God’s Love For Us

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

Often we hear the statement that Christ died for us, but what does it mean to say this? A common interpretation is that “for” means “instead of”. The dominant idea in many Christian’s minds seems to be that we should be killed by God for our sins, but Jesus volunteers to take our place, and so God kills him instead. But this makes the death of Jesus as much for God as for us.

Often we have been led to believe that the death of Christ changed the situation for God. We may think, mistakenly, that God could not forgive us until Jesus died, as if his torturous death on the cross is so that God will be able to forgive. I am confident in saying that nothing changes for God because of the death of Jesus, but everything changes for us. God does not on the cross make his own forgiveness possible, but shows us his love and forgiveness. The death of Jesus reveals the God no one but Jesus truly knew, the one who does the unthinkable, in love, for his enemies.

Paul says that this death for us occurred even while we were weak, ungodly, and sinners. Though one might, he suggests, consider offering oneself for someone good, the idea of self-sacrificing love for wicked people is unheard of. Paul’s declaration is that this unthinkable kindness toward sinners is how God “shows his love for us”. Christ dies to show us God’s love, and this is for us.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

John makes the same point in this very familiar passage as he quotes Jesus. The “so” should not be understood as short for “so much”, as if he is indicating the magnitude of love. Instead, both the meaning of the word in Greek and the fact that it is the first word of the verse in Greek, indicates that Jesus is saying “in this way” or “Thus God loved the world, that he gave his only Son . . .“ How God loves the world is through the giving of the Son, just as Paul states that the death of Christ for us while we were ungodly shows God’s love for us.

The death of Christ being for us certainly means for our salvation, our redemption, our life in God, our reconciliation to God, and all the other ways we could describe how we benefit from God’s love and grace. The claim is that Christ died to help the helpless, as a demonstration of God’s love. It was for us and not for God that Christ died. God remains the same forgiving and loving God from all eternity, but the cross changes everything for us because God reveals himself as the suffering and selfless One.

The death of Jesus on the cross demonstrates the love and forgiveness of God that has always been his unchanging nature. God needs no mechanism to be able to forgive. God does not need a sacrifice to forgive. We need the sacrifice of Christ to finally see the love of God. No other sacrifice is needed, nor are any others effective in doing anything about sin (Hebrews 10:4). The incredible self-sacrifice of God for a throughly sinful and underserving humanity shows the depth and free gift of love that has always been the well from which God’s forgiveness flows.