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.
From the beginning of his letter Paul has explained the necessity of salvation through the intervention of Christ’s sacrificial atonement. Having set forth the golden chain of salvation (8.28-30) he now culminates this portion of his letter with a final exclamatory statement of assurance for every believer. All who love God may face their future with fearlessness. They should anticipate eternity with joy because every possible enemy has been rendered powerless. There are none who can bring any compelling accusation against God’s elect. It is God who justifies and declares the believer righteous, so who can bring any charge against the one he has set free? Paul is emphatic that the faithful Christian is more than a conqueror through the One who loves him. “The truth and the wholeness of God’s relationship with the sinful community is made manifest through the surrender of his Son. He did not spare him, nor did he retain him for himself, which would have happened, had he removed him from the judgment of sin. ‘He gave him up’ cannot be separated from 4:25 [who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification]; here too it describes God as the judge who pronounces his verdict against his Son that imposes death upon him. God did this for the sake of all of us. Through this death everyone` that God leads into the community is freed from his guilt, for now Jesus is with God and God acts jointly with him. Now he pardons everything” (Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God, p. 195).
Paul, in this short paragraph, brings to a conclusion his thoughts from 5.1-8.30. The language is joyously optimistic and laced with rhetorical questions and appropriately superlative responses. There is a decidedly judicial aspect to the believer’s appearing before God and Paul carefully assures the reader that he has no cause for fear. There is none who can be against the one for whom God sent his own Son to die. Moreover, if one has complete assurance that he will be vindicated of all misdeeds on “last day,” then he may also be assured that between now and then he will continue to be victorious over every opposing force of wickedness. It is the love of Christ that maintains the Christian. So great is the love of Christ that nothing, not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger nor even death can separate the believer from Christ’s love (8.35). The Christian overcomes every adversity through the love of Christ (8.37, 39).
JUDICIAL VIDICATION (8.31-34)
What then shall we say to these things? That is, how is one to respond to this great work of salvation. Paul summarizes everything he has said up to this point about salvation (primarily Romans 5.1-8.30, though some would argue that Paul has in mind everything from 1.16-8.30) with the statement: If God is for us, who can be against us? God has brought about the believer’s salvation through Christ. Nothing can alter this fact. So what is to be said of those who oppose the grace of God that brings about salvation for every believer? Well, at best their resistance to the gospel only serves to accentuate its truth and provides a means for the believer to achieve an even greater blessing as God’s faithful child: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5.11-12). One ought not to presume from this text that God endorses every activity of every Christian. Obviously, this is not true. What is true is that the Christian has every right to be confident in God’s justifying work of grace.
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? Paul’s third rhetorical question is demonstrative of God’s commitment to secure the believer’s salvation. Paul’s language is reminiscent of Abraham’s offering of Isaac, but unlike Isaac, Jesus was not spared (see my sermon notes from July 14, 2002). William Hendricksen’s comments strike to the heart of the text:
God, the Judge, has a Son, and only Son, very precious to him. That Son never committed any sin. In all he did he was ever pleasing to the Father (John 8:29). On the other hand: We all like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). Yet, on this precious and beloved Son God now pronounces the sentence we deserved. It is a sentence immeasurable in its severity, and is carried out in every detail. God did not spare his Son, did not mitigate the severity of the sentence in any way whatever, the Son himself agreeing with the Father and the Spirit in all this. He, the Son, fully bore that horrendous curse. He drank the cup of unspeakable agony to the very last drop. “That bitter cup, Love drank it up. It’s empty now for me.” See Isaiah 53; Romans 6.6-8; 8; 3, 4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13. It would have been unthinkable for God to reject the demands of his justice. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). We ask, “but why was the curse lifted from our shoulders and transferred to the Son of God?” The answer is: So deeply, intensely, and marvelously did God love the world that his Son, the only-begotten, he gave, in order that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have life everlasting. (William Hendricksen, Romans, p. 287)
When Abraham offered up Isaac it was God who was faithful in providing a substitutionary sacrifice: a sacrifice that foreshadowed the greater sacrifice to come (cp. 3.21-26). When God offered up his only Son, no substitution would suffice. Paul is clear that it was the will of the Father to sacrifice his Son. Because God has done the greatest thing imaginable—sacrificing his Son to death for the sake of believers—then it must follow that the Father in his grace will grant them everything along with the Son (cp. Schreiner, p. 458). What Paul means by all things is not entirely clear. Certainly, it means nothing less than everything pertaining to salvation, but there is no reason severely to restrict its meaning. “How broad is the scope of the ‘all things’ that God so graciously bestows on us? Paul could be alluding to our share in Christ’s sovereignty over creation. But it is not clear that these ideas play a role in our present passage. Certainly Paul’s focus is on those things necessary for our salvation; but, as with ‘the good’ in v. 28, we should not restrict the meaning to salvation as such but include all those blessings—spiritual and material—that we require on the path toward that final salvation. ‘Why be dubious about the chattels, when you have the Lord?’” (Douglas Moo, Romans, p. 541).
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? Well, I suppose Satan may want to do so and certainly, were it not for Christ’s intervention, one’s sin could be brought to bear against one. Paul has already thoroughly demonstrated the effectiveness of God’s golden chain of salvation. None may bring an accusation sufficient to undermine God’s elect, because it is God himself who justifies the believer. Paul’s comment is reminiscent of Isaiah 50.8-9: He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Paul poses a follow-up question: Who is to condemn? The answer is clearly implied, no one is able to do so. Moreover, Christ Jesus is the one who died [that is, vicariously on behalf of the person of faith]—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. There is in this sentence an escalating wonder at all that has been done on behalf of the Christian. Jesus, being at God’s right hand, serves as the believer’s High Priest (see my sermon notes from August 22, 2004 and September 5, 2004).
ASSURANCE OF VICTORY (8.35-39)
In this final section Paul sets the tone with yet another rhetorical question: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? At the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus commissions the disciples and gives them this assurance: And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28.20). At the close of the first major section of Paul’s gospel he gives an expanded expression of that same thought.
By this time the early church has experienced many hardships and undergone considerable persecution; thus, it is not surprising Paul would want to reassure his readers of God’s abiding presence and that these things were not unexpected. His own experiences with tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness and various threats to life and limb demonstrate the truth of his claim. It is the love of Christ that creates an unbreakable bond between the Christian and his Savior. “For this reason the community cannot be overcome even by the misery that the world inflicts by its opposition against them. Since the love of Christ has overcome guilt, it also overcomes the pressure and agony the world inflicts upon the community. It also preserves in his fellowship those who are afraid of danger and who suffer on account of misery, guarding and strengthening them. Paul describes the severity of the combat in which the community finds itself via Psalm 44:22 [Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered]. … For the Roman situation this verse was still preparation for what was to come later, though soon, to be sure. Over the announcement of the severest of battles that might lead to the destruction of the community, Paul establishes the certainty of victory. Even the despised community remains victorious, for they are loved of Christ whose love is God’s love” (Schlatter, p. 197).
Paul has declared with finality that the Christian is victor over every earthly contrivance that might conspire against him; nothing whatever can separate him from the love of God. But it is not just earthly powers that are subdued, every spiritual being and power is also held at bay. Paul says that he is equally certain 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. So then, no spiritual power, whether good or evil, can come between the believer and God. No distance (height or depth), nothing in the present nor anything in the future—in short, nothing in creation has the power to thwart God’s eternal plan for the believer. It is the love of God that disarms every enemy. Love is the operative word in Paul’s discourse. “It was love that put grace in place of wrath and that created righteousness for the believers, because the only thing it demands of the individual is to believe it. It was love that gave Jesus the power to link humanity with himself far more so than their origination from Adam linked them with Adam. It was love that made his cross, death, grave, and resurrection to be the act accomplished for all and made effective in all believers” (Schlatter, p. 196). When a person believes in God’s love bestowed on him in Christ and he is constrained by that love, he is saved and becomes a part of the community of faith .
