WHAT REAL LOVE LOOKS LIKE
Romans 5:6-8
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
What is love? Not the song, the real thing. So much has been written, sung, and expressed about love to the point that we overuse the word. We love our spouse and our kids. We love our pets, and we love pizza. We love springtime and vacation, and the list goes on and on. In many cases, we are referring to romantic love or genuine fondness. My love for Joy, my wife, is different than my love for Beaudreau, my dog. And, to stay safe, I reiterate my love for my wife is a higher, stronger love.
There are different Greek words for love in the Scriptures and a separate meaning for each word. One of the Greek words for love is agape, often defined as the God kind of love that we see in our verses for today. This kind of love is higher and stronger than romantic love or genuine fondness. God's love, as with everything from God, is a higher, better, stronger, and more pure love that is revealed in action.
Paul lays out our spiritual condition when Christ died for us. We were without strength. The word strength is used in a moral sense and describes a condition of wretched, a state of sin. The Scripture could not have been referring to physical strength or mental strength because both of those conditions existed in man.
And evidently, in God's eyes, there was no one righteous and no one good. Again, Paul is referring to our spiritual condition. It seems that for as long as mankind has existed, we have sought to justify ourselves. It was true on Paul's day and is still true today. Many people believe they will go to heaven simply because they have been good. But we always have to keep in mind there is good before man and good before God, and there is a difference.
Verse eight spells out our spiritual condition and God's love. We were sinners. But God demonstrates His love for us that even though we were in a sinful condition, Christ died for us. God's love was not based on our condition but rather on His character. His love, real love, the highest kind of love, was not a payback. It was a gift. This is why God's love, the agape love, is considered more of an action than a feeling. And that's a bit challenging for us because we have historically equated love with feelings. God acted on our behalf for our best interests. And there was a cost, the blood of His Son.
APPLICATION
Understanding our spiritual condition before we came to Christ is important because an understanding in this area magnifies the love of God in our lives. We did not cut it on our own, so God's love did for us what we could not do.
But now we acknowledge that we have been reconciled to God. We are no longer separated from Him. Now we acknowledge that we are made right with God and have peace with Him through Jesus. Now we are not focused on the sinners that we were but the new creations we have become.
This is the gospel, the good news. And all of this exists because of God's love for us.
PRAYER
Thank You, Father, for Your great love for me. I was a sinner, but I have been changed through my faith in Jesus. I did not earn or deserve Your love, but I sure do appreciate it and will walk in confidence because of it.