Romans 5:1-11
Sinners Have Peace and Hope
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while 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! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
John 3:16-21
God LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
God not only is LOVE, He shows us love...We might be able to understand someone dying for a person worth dying for...We can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to die for them...But God showed us His LOVE by offering His Son on the cross while we were of no use whatsoever to Him...
We are who we are -and God LOVES us...So we can see God's LOVE, because He had His Son die for sinners...God LOVES us as we are, and for who we are...Jesus died on the cross for me, and who I am, not who I am going to be or who I might be...Jesus died on the cross for you, exactly as you are right now...If I do not believe that Jesus died for you and me on the cross, as we currently are then we are rejecting God and His Son and the cross...Doesn't it make sense if God created us, then He would LOVE us...We are His children...
Author and Priest Brennan Manning said this, “If in our hearts we really don't believe that God LOVES us as we are, if we are still tainted by the lie that we can do something to make God LOVE us more, we are rejecting the message of the cross.”...St Paul put it this way, "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 person, though for a good person 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."...