While We Were Yet Sinners Christ Died, February 22

God Provides a Way of Escape

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.WGD 55.1

To save the transgressor of God’s law, Christ, the one equal with the Father, came to live heaven before men, that they might learn to know what it is to have heaven in the heart. He illustrated what man must be to be worthy of the precious boon of the life that measures with the life of God.WGD 55.2

The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace, humility, truth, and love. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if he would join the church triumphant. The love of Christ is so broad, so full of glory, that in comparison to it, everything that men esteem as great, dwindles into insignificance. When we obtain a view of it, we exclaim, O the depth of the riches of the love that God bestowed upon men in the gift of His only-begotten Son!WGD 55.3

When we seek for appropriate language in which to describe the love of God, we find words too tame, too weak, too far beneath the theme, and we lay down our pen and say, “No, it cannot be described.” ... In attempting any description of this love, we feel that we are as infants lisping their first words. Silently we may adore; for silence in this matter is the only eloquence. This love is past all language to describe.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 179.WGD 55.4

The plan for our redemption was not an after-thought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of “the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.”—The Desire of Ages, 22.WGD 55.5