Dying for sinners
Would you die for a sinner? St. Paul said, “Only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.” (Rom 5:7) According to St. Paul, what makes the Sacrifice of Christ so incredible is that it was done for sinners. It is rare enough that anyone would be willing to lay down his life for a righteous man, but for someone to give us his life for a sinner is truly extraordinary. Yet Jesus Christ died on the Cross not just for a sinner, but for all sinners, including those who were mocking Him as He hung upon the Cross.
We know from the Gospel of John that the death of Christ is a testament of God’s love for us – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16) But St. Paul goes on further and writes: “But God proves His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) Here, St. Paul makes the point that the world that God so loved is not full of righteous people; rather, it is a world full of sinners, including you and I.
St. Paul continues to say, “How much more then, since we are now justified by His (Christ’s) blood, will we be saved through Him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by His life. (Rom 5:9-10) Through the suffering of Christ and His death on the Cross, we have been redeemed and reconciled to God; but it is only through faith in the Son, repentance and living a life in Christ can we be saved from the wrath – which is God’s just punishment for our sins.
Yes, Christ died for sinners; but there is more to that. Christ died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins. God designed to deliver us from sin, and to work a great change in us. If, by Divine grace, we come to believe in Christ and to repent of our sins; we would be kept from falling under the power of sin and Satan by living a life in Christ.
Having such a pledge of salvation in the love of God through Christ, St. Paul declared that not only can we rejoice in the hope of heaven, or even in the crosses that we bear for Christ’s sake, “but we can also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (cf. Rom 5:11) We exult and give glory to God, who, through Christ, has made it possible for us to be reconciled to Him.