But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
We have already looked at these verses (vv. 6–11) in our study, but I would like to focus our attention on verse 8 once more. When we quote this verse, we often lift it out of its context to emphasize the wonderful truth of God’s amazing love toward us. But when we look back at the passage, we find another aspect of this amazing love that makes it all the more precious to us.
Our verse contrasts God’s love with the kind of love mentioned in verse 7: “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.” In the Greek, this verse literally reads, “for the good (man) someone would even dare to die.” The definite article “the” is there in the original text. Paul is saying that if such a man truly exists—someone exceptionally good—perhaps someone might be willing to die for him.
Paul has already stated earlier in Romans that “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10–12). But there was One whom Scripture refers to as “the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).
As we have already seen, man’s condition is summarized as being without strength, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. Why would anyone lay down their life for such individuals?
The “But God” statement in our verse contrasts our feeble human love with God’s infinite love. It reveals that God initiated His love toward us when we had nothing to offer Him in return. Our God is the One who is “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…” (Ex. 34:6).
Our verse today emphasizes the very character of our God—the One who “is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”(2 Pet. 3:9). Peter also tells us, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). The Cross was all part of God’s divine plan of love.
Anchor For Today:
The love of God is as great as His power. It is infinite – it knows neither measure nor end