Romans 5:8

Romans

WHAT PROVES GOD’S LOVE

Rom 5:8.

We have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the Apostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of which converge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the fact that the love of God, poured into a heart like oil into a lamp, brightened that flame; and having thus mentioned the great Christian revelation of God as love, Paul at once passes to emphasise the historical fact on which the conviction of that love rests, and goes on to say that ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.’ Then there rises before him the thought of how transcendent and unparalleled a love is that which pours its whole preciousness on unworthy and unresponsive hearts. He thinks to himself-’We are all ungodly; without strength-yet, He died for us. Would any man do that? No! for,’ says he, ‘it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for a righteous man-a man rigidly just and upright, and because rigidly just, a trifle hard, and therefore not likely to touch a heart to sacrifice; and even for a good man, in whom austere righteousness has been softened and made attractive, and become graciousness and beneficence, well! it is just within the limits of possibility that somebody might be found even to die for a man that had laid such a strong hand upon his affections. But God commendeth His love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’ Now, when Paul says ‘commend,’ he uses a very significant word which is employed in two ways in the New Testament. It sometimes means to establish, or to prove, or to make certain. But ‘prove’ is a cold word, and the expression also means to recommend, to set forth in such a way as to appeal to the heart, and God does both in that great act. He establishes the fact, and He, as it were, sweeps it into a man’s heart, on the bosom of that full tide of self-sacrifice.

So there are two or three points that arise from these words, on which I desire to dwell now-to lay them upon our hearts, and not only upon our understandings. For it is a poor thing to prove the love of God, and we need that not only shall we be sure of it, but that we shall be softened by it. So now let me ask you to look with me, first, at this question-

I. What Paul thought Jesus Christ died for.

‘Died for us.’ Now that expression plainly implies two things: first, that Christ died of His own accord, and being impelled by a great motive, beneficence; and, second, that that voluntary death, somehow or other, is for our behoof and advantage. The word in the original, ‘for,’ does not define in what way that death ministers to our advantage, but it does assert that for those Roman Christians who had never seen Jesus Christ, and by consequence for you and me nineteen centuries off the Cross, there is benefit in the fact of that death. Now, suppose we quote an incident in the story of missionary martyrdom. There was a young lady, whom some of us knew and loved, in a Chinese mission station, who, with the rest of the missionary band, was flying. Her life was safe. She looked back, and saw a Chinese boy that her heart twined round, in danger. She returned to save him; they laid hold of her and flung her into the burning house, and her charred remains have never been found. That was a death for another, but ‘Jesus died for us’ in a deeper sense than that. Take another case. A man sets himself to some great cause, not his own, and he sees that in order to bless humanity, either by the proclamation of some truth, or by the origination of some great movement, or in some other way, if he is to carry out his purpose, he must give his life. He does so, and dies a martyr. What he aimed at could only be done by the sacrifice of his life. The death was a means to his end, and he died for his fellows. That is not the depth of the sense in which Paul meant that Jesus Christ died for us. It was not that He was true to His message, and, like many another martyr, died. There is only one way, as it seems to me, in which any beneficial relation can be established between the Death of Christ and us, and it is that when He died He died for us, because ‘He bare our sins in His own body on the tree.’

Dear brethren, I dare say some of you do not take that view, but I know not how justice can be done to the plain words of Scripture unless this is the point of view from which we look at the Cross of Calvary-that there the Lamb of Sacrifice was bearing, and bearing away, the sins of the whole world. I know that Christian men who unite in the belief that Christ’s death was a sacrifice and an atonement diverge from one another in their interpretations of the way in which that came to be a fact, and I believe, for my part, that the divergent interpretations are like the divergent beams of light that fall upon men who stand round the same great luminary, and that all of them take their origin in, and are part of the manifestation of, the one transcendent fact, which passes all understanding, and gathers into itself all the diverse conceptions of it which are formed by limited minds. He died for us because, in His death, our sins are taken away and we are restored to the divine favour.

I know that Jesus Christ is said to have made far less of that aspect of His work in the Gospels than His disciples have done in the Epistles, and that we are told that, if we go back to Jesus, we shall not find the doctrine which for some of us is the first form in which the Gospel finds its way into the hearts of men. I admit that the fully-developed teaching followed the fact, as was necessarily the case. I do not admit that Jesus Christ ‘spake nothing concerning Himself’ as the sacrifice for the world’s sins. For I hear from His lips-not to dwell upon other sayings which I could quote-I hear from His lips, ‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister’-that is only half His purpose-’and to give His life a ransom instead of the many.’ You cannot strike the atoning aspect of His death out of that expression by any fair handling of the words.

And what does the Lord’s Supper mean? Why did Jesus Christ select that one point of His life as the point to be remembered? Why did He institute the double memorial, the body parted from the blood being a sign of a violent death? I know of no explanation that makes that Lord’s Supper an intelligible rite except the explanation which says that He came, to live indeed, and in that life to be a sacrifice, but to make the sacrifice complete by Himself bearing the consequences of transgression, and making atonement for the sins of the world.

Brethren, that is the only aspect of Christ’s death which makes it of any consequence to us. Strip it of that, and what does it matter to me that He died, any more than it matters to me that any philanthropist, any great teacher, any hero or martyr or saint, should have died? As it seems to me, nothing. Christ’s death is surrounded by tenderly pathetic and beautiful accompaniments. As a story it moves the hearts of men, and ‘purges them, by pity and by terror.’ But the death of many a hero of tragedy does all that. And if you want to have the Cross of Christ held upright in its place as the Throne of Christ and the attractive power for the whole world, you must not tamper with that great truth, but say, ‘He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’

Now, there is a second question that I wish to ask, and that is-

II. How does Christ’s death ‘commend’ God’s love?

That is a strange expression, if you will think about it, that ‘God commendeth His love towards us in that Christ died.’ If you take the interpretation of Christ’s death of which I have already been speaking, one could have understood the Apostle if he had said, ‘Christ commendeth His love towards us in that Christ died.’ But where is the force of the fact of a man’s death to prove God’s love? Do you not see that underlying that swift sentence of the Apostle there is a presupposition, which he takes for granted? It is so obvious that I do not need to dwell upon it to vindicate his change of persons, viz. that ‘God was in Christ,’ in such fashion as that whatsoever Christ did was the revelation of God. You cannot suppose, at least I cannot see how you can, that there is any force of proof in the words of my text, unless you come up to the full belief, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.’

Suppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows. Well, all honour to him, and the race will come to his tomb for a while, and bring their wreaths and their sorrow. But what bearing has his death upon our knowledge of God’s love towards us? None whatever, or at most a very indirect and shadowy one. We have to dig deeper down than that. ‘God commends His love . . . in that Christ died.’ ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ And we have the right and the obligation to argue back from all that is manifest in the tender Christ to the heart of God, and say, not only, ‘God so loved the world that He’ sent His Son, but to see that the love that was in Christ is the manifestation of the love of God Himself.

So there stands the Cross, the revelation to us, not only of a Brother’s sacrifice, but of a Father’s love; and that because Jesus Christ is the revelation of God as being the ‘eradiation of His glory, and the express image of His person.’ Friends! light does pour out from that Cross, whatever view men take of it. But the omnipotent beam, the all-illuminating radiance, the transforming light, the heat that melts, are all dependent on our looking at it-I do not only say, as Paul looked at it, nor do I even say as Christ looked at it, but as the deep necessities of humanity require that the world should look at it, as the altar whereon is laid the sacrifice for our sins, the very Son of God Himself. To me the great truths of the Incarnation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ are not points in a mere speculative theology; they are the pulsating vital centre of religion. And every man needs them in his own experience.

I was going to have said a word or two here-but it is not necessary-about the need that the love of God should be irrefragably established, by some plain and undeniable and conspicuous fact. I need not dwell upon the ambiguous oracles which-

‘Nature, red in tooth and claw,

With rapine’

gives forth, nor on how the facts of human life, our own sorrows, and the world’s miseries, the tears that swathe the earth, as it rolls on its orbit, like a misty atmosphere, war against the creed that God is love. I need not remind you, either, of how deep, in our own hearts, when the conscience begins to speak its not ambiguous oracles, there does rise the conviction that there is much in us which it is impossible should be the object of God’s love. Nor need I remind you how all these difficulties in believing in a God who is love, based on the contradictory aspects of nature, and the mysteries of providence, and the whisperings of our own consciousness, are proved to have been insuperable by the history of the world, where we find mythologies and religions of all types and gods of every sort, but nowhere in all the pantheon a God who is Love.

Only let me press upon you that that conviction of the love of God, which is found now far beyond the limits of Christian faith, and amongst many of us who, in the name of that conviction itself, reject Christianity, because of its sterner aspects, is historically the child of the evangelical doctrine of the Incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And if it still subsists, as I know it does, especially in this generation, amongst many men who reject what seems to me to be the very kernel of Christianity-subsists like the stream cut off from its source, but still running, that only shows that men hold many convictions the origin of which they do not know. God is love. You will not permanently sustain that belief against the pressure of outward mysteries and inward sorrows, unless you grasp the other conviction that Christ died for our sins. The two are inseparable.

And now lastly-

III. What kind of love does Christ’s death declare to us as existing in God?

A love that is turned away by no sin-that is the thing that strikes the Apostle here, as I have already pointed out. The utmost reach of human affection might be that a man would die for the good-he would scarcely die for the righteous. But God sends His Son, and comes Himself in His Son, and His Son died for the ungodly and the sinner. That death reveals a love which is its own origin and motive. We love because we discern, or fancy we do, something lovable in the object. God loves under the impulse, so to speak, of His own welling-up heart.

And yet it is a love which, though not turned away by any sin, is witnessed by that death to be rigidly righteous. It is no mere flaccid, flabby laxity of a loose-girt affection, no mere foolish indulgence like that whereby earthly parents spoil their children. God’s love is not lazy good-nature, as a great many of us think it to be and so drag it in the mud, but it is rigidly righteous, and therefore Christ died. That Death witnesses that it is a love which shrinks from no sacrifices. This Isaac was not ‘spared.’ God gave up His Son. Love has its very speech in surrender, and God’s love speaks as ours does. It is a love which, turned away by no sin, and yet rigidly righteous and shrinking from no sacrifices, embraces all ages and lands. ‘God commendeth’-not ‘commended.’ The majestic present tense suggests that time and space are nothing to the swift and all-filling rays of that great Light. That love is ‘towards us,’ you and me and all our fellows. The Death is an historical fact, occurring in one short hour. The Cross is an eternal power, raying out light and love over all humanity and through all ages.

God lays siege to all hearts in that great sacrifice. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins ‘according to the Scriptures’ ? Do you see there the assurance of a love which will lift you up above all the cross-currents of earthly life, and the mysteries of providence, into the clear ether where the sunshine is unobscured? And above all, do you fling back the reverberating ray from the mirror of your own heart that directs again towards heaven the beam of love which heaven has shot down upon you? ‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ Is it true of us that we love God because He first loved us?

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 5:8. Συνίστησι) commends; a most elegant expression. Persons are usually [commended] recommended to us, who were previously unknown to us or were aliens [strangers]. Comp. He descended into the midst [He stooped down to interpose between us and Himself] (ἐμεσίτευσε) Heb 6:17.—δἐ, but) This comparison presupposes that God’s love toward Christ, is as great as God’s love toward Himself. Therefore the Son is equal to God.—ἁμαρτωλῶν, sinners) We were not only not good, but not even righteous.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 5:8 . How greatly is this utmost love of man surpassed by the love of God. He commends, or rather makes good, presents in its true and unmistakable character (for συνίστησιν , cf. Rom 3:5 , 2Co 6:4 ; 2Co 7:11 ; Gal 2:18 ), His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, etc. ἑαυτοῦ is an emphatic His: His, not as opposed to Christ’s (as some have strangely taken it), but as opposed to anything that we can point to as love among men: His spontaneous and characteristic love. ἔτι ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄντων ἡμῶν : they are no longer such, but justified, and it is on this the next step in the argument depends.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 8. The δέ, but, indicates this contrast. What man hardly does for what is most worthy of admiration and love, God has done for that which merited only His indignation and abhorrence. On the verb συνιστάναι, see on Rom 3:5; here it is the act whereby God establishes beyond question the reality of His love. The apostle says τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην: His own love, or the love that is peculiar to Him. The expression contrasts God’s manner of loving with ours. God cannot look above Him to devote Himself, as we may, to a being of more worth than Himself. His love turns to that which is beneath Him (Isa 57:15), and takes even the character of sacrifice in behalf of that which is altogether unworthy of Him.— ῞Οτι, in that, is here the fact by which God has proved His peculiar way of loving.

In the word ἁμαρτωλός, sinner, the termination ωλος signifies abundance. It was by this term the Jews habitually designated the Gentiles, Gal 2:15. The ἔτι, yet, implies this idea: that there was not yet in humanity the least progress toward the good which would have been fitted to merit for it such a love; it was yet plunged in evil (Eph 2:1-7).

The words: Christ died for us, in such a context, imply the close relation of essence which unites Christ and God, in the judgment of the apostle. With man sacrificing himself, Paul compares God sacrificing Christ. This parallel has no meaning except as the sacrifice of Christ is to God the sacrifice of Himself. Otherwise the sacrifice of God would be inferior to that of man, whereas it must be infinitely exalted above it.

Finally, it should be observed how Paul places the subject Θεός, God, at the end of the principal proposition, to bring it beside the word ἁμαρτωλῶν, sinners, and so brings out the contrast between our defilement and the delicate sensibility of divine holiness.

In Rom 5:6-8 the minor premiss of the syllogism has been explained: God loved us when wicked, loved us as we ourselves do not love what is most excellent. Here properly the major should stand: Now, when one has done the most for his enemies, he does not refuse the least to his friends. But Paul passes directly to the conclusion, introducing into it at the same time the idea of the major. Reuss says, in passing from Rom 5:8-9: “Finally, hope is also founded on a third consideration.” The apostle does not compose in so loose a style.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_5:8

But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Commendeth, συνίστησι, proves, or renders conspicuous; see Rom_3:5. What renders the love of God so peculiarly conspicuous, is his sending his Son to die, not for the good, nor even for the righteous, but for sinners, for those who were deserving of wrath instead of love. The word sinners expresses the idea of moral turpitude, and consequent exposure to the divine displeasure. It was for, or in the place of those who were at once corrupt, and the enemies of God, that Christ died.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He setteth out his love unto us, that in the midst of our afflictions we may know assuredly, he will be present with us.

While sin reigned in us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But God commendeth--"setteth off," "displayeth"--in glorious contrast with all that men will do for each other.

his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners--that is, in a state not of positive "goodness," nor even of negative "righteousness," but on the contrary, "sinners," a state which His soul hateth.

Christ died for us--Now comes the overpowering inference, emphatically redoubled.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. But God commendeth his love, c.] συνιστησι: God hath set this act of infinite mercy in the most conspicuous light, so as to recommend it to the notice and admiration of all.

While we were yet sinners] We were neither righteous nor good but impious and wicked. See the preceding verse, and See Clarke on Ro 5:6.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. But God confirms, etc. The verb, συνίστησι, has various meanings; that which is most suitable to this place is that of confirming; for it was not the Apostle’s object to excite our gratitude, but to strengthen the trust and confidence of our souls. He then confirms, that is, exhibits his love to us as most certain and complete, inasmuch as for the sake of the ungodly he spared not Christ his own Son. In this, indeed, his love appears, that being not moved by love on our part, he of his own good will first loved us, as John tells us. (1 John 3:16.) — Those are here called sinners, (as in many other places,) who are wholly vicious and given up to sin, according to what is said in John 9:31, “God hears not sinners,” that is, men abandoned and altogether wicked. The woman called “a sinner,” was one of a shameful character. (Luke 7:37.) And this meaning appears more evident from the contrast which immediately follows, — for being now justified through his blood: for since he sets the two in opposition, the one to the other, and calls those justified who are delivered from the guilt of sin, it necessarily follows that those are sinners who, for their evil deeds, are condemned. The import of the whole is, — since Christ has attained righteousness for sinners by his death, much more shall he protect them, being now justified, from destruction. And in the last clause he applies to his own doctrine the comparison between the less and the greater: for it would not have been enough for salvation to have been once procured for us, were not Christ to render it safe and secure to the end. And this is what the Apostle now maintains; so that we ought not to fear, that Christ will cut off the current of his favor while we are in the middle of our course: for inasmuch as he has reconciled us to the Father, our condition is such, that he purposes more efficaciously to put forth and daily to increase his favor towards us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) Commendeth.—The English word happily covers the double meaning of the Greek. The same word is used (1) of things in the sense of “prove” or “establish,” here and in Rom_3:5; (2) of persons in the sense of “recommend,” in Rom_16:1.

His love.—Strictly, His own love. The love both of God and of Christ is involved in the atonement. Its ultimate cause is the love of God, which is here in question. The love of Christ is evidenced by the fact of His death; the love of God is evidenced by the love of Christ.

Toward us.—The question whether these words should be taken as in the English version, “His love to, or toward, us,” or whether they should not rather be joined with “commendeth”—“commendeth to us”—is chiefly one of reading, the words being variously placed in the different authorities. The balance of evidence is close, but perhaps the translation may be allowed to remain as it is.

Sinners.—There is, of course, a stress upon this word in contrast to “the righteous man,” “the good man,” of the preceding verse.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. commendeth] Same word as (for instance) Rom_16:1. Infinite condescension lies in this simple word.

his love] Fully, His own love; the love peculiar to Himself who is Love: perhaps too with a hint that it is uncaused by any previous love of ours for Him.

yet sinners] “Yet” implies the gracious after-change which Christ’s death was to produce in the justified.—For a full parallel to this verse see Tit_3:3-5, where the dark picture of Rom_5:3 brings out in contrast the “love toward man” of Rom_5:4.

Christ] The Beloved of the Father, Rom_8:32.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But God commendeth his love towards us,.... That is, he hath manifested it, which was before hid in his heart; he has given clear evidence of it, a full proof and demonstration of it; he has so confirmed it by this instance, that there is no room nor reason to doubt of it; he has illustrated and set it off with the greater lustre by this circumstance of it,

in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God's elect were sinners in Adam, in whom they were naturally and federally, as all mankind were; hence polluted and guilty; and so they are in their own persons whilst unregenerate: they are dead in sin, and live in it, commit it, are slaves unto it, and are under the power and dominion of it; and many of them are the chief and vilest of sinners; and such they were considered when Christ died for them: but are not God's people sinners after conversion? yes; but sin has not the dominion over them; their life is not a course of sinning, as before; and besides, they are openly justified and pardoned, as well as renewed, and sanctified, and live in newness of life; so that their characters now are taken, not from their worse, but better part. And that before conversion is particularly mentioned here, to illustrate the love of God to them, notwithstanding this their character and condition; and to show that the love of God to them was very early; it anteceded their conversion; it was before the death of Christ for them; yea, it was from everlasting: and also to express the freeness of it, and to make it appear, that it did not arise from any loveliness in them; or from any love in them to him; nor from any works of righteousness done by them, but from his own sovereign will and pleasure.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Ver. 8. God commendeth, &c.] Herein God lays naked to us the tenderest heart of his fatherly compassions, as in an anatomy. A young student in history (saith Polybius) should have the whole history of the world under his view; and should reduce all into one body. {a} God, by giving his Son for us, showed us all his love at once, as it were embodied. All other spiritual blessings meet in this, as the lines in the centre, as the streams in the fountain. If the centurion were held worthy of respect because he loved our nation (said they) and built us a synagogue, what shall we say of Almighty God, who so loved our souls that he gave his only begotten Son, &c.

Christ died for us] "Behold how he loved him," said those Jews, when they saw Christ weep for him, Joh 11:37. What shall we say of this love of his beyond compare, in bleeding for us? Ama amorem illius, &c. Oh love that love of his, and never leave meditating on it, donec totus fixus in corde, qui totus fixus in cruce, till he be wholly fixed in your hearts, who was wholly fastened to the tree for your sakes. (Bernard.)

{a} υρο μιαν ουνοψεν αγειν και σωματοροιεν

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But God commendeth ... - God has exhibited or showed his love in this unusual and remarkable manner.

His love - His kind feeling; his beneficence; his willingness to submit to sacrifice to do good to others.

While we were yet sinners - And of course his enemies. In this, his love surpasses all that has ever been manifested among people.

Christ died for us - In our stead; to save us from death. He took our place; and by dying himself on the cross, saved us from dying eternally in hell.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

God commendeth his love toward us; i.e. he declareth or confirmeth it by this, as a most certain sign, he makes it most conspicuous or illustrious: see Joh 3:16; 1Jo 4:9,10.

In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; i.e. in a state of sin, and under the guilt and power of sin. Believers in some sense are still sinners, 1Jo 1:8, but their sins being pardoned and subdued, they go no longer under that denomination. Sinners in Scripture are said to be those in whom sin dwells and reigns; see Joh 9:31. Such we were by nature. Yea, we were not only sinners, but enemies to God, which further commendeth the love of Christ in dying for us: there is no greater love amongst men, than when one layeth down his life for his friends; but herein Christ’s love excelled, that he gave his life for his enemies.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Sinners, Christ died for us—For us, who were neither good nor just, the Saviour died.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But God commendeth his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The emphatic "his own" is lost sight of in the Authorized Version. It is not in contrast to our love to God, but expressive of the thought that the love of God himself towards men was displayed in the death of Christ. This is important for our true conception of the light in which the mysterious doctrine of the atonement is regarded in Holy Scripture. It is not (as represented by some schools of theologians) that the Son, considered apart from the Father, offered himself to appease his wrath as seems to be expressed in the lines, "Actus in crucem factus es Irato Deo victima but rather that the Divine love itself purposed from eternity and provided the atonement, all the Persons of the holy and undivided Trinity concurring to effect it. (cf. Rom_3:24 Eph_2:4 2Th_2:16 Joh_3:16 1Jn_4:10, et al.) If it be asked how this Divine love, displayed in the atonement, and therefore previous to it, is consistent with what is elsewhere so continually said of the Divine wrath, we answer that the ideas are not irreconcilable. The wrath expresses God"s necessary antagonism to sin, and the retribution due to it, inseparable from a true conception of the Divine righteousness; and as long as men arc under the dominion of sin they are of necessity involved in it: But this is not inconsistent with ever-abiding Divine love towards the persons of sinners, or with an eternal purpose to redeem them. It may be added here that the passage Before us intimates our Lord"s essential Deity; for his sacrifice of himself is spoken of as the display of God"s own love.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But God recommendeth - A most elegant expression. Those are wont to be recommended to us, who were before either unknown to, or alienated from, us. While we were sinners - So far from being good, that we were not even just.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Observe here, How the scripture distinctly represents the love of God in giving Christ to die for us, as well as Christ’s love in dying for us: God commended his love; declared expressed and made manifest his love to us: Christ’s death is often represented in scripture, as an instance of the great love of the Father towards us; because his wisdom did contrive this way of our redemption; and he has graciously accepted of his Son’s sufferings in our stead. Verily, the giving heaven itself, with all its joys and glory, is not so full and perfect a demonstration of the love of God, as the giving of his Son to die for us; especially if we consider one endearing circumstance of this love of God which he commended towards us; namely, That it warmed the heart of God from all eternity, and was never interrupted in that vast duration.

Our salvation by Christ is the product of God’s eternal counsel, Act 2:23 that is, the fruit of his everlasting love; before the world began, we were in the eyes, yea, in and upon the heart of God.

In a word, well might the apostle say, That God commended his love towards us, forasmuch as, in common esteem, he expressed greater love to us, than to Christ himself: For God, in giving him to die for us, declared to us, that our salvation was more-dear to him, than the life of his own Son. God repented that he made man, but never that he gave his Son to redeem man.

Learn hence, That the death of Christ for sinners, is an evident demonstaration of the love of God the Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ: God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. “And God commendeth his love toward us because we being yet sinners, Christ died for us.” A good man, in the primary sense, is one who never sinned. Hence in this original sense it applies to Christ only. In case of the rich young man who called Him good master,” and to whom He responded, “Why callest thou me good? for there is none good but one, and that is God,” many persons erroneously think that our Savior refused to be called good, referring to this passage as an argument against the possibility of entire sanctification in this life. They utterly misapprehend the whole matter. Our Savior did not refuse to be called good, but simply turned the young man’s appellation, “calling him good master,” into a confession of His divinity: “You call me good, and such I am. Now as there is none good but God, do you not see that you have recognized my divinity, calling me God?” While in this primary sense no fallen beings are good, yet there is a gracious possibility for us all to be righteous and holy, from the fact that a righteous man is simply a pardoned sinner, and a holy man a purified sinner. The case was an extreme one. If a good man were on the earth, such would be his glory and majesty that some one might die for him, while it is scarcely Probable that any one would die for a righteous man, i. e., a pardoned sinner; but Jesus even died not only for people utterly destitute of any resources or commendation, but even His enemies.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. But God commendeth his love. His love is not like human love. Christ died, not for friends, but for enemies. It was while we were yet sinners, that he died for us.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

proves

You can translate this verb in past tense using "demonstrated" or "showed."

us ... we

All occurrences of "us" and "we" refer to all believers and should be inclusive. (See: Inclusive "We")

Much more, then, now that we are justified by his blood

Here "justified" means that God puts us in a right relationship with himself. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "How much more will God do for us now that he has made us right with himself because of the death of Jesus on the cross" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)

blood

This is a metonym for the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. (See: Metonymy)

saved

This means that through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross, God has forgiven us and rescued us from being punished in hell for our sin.

the wrath of God

Here "wrath" is a metonym that refers to God's punishment of those who have sinned against him. AT: "God's punishment" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

God

love

sin

Christ

just

blood

save

wrath

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

8. συνίστησιν. Cf. Rom 3:5.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] But (as distinguished from human examples) He (i.e. God. The omission of ὁ θεός, which critical principles render necessary, is in keeping with the perfectly general way in which the contrast is put, merely with τίς, not ἀνθρώπων τίς. The subject is supplied from ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ ver. 5) gives proof of (‘establishes’ (reff.);—not ‘commends’) His own love (own, as distinguished from that of men in ver. 7) towards us, in that while we were yet (as opposed to νῦν in the next verse) sinners (= ἀσθενῶν = ἀσεβῶν [ver. 6], and opposed to δίκαιος and ἀγαθός, ver. 7) Christ died for us.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. συνίστησι: see on 3:5.

τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην: ‘His own love,’ emphatic, prompted from within not from without. Observe that the death of Christ is here referred to the will of the Father, which lies behind the whole of what is commonly (and not wrongly) called the ‘scheme of redemption.’ Gif. excellently remarks that the ‘proof of God’s love towards us drawn from the death of Christ is strong in proportion to the closeness of the union between God and Christ.’ It is the death of One who is nothing less than ‘the Son.’

τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην εἰς ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεός א A C K P &c.: ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἡμᾶς D E F G L: om. ὁ Θεός B. There is no substantial difference of meaning, as εἰς ἡμᾶς in any case goes with συνίστησι, not with ἀγάπην.

ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανε. St. Paul uses emphatic language, 1Co 15:1-3, to show that this doctrine was not confined to himself but was a common property of Christians.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Commendeth. See on 3 5. Note the present tense. God continuously establishes His love in that the death of Christ remains as its most striking manifestation.

His love [εαυτου] . Rev., more literally, His own. Not in contrast with human love, but as demonstrated by Christ 's act of love.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.