While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5.8.

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

A new beginning with God was written and read by James Banks.

Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 11.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good

person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in

this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood,

how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?

For if while we were God's enemies

we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son,

how much more, having been reconcileded shall we be saved through his life?

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

A new beginning with God.

Did your sin also put Jesus on the cross?

That's the question Dutch painter Rembrandt seems to be asking in his 1633 masterpiece, The Raising of the Cross.

Jesus appears in the center of the picture as his cross is lifted and put in place.

Four men are doing the lifting, but one stands out in the light surrounding Jesus.

His clothing is different. He's dressed in the style of Rembrandt's day, wearing a cap the painter often wore.

A closer look at his face reveals that Rembrandt has put himself into the painting, as if to say,

My sins had a part in Jesus' death.

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