“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
What is this love? Is it merely a familiar verse we hear so often that it no longer unsettles us? Or does it demand something of us–something costly?
This verse reveals the heart of God and, in turn, the heart He desires for His followers. This is our example. This is what God longs to transform us into. We are meant to empty ourselves of self and allow God to fill us. The Christian life is not about self-preservation, but self-surrender.
I recently came across the story of Kent Whitaker, who endured an unimaginable horror on December 10, 2003. His wife and youngest son were shot and killed by a gunman; Kent himself was also shot but survived. The deepest wound of this tragedy came later, when he discovered that his eldest son, Bart, had orchestrated the murders in an attempt to gain an inheritance.
Kent stood at a crossroads. He could view the situation through imposed human law and seek punishment for Bart, or he could see through God’s design law, recognizing that his son was sick in heart and mind, desperately in need of healing and restoration. Kent did not see Bart merely as a criminal, but as someone sin-sick and broken. Publicly, he asked the prosecutor not to seek the death penalty.
Despite Kent’s plea, the prosecutor pursued what he believed to be justice, and Bart was sentenced to death in 2012. Yet throughout the years leading up to that sentence, Kent poured forgiveness and love over his son, seeking not revenge, but his eternal healing. Eventually, Bart said, “If you can still love me and forgive me for all I have done, then I believe God can also.”
God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). When our hearts are filled with the Spirit of God, we begin to reflect that same selflessness–a love that seeks the salvation of others, even when it costs us everything. We are meant to be instruments in God’s hands, and Kent embodied that calling.
Rather than pursuing what we often label as justice (but is usually vengeance), Kent went further. Anchored in the promise that he would one day be reunited with his wife and younger son, he chose forgiveness. He loved his eldest son, trusting that God was working through him for a greater purpose: the salvation of the very one who had destroyed his family.
This is the love of God.
While we were still sinners.
While Bart was guilty of murdering his own family, his father sought his eternal redemption. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us–our Heavenly Father seeking our salvation while we murdered His Son.
This is the design God has for us.
This is the God-shaped heart.
This is the new covenant–having God’s law of love written on the heart.
What truly marks a follower of Christ?
“Love—transforming love that reshapes the heart, that casts out fear, that overwrites selfishness, that overcomes survival instincts, and that bridges the gulf between heaven and earth and connects us again to our Father of love.”
(The God-Shaped Heart)
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