Romans 5:8

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 Romans 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 (Isaiah 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, Galatians 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 (Ephesians 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 Romans 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 Romans 5:8-9: “Finally, hope is also founded on a third consideration.” The apostle does not compose in so loose a style.