Romans 5:8

Context

Romans 5 opens with the declaration that those who have been justified by faith have peace with God (v. 1). Paul says that hope does not make believers ashamed even in tribulation, because the love of God has been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit (v. 5). In verses 6–8 he then locates the proof of that love in the cross. Scarcely will anyone die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die (v. 7); yet Christ died for "the ungodly" (v. 6), for "sinners" (v. 8), and even for "enemies" (v. 10). Verses 9–10 conclude from this that believers can be all the more confident of being saved from the wrath to come.

Interpretation

• The commendation of love: The verb "commendeth" (synistēsin) is in the present tense, and some read it to mean that God continues even now to demonstrate his love through the cross. The emphasis falls on the fact that God's love comes before human repentance or transformation.
• "For us": The Greek hyper can carry both the sense of "in place of" and "for the benefit of." It serves as a basis for the interpretation that Christ's death was a bearing of punishment in our place, and it is read together with verse 9: "being now justified by his blood."
• The love of the Father and the Son: The statement that "God" commended his love through the death of Christ is interpreted as showing that the Son did not appease the Father in order to make him loving; rather, the Father's love is the starting point of the cross (John 3:16).

Debates and Issues

This verse is cited in support of several different theories of the atonement. The penal substitution theory, emphasized in Reformed and evangelical theology, holds that Christ bore in our place the punishment due to sinners, and it appeals to this verse together with verse 9. The moral influence theory, commonly attributed to the medieval theologian Peter Abelard, stresses that the cross changes human hearts by displaying God's love, and it likewise appeals to this verse. Those who emphasize penal substitution argue that the "commendation" of love is meaningful only if the death actually accomplishes something, while the other side reads the verse as placing love ahead of wrath. Many theologians maintain that these various aspects should be held together.

In the Korean Church

The verse is used in gospel tracts and in the "Romans Road" method of evangelism to explain God's love, and it is frequently quoted in Holy Week sermons and in the lyrics of worship songs.

Related Passages

• Romans 5:6–10
• 1 John 4:9–10
• John 15:13
• 1 Peter 3:18