Romans 5:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After speaking of the gift of the Spirit, he again turns to the Cross and says: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us."

These words mean the following. If someone would not readily agree to die even for a virtuous man, then consider the love of your Master, when He was crucified not for the virtuous, but for sinners and enemies.

The Apostle says this next: "that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Having said that the love of God is poured into us through the Spirit, whom we have within ourselves as a gift from God, he also shows the greatness of this love from the fact that Christ died for us when we were weak, that is, sinners. Worse still, He died for the ungodly, though scarcely anyone would die even for a righteous man. Therefore this is an excess of love: to die for sinners and the ungodly. The phrase "in due time" means at the fitting and predetermined time, for the Lord died when the fitting time had come.

[...] "For scarcely for a righteous man does someone die." What gratitude, and from whom, could be given to one who would die for a righteous man? For righteous men and martyrs, perhaps someone might decide to die, in the hope of receiving a reward from Christ at the end of the ages. The Latin has moritur, as in the Syriac, Vulgate, and Greek ἀποθανεῖται.

Christ died for the ungodly. If scarcely anyone will die for a righteous man, how could it be that someone would accept death for an ungodly man? And if perhaps someone might dare to die for a benefactor, how could it be that anyone would dare to die for a multitude of the ungodly? For if someone decides to die for a righteous and good man, this may be from some compassion or under the impression of his good works. But in the case of the ungodly, there is not only no reason to die for them, but not even a cause to shed tears for them.

Let us consider that, when we were still lawless and possessed by the sickness of impiety, the Master Christ accepted death for us. From this let us know the abyss of His love for mankind. Perhaps someone might accept death for a righteous man, but He, in the excess of love, died for sinners. The Apostle adds this as well. "In due time" is said instead of "at the time when this had to be." The Apostle says this also in the Epistle to the Galatians: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption" (Gal 4:4-5).

Concerning this passage, many say that the benefactor is Christ God, and that some, in their desire to die for His name, are crowned with martyrdom.

The Apostle first described in a wondrous manner the circumstances that prove God's infinite love for us. From this he draws the conclusion that, after such love has been revealed, our hope of salvation is now undoubted.

In this way he assures us that this hope will never put us to shame, as he said before.

We were weak not by nature, but because of the ancestral transgression. It brought the law of sin into our nature, made it prone to sin, weak for the practice of virtues, and unable by its own powers to correct its corruption.

We were ungodly. We worshiped the creature and not the Creator. We slaughtered our sons and daughters in sacrifice to idols, and rejected the true God, who alone can heal our weaknesses.

"For scarcely for a righteous man, δικαίου, will one die; yet perhaps for a good man, ἀγαθοῦ, someone might even dare to die." Contrasting the thought of this verse with that of verse 8, where it is said that Christ died for us sinners, the Apostle supposes that scarcely anyone among men would agree to die even for a righteous man, a pious man. And if someone does decide on this, then perhaps he would die for a benefactor. But Christ died for sinners, for His enemies, and in this He showed us His love.

Then the Apostle dwells, with a deep feeling of grateful love, on the great fruits of redemption. They clearly testify that these came to us not at all according to our works.

No longer as enemies and rejected slaves, which we would have been according to our works, but as sons of God, "we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom 5:2).

In this grace even the very afflictions on earth are turned into praise and bring us joy.

Though scarcely anyone will die even for a righteous man, our Savior, in His ineffable mercy, "while we were still sinners, died for us" (Rom 5:8).

Therefore we now neither tremble nor stand in terror before God as transgressors. Rather, "we also rejoice in God, as children rejoice in their father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Rom 5:11).

Striving to establish us in the hope of salvation, the Apostle reveals the incomparable abyss of God's love, shown to us through the sufferings of Jesus Christ for us.

He suffered for us while we were sinners and therefore unworthy of the self-sacrifice of even an ordinary man, much less of the Lord Himself, Christ.

In general, cases were possible in which someone sacrificed his life for good, dear, and beloved people. But in the ancient world it was unheard of that someone should sacrifice himself for unworthy people, and even for his enemies.

Only the divine love of God was capable of this.

According to blessed Theodoret, "God showed the exceeding abundance of His love in that Christ's death occurred not for the righteous, but for sinners.

The Apostle explains how great an abyss of love for mankind was shown in Christ's death for us, sinners and ungodly, by pointing to what happens among us.

Among us, he says, it happens that scarcely anyone will wish to die even for a righteous man, while Christ died for sinners. Marvel at the love of God.

The words, "yet perhaps for a good man," and so on, seem to be a qualification. He says: I say, for a righteous man; for perhaps someone might even decide to die for a good man.

By a good man he means one's benefactor. I do not affirm that among men no one ever dies for another. It happens among them that someone may be moved to die, for example, for his benefactor.

By the word "perhaps," he shows that even this happens rarely.