The Love of God the Motive to Man's Salvation
Bp. Mant. Romans 5:7-8 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.… I. THE SUPREME DIGNITY OF HIM WHO UNDERTOOK THE WORK OF OUR SALVATION. II. THE STATE OF HUMILIATION TO WHICH HE CONSENTED TO BE DEGRADED IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH OUR REDEMPTION. III. THE RELATION BORNE TO HIM BY THOSE FOR WHOM THIS AMAZING TESTIMONY OF LOVING KINDNESS WAS ENTERPRISED AND PERFECTED. Inasmuch as we are by nature sinners, we are also by nature enemies of God. If it be the act of an enemy to slight, resist, and renounce the authority of our lawful sovereign; if it be the act of an enemy to range ourselves under the banners of a potentate in open hostility to our own; we who are "by nature the children of disobedience," in subjection to "the powers of darkness," "alienated from the life of God," and the ministers and slaves of sin, are by an obvious inference the natural enemies of God. And standing in this relation to God, as rebels, it evidently appears how inefficacious anything in us could have been towards meriting our redemption and influencing Him to redeem us. There was in us, indeed, that which well deserved the wrath of God, and might well have left us exposed to the severity of His displeasure.Conclusion: 1. The contemplation of this surprising love of God towards us ought to warm and expand our hearts and fill them with the most earnest love towards Him in return, and with the most zealous determination to obey Him. 2. The contemplation of the love of God, as having already interposed to save us by the sending of His Son, should fill us with a devout confidence in Him; persuaded that He who has conferred upon us of His free grace the greatest of all blessings will not withhold from us others which He may know to be for our good. 3. A third inference to be drawn from a contemplation of the love of God exemplified in the work of our salvation, is a further "confidence" that He will not leave it imperfect; but that if we love Him and keep His commandments, "He which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." 4. The contemplation of the love of God employed for our redemption, and the persuasion that our salvation is "the gift of God," connected with the belief that "we all had sinned and come short of His glory," etc. 5. But, then, whilst we renounce all hopes of salvation as merited by our works, we must be cautious not to disregard them as if they were not necessary to our salvation. (Bp. Mant.) Parallel Verses KJV: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. WEB: For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die.