The love of Christ that led him to the cross is the same love he has for you now and forever. Because God has already done the hardest thing—justifying you through Christ’s blood when you were his enemy—you can be certain he will finish what he started. When doubts come, when life shakes you, when voices tell you you’re not good enough, remember: the God who sacrificed his Son for his enemies will not abandon his friends.

Romans 5:5 contains one of Scripture’s most staggering truths: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Paul paints a picture of lavishness. God’s love has been, and continues to be, poured out in our hearts until they overflow with divine affection. The Holy Spirit himself serves as the personal agent of this love, dwelling in us to represent God’s very heart toward us.

This isn’t merely divine pity. It’s not even God’s kindness. As Spurgeon said, “It is not compassion, nor tenderness, nor pity, but it is love, which is something more than all these.” If you are in Christ Jesus, God loves you.

The Lord loves you. He has a complacency and a delight in you. You give him pleasure ; he watches for your good; you are one of his household; your name is written on his heart. He loves you… He that made the heavens and the earth loves me! He whose angels fly as lightning to obey his behests, the tramp of whose marching shakes both heaven and earth, whose smile is heaven, and whose frown is hell, loves me! Infinite, almighty, omniscient, eternal, a mind inconceivable, a spirit that is not to be comprehended; but he, even he has set his love upon the sons of men, and upon me. (Spurgeon)

Most of us struggle to believe anyone would truly love us, especially if they knew our real faults, fears, and hidden sins. This drives us to earn acceptance by projecting a better version of ourselves. But that’s not love. True love means complete acceptance and wholehearted service of the other. No wonder we find it nearly impossible to believe God could love us at our worst.

Many of us carry wounds from love that failed. Someone claimed to love us, but their love proved to be a feeling rather than a commitment, and feelings fade.

Paul cuts through all this. God knows you completely, yet he loves you lavishly. This isn’t a fluctuating emotion but an eternal commitment; a benevolent disposition that moves him to pour out both physical and spiritual blessings on those made in his image. This is grace. And the highest expression of this love is God’s selfless gift of himself to us in Jesus Christ.

This is life-changing if we understand it. There’s nothing like the feeling of being loved. My goal today is to simply work through the six verses we just read and ask four questions that will help us both understand and feel the reality of God’s love for us.

Four Questions

Here are the four questions that help us understand the depth of God’s love for us.

When Did God Decide to Love Us?

Verse 6 contains a phrase worth pausing over: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” What does “at the right time” mean?

Christ’s death was no accident or emergency response. It was planned from eternity. Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

God’s love for you isn’t a recent development. Before you were born, before anyone knew your name, before you committed your first sin, God planned your salvation. This wasn’t Plan B. This was his eternal purpose unfolding in history.

God planned this mighty way of salvation before the very foundation of the world, before creation or time. Salvation is not an afterthought; it is part of God’s eternal plan. This demonstrates the constancy and eternality of God’s love.

How Deserving Were We?

Did you deserve it? Consider how Paul describes our condition:

• “while we were still weak” (5:6) — We were utterly powerless to save ourselves. Humanity possesses no strength to impress God or contribute anything to its own salvation. We were weak, sickly, unable.
• “ungodly” (5:6) — We were unlike God. Though created in his image to live for and reflect his glory (Genesis 1:26-27), sin defaced that image so thoroughly that we became unrecognizable as his image-bearers. Our intellect, reason, and capacity for communion with God were all marred beyond recognition.
• “while we were still sinners” (5:8) — We were offenders, trespassers, ones who missed the mark. We deliberately flouted God’s law, rebelled against him, chose our will over his, and made ourselves guilty.
• “while we were enemies” (5:10) — We harbored deep hostility toward God. Worse still, we stood guilty before him, reprehensible and deserving of his wrath.

How deserving were we?

Christ died for us not because we were lovable, good, or righteous, but because we were sinners. The recipients of God’s love weren’t lovely or even neutral. They were enemies deserving judgment. Yet God’s love reached down to the unlovable, pursuing those who fled from him. This reveals that God’s love springs from his character, not from anything attractive in us.

When did God decide to love us? God planned your salvation from eternity, making his love for you not a reaction to your need but the unfolding of his eternal purpose.

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