Daily Devotions
Love for the Unlovable
Reading for February 17: Numbers 25-26
Weekly reading for February 11-17: Romans 1-5
Title: Love for the Unlovable
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
This is the first time Paul makes reference to God's love in Romans. His grace has been mentioned (4 times), but grace isn't always associated with love. Sometimes we show grace to people that we really don't like.
Paul makes sure that we don't make the mistake of thinking that God had shown grace to "likeable" people. In Romans 5:6-11, Paul calls us "weak," "ungodly," "sinners," and "enemies." So it's not that God showered his love on us because we were loveable.
Consider how each description gets worse as he goes. We weren't just weak, we were ungodly. We weren't just ungodly, we were sinners. We weren't just sinners, we were enemies. God's love was not just for weak sinners who, despite their best efforts, fell into sin. God's love is for enemies who rebelled against him to selfishly fulfill their own desires.
Put another way, Jesus was not throwing himself on the grenade to save his friends in the foxhole. Jesus ran into the enemies' foxhole and threw himself on a grenade.
We were God's enemies and he loved us anyway.
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
