What Verse Had the Most Profound Effect on You?

A friend asked: “What is your favorite verse or what scripture had the most profound effect on you?”

Good question.

I do not have an all time “favorite” verse, as my “favorite” verse, or text, or passage is always changing.  I guess you could say it is more like my “flavour of the day.” Some days my favorite food is pizza, other days it is steak, other days it is sushi…and the same goes for my favorite verse. It all depends on some truth I have learned, some sin I have been convicted of, some measure of God’s love revealed that I did not understand before reading a text, or how I am feeling that day and so on.

So I do not have a favorite verse, but I think I know which 2 texts most profoundly impacted me:

Isaiah 53 and Romans 5. 

Why? Because a number of years ago, after living an unchristian life (while claiming to be a christian), I was called back to repentance by our father in heaven through these passages of Scripture.  I was a complete mess, emotionally, physcially, spiritually…I was broken.  While trying to figure out my life, while trying to hang on to something, while trying to find some worth in myself I read these two texts.  It was like a light clicked on and I could see.  But the focus was no longer on me…my gaze was drawn away from myself to the light.  And while that light revealed my great sin and misery, I was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the love that God would have for a sinner like me. 

Some people claim that Romans 5:8 demonstrates that there is some worth to be found in us that Christ would die for us.

I beg to differ.

This verse is not about any worth found in us.  It is about us being completely unworthy.  It is about Jesus Christ being supremely worthy.  I find great comfort in this passage in Romans 5.  Because no matter how great our failures are, no matter how messy our lives get, no matter how badly we stumble…Christ died for us while we were still sinners.  He came to us in our despair, in our wretchedness, in our darkest hour. This verse tells us that God loved us in spite of us.

After all these years, I still don’t get it, but I rejoice in it! Because Jesus died for us, we have a reconciled relationship with our Father. So when we fail we shouldn’t look at our sin or look into ourselves, rather we turn our eyes to the cross.  We turn our eyes upon Jesus Christ.  Because he is our mediator, he stands before the Father in our place, and the Father sees our sins no more.

So what passage most profoundly impacted you?  I would love to hear.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because 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. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.