Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wed., 2/2/11 Devotion (Rom. 5:8)

Today's encouragement comes from Romans 5:8, which says this:

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

We have got to love this verse for a lot of reasons. First of all, it teaches us that God loves His church. Secondly, it instructs us that His love for us was manifest and applied to us "while we were still sin-
ners." In other words, God did *not* wait for us to "get good," or to "clean up our acts" *before* He loved us. And thirdly, (and most pro-
foundly), God's love was demonstrated in Christ's dying "for" His church.

With a God like this, how can believers not be thankful, and happy? Surely, we have the best of all things. We are the body (church) of Christ; and we are the "apple of His eye." For all these blessings, let us live for Jesus today.

[Puritan quote of the day: "We cannot know what sin is unless we know how great the majesty of God is." --Jeremiah Burroughs, in, "The Evil of Evils"]