God's Love Commended

Daily Reading: Romans 5

Scripture Focus:  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.6-8)

Devotional Thought: One of the first verses I ever memorized is found in Romans 5.  I memorized it years ago in the King James Version: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  I still love that verse!

Consider:

• God works at just the right time.  We need not worry when God delays, for he knows exactly when he needs to act.  And when he acts, it will be right for everybody involved.

• We are powerless apart from God’s grace.  We cannot hope to save ourselves.  There is nothing we can do to escape the clutches of death – both physical and spiritual.

• Christ defeated death in you and me by dying for us.  He took death – the chief weapon of our enemy – and turned it back against him.  He has gained the victory over death through death!

• And he did that when we were “dirty rotten sinners.”  I was ungodly – as were you and all creation – when Christ went to the cross.  He wasn’t giving his life for someone who loved him.  He suffered death on the cross for us while we rebelled against him, when we hated him, when we still refused to believe.  We didn’t deserve such a sacrifice, but he gave it anyway!

• No one else would do what he did for us.  No one else has that kind of love.  But thanks be to God he does!  “He shows it and we knows it” because Jesus died on the cross for us.

Amen!

Prayer: Oh God, how great is your love to me!  Jesus, you did for me what I could not do for myself - what I didn't even know that I needed or wanted.  I give my life to you right now in gratitude and love.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 26.1-8

1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

2 Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.

3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

4 I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.

5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

6 I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD,

7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.

8 O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.