The helpless...

...and ungodly.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Some things must be soaked in before they can become worth our time. I'm soaking this in. Who might I dare even to die for?

I remember a conversation I had with a random person on campus a year or so ago. He was a journalist for the campus newspaper, an inquisitive fellow, with very good questions. We talked at great length about Jesus. Possibly the longest conversation I had with any random person about Jesus and the Bible. The one thing I remember was his skepticism concerning God becoming like man (not so different from Hercules). He thought it felt man made, the statement that God became man. I can't say I disagree with that stance, but I think what he overlooked and I failed to communicate clearly was what made Jesus very unlike man.

I'd say my tendency is to assume that I'd "do the right thing" given the opportunity, and that is why I can read through those verses with hardly a second thought for what God has done for me. The truth is I get the opportunity daily to do right, but rarely do I "do the right thing" even with the simplest of things.

Consider getting out of bed. Something elementary to living. Something I've been doing as long as I can remember, and yet I still struggle to actually get up when I know I should and even plan to. Hence, my alarm clock goes off, I turn it off and lie in bed for the next 15 minutes or so. Whereas what I'm certain God has laid on my heart is to get up when my alarm clock goes off, not have to rush about, and instead have some time to enjoy a bite of breakfast with God and his word.

What a simple thing to do and yet how often do I "do the right thing"!?! And so I ask myself how many times have I pushed off doing things I know I should do? How many times have I avoided telling the truth or outright lied? How many times have I said something in such a way that made me sound better than really was the case, or even made someone else sound worse than really was the case? How many times have I had the opportunity to "do the right thing", and yet, somehow found a way out through excusing myself from doing it? You get the point. These are simple things that have nothing to do with life and death, and yet I find excuse.

Now I'm not one to beat myself up, and that certainly isn't the point here. Instead I want a better grasp of what God is expressing in these verses, and so I set my tendencies against God's. What I see is a God who did something completely undeserved for a life consumed with self, unwilling to admit there is or even may be a God, and hateful of the idea that there might be a God that actually cares.

I think a father might give his life that his son may live, but I know that there are fathers who would not even dare to do that. I know that there are mothers who would not dare to give their life their daughter's. And yet when I hated this God the most, even the thought of his existence he surrendered his place in heaven and eventually his own life to guarantee me new life and a place in heaven.

And so I soak, trying not to believe I get it just because I can read the words. If I'm honest, I don't get it, but with the Holy Spirit's help God's own word says I can.

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5)

So let us hope that we can know God, know the love of God, know the love of our fellow man and woman, know the love of our enemy, the love God poured out within our hearts.