The Sinner's Profile: --"dishonoring and unthankful"

"But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." -Romans 2:21

What does it mean that Christ died for sinners (5:8)? This verse (2:21) helps me see. It means that Christ died for one who knew God and yet rejected Him. It was not as if I were ignorant of God's existence or that He was a God of never-beginning and everlasting power, and one of a divine nature. From the time that I was able to think I have always known there was One greater than anything else; one that was higher than me, other humans, animals, or anything created thing, one that had a divine nature. How did I know this? I knew it because that which is known about God was evident within me, for God made it evident to me (Rom. 2:19). There are things we all know about God, whether we be religous or not. The world is full of the knowledge of God, but not of God's glory and supreme worth. It is as C.S. Lewis vividly described: we see the ray of God's glory clearly, but we do not follow the ray to its source.

On a spring day Lewis walked into an old shed, full of dust and riddled with little holes in the wall. Through one such crack the sun's beams had alighted and lit up the dust as a single brilliant stream of light. Anyone there with Lewis would have found that stream mezmorizing, as he did. But if we were wise, we would not have found the beam as the end-all of our wonder. For, if we followed that stream, we would be led back to its source, the sun, whose full replendid glory is so dazzling, we cannot look at it long without being blinded. But, as sinners, we don't follow the stream of light given us. We are fall in love with the beam and give no attention to the sun. We delight in the stream of beauty, but we deny any glory to the source. Twits we are, bumbling in an old shed tinkering with dust and shadows, while we could be out in the beautiful brightness of the day. And this, is this who Christ died for? More than that, for we are not only blind and stupid, we are unthankful and dishonoring. We all know what it is to be unthankful an dishonoring, for we have all received good gifts that we put more stock into than the person who gave it. Think on that, and consider the fact that in your life without Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, that is exactly and always what you are. Christ died for sinners: don't forget that's what you are, because in doing so, you'll not know what it means to be a saint saved by Christ.