Dying for a friend or a good man (5:6–8)

Says "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (5:7–8, BSB): ὑπὲρ δικαίου … ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ.

Greek and Roman moralists admired the person who would die for a friend. Seneca says the wise man wants a friend "in order to have someone for whom I may die, whom I may follow into exile, against whose death I may stake my own life" (Ep. 9.10). In Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus says that only lovers are willing to die for another, and cites Alcestis, who died for her husband (Symp. 179b). Diogenes Laertius reports the Epicurean view that the wise man will on occasion die for a friend (10.120–121). In each case the one died for is a friend, a spouse, or someone counted worthy.

Implies Christ's death goes beyond this pattern, since he died for the ungodly, for sinners, and for enemies (5:6, 8, 10). For the substitutionary and propitiatory sense of his death, see the notes on 3:25.

Uncertain Whether "the good man" (τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, with the article) is a benefactor distinct from "a righteous man" (δικαίου), or the same person in a second, correcting clause, is debated. This note leans to the benefactor reading, as does note.language.Rom.5.6-Rom.5.11.hyper-katallasso: the article marks a particular figure, and γάρ qualifies the first clause. The synonym reading takes the second clause as restating the first.