Examining the Evidence: Romans 8:28-39

SYNTAX

Paul begins building his case by discussing the action in question: the sequestering of God's people from prosecution. Satan cannot touch them, but this does not stop him from trying to indict God for breaking His own rules. And it does not prevent him from making life difficult for those beyond his prosecutorial reach.

The crux of the confidence issue rests in the first three words: "And we know." Paul leaves no room for doubt in so black-and-white a statement. What is it that we know? That in all things, God is working for good. Here is where the verse could present problems, if we let it. There is the matter of grammar with supplied words. Some manuscripts make "all things" the subject, as in: "All things work together for good," with no reference to God. Still, things cannot do any work in and of themselves, so even without naming God specifically we can logically perceive Paul as meaning nothing other than that God is the causative force here; the problem is only cosmetic.¹⁴

The expression "those who have been called" also leaves question marks in people's minds. The word "called" is not used out of its typical New Testament context: it refers to God's effectual calling of His elect to salvation.¹⁵ Paul really addressed this at the beginning, where he is careful to identify those who are called first as those who love God. So God's election could not be capricious, but a function of those whom God knew would love him--addressed in the next verse. The difficulty here is that we only love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:19).

Verse 29
"For those God foreknew, he also predestined to conform to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (NIV)

The calling in v. 28 is applied to "those God foreknew"­that is, those whom he knew in advance would respond to His call. These are the ones God predetermined would be the ones whom He would "conform to the likeness of his Son." Indeed, according to the Granville Sharp rule, "foreknew" and "predestined" are equalities.¹⁶ Paul addresses the matter of conformity in the background of adoption: the issue is sanctification, wherein by sharing in Christ's sufferings (Phil. 3:10) we, having the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5­8), are being make into his likeness.¹⁷ Matthew Henry makes an excellent point here: "All that God designed for glory and happiness as the end he decreed to grace and holiness as the way. Not, whom he did foreknow to be holy those he predestined to be so."¹⁸ Now, there can be no concept of adoption without love, and the love is first placed in His Son; consequently, we, being conformed to His image to become more like Him, find our election validated­we are becoming "imagers" of Christ. And this is all done to the glory and for the sake of Christ.¹⁹

Verse 30
"And those he predestined, He also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (NIV)

First, it is worth noting that all the verbs here are used in the past tense­ including "glorified."²⁰ Henry calls us to "observe, it is spoken of as a thing done: He glorified, because of the certainty of it."²¹ There is method in this sequence: first the believer is called (this has already been predetermined by his election, v. 29); next, he is justified (this happened on the cross). But "glorified?" Clearly we are not yet glorious. What can Paul mean? He is speaking of the inevitable, like using the prophetic perfect in some Old Testament passages like Isaiah 53 (where the work and sacrifice of Jehovah's Servant is state as though it had already been made).²²

Sanctification is not mentioned here, most likely because it is "the one area in which human cooperation is essential."²³ These that were mentioned are all activities of God and Christ, beyond the capacity of man.

Verse 31
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (NIV)

Paul is turning in his argument now from the description of our confidence to the reasoning of it. Not so much a question of "why did God do this," which has already been answered in v. 29; but, "what have we, who have been predestined, called, justified, and glorified, to fear?" Paul is "throwing down the gauntlet," so to speak, "[daring] all the enemies of the saints to do their worst: if God be for us, who can be against us?"²⁴ "If" is better translated "since:"²⁵ "Since God has made the effort to predestine, call, justify, and glorify us, surely He will not have wasted His effort by allowing us to be consumed by the forces of evil." He has already aligned us with Him, and Paul, having spoken of our glorification as a thing already done is asking, "Why faint? Why collapse under this pressure?" "Let Satan do his worst, he is chained; let the world do its worst, it is conquered: principalities are spoiled and disarmed, and triumphed over, in the cross of Christ."²⁶

Verse 32
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all­how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?" (NIV)

So Paul answers one question with another. God has made a sacrifice of His Son, but not capriciously, and two accomplish two goals: to set aside for Himself "a peculiar people" (Titus 2:14), and to glorify His Son by making him the firstborn among many brothers (v. 29). Indeed, this latter is the primary reasoning for it all--the glory of Christ. He was willing to go to the cross--and His Father was willing to bruise Him there (Isa. 53:10).²⁷ How, after that sacrifice, will the same gracious spirit not provide anything necessary from all He has glorified?²⁸

Verse 33
"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies." (NIV)

Paul now begins a three-pronged argument for the certainty of confidence. Obviously, Satan will be busy trying to press charges, but even David observed that all sin is committed against God (Ps. 51:4), so only God is in a position to prosecute.²⁹ Again, Paul is reinforcing the matter of election­"those whom God has chosen."

Verse 34
"Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died­more than this, who was raised to life­is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (NIV)

In any legal system, the only person in a position to press charges is the offended­and this is certainly not Satan. God was originally the one against whom the crime was committed; out of His love, he allowed His Son to bear the brunt of His wrath against sin, effectively passing the right to press charges to Jesus. But Jesus is our very advocate! Paul efficiently addresses the redeeming work of Christ in four clauses: (1) Christ died, securing the removal of the guilt of sin; (2) He was raised to life with the right to provide life on those who trust Him (John 11:25, 14:19); (3) He has been exalted to God's right hand; and (4) He intercedes for us at what is now no longer a throne of judgment, but a throne of grace.³⁰

Verse 35
"Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (NIV)

Now that God has displayed such love, what could he allow to interfere with it? The worst sentence for sin is marked here: separation from the love of God. But, again, if God in Christ were to have gone through all the trouble of choosing us and advocating on our behalf, it would make no sense for Him to render His own work a waste by allowing us to be given right back over to punishment. This is an excellent argument for eternal security­the work of reconciliation is a permanent one. We are made brothers with Christ, and God will no more cut us off than He would His own Son.³¹ Paul is probably pointing out specific issues the Romans were dealing with, because they are issues every body of believers can identify with. And he asks the pointed question: How are any of these things strong enough to undo all the work the Son has done in securing God's love and favor for you?

Verse 36
"As it is written, 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'" (NIV)

In quoting Psalm 44:22, Paul reminds believers that whatever they were going through, the Romans had no experiencing any new kind of suffering.³² The first part of the verse, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long," is equated to the persecution the Old Testament saints and prophets experienced, and the continued expectation of it; the second, "we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered," likens our experience to that of Christ: we are not killed because we were a harm in life, but because we are useful in death: to feed the wicked appetites of the persecutors.³³

Verse 37
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (NIV)

The finishing touches on Paul's powerful argument reach a thrilling climax. In the face of all the things we have undergone or will undergo, we have hupernikao--we have gained a decisive victory. He is careful to qualify this important point: it is through him that loved us." Not simply a conversion of their enemies into friends as indicated in 5:3­5; this is supposition. But Bauer points out the use of the prefix huperas they key­not just any nikao, or victory, but a "super-victory."³⁴ And this one has been won at little cost to the beneficients ("what do the suffering saints lose? Why, they lose that which the gold loses in the furnace, nothing but the dross"³⁵) and with great gain: "rich; glory, honor, and peace, a crown of righteousness that fades not away."³⁶

Verse 38­39a
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation" (NIV)

This little doxology (so to speak) concludes the passage and the chapter with a foundation for confidence. In it, he lists categories that, for all but the last, are things that cannot be touched. Death, for instance, was important to mention, inasmuch as the Romans probably knew the time was coming; even Israel killed its Messiah, and Jesus promised that his death would be but a sign of things to come. Paul's mention of angels here is somewhat vague. Usually this particular word, aggelos, refers to good angels, while demons are often called arche. The word used here is the former, but the truth stands in any case. In view of the next verse ("separate us from the love of God,"), Henry writes, "The good angels will not, the bad shall not; and neither can."³⁷ Paul's use of the term "powers" probably refers to "hostile spiritual intelligences" that are allowed to practice spiritual warfare on God's saints (Eph. 6:12), despite the fact that they have already been defeated (Eph. 1:21).³⁸ These may include Satan himself.³⁹ "Neither height nor depth" has been translated "neither the ascension of the stars nor their declinations" in reference to the fatalism of astrology Paul may have had in mind.⁴⁰

Verse 39b

"will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NIV)

The capstone to this inspiring expression of confidence brings us back to the issue of security. In this great list, Paul declares that nothing will separate us, not from each other, which death (and sometimes life) most certainly can do, but from the love of God. Now God loves all men, but the love being spoken of here is qualified: the love He has for His elect "in Christ Jesus our Lord."

⁷Henry, p. 966.
⁸Harrison, Everett F. "Romans." The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Ed. by Frank E. Gaebelein. (Zondervan: 1976), p. 97.
⁹Unger, p. 482.
¹⁰Henry, p. 966.
¹¹Ibid.
¹²Harrison, p. 98.
¹³Ibid., p. 99.
¹⁴Harrison, p.97.
¹⁵MacArthur, p. 1708.
¹⁶MacArthur, p. 1709.
¹⁷Harrison, p.98.
¹⁸Henry, 966.
¹⁹Ibid. ²⁰Wiersbe, Warren W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. (ChariotVictor, Colorado Springs: 1991), p. 390.
²¹Henry, 966.
²²Harrison, 98.
²³Ibid.
²⁴Henry, 967.
²⁵MacArthur, 1709.
²⁶Henry, 967.
²⁷Ibid.
²⁸Harrison, 99.
²⁹Ibid.
³⁰Ibid.
³¹Ibid.
³²Ibid.
³³Henry, 968.
³⁴Harrison, 99.
³⁵Henry, 968.
³⁶Ibid.
³⁷Ibid.
³⁸Harrison, 100.
³⁰Wiersbe, 390.
³¹Harrison, 100.