God Loves You and He proves It!

God Loves You and He Proves It!

By Rev. Leonard R. Traina

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

What a wonderful verse. It is a verse flowing with the love of God for man and at the same time a verse that should cause us to pause and be humbled. We see three things in this verse that apply to us. We see God’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice, and our condition before salvation.

God’s love for us is not just verbalized by Him, it is demonstrated. I can remember growing up hearing the words “we love you” spoken by my parents. These words were true words, but of no value if their actions did not align with what they stated. My parents’ actions did align with their words. God chose to go beyond words and demonstrated His love for us. One of those demonstrations of His love is His sending His Son to earth to die in our place. He did not just die for us, but died in our place. The Apostle Peter states the following, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

Jesus, the Son of God (Mat. 26:63-64) and the Sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29), came to die for man that man may be restored to the Father. He is the only One that could have gone the way of the cross. He experienced pain and suffering at the hands of His accusers. The pain was endured for us. He was nailed to the cross. He endured the cross for us. He experienced the weight of the sins of the world. Your sins and mine weighed upon Him at the cross. He experienced the result of separation from the Father because of the sins, our sins, which He bore on the cross. He died and His blood was shed. His shed blood is the payment for sins, our sins, not His. For Jesus is sinless. He did it for us. God’s love for us prompted Him to do this for us. This verse reveals something equally amazing, at least amazing to me.

Father God’s love was demonstrated and Jesus came and died for us while we were still sinners. God did not look down from heaven and find righteousness on the earth. He did not find man hungering for Him. He saw us at our worst. He saw us lost and separated from Him in our sins. He saw through the sins and desired the man. He loves us so much that He could not stay silent or in active. He acted on our behalf. He did what we could not ever have done and still cannot do. He demonstrates love for us. He offered the eternal and complete sacrifice. He reached out to man while we were completely and totally lost. Nothing good could be found in us before redemption. Isaiah says that “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins” (Isaiah 64:6-7). God did not want filthy rags. He wanted us and, because of His love and sacrifice, those who come to Him and surrender their lives to Jesus find that the old has gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5;17).

This is the great work of God; that sinners who surrender to Jesus are transformed by the power of His Spirit, through the sacrifice of the Lamb, because of the love of the Father. What a wonderful truth. John encourages us with these words, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 <st1:bcv_smarttag>John 3:1).

I oft ask “Why do you love me so, Lord?” I am humbled daily by His great love for me.

I thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen