues to love us enough to change us. The cross is proof of that.
As I said, when we were at our worst, God gave us His best. And if He loved us enough to give His Son for us then, we can trust Him to continue working in us now. So when we face temptation, we shouldn’t run from God in shame—we should run to Him for help. When we fail, we can’t believe the lies that the enemy whispers. Instead we need to confess our sin, receive His grace, and keep walking with Him. Because the God who began His work in us is not going to abandon us.
He loved us at our worst. He saved us by giving His best. And He’s not finished with us.
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