Romans 5:6-11 (NIV)
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.
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.
Here Paul points to a key of the gospel: the fact that Jesus didn’t come to save the righteous, but sinners. In fact, it was those who were righteous by the world’s standards who saw no need for Jesus and His message, who rejected Him, and who ultimately crucified Him.
Even when He was working here on earth, Jesus proclaimed to those who challenged His association with tax collectors and sinners, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17 NIV)
But Paul shows the extent to which God took this love for sinners. It was for the ungodly that Jesus died on the cross. And He didn’t require them to repent before He laid down His life for them. He died even for those who were at that moment torturing Him, taunting Him, and reviling Him.
Paul then moves to the hope that gives us as the people of the kingdom. If God loved us so much when we were sinners and ungodly, sacrificing His one and only Son for us while we were in active rebellion against Him, how much more will He do for us now that we have repented, surrendered, and have become one of His people. The doors are really open to all things in His kingdom.
The salvation into which we have entered through faith in Jesus saves us from God’s wrath, both in the present and in the future, and gives us an ever-increasing hope as we test and experience God’s blessings and the fulfillment of His promises.
Father, I know that for myself, I was nowhere near worthy of the sacrifice of Jesus when I surrendered to You. I had made a complete shipwreck of my life, and was among those who were genuinely unrighteous, unworthy, rebellious and corrupt. But through that darkness, You reach out to me, drove me to my knees before you, and when I surrendered and repented, You saved me, transformed me, made me one of Your own people, and gave me hope and a future. Thank You for Your love that defies all human logic, and that brings light to those stumbling in the darkness, and life to those who are dead in sin, including me. Amen.