For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:5, 6).
Twice in these sentences, Paul uses the word “still”, which means “up to and including the present time.”
The Apostle writes that in the midst of being without spiritual vitality, up to and including the moment we were in our sin, while we wallowed in the pigpen of our filthy rebellion against God, God loved us and Jesus died for us.
How amazingly incredible!
I worked for a decade with a woman who enjoyed talking with me about Christianity. At the same time, she refused to accept that God would save her by what Jesus did through His death. Over the years she reiterated that once she got her life together she’d become a Christian.
Fifteen years later and a nasty failure of her marriage, Angela killed herself. She was unable to get her life together.
Paul’s use of “still” is the testimony that God didn’t wait for us to put ourselves together before He did something about our lostness. He came to seek and save us in our lostness. He didn’t sit in a holding pattern while we searched for Him. He didn’t postpone Heaven’s rescue plan until we cried out to be discovered. He came after us in our lostness, weakness, ungodliness, and sin.
Though there is none who understands; none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way … All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way … the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:11-12; Luke 19:10).
His promise now to you is simple: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).
Where Living Begins 