Choose Love

But God demonstrates his love for us in this; that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8


How does this Scripture make you feel? Think about it for a minute. “While we were still sinners.” I don’t know about you, although I could go out on a limb and guess, but I am still a sinner. I’m not talking part time here either. There aren’t months, weeks or even days when I think, “well look at that, there’s no sin here.” I am a sinner and for years and years I have let the guilt of that bog me down. I bet you know that self-talk. Okay this time is going to be different. I am not going to do that, speak that way, act that way anymore. Tomorrow is going to be different. Then tomorrow shows up and it’s the same old story, same old song and dance. AUGH! Okay once more with feeling, tomorrow is going to be different! Unfortunately the feeling there is usually guilt.

Read the Scripture again. It isn’t like our Abba thought we were just so adorable and well behaved that He sent us this precious gift. He sent us His one and only Son to die because He knew that without that sacrifice and sadly even with it, that tomorrow could well be the same as yesterday and today. Here’s the good news part, He didn’t care. He loves us so much that He was willing to give His all to us so that we could be free from sin eventually and free from guilt today.

Yes, I am a sinner but guess what? My Daddy loves me anyway. It isn’t that He doesn’t see my sins. It is that He sees them in a different light. Will power is a joke. Like every other man made scheme, it is fallible and transient. The saving grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ is eternal.

Yes, I am a sinner and I can choose to live under the guilt and pain of not just the sin but the failure to overcome it or I can choose a better way. The better way is to live under the perfect grace that frees, saves and strengthens me. Salvation is not just for the day that I stop breathing. It is for today and tomorrow and everyday.

Guilt will make me sick and sore, tired and irritated. Grace and mercy will make me joyful and free. Living in that way does not deny the sin. It confesses the sin, basks in the grace and sets off in the hope that with the presence of God securely dwelling inside of me, I will learn and grow in peace and love.

Choose, love, grace and joy for while we were still sinners, not after we by an amazing amount of sheer will power we cleaned up and got it all together, but while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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