May 2. God demonstrates His love.

God shows or demonstrates His love for us,

and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5.8.

Notice that demonstrates is present tense and died is past tense.

God demonstrates His love for us,

in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The present tense implies that this demonstrating is an ongoing act that keeps happening today,

and it will keep happening tomorrow.

The past tense died implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated.

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God

for Speeder 3.18. Why did Paul use the present tense? God demonstrates.

I would have expected Paul to say, God demonstrated His own love toward us

in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Was not the death of Christ when it happened, the demonstration of God's love,

and did not that demonstration happen in the past?

I think the clue is given a few verses earlier. Paul has just said that suffering produces endurance

and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame,

Romans 5, 3 through 5. In other words, the goal of everything God takes us through is hope.

He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations.

But how can we? Paul answers in the next line, because God's love has been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us Romans 5.5. God's love has been poured into our hearts.

The tenth of this verb means that God's love was poured out in our hearts in the past at our

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