"While we were yet sinners..."

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese died on Tuesday. First Things, Touchstone and Robert P. George at NRO, published appreciations of her life today. At First Things, Joseph Bottum quoted part of her conversion account:

"A decisive moment in my journey in faith came when, one day, seemingly out of nowhere, the thought pierced me that Jesus had died for my sins. And, immediately on its heels, came the devastating recognition that I am not worth his sacrifice. Only gradually have I come truly to understand that the determination of worth belongs not to me but to him. God's love for us forever exceeds our control and challenges our understanding. Like faith, it is His gift, and our task is to do our best to receive it."

... "The knowledge, even when partial and imperfect, that He loves us also opens us to new responsibilities and obligations. For if He loves us all, He also loves each of us. And recognition of that love imposes on us the obligation to love one another, asking no other reason than God's injunction to do so."

Source: FIRST THINGS

"...God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:5b-8 (ESV)