Many people have decided they’ve messed up too many times for God to ever love them. They think that “There’s no way God could love me!”Let’s take a look and see what Scripture has to say about that. There is an amazing thought expressed on Romans 5:6-11. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous person; [a] though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but [d]we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”What an incredible idea this is. Paul tells us in verse 7 that one will scarcely die for a righteous person, let alone a good one. The world tends to agree. Sometimes you hear of a “hero-story” of someone who gives their life for another person. They do it because they see value in the person being saved.But let’s look at the example of the apostle Paul. We first meet Paul in Acts 7:57-8:1, where he is more commonly known at the time as Saul. In this passage, we see him agreeing to—if not authorizing— the stoning of the disciple Stephen. Then in Acts 9 he is breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord. With letters from the high priest granting permission to bind followers of the Way and bring them back to Jerusalem to be persecuted and killed.At this point in his life he is the very definition of someone who was an enemy of God, who had committed terrible sins. He later tells Timothy, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” (1 Timothy 1:13). Then in vs 15, he confesses the he was “the chief of sinners.”So did God tell him that he had sinned too much to be saved? NO! He tells Timothy that he received God mercy. God saved Paul—the “chief ...
