Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 5:7

"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die." — Romans 5:7 (ASV)

Yet perhaps.—The true reading is, undoubtedly, for perhaps.

For a good man.—Literally, for the good (man), that is, for the good man in question, the righteous man mentioned above. It would be possible to take the phrase “for the good” as neuter rather than masculine, and to understand by it “in a good cause.” It would also be possible to give the word translated “good” the special meaning of “benefactor”—that a man might be found to die for his benefactor. But if this had been intended, it might have been more clearly expressed, and on the whole, it seems best to take the passage as it is taken in the English version.

There is a slight distinction in Greek, as in English, between the words translated “righteous” and “good.” To be “righteous” is to direct the will in obedience to an external standard; to be “good” is to have a natural goodness, especially kindness or benevolence of disposition.

But this distinction is not insisted upon here. The two words are used almost interchangeably.

On Romans 5:7-8:

What makes the sacrifice of Christ so paradoxical is that it was endured for sinners. Even for a righteous man, it is rare enough to find another who will be ready to lay down his life. Yet such persons do exist. The one thing which is most extraordinary in the death of Christ, and which most tends to highlight the love of God as displayed in it, is that He died for men as sinners, and at the very moment when they were sinning all around Him.