For scarcely for [the] just [man] will one die, for perhaps for [the] good [man] some one might also dare to die;
Paul measures God's love against the best that human love can do. He names two kinds of men — the righteous and the good — and asks how far anyone would go to die for either.
Two words in the verse sound alike: righteous and good. One writer separates them by how each man treats other people:
"A righteous man" is one strictly accurate in his dealings with others — both paying and demanding all that justice requires. It is hardly thinkable that another man would consider dying for his sake. "A good man" is one not exacting, but generous toward others: for him "some might even dare to die." But who would die for an evil enemy? Or who would offer a son to die for his enemy?
Why will no one die for the righteous man? One writer looks at what righteousness stirs in the human heart:
This is not the way the creature — man — loves. "One will scarcely die for a righteous person." We respect and value righteousness. But it does not draw out love enough for anyone to die for a merely righteous person. It is not that man's heart cannot feel strong affection. "Perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die." None among the sons of Adam could surpass such love as this.
Paul tests love by dying, because nothing higher exists in human experience:
God has been pleased to let men test and prove His love. And the proof He gave is the one men count as most convincing. The fullest proof of love is to lay down your own life. No sacrifice can go beyond this. But Christ laid down His life, as He said, "I lay down My life for the sheep." Among men, though, we can hardly imagine such a sacrifice for anyone but a friend or a benefactor. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
Even then, Paul will not promise it. One writer points to men famous for their giving:
Take a Howard, a Peabody, or any philanthropist who spent his life helping others. For such a man, the apostle says, "perhaps ... one would dare even to die." He is not sure about it.
Both men work the same way: each gives love a reason to come to him. The next verse takes that reason away:
God's love differs from man's love in this: man must have something to draw out his love. As it is said, "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." God's love has no motive. There is nothing attractive in the one it rests on to call it out... God's love sees no good in us. The cross gave the brightest proof of God's love and of man's hatred.
Paul names two kinds of men and stops. His readers are neither:
A righteous man has some merit, and a good man more. It would be surprising, yet it might be possible, that someone would be willing to give his life for such a man. But who will die for a sinner? Who will die for a wretch who is neither righteous nor good? He has no merit at all. He has come short of God's glory and is only fit for His just judgment. Who will die for such a one as that? … CHRIST. He will; He has done it.
The verse also ranks two qualities. One writer says which of them the Spirit produces:
You will notice that righteousness is not called a fruit of the Spirit. You remember the Word says, "One will scarcely die for a righteous person." Yet "perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die." So it is goodness, not righteousness, that is a fruit of the Spirit. The Christian is, of course, to be righteous as well as good.
- Righteous. The man who pays what he owes and collects what he is owed. He earns respect, not devotion — and respect will not make anyone die for him.
- Good. The generous man, the benefactor. He can move a heart to the point of dying. That is the ceiling of human love; no one has ever gone past it.
- Perhaps. Even at that ceiling, Paul will only say maybe. The best human love is uncertain and always needs a reason outside itself.
- Sinners. Paul names two classes and neither is us. Christ died for the one nobody dies for.
- Goodness. Goodness is what draws hearts. So goodness — not bare correctness — is what the Spirit grows in a Christian.
but God commends *his* love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.
Paul has just said that the Holy Spirit pours God's love into believers' hearts, but here he points away from the heart to one event in history. The question this verse settles is not how much we feel God's love, but where anyone can go to be certain of it.
Feeling and evidence are not the same thing. One writer keeps the two apart. What we enjoy is one thing. What proves the fact is another.
Notice something more. We enjoy this love by the Holy Spirit living in us. But the knowledge and proof of it lie in a work done outside us, one we had no part in. It was done for us while we were evil and completely helpless. "For," the apostle continues, "when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Ungodly, and without strength — that was our state when the glorious work of God's love was accomplished for us.
The word "His" carries the weight of the sentence. Our love always answers to something; God's did not.
That is why it is called His love — because it is a love that belongs to God alone. With us, there must always be something in another person to draw out our love. There must be something to love. But God loved us when there was nothing in us to love, when our hearts were hostile toward Him and we were nothing but a mass of sin.
It also settles where to look for evidence:
When I come to the proof, I turn away from myself to God. This is the teaching of God's love, and it was all on God's side. The result is that I can count on what that love produces.
"Sinners" is one of four words used of us here. Each one removes a motive God might have had.
If God had found any sign of love in us toward Him, or any willingness to obey Him, His love would not have been perfect. He would have found a motive in us for His love. But what was our real state? We were ungodly, without strength, sinners, enemies. Our open hostility, seen in these four words, only gave His perfect love its deepest occasion to show itself.
The verse just before sets up a contrast. Human devotion has a ceiling, and the cross rises above it.
A righteous man has some merit, and a good man more. It would be surprising, but someone might still be willing to give his life for such a person. But who will die for a sinner? Who will die for someone who is neither righteous nor good, who has no merit at all, who has fallen short of God's glory and deserves nothing but His just judgment? Who will die for someone like that? … CHRIST. He will; He has done it.
Paul does not stop at admiring the love. He reasons from it, and the direction of the reasoning matters — from what God is, not from anything about us.
The reasoning is not at all from divine purposes about us or promises made to us, but from what God is; and He is love — love proved in Christ's dying for us, while we were yet sinners. "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God." The conclusion is sound and certain.
This love turns the whole matter around.
It is no longer a question of our commending ourselves to God; but He commends His love toward us. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. And when we believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit given to us pours the love of God into our hearts. When the soul knows and enjoys this, it must have a practical effect. We love God, and we love one another.
- Source — God's love had no cause in us; He loved when there was nothing in us to love, so its source is what He is in Himself.
- Proof — the evidence is a finished work outside us, not a feeling inside us. The Spirit gives the enjoyment; the cross gives the certainty.
- Timing — He acted while we were still sinners, ungodly, without strength and enemies. That strips away every motive but His own.
- Measure — human love may rise to dying for a good man; only Christ died for those with no merit at all.
- Result — the reasoning starts from what God is, so it runs forward with confidence. We are justified now, saved from wrath, and made people who love God and one another.