Unconditional love

While we were still sinner, Christ died for us…. (Romans 5:8), this is one of the best verses I have read in my bible. It is great because it explains the unconditional love that God has for us. Christ did not require of us to stop sinning or to promise that we would stop sinning if he sacrificed himself for us, but he chose to die and take our sin so that through him showing us his love, we would be gradually transformed into sinless creature. He took our sins and thus gave us his righteousness. He loved us even in sin.

A good illustration of this verse is the story of Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha or the sinful woman as she is referred to in some bible books. The bible says (John 11) that Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha and their sister who was Mary. It says that when Jesus went to raise Lazarus, he found Mary broken and crying. At the sight of her, Jesus wept. Jesus felt so much sadness and compassion for Mary that he could not hold back his tears. This Mary was a sinful woman because reading through the bible we find that she was forgiven sometimes later after Jesus had brought Lazarus to life, when he had visited that area.

It was during that later visit, after the resurrection of Lazarus that Mary had anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and at that moment her sins had been forgiven (Mark 14). This means that all along, she had been living in sin yet Jesus had compassion for her and felt for her at her time of loss that he wept with her despite of her sinful nature. This was a true definition of unconditional love. In this case I see a God who doesn’t hate us for our sins but loves us and is there to show his love for us. He doesn’t force Himself into us but his love draws us to him.

Jesus loved us unconditionally; he did not look at how much we had sinned or the magnitude of our sins. He did not look at whether we would accept him or not, he chose to just love us. We can see that he even has compassion for us in our difficult situations even while we remained in sin. Such love is not easy to find. The bible says that the greatest kind of love is where someone chooses to give up his life for another (John 15:13) and Jesus did it. The only other love close to that that we know of is when Ephesians 5 describes how husbands should love their wives, but even that cannot be attained except through the help of Christ.

Christ loves us unconditionally and died for us to take away our guilt and shame that we may have as a result of sinning and leaves us blameless. The only way to love him back is through obeying his commands (John 14:15) and letting him be the lord over our lies. I pray that we will choose to love him always.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.