But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Parallel translations
- WEB But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- KJV But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- NKJV But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- NASB But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- NLT But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God proves his love in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Divine love is shown to the undeserving.
Overview
This climactic verse declares that God 'commends' or demonstrates his own love by Christ's death for us 'while we were yet sinners,' not after we reformed. Unlike rare human sacrifice for the worthy, God gave his Son for the unworthy. The cross is thus the definitive display of God's love and the ground of the believer's assurance.
Cross-references & the web
Theme
- The Love of God"God shows his love in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us."
Cross-references · 13
- John 15:13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
- John 3:16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- Rom 5:6For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
- 1 Pet 3:18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
- 1 Jn 3:16By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
- 1 Jn 4:9–10This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
- Isa 53:6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
- Eph 2:7in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
- Rom 4:25He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.
- Eph 1:6–8to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
- Rom 5:20The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- 1 Tim 1:16But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
- Rom 3:5But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 5:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.