Wondering at Free Grace
by my friend Eric Schumacher

Are you really amazed by the good news? How do you think about your "little sins"?

"Wesley pictures himself as one who is not simply a sinner, but one who is chasing Christ in order to kill him and torture him. How is it that Christ could die for such a person?

And that is exactly the point that Paul is driving at in Romans 5:6-11. In verse 5, Paul has mentioned the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts. And where is this love grounded and where is it seen? In Christ’s death.

And when did Christ die for us? “While we were still weak.” And what does Paul mean by “weak”? He is referring to our moral condition. He says that “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

On rare occasions, scarcely, someone will die in the place of a righteous person (one’s whose life is outwardly morally upright) or for a good person (someone who does good). But such is scarce.

God’s love—which Wesley calls “amazing love”—is seen in this, “that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In verse ten, Paul says that this happened “while we were enemies.”

Friend, do you believe this morning that you are one “who caused his pain, who him to death pursued”? Do you believe that you are “weak,” “ungodly,” a “sinner,” and an “enemy of God”? If you do not believe yourself to be such, then you cannot possibly believe that Jesus Christ died for you—because that is who this passage says that Christ died for!"