but God commends *his* love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.
Commentaire de ce verset
The Setting of the Verse
Romans 5:8 stands as the climax of Paul's argument that justification rests wholly on God's side, not ours: while we were powerless, ungodly, and still sinners, Christ died for us. The verse turns our gaze entirely off ourselves and fixes it on the heart of God, who needed no goodness in us to draw out His love.
God's Love Has No Cause Outside Itself
The pronoun "His own" carries the weight of the verse. The love that sent Christ to the cross sprang from God alone, with nothing in the sinner to call it out.
William Kelly"But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Ver. 8.) This is characteristically divine and sovereign. We were powerless, unjust, evil, nothing but sinners, on the one hand; and God, on the other, had no motive for His love other than itself. It is emphatically His own love... Only God can love thus. Man, the saint even, must have a motive without; God has none. He, and He only, is love. The spring is within, and He needs no object without to call it forth.
J. N. DarbyWe can all love, even an animal can: "peradventure for a good man some would dare to die" but God loves from the motive of His own heart. "God commendeth His love to us" (v.8), the His is emphatic. When I come to the proof I turn wholly away from myself to God... the doctrine of God's love, when it was all on God's side — the consequence is, I reckon upon the fruits of it.
The Proof: Christ Died While We Were Yet Sinners
The display is not a feeling or a promise — it is an event. Christ's death is the unanswerable evidence that God loves the unworthy.
C Stanley"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Have our hearts been bowed down to this fact? Not only were we guilty, but we had no strength, were without strength to be better. Whilst we were in that very state, infinite love to us was displayed... Was this on the principle, that the more we love God, the more He will love us? Can there be a greater display of His love than, "Christ died for us"? Impossible! But this was while we were yet sinners.
Kelly underlines that nothing less and nothing else could have answered:
William KellyThose whom His grace makes objects of His love are wholly and absolutely unlovable as to themselves, yet He loves them spite of all they are. While they were yet sinners, Christ died for them — the fullest proof of their sin and of God's love. Nothing less could avail; nothing more blessed could be done even by Him; nothing different would suit Himself.
Man's True State: Without Strength, Ungodly, Sinners
The verse only shines when seen against the dark background of what we were. The cross does not flatter the sinner; it ends his history.
J. N. DarbyMan, looked at as in flesh, is under the sentence of death. "When we were yet without strength … Christ died for the ungodly." Man is not only ungodly, but without power to get out of that state. Christ must close the history of the old man, by bearing the sin, and must bring in a new thing.
A Resting-Place for Heart and Conscience
Because the love of God rests on what He is, and the proof rests on what Christ has done, the believer has a foundation that nothing in himself can disturb.
William KellyWhat a resting-place for both heart and conscience! He forgets nothing, judges all, yet loves us with a love that is perfect and altogether peculiar.
The Practical Effect on Us
Where this love is truly grasped, it produces love in return. Where love is missing in believers, the cause is failure to take in this verse.
MagazinesWhy is there so little love seen in us? It must be because we have failed in our apprehension of divine love. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Nothing at all to commend us to God; but what God did for us then commends His love. How wonderful to witness the whole world lying in wickedness, not one righteous, no, not one, and then to see God outside it all acting in love towards sinners, and all because of what He is in Himself.
Summary
- Sovereign love. God's love has no motive outside itself; the spring is wholly within Him, and the emphatic "His own" love is the heart of the verse.
- The proof is the cross. Christ dying for us is the highest possible display — nothing greater could be done, nothing less would have answered.
- Sinners still. The love was poured out not when we improved, but while we were yet without strength, ungodly, and sinners.
- A settled rest. Because the love rests on what God is and what Christ has done, the conscience and heart have an unmovable foundation.
- Practical fruit. Coldness in the believer traces back to a small grasp of this verse; rightly seen, it draws out love and turns the soul to God.