God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)Piper points out that “demonstrates” is present tense and “died” is past tense. The present tense implies an ongoing act that keeps happening in today’s present and tomorrow’s present, which we call the future. However, the past tense implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)Most readers would expect this sentence to say, “God demonstrated [past tense] His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” because that demonstration happened in the past, but there is a clue in the context why this tense was used:
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3–5)In other words, God’s goal in the stuff of life is to give us hope even though most of us feel very hopeless in our troubles. They would not be troubles if we didn’t! But the secret is that God pours His love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He did this at conversion and keeps doing it, as indicated again by the tense of the verb.
Note: Greek is like that. It has more verb tenses than English and often the tenses reveal truths that don’t appear in most translations.)
The point here is that God gives assurance and enjoyment of His love so that His children can actually grow in hope through the tribulations of life. As is written, tribulation works perseverance and proven character and unashamed hope because, at every point along the way, the Spirit of God is assuring us of the love of God in and through all the troubles.
This explains why verse 8 uses the present tense — it describes the work of the Holy Spirit referred to in verse 5. While God did demonstrate his love for us in giving his own Son to die once for all in the past for our sins, He knows that this past love must be experienced as a present reality if we are to have patience and character and hope. Therefore he not only demonstrated it on Calvary, he goes on demonstrating it now by the Spirit. He does this by opening the eyes of our hearts to see the glory of the cross and the guarantee it gives. That truth is summed up at the end of the chapter:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)PRAY: Life in Christ proves the point. You love me, no matter what I do and no matter what happens to me. You use it for my good (to transform me) and for Your glory. This fills my heart with not only hope, but with great joy!