God's Love is...
Intro:
5:1. The apostle now turned to a presentation of the experiential results (suggested by the connective oun, trans. therefore) of the believers’ justification—God’s declaring them righteous—on the basis of faith (cf. 3:21–4:25).
Justification—God’s reckoning or accounting of Christ’s righteousness to sinners—is through faith alone (3:27–31). The only thing we contribute is our need. This is true for us who look back on Jesus’ coming, as it was true for Old Testament figures (like Abraham and David; ch. 4) who looked ahead to God’s fulfillment of his promises through his Son.
Now Paul begins to unpack what knowing Christ means in terms of daily life. He takes up sanctification, the work of God’s grace to set us free from sin and make us joyful servants of God’s righteousness (see 6:17–18). Believers in Christ have peace with God (5:1), a state of grace and rejoicing (v. 2), and a way of living that is both sobering and satisfying.
It is sobering that trusting in Christ brings sufferings (v. 3; see also 8:17). But it is satisfying that those sufferings produce endurance, which produces proven character, which produces a confident hope in God’s enduring and eternal care (5:3–5). God’s Spirit gives God’s love in abundance. This is the normal yet glorious life of gospel faith.
In chapters 3 and 4 of Romans, Paul establishes unequivocally that salvation comes only on the basis of God’s grace working through man’s faith. Man’s only part in becoming saved is to receive forgiveness and reconciliation freely in faith from God’s gracious hand. The person who trusts in anything else, including obedience to God’s own law, cannot be saved. In regard to that aspect of salvation, it should be noted, even most of those who deny security fully concur.
The fine devotional publication Daily Bread has related the following story:
During the Revolutionary War there was a faithful preacher of the gospel by the name of Peter Miller. He lived near a fellow who hated him intensely for his Christian life and testimony. In fact, this man violently opposed him and ridiculed his followers. One day the unbeliever was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Hearing about this, Peter Miller set out on foot to intercede for the man’s life before George Washington. The General listened to the minister’s earnest plea, but told him he didn’t feel he should pardon his friend. “My friend! He is not my friend,” answered Miller. “In fact, he’s my worst living enemy.” “What!” said Washington. “You have walked 60 miles to save the life of your enemy? That, in my judgment, puts the matter in a different light. I will grant your request.” With pardon in hand, Miller hastened to the place where his neighbor was to be executed, and arrived just as the prisoner was walking to the scaffold. When the traitor saw Miller, he exclaimed, “Old Peter Miller has come to have his revenge by watching me hang!” But he was astonished as he watched the minister step out of the crowd and produce the pardon which spared his life.
Peter Miller performed a noble act, and he -will be eternally commended. But this is just a shadow of what Christ did, because Christ not only obtained his enemies’ pardons, but died for them to accomplish that.
5:6–8. Having mentioned the pouring out of God’s love, Paul now described the character of God’s love, which explains why its pouring out assures believers of hope. God demonstrated His love by the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. This demonstration was first, at just the right time (cf. Gal. 4:4). Second, it was when we were still powerless (asthenōn, “without strength, feeble”; cf. John 5:5). Third, it was for (hyper) the ungodly (asebōn, “impious”; cf. Rom. 4:5).
In listing these blessings, Paul accomplished two purposes. First, he told how wonderful it is to be a Christian. Our justification is not simply a guarantee of heaven, as thrilling as that is, but it is also the source of tremendous blessings that we enjoy here and now.
His second purpose was to assure his readers that justification is a lasting thing. His Jewish readers in particular would ask, “Can this spiritual experience last if it does not require obedience to the Law? What about the trials and sufferings of life? What about the coming judgment?” When God declared us righteous in Jesus Christ, He gave to us seven spiritual blessings that assure us that we cannot be lost.
God is the Father who, having forgiven his prodigal son, watched daily for his return (Luke 15:20). Little wonder that the beloved disciple John exclaimed, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us!” (1 John 3:1). The proof of God’s amazing love for us is the gift of his only Son (John 3:16). The cross defines what Scripture means by “love” (1 John 3:16). Love is the voluntary placing of the welfare of others ahead of one’s own. It is action, not sentiment. Love is the mightiest force in the world. It is the ethical goal of human existence. God is love (1 John 4:16), and that determines the goal toward which all redemptive history moves.
God does not mete out his love for us in tiny measures; he “has poured” (ekcheo) it into our hearts. This verb is used to describe the “pouring out” of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17–18). Paul therefore cleverly alludes to the Spirit here. It is the Spirit, dwelling in the heart of believers, who communicates God’s love to us (cf. Rom. 5:5). Paul says much more about this ministry of the Holy Spirit and about God’s love for us in chapter 8.
PAUL’S EXPOSITION OF the gospel of Jesus Christ takes a decisive turn at 5:1. Up to this point, his focus has been on the power of the gospel to put people who are locked up in sin and under sentence of God’s wrath into a right relationship with God. Through the preaching of the good news, God invites all people—Jew and Gentile alike—to believe in Christ and enter into this new relationship. Now Paul turns his attention to what comes after one’s justification by faith. Chapters 5–8 focus on two matters in particular: the certainty we can have that our justification will lead to final salvation, and the new power God gives us in our continuing struggle against sin and the law.
The first theme—what theologians call “assurance”—dominates the first (5:1–11) and last (8:18–39) paragraphs in these chapters. These two sections frame the argument of Romans 5–8, forming what we call an inclusio.
Rarely will a person give his or her life for someone they merely respect; but occasionally a person dies for the sake of someone they love—a soldier for his buddies, a parent for her children. The awesome quality of God’s love for us is seen in that Christ died for us while we were “still sinners”—hating God, in rebellion against him (v. 8).
The mark of God’s love is his regard for us who because of our transgressions were his enemies (5:10). Paul, who had been a persecutor of the church (Gal. 1:13), is a prime example of this (1 Tim. 1:15). Through Jesus’ saving death “for us” (Rom. 5:8), there is release from fear of future condemnation (v. 9). Through our reconciliation with God as a result of Christ’s resurrection life (v. 10), there is “now” (not just later, at the judgment or in the age to come) rejoicing. As we look back on God’s great love for us when we were his enemies, we can be quietly confident that he will love and care for us now that we are his children.
Before we were saved, God proved His love by sending Christ to die for us. Now that we are His children, surely He will love us more. It is the inner experience of this love through the Spirit that sustains us as we go through tribulations.
By him God’s love is poured out in our hearts. The initial outpouring at Pentecost (Acts 2:33; cf. Ezek 39:29; Joel 2:28; Zech 12:10) is followed by a maintenance of the flow in individuals who receive the Spirit at conversion. The verb “poured out” speaks of the inexhaustible abundance of the supply, being reminiscent of the copious provision for the thirsty children of Israel in the wilderness (Num 20:8, 11). This is particularly impressive in view of Paul’s identification of the rock with Christ (1 Cor 10:4). The blessings found in Christ are mediated to the people of God by the Spirit. Looking back over the paragraph, we see that the thought has advanced from faith to hope and from hope to love (the same order as in 1 Cor 13:13).
Paul supports the assertions of 5:1–5 by drawing on what it means that “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6). It is as if Paul recalls Jesus’ words: “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13). All are sinners (Rom. 3:23), but Christ saves those who admit it and turn to him.
A person willing to die for a righteous man or for a good man obviously is offering himself as a substitute so that the righteous or good man can continue to live. This is the highest expression of human love and devotion. However, God’s love contrasts with human love in both nature and degree, because God demonstrates (“keeps on showing”) His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (hyper, “in our place”). Though a few people might possibly be willing to die to save the lives of good people, though that is rare, Christ went well beyond that. He died in the place of the powerless (“feeble,” v. 6), the ungodly (v. 6; 4:5), sinners (5:8), and even His enemies! (v. 10).
God’s love has been “poured out … into our hearts.” The idea in the Greek is that God’s love has been and continues to be poured out within our hearts. This is a picture of unstinting lavishness. The old commentator Bengel uses the Latin word “abundantissime.” Our hearts have been filled to overflowing with divine affection. The agent of this is the Holy Spirit, who personally represents God’s love in our hearts.
Paul describes us here with four words: “powerless” (v. 6), “ungodly” (v. 6), “sinners” (v. 8), and “enemies” (v. 10).
Paul describes us here with four words: “powerless” (v. 6), “ungodly” (v. 6), “sinners” (v. 8), and “enemies” (v. 10). In so doing he tells us that God’s love was totally unmotivated by anything in us. Because this love is unmerited and is not dependent upon us, it will never change. Think of it! We are lavished with a love that lies in God alone. God’s love is the permanent possession of the child of God. The apostle hammers home this stupendous truth later in Romans as well:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:35, 38, 39)
In many Jewish traditions, the Spirit was available only to those most worthy; here he is bestowed as a gift. On the Spirit being “poured out” see Joel 2:28.
5:6 without strength. Lit. “helpless.” Unregenerate sinners are spiritually dead and incapable of doing anything to help themselves (John 6:44; Eph. 2:1). in due time. At the moment God had chosen (cf. Gal. 4:4). Christ died for the ungodly. God’s love for His own is unwavering because it is not based on how lovable we are, but on the constancy of His own character; God’s supreme act of love came when we were at our most undesirable (cf. Matt. 5:46).
“Powerless” is the translation of a word that commonly means “weak” or “sickly,” but here it has a somewhat specialized force well expressed by Sanday and Headlam as “incapable of working out any righteousness for ourselves (in loc.).” A still more uncomplimentary description of those who needed the intervention of Christ’s death on their behalf is “ungodly.” The same term was used in the striking statement of 4:5 that such are the people God justifies.
A third word descriptive of those for whom Christ died is “sinners.” The verb “to sin” has been used in 3:23 to summarize the human predicament traced in the opening chapters. We need to see how Paul prepares the way for the impact of this term by contrasting it with both “righteous” and “good.” He puts aside for the moment the technical theological force of the word “righteous” in the sense of “justified” and uses it as it is used in ordinary parlance. Likewise, he ignores the fact that in 3:12 he has quoted “There is no one who does good” from Psalm 14:3, and then proceeds to use “good” as we do when recognizing kindness and benevolence in one another. In other words, Paul is illustrating a point from ordinary life. It is a rare thing, he says, to find a person ready to die for an upright man, but conceivably it would be easier to find one willing to die for a good man. Evidently the “good man” stands on a higher plane than the “righteous man.”
Now Paul is ready to proceed to his point. It was for “sinners” Christ died, for men who were neither “righteous” nor “good.” The contrast is between the tremendous worth of the life laid down and the unworthiness of those who stand to benefit from it. Back of the death of Christ for sinners is the love of God (v. 8): God loved; Christ died. No attempt is made to deal with the Savior’s reaction or motivation. Paul leaves much to Christian awareness of the intimate bond between Father and Son, the whole truth about God being in Christ (2 Cor 5:19) and Christ being motivated by love for the lost John 15:12, 13). What he puts in the foreground is the love of God, and this Paul underscores by designating it as “his [God’s] own love.” It is distinctive, unexpected, unheard of (cf. John 3:16).
5:6–9. Well-educated Greco-Roman readers were aware of the Greek tradition in which “the good man” was extremely rare. Greeks considered laying down one’s life for someone else heroic, but such sacrifice was not common; among Jewish people it was not particularly praised.
References to the Savior’s blood are not simply pointing to the fluid, but at His death and entire atoning work (cf. 3:25; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:14, 20; Heb. 9:12; 10:19; 13:12; 1 Pet. 1:2, 19; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5). wrath. See note on 1:18. Christ bore the full fury of God’s wrath in the believing sinner’s place, and there is none left for him (see 8:1; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).
Clearly Christ’s death was a substitutionary death, a death in place of others. The Greek preposition hyper often means “on behalf of,” but occasionally it means “in place of,” its meaning here. This is clear from the statement in 5:7, which also has hyper. A person willing to die for a righteous man or for a good man obviously is offering himself as a substitute so that the righteous or good man can continue to live.
Four times in these three verses the expression “die for” occurs, and in each instance the preposition is hyper (on behalf of), commonly employed by Paul in such contexts. He could have used anti in the place of, which would stress the substitutionary aspect of the death of Christ. He probably avoids it, however, because he is desirous of stressing something else as well, in line with the emphasis on the divine love. For this purpose hyper is eminently suited; it can express the substitutionary character of the sacrifice of Christ (as papyri usage indicates) plus the additional element of action on behalf of another in line with the loving empathy of God in Christ.
As the apostle makes unambiguous in verse 8, love of God does not here refer to our love for God but to His love for us. The most overwhelming truth of the gospel is that God loved sinful, fallen, rebellious mankind, so much “that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And as the apostle proclaims in verse 9 of this present chapter, if God loved us with so great a love before we were saved, when we were still His enemies, how much more does He love us now.
Because acknowledging His promises with the mind does not necessarily bring personal confidence to the heart, God makes provision for the emotional encouragement as well as the mental enlightenment of His children. When the Lord is given free reign in our lives, the Holy Spirit will bear fruit in and through us, the first fruit of which is love (Gal. 5:22). But when we grieve Him through our disobedience (Eph. 4:30), He cannot produce what He intends. Therefore, when we live in disobedience, we not only will not feel loving toward God but will not feel His love for us.
With perhaps that truth in mind, Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers: “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:14–19). The Holy Spirit strengthens the inner man and enables him “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” By the gracious work of the Spirit within us, our hearts are able to experience a depth of love that our minds are unable to grasp, “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”
The God who hates every sinful thought and every sinful deed nevertheless loves the sinners who think and do those things, even while they are still hopelessly enmeshed in their sin. Even when men openly hate God and do not have the least desire to give up their sin, they are still the objects of God’s redeeming love as long as they live. Only at death does an unbeliever cease to be loved by God. After that, he is eternally beyond the pale of God’s love and is destined irrevocably for His wrath. In Christ, we are forever linked to God by His love, demonstrated in (positive) blessings and (negative) mercy.
