Romans 5:8 Meaning

But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (ASV)

Paul says God puts His love on display through the timing of it. Christ died for us while we were still sinners, with the mess still all over us and nothing cleaned up. God's love made the first move, long before any of us came close to deserving it.

Paul is showing how solid a believer's hope stands, and his argument runs from the hard thing to the easy one. If God loved you at your absolute worst, He is not about to walk away from you now.

So if you have been assuming God's love rises and falls with how you are doing, this verse says the opposite. He loved you while you were still a wreck. That love was never something you earned your way into, and it is not something you can fail your way back out of.