“Christ died for us,” says Paul in our text. This is how God demonstrates his love for us. We may wonder how death is a demonstration of God’s love.

Consider first what is meant by the term “us.” The reference, we understand, is to Paul himself plus the saints of Rome to whom he writes his letter. In other words, plain people like you and me. But what kind of folk are we? Are the people for whom Christ died actually respectable, deserving folk?

No, says the Apostle. In the verses around our text, Paul is not at all flattering about the nature of the human race. In verse 6 people are described as being “powerless;” we are not able to help ourselves. At the end of the same verse Paul describes himself and the rest of mankind as inherently “ungodly.” With that term the Apostle recalls what he has written earlier about the nature of the human race:

There is no one righteous, not even one; ... no one who seeks God ... no one who does good, not even one... There is no fear of God before their eyes.Romans 3:10-18

That, says Paul, is the human race: ungodly. Yet even that isn’t all. In verse 8 Paul also describes people as sinners. Those are the people who consistently miss the target, who invariably “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). That, says Paul, is man: powerless, ungodly, and sinful.

And still there’s more. We are “enemies” of God (verse 10). We are enemies, not just in that we are always doing things that attack God and offend Him. Rather, being enemies of God means that we are corrupted to the core of our being to such an extent that we are inclined to all evil. The result is that by our very character we are repugnant to God. We wear Satan’s colours, as it were, and God sees that; we incur his wrath even before we do anything.

Here, then, is the marvel of Paul’s words: for the likes of us has Christ died! “Christ died for us.” Died for whom? Christ died for the powerless and the ungodly, for the sinners and his enemies!

The marvel is even greater when we consider who this Christ might be. Christ is called “his (God’s) Son” (verse 10). This Son, say the Scriptures elsewhere, was his own Son, his only Son. The Father had begotten Him before all eternity; yes, from all eternity He had been with the Father and the Spirit in heavenly glory. This only dear Son God sent to earth, and in so doing God gave, gave of Himself and gave Himself. That, John records in his gospel, is love. For it is self-giving. “God so loved ... that He gave his only Son...” (John 3:16; cf. 1 John 4:9, 10).

But God not only gave his Son, He sent Jesus to earth. The incarnation in Bethlehem was but the beginning of God’s self-giving. After He had “made Himself nothing” and taken on Himself “the nature of a servant,” Christ “humbled Himself” and became “obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7,8). On Calvary, Christ gave Himself to the uttermost. On Calvary was the torture of the crucifixion, the horror of sin-bearing and God-forsakenness. Yet Christ did not shrink back from hanging on the cross.

And why? Why, dear reader? For the benefit of the “us” of our text! He did not crumple in the face of hellish agony, He did not flinch when his Father poured out on Him God’s awe-full wrath against man’s sins, and He even gave Himself to death – why? – in order to benefit unworthy sinners! So says the Apostle: “Christ died for us.”

How amazing! And how delightful!! Sinners we are, and don’t we know it; our conscience rightly keeps accusing us that we’ve transgressed God’s good commands again. But this is God’s love: “Christ died for us.” So, we live, today and forever!

How wonderful the love of this God!