“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8

First things first

Growing up, our home was quite structured and consistent throughout the week, given that my parents both worked full-time jobs with varying schedules, which required all of our gears to be in sync in order for everyone to get to their designated places on time; however, there was one day per week that functioned at an even higher level of efficiency than the others, and it wasn’t even a “work day” at all. If you were to have peered through a window of our home on any given Saturday, you would have seen my sister and I doing our required chores for the week with the most impressive speed and competency you’ve ever witnessed in a teenager. You surely would have assumed we were modern-day “Snow Whites” joyfully tending to the commands of our parents. In reality, however, we were simply flying through our duties so that we could be granted permission to leave the house with friends for the day. You see, my dad had a weekend rule that we could not participate in the desired activities until the required ones were completed. In other words, our house had to look good and be in order before we could receive the gift of free time.

As we look over our verse for today, however, we see a very different reality from our Heavenly Father concerning our posture at salvation. God does not tell us that we must get our act together and tidy up in order to receive His gift. God knows that we are incapable of being righteous and holy in our own effort, so he made a way for us, accepting us right where we are. We see here in Romans 5:8 that Christ died for us…WHILE we were still sinners. Not only did Jesus not wait around for us to get ourselves cleaned up before He went to the cross on our behalf, Jesus knew we would never achieve the level of righteousness that is required to receive the privilege to dwell in the presence of a Holy God forever. We simply can’t do it on our own. We need a perfect and holy substitute to stand in our place to receive the wrath that we deserve. Jesus is the only One to have ever lived a perfect and holy life, so he can be the only sufficient sacrifice on our behalf.

Righteous Judge

If this concept of a substitutionary Savior to stand in your place is confusing, let’s gather some context from the Old Testament to help tie together these foreign concepts. We know from Scripture that one of the many characteristics of God is that he is Just. For many people, this character quality, giving him the title of Righteous Judge, erroniously becomes the single identifying mark of who God is, as if he is only concerned with condemning people. Although God has multiple character traits that contribute to His beautiful complexity, we seem to focus on this one quality, reducing God to nothing more than a mean judge. It is common for people to assume this because we have likely encountered versions of this personality trait in other people. Most of us have been affected in a negative way by a person with a “harsh judge” personality who hurt us at some point in our lives. Sadly, too many people experienced this with a parent or guardian; however, when we consider this trait in God, we must resist the temptation to put a human spin on it that is based on what we have experienced in fellow sinners. God is not like us. His justice is as pure, full, and perfect as His other qualities. God does not set aside his love for us when exercising justice – in fact, His justice is rooted in and smothered with His love at the same time. (We will cover this complexity of God’s nature in a later post.) When God exacts justice on each of us at the moment of our death, we will absolutely get what we deserve…either eternal life as a result of our faith in Jesus as Savior or eternal damnation for not receiving God’s son. God’s justice for sin is simple, yet unrelenting.

Historical roots

Before Christ came to earth in the form of a man, God had established a way for the Israelites in the Old Testament to come to Him and provide a cleansing of their sins. In the book of Leviticus, God lays out the procedure expected of the Israelites for making a substitutionary replacement for their sins. He would have them take an animal to the tabernacle to be presented as a sacrifice to God. From the very beginning, God has required a blood sacrifice to atone for (satisfy or make good) the sins of humans. In the OT, it was the blood of animals, and it had to be done frequently. This may sound harsh toward the animal, but it was supposed to be a picture of how costly our sin truly is. If a pure, blameless animal was sacrificed to pay for the Israelites’ sins, clearly this would be a sobering and effective way to keep the true weight of sin at the forefront of their hearts. Beyond this purpose, the deeper intent of the process was to set up the coming of Jesus and foreshadow what He would accomplish on the cross. Each time the Israelites entered the temple to provide an innocent lamb as a sacrifice, they saw the raw reality of their sin as they watched the life of another being come to an end so that they could live in right standing with God.

I am sure your mind is already making a connection to what we know about the New Testament account of when Jesus Christ did this very thing for us. He willingly became the ultimate, one-time, and final sacrifice that God requires for all of us to be in right standing with God. Jesus took upon himself the sins of this world, so that his death could pay the price we could never pay. His blood was shed so that we may believe upon Him (the Lamb of God) as our atoning sacrifice to establish our union with God that sin has broken. Witnessing an animal being sacrificed on your behalf would have been humbling enough, but to witness the perfect, holy, and willing Jesus Christ (God in the flesh) hang on a cross to pay for your sins and mine….well, there are no words to describe our unworthiness.

It is important for me to clarify here that it was not the act of sacrificing animals that saved the Old Testament Jews. It was their faith in God and His plan for atonement that was credited to them as righteousness (Romans 4:13), just as it is our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice that declares us righteous before God (John 3:16). *More on this in the next few posts.*

In conclusion, as we ponder this verse in Romans 5, may we never forget the weight and cost of our sin, as well as the graciousness of God to extend such a costly gift to us while we were still sinners. As we grow in our faith, it is quite easy to forget the reality of the cross and the price that was paid for us. We get distracted by church activities, everyday life, and watered down Truth. My hope is that we will always revisit the Gospel often to continue to remember the roots of our faith and beginning of our journey. I encourage you to take a moment and offer up a prayer of gratitude to the Lord today, thanking him for the undeserved, free gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

He alone is our salvation.

*Note from the author: This post is the fourth installment in a series of six posts explaining the process of salvation through Jesus Christ. If you have questions concerning the Christian faith, I invite you to read through the first six posts on this blog site in the order they were published. I am praying for you!