Devotion:
Read Romans 5:5-11.
I love how this passage of Scripture provides a bridge from our focus of last Sunday to what we will look at today in our worship time together. Last week we focused on hope; today we are reminded of the gift of God’s love. It is precisely because of the love God showed us through Jesus Christ at Easter that we can have hope that never goes away.
While we are taking a look at this gift of God’s love, we will focus in on a word that I believe best describes that love: “sacrificial.” You may know (or may have experienced) people whose love is selfishly motivated. They love someone primarily because of what that person can do for them. When that person no longer is useful to them, their “so-called” love is gone.
The love that Jesus revealed to us in his life and death was a divine love that is characterized by sacrifice: willing to give up selfish gain for the good of the other. Paul describes this sacrificial love in verse 8. Here’s how Eugene Peterson translated that verse in The Message: “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
May God give you and me the courage to make the sacrifices necessary so that those around us will come to know and receive the love of God.
Personal Worship Option:
Join us in worship this morning at 9:30 or 11:15, either on campus or online. Let’s praise and celebrate this God of sacrificial love together!
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