God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

In an effort to escape his terrarium, the turtle in the fifth-grade classroom scrambled up the glass wall as far as he could and then flipped over on his back.  He was unable to set himself right again, so I reached in and set him on his feet.  As soon as he was upright, he resumed his fruitless escape attempts.

As sinners we are in a similar predicament.  Try as we might, there is nothing we can do to set ourselves right with God, nothing we can do to find our way out of the slippery-walled "cage" of our sins.  Worse still, our efforts to set ourselves right on our own reveal our basic distrust of God, which is the root of all sin.

God, in His mercy, reached down to set us right.  St. Paul writes: "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  We were helpless and lost in our sins when God sent His Son to suffer the punishment that we deserved.  We enjoy God's full and free forgiveness, but like the freedom-seeking turtle, we continually return to our own efforts.  We try in vain to please God by our own good works, only to fail and fall.  But when we fall, God's mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ are extended to us anew.  He readily sets us right again.  He graciously leads us to rely entirely on Him.

 From "Portals of Prayer" (c) 2005 by Concordia Publishing House.  Reproduced by permission under license number 07:09-18B.  For ordering information contact Concordia at www.cph.org .