This summer, I had an opportunity to preach a week-long youth camp. One blessing of this is that students feel familiar enough with me to ask questions and open up about their spiritual challenges. I had great conversations answering Bible questions and helping students with apologetics.
One conversation has really stuck with me. My heart hurts for this young student, and I pray for him regularly. He approached me after one sermon in which I made multiple references that anyone, regardless of their past or present life, can experience God’s love, forgiveness and salvation, if they reach out to Jesus in faith.
He told me he was desperately looking for something to fill the void in his life, and he wanted to follow Jesus in faith. However, he just didn’t think Jesus would love or save him because of his sins. He was locked in the belief that God would only give him what he deserved. And what he deserved wasn’t love and salvation.
One verse I shared with him was Rom. 5:8,“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The full force of what Paul is emphasizing in this passage can be easy to miss—that even right now as you commit terrible sins, Jesus loves you, has died for you and wants to save you.
It’s important to note in Rom. 5:6-10 that Paul wants his readers to understand that even the most evil people currently in the midst of their sin, are not outside the scope of God’s love. See this in two ways in this passage:
First, Paul makes a downward progression of the state of humanity and those who are recipients of God’s grace. He begins with the “weak” (v.6a), then goes to the “ungodly” (v.6b), then to “sinners” (v.8) and lastly to “enemies” (v.10) of God.
Second, Paul begins this sequence with a very abrupt and unique grammatical construction. In v.6, he begins with a Greek adverb translated “for while” and then repeats the same adverb translated “at the right time” after the word “weak.” The repetition of the adverb in such proximity makes the sentence sound odd/repetitive.
See what Paul is doing here—the adverb essentially means “while,” “during” or “at the same time.” Now add to this that the word “weak” is a genitive absolute, which in grammar terms in Greek emphasizes the timing of something either past, present or future. So, in virtually one phrase at the beginning of this passage, he employs three grammatical devices emphasizing the death of Jesus in concurrent timing with the sins of people.
This means that even while people were in the active process—right now! In this moment!—of being weak, ungodly, sinful, enemies of God.
Christ died for them. This means regardless of your past sins, regard- less of whether you’re still sinning currently, regardless of the depth or severity of your sins—Christ died for you, loves you and forgives all who reach out to Him in faith.
God’s love and grace to us is always rooted in who He is and what Christ has done on our behalf, never on who we are or what we have done or are doing. God’s grace is truly amazing! I’m praying the young man I visited with comes to believe the truth of
Rom. 5:6-10 and reaches out to Christ. I pray if you are reading this and feel the same as that young man, you will know that your sin does not go beyond the scope of God’s grace. Reach out to Jesus in faith.
