36  The Hymn of Security (8:31-39)

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:3139)

Paul closes this magnificent chapter with what might be called a hymn of security With all the apostle has said previously in this chapter about security, especially after his climactic declarations in verses 28–30, it would seem there was nothing left to add. But this closing passage is a crescendo of questions and answers regarding issues some objectors might still raise. Although verses 31–39 continue his argument in defense of security, they also amount to an almost poetic declaration of thanksgiving for God’s grace, in which His children will live and rejoice throughout all eternity.

THE INTRODUCTION

What then shall we say to these things? (8:31a)

Judging from what Paul says in the rest of the passage, these things doubtless refer to the issues he has already dealt with in the chapter. Much of what he says in verses 31–39 relates to the doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, but the specific focus is still on the security that His atonement brings to those who believe in Him.

Paul realizes that many fearful believers will still have doubts about their security and that false teachers would be ready to exploit those doubts. To give such believers the assurance they need, the apostle reveals God’s answer to two closely related questions: Can any person or can any circumstance cause a believer to lose his salvation?

PERSONS WHO MIGHT SEEM TO THREATEN OUR SECURITY

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. (8:31b-34)

Paul begins with an all-encompassing rhetorical question, If God is for us, who is against us? The word if translates the Greek conditional particle ei, signifying a fulfilled condition, not a mere possibility. The meaning of the first clause is therefore “Because God is for us.”

The obvious implication is that if anyone were able to rob us of salvation they would have to be greater than God Himself, because He is both the giver and the sustainer of salvation. To Christians Paul is asking, in effect, “Who could conceivably take away our no-condemnation status?” (see 8:1). Is there anyone stronger than God, the Creator of everything and everyone who exists?

David declared with unreserved confidence, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?” (Ps. 27:1). In another psalm we read, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride…. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Ps. 46:1–3, 11).

Proclaiming the immeasurable greatness of God, Isaiah wrote,

In Romans 8:31 Paul does not specify any particular persons who might be successful against us, but it would be helpful to consider some of the possibilities.

First of all, we might wonder, “Can other people rob us of salvation?” Many of Paul’s initial readers of this epistle were Jewish and would be familiar with the Judaizing heresy promulgated by highly legalistic Jews who claimed to be Christians. They insisted that no person, Jew or Gentile, could be saved or maintain his salvation without strict observance of the Mosaic law, and especially circumcision.

The Jerusalem Council was called to discuss that very issue, and its binding decision was that no Christian is under the ritual law of the Mosaic covenant (see Acts 15:1–29). The major thrust of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia was against the Judaizing heresy and is summarized in the following passage:

The Roman Catholic church teaches that salvation can be lost by committing so-called mortal sins and also claims power for itself both to grant and to revoke grace. But such ideas have no foundation in Scripture and are thoroughly heretical. No person or group of persons, regardless of their ecclesiastical status, can bestow or withdraw the smallest part of God’s grace.

When Paul was bidding farewell to the Ephesian elders who had come to meet him at Miletus, he warned, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:28–30). Paul was not suggesting that true believers can be robbed of salvation but was warning that they can be seriously misled, confused, and weakened in their faith and that the cause of the gospel can be greatly hindered. Although false teaching cannot prevent the completion of a believer’s salvation, it can easily confuse an unbeliever regarding salvation.

Second, we might wonder if Christians can put themselves out of God’s grace by committing some unusually heinous sin that nullifies the divine work of redemption that binds them to the Lord. Tragically, some evangelical churches teach that loss of salvation is possible. But if we were not able by our own power or effort to save ourselves—to free ourselves from sin, to bring ourselves to God, and to make ourselves His children—how could it be that by our own efforts we could nullify the work of grace that God Himself has accomplished in us?

Third, we might wonder if God the Father would take away our salvation. It was, after all, the Father who “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). If anyone could take away salvation, it would have to be the One who gave it. We might argue theoretically that, because God is sovereign and omnipotent, He could take away salvation if He wanted to. But the idea that He would do that flies in the face of Scripture, including the present text.

In answer to such a suggestion, Paul asks, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? How could it possibly be that God would sacrifice His own Son for the sake of those who believe in Him and then cast some of those blood-bought believers out of His family and His kingdom? Would God do less for believers after they are saved than He did for them prior to salvation? Would He do less for His children than He did for His enemies? If God loved us so much while we were wretched sinners that He delivered up His own Son … for us, would He turn His back on us after we have been cleansed from sin and made righteous in His sight?

Isaac was an Old Testament picture of Christ. When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the only son of promise, both Abraham and Isaac willingly obeyed. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac is a beautiful foreshadow of God the Father’s willingness to offer up His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Isaac’s willingness to be sacrificed foreshadows Christ’s willingness to go to the cross. God intervened to spare Isaac and provided a ram in his place (Gen. 22:1–13). At that point, however, the analogy changes from comparison to contrast, because God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

Isaiah extoled the wondrous love of both God the Father and God the Son when he wrote,

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross not only is the foundation of our salvation but also of our security. Because the Father loved us so much while we were still under condemnation, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Because the Son loved us so much while we were still under condemnation, He “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4; cf. 3:13).

Jesus promises all those who belong to Him: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). The Lord makes no allowance for any of His people to be lost again, but promises each one of them an eternal home in His eternal presence. Jesus also assures us that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever (John 14:16), again making no allowance for exceptions. What power in heaven or earth could rob the Godhead of those who have been divinely saved for eternity?

Beginning in verse 8 of chapter 12, Paul speaks almost entirely in the first and second persons, referring to himself and to fellow believers. It is the same spiritual brethren (us) he speaks of twice in verse 32. If the Father delivered up His Son for us all, he argues, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? In his letter to Ephesus the apostle is also speaking of fellow believers when he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). If God blesses all of us, His children, with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” loss of salvation is clearly impossible. All believers receive that eternal inheritance.

Freely give translates charizomai, which means to bestow graciously or out of grace. In some of Paul’s other letters the same word carries the idea of forgiveness (see 2 Cor. 2:7, 10; 12:13; Col. 2:13; 3:13). It therefore seems reasonable to interpret Paul’s use of charizomai in Romans 8:32 as including the idea of God’s gracious forgiveness as well as His gracious giving. If so, the apostle is also saying that God freely forgives us all things (cf. 1 John 1:9). God’s unlimited forgiveness makes it impossible for a believer to sin himself out of God’s grace.

In order to assure His people of their security in Him, “in the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:17–18). The two unchangeable features of God’s unchangeable purpose are His promise and His oath to honor that promise. What greater proof of security could we have than the unchangeable purpose of God to save and keep His elect, the heirs of promise?

Fourth, we might wonder if Satan can take away our salvation. Because he is our most powerful supernatural enemy, if anyone other than God could rob us of salvation, it would surely be the devil. He is called “the accuser of [the] brethren” (Rev. 12:10), and the book of Job depicts him clearly in that role:

Satan accused Job of worshiping God out of selfishness rather than out of reverence and love. Although Job at one point questioned God’s wisdom and was divinely rebuked (chaps. 38–41), he repented and was forgiven. From the beginning to the end of Job’s testing, the Lord affectionately called him “My servant” (see 1:8; 42:7–8). Although Job’s faith was not perfect, it was genuine. The Lord therefore permitted Satan to test Job, but He knew Satan could never destroy Job’s persevering faith or rob His servant of salvation.

In one of his visions, the prophet Zechariah reports: “Then he [an angel] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan,’ The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’” (Zech. 3:1–2). Although “Joshua was clothes with filthy garments” (v. 3), that is, was still living with the sinful flesh, he was one of the Lord’s redeemed and was beyond Satan’s power to destroy or discredit.

Satan also tried to undermine Peter’s faith, and Jesus warned him of that danger, saying, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.” He then assured the apostle, “but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32).

Because every believer has that divine protection, Paul asks, Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? The world and Satan are continually bringing charges against God’s elect, but those charges amount to nothing before the Lord, because He is the one who justifies, the one who decides who is righteous before Him. They have been declared eternally guiltless and are no longer under the condemnation of God (8:1), the only one who condemns. God conceived the law, revealed the law, interprets the law, and applies the law. And through the sacrifice of His Son, all the demands of the law have been met for those who trust in Him.

That great truth inspired Count Zinzendorf to write the following lines in the glorious hymn “Jesus, They Blood and Righteousness,” translated by John Wesley:

It is not that the accusations made against believers by Satan and the unbelieving world are always false. The fact that we are not yet sinless is obvious. But even when a charge against us is true, it is never sufficient grounds for our damnation, because all our sins—past, present, and future—have been covered by the blood of Christ and we are now clothed in His righteousness.

Fifth, we might wonder if our Savior Himself would take back our salvation. Anticipating that question, Paul declares, Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. It is because Jesus makes continuous intercession for all believers, God’s elect, that “they shall never perish” and that “no one shall snatch them out of [His] hand” (John 10:28). For Christ to take away our salvation would be for Him to work against Himself and to nullify His own promise. Christ offers no temporary spiritual life but only that which is eternal. He could not grant eternal life and then take it away, because that would demonstrate that the life He had granted was not eternal.

In verse 34 Paul reveals four realities that protect our salvation in Jesus Christ. First, he says that Christ Jesus … died. In His death He took upon Himself the full penalty for our sins. In His death He bore the condemnation that we deserved but from which we are forever freed (8:1). The death of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf is the only condemnation we will ever know.

Second, Christ was raised from the dead, proving His victory over sin and over its supreme penalty of death. The grave could not hold Jesus, because He had conquered death; and His conquest over death bequeaths eternal life to every person who trusts in Him. As Paul has declared earlier in this letter, Christ “was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:25). His death paid the price for our sins and His resurrection gave absolute proof that the price was paid. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He demonstrated that His Son had offered the full satisfaction for sin that the law demands.

Third, Christ is at the right hand of God, the place of divine exaltation and honor. Because “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,… God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:8–9). David foretold that glorious event when he wrote, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet’” (Ps. 110:1).

There were no seats in the Temple, because the sacrifices made there by the priests were never finished. They were but pictures of the one and only true sacrifice that the Son of God one day would make. The writer of Hebrews explains that “every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He [Christ], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:11–12; cf. 1:3).

Fourth, Christ also intercedes for us. Although His work of atonement was finished, His continuing ministry of intercession for those saved through His sacrifice will continue without interruption until every redeemed soul is safe in heaven. Just as Isaiah had prophesied, “He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). Jesus Christ “is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

If we understand what Christ did on the cross to save us from sin, we understand what it means to be secure in His salvation. If we believe that God loved us so much when we were wretched and ungodly that He sent His Son to die on the cross to bring us to Himself, how could we believe that, after we are saved, His love is not strong enough to keep us saved? If Christ had power to redeem us out of bondage to sin, how could He lack power to keep us redeemed?

Christ, the perfect Priest, offered a perfect sacrifice to make us perfect. To deny the security of the believer is therefore to deny the sufficiency of the work of Christ. To deny the security of the believer is to misunderstand the heart of God, to misunderstand the gift of Christ, to misunderstand the meaning of the cross, to misunderstand the biblical meaning of salvation.

Even when we sin after we are saved, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” because in Him “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 1:9; 2:1). When we sin, our Lord intercedes on our behalf and comes to our defense against Satan and any others who might bring charges against us (see Rom. 8:33). “God is able to make all grace abound to you,” Paul assured the believers at Corinth (2 Cor. 9:8). Through our remaining days on earth and throughout all eternity, our gracious Lord will hold us safe in His everlasting love by His everlasting power.

CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MIGHT SEEM TO THREATEN OUR SECURITY

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. (8:35–37)

After establishing that it is impossible for any person to take away our salvation, Paul anticipates a similar question that some will ask: “Is it possible for circumstances to rob a believer of his salvation?” The apostle now proceeds to show that that, too, is impossible.

The interrogative pronoun tis (who) is the same word that begins the previous two verses. But the Greek term also can mean “what,” and the fact that Paul speaks only of things and not people in verses 35–37, makes clear that he is now referring to impersonal things.

Unpleasant and dangerous circumstances obviously can have a detrimental influence on the faith and endurance of believers. The question here, however, is whether they can cause a believer to sin himself out of salvation. In essence, this question is an extension of the one discussed above regarding the possibility of a believer’s dislodging himself from God’s grace.

Paul anticipates and refutes the notion that any circumstance, no matter how threatening and potentially destructive, can cause a genuine believer to forfeit his salvation. In verse 35 Paul lists a representative few of the countless ominous circumstances that faithful believers may encounter while they still live in the world.

First of all, it should be noted that the love of Christ does not refer to the believer’s love for Him but rather to His love for the believer (see vv. 37, 39). No person can love Christ who has not experienced the redeeming work of Christ’s love for him: “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

In this context, the love of Christ represents salvation. Paul is therefore asking rhetorically if any circumstance is powerful enough to cause a true believer to turn against Christ in a way that would cause Christ to turn His back on the believer. At issue, then, are the power and permanence of the love of Christ for those He has bought with His own blood and brought into the family and the kingdom of His Father.

John reports that “Before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). As John makes clear in his first epistle, “the end” does not refer simply to the end of Jesus’ earthly life but to the end of every believer’s earthly life. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins…. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:9–10, 17). We have confidence as we face the day of judgment, because we know that the divine and indestructible love of Christ binds us eternally to Him.

In a majestic benediction at the end of the second chapter of his second letter to Thessalonica, Paul says, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word” (2 Thess. 2:16–17). Eternal comfort and good hope are the permanent gifts of God’s grace, because, by definition, that which is eternal cannot end.

The first threatening circumstance Paul mentions is tribulation, from thlipsis, which carries the idea of being squeezed or placed under pressure. In Scripture the word is perhaps most often used of outward difficulties, but it is also used of emotional stress. The idea here is probably that of severe adversity in general, the kind that is common to all men.

The second threatening circumstance is distress, which translates the compound Greek word stenochōria, which is composed of the terms for narrow and space. The idea is similar to that of tribulation and carries the primary idea of strict confinement, of being helplessly hemmed in. In such circumstances a believer can only trust in the Lord and pray for the power to endure. Sometimes we are caught in situations where we are continually confronted with temptations we cannot avoid. Paul counsels believers who are under such distress to remember that “no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). Until He provides a way of escape, the Lord provides the power to resist.

The third threatening circumstance is persecution, which refers to affliction suffered for the sake of Christ. Persecution is never pleasant, but in the Beatitudes Jesus gives a double promise of God’s blessing us when we suffer for His sake. He then bids us to “rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:10–12).

Famine often results from persecution, when Christians are discriminated against in employment and cannot afford to buy enough food to eat. Many believers have been imprisoned for their faith and have gradually starved to death because of inadequate food.

Nakedness does not refer to complete nudity but to destitution in which a person cannot adequately clothe himself. It also suggests the idea of being vulnerable and unprotected.

To be in peril is simply to be exposed to danger in general, including danger from treachery and mistreatment.

The sword to which Paul refers was more like a large dagger and was frequently used by assassins, because it was easily concealed. It was a symbol of death and suggests being murdered rather than dying in military battle.

Paul was not speaking of these afflictions in theory or second hand. He himself had faced those hardships and many more, as he reports so vividly in 2 Corinthians 11. Referring to certain Jewish leaders in the church who were boasting of their suffering for Christ, Paul writes,

Quoting from the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) version of Psalm 44:22, Paul continues, Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” In other words, Christians should not be surprised when they have to endure suffering for the sake of Christ.

Before Paul wrote this epistle, God’s faithful people had suffered for centuries, not only at the hands of Gentiles but also at the hands of fellow Jews. They “experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground” (Heb. 11:36–38).

The cost of faithfulness to God has always been high. Jesus declared, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 10:37–39). Paul assured his beloved Timothy that “indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

If a professing Christian turns his back on the things of God or lives persistently in sin, he proves that he never belonged to Christ at all. Such people have not lost their salvation but have never received it. About such nominal Christians, John said, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).

If the things of the world continually keep a person from the things of God, that person proves he is not a child of God. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, many thousands of people walked great distances to hear Him preach and to receive physical healing for themselves and their loved ones. At His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowd acclaimed Him as their Messiah and wanted to make Him king. But after He was convicted and crucified, and the cost of true discipleship became evident, most of those who had once hailed Christ were nowhere to be found.

Luke gives an account of three men, doubtless representative of many others, who professed allegiance to Jesus but who would not submit to His lordship and thereby proved their lack of saving faith. The first man, whom Matthew identifies as a scribe (8:19), promised to follow Jesus wherever He went. But knowing the man’s heart, “Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’” (9:57–58). When the Lord called a second man, he asked permission to first bury his father. He did not mean that his father had just died but rather that he wanted to postpone commitment to Christ until after his father eventually died, at which time the son would receive his family inheritance. Jesus “said to him, ‘Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God’” (vv. 59–60). In other words, let those who are spiritually dead take care of their own carnal interests. The third man wanted to follow Jesus after he said “goodbye to those at home.” To Him the Lord replied, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (vv. 61–62).

We are not told what any of the three men eventually did in regard to following Christ, but the implication is that, like the rich young man (Matt. 19:22), the cost of true discipleship, which is always the mark of true salvation, was too high for them.

Only the true believer perseveres, not because he is strong in himself but because he has the power of God’s indwelling Spirit. His perseverance does not keep his salvation safe but proves that his salvation is safe. Those who fail to persevere not only demonstrate their lack of courage but, much more importantly, their lack of genuine faith. God will keep and protect even the most fearful person who truly belongs to Him. On the other hand, even the bravest of those who are merely professing Christians will invariably fall away when the cost of being identified with Christ becomes too great.

Only true Christians are overcomers because only true Christians have the divine help of Christ’s own Spirit. “For we have become partakers of Christ,” explains the writer of Hebrews, “if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Heb. 3:14). To some Jews who believed Him, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32). Holding fast and abiding in God’s Word neither merit nor preserve salvation. But the presence of those virtues confirms the reality of salvation, and the absence of them confirms the condition of lostness.

Just as we can only love God because He first loved us, we can only hold on to God because He holds on to us. We can survive any threatening circumstance and overcome any spiritual obstacle that the world or Satan puts in our way because in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Overwhelmingly conquer is from hupernikaō, a compound verb that literally means to hyper-conquer, to over-conquer, to conquer, as it were, with success to spare. Those who overwhelmingly conquer are supremely victorious in overcoming everyone and everything that threatens their relationship to Jesus Christ. But they do so entirely through His power, the power of Him who loved us so much that He gave His life for us that we might have life in Him.

Because our Lord both saves and keeps us, we do much more than simply endure and survive the ominous circumstances Paul mentions in verse 35. First of all, we overwhelmingly conquer by coming out of troubles stronger than when they first threatened us. Paul has just declared that, by His divine grace and power, God causes everything, including the very worst things, to work for the good of His children (8:28). Even when we suffer because of our own sinfulness or unfaithfulness, our gracious Lord will bring us through with a deeper understanding of our own unrighteousness and of His perfect righteousness, of our own faithlessness and of His steadfast faithfulness, of our own weakness and of His great power.

Second, we overwhelmingly conquer because our ultimate reward will far surpass whatever earthly and temporal loss we may suffer. With Paul, we should view even the most terrible circumstance as but “momentary, light affliction” that produces “for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).

From the human perspective, of course, the over-conquest God promises often seems a long time in coming. But when, as true believers, we go through times of testing, whatever their nature or cause, we come out spiritually refined by our Lord. Instead of those things separating us from Christ, they will bring us closer to Him. His grace and glory will rest on us and we will grow in our understanding of His will and of the sufficiency of His grace. While we wait for Him to bring us through the trials, we know that He says to us what He said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” And we should respond with Paul, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

Paul probably wrote his letter to Rome during a winter in Corinth, and it is not likely that either Paul or the Roman believers realized how short the time would be before they would stand in need of the apostle’s comforting words in this passage. It would not be many years before they would face fierce persecution from a pagan government and people that now tolerated them with indifference. It would not be long before the blood of those to whom this epistle is addressed would soak the sands of Roman amphitheaters. Some would be mauled by wild beasts, some would be slain by ruthless gladiators, and others would be used as human torches to light Nero’s garden parties.

Consequently, the true and false believers soon would be easily distinguished. Many congregations would be saying of former members, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). But those whom the world looks upon as the overwhelmed and conquered are in reality overwhelming conquerors. In God’s scheme of things, the victors are the vanquished and the vanquished are the victors.

THE CONCLUSION

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:38–39)

This chapter closes with a beautiful summary of what has just been said. The apostle assures his readers that he was not teaching them anything about which he himself was not fully convinced. He was convinced first of all because of the nature of salvation, which God had revealed to him and which he presents so clearly in these first eight chapters. His counsel is also a personal testimony. He was convinced because he had experienced most of the things mentioned and they did not separate him from Christ. Both revelation and experience convinced him. Paul was saying to believers in Rome the same thing he would say some years later to Timothy: “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Paul begins his list with death, which, in our earthly life, we experience last. Even that supreme enemy cannot separate us from our Lord, because He has changed death’s sting from defeat to victory. We can therefore rejoice in the psalmist’s affirmation that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones” (Ps. 116:15), and we can testify with David that “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4). With Paul, we should “prefer rather to be absent from the body” because that will mean we are finally “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

Donald Grey Barnhouse told a personal story that beautifully illustrates death’s powerlessness over Christians. When his wife died, his children were still quite young, and Dr. Barnhouse wondered how he could explain their mother’s death in a way their childish minds could understand. As they drove home from the funeral, a large truck passed them and briefly cast a dark shadow over the car. Immediately the father had the illustration he was looking for, and he asked the children, “Would you rather be run over by a truck or by the shadow of a truck?” “That’s easy, Daddy,” they replied. “We would rather get run over by the shadow, because that wouldn’t hurt.” Their father then said, “Well, children, your mother just went through the valley of the shadow of death, and there’s no pain there, either.”

The second supposed hindrance does not seem like a hindrance at all. We think of life as something positive. But it is in our present earthly life that spiritual dangers lie. Not only does death itself hold no harm for believers, but it will bring the end of all harm. It is while we still have this life that we face tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword (8:35) and the many other trials that Paul could have mentioned. But because we have eternal life in Christ, the threats during our present life are empty.

The third supposed threat is angels. Because the next danger on the list (principalities) doubtless refers to fallen angels, it seems likely that the ones mentioned here are holy angels. Paul’s reference here to angels presupposes a purely hypothetical and impossible situation, just as did one of his warnings to the Galatians. He told the Galatian believers to stand firm in their salvation through Christ’s shed blood on the cross and to refuse to accept any contrary gospel, even if preached, if that were possible, by an apostle or “an angel from heaven” (Gal. 1:8).

The fourth supposed threat is not in the least hypothetical. As already noted, principalities seems to refer to evil beings, specifically demons. Like the Greek term (archē) behind it, principalities indicates neither good nor evil. But the obvious negative use of archē in such passages as Ephesians 6:12 (“rulers”), Colossians 2:15 (“rulers”), and Jude 6 (“own domain”)—as well as its apparent contrast with the term that precedes it here (angels)—seems to indicate fallen angels, the demons. If so, Paul is saying that no supernatural created being, good or evil, can sever our relationship to Christ.

Things present and things to come represent everything we are experiencing and will yet experience.

Powers translates dunamis, the ordinary Greek word for power. But in its plural form, as here, it often refers to miracles or mighty deeds. It was also used figuratively of persons in positions of authority and power. Regardless of the specific meaning Paul had in mind here, powers represents another obstacle that Christians need not fear.

Paul may have used height and depth as astrological terms that were familiar in his day, hupsōma (height) referring to the high point, or zenith, of a star’s path, and bathos (depth) to its lowest point. If so, the idea is that Christ’s love secures a believer from the beginning to the end of life’s path. Or perhaps he used the terms to signify the infinity of space, which is endless in every direction. In either case, the basic meaning is that of totality.

To leave no doubt that security is all-encompassing, Paul adds nor any other created thing. Since only God Himself is uncreated, everyone else and everything else is excluded.

There is nothing anywhere at any time that shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord. Our salvation was secured by God’s decree from eternity past and will be held secure by Christ’s love through all future time and throughout all eternity.

Earlier in this epistle Paul declared that, “as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good.’” To make sure that no person could make an exception for himself, the apostle added, “there is not even one” (Rom. 3:10–12). In a similar way, Paul allows absolutely no exceptions in regard to the believer’s security in Christ.

In this marvelous closing section of chapter 8, verses 31–34 focus on the love of God the Father, and verses 35–39 focus on the love of God the Son. One is reminded of Jesus’ high priestly prayer, in which He prays on behalf of believers, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; … And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am” (John 17:21–24).

George Matheson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842. As a child he had only partial vision, and his sight became progressively worse, until it resulted in blindness by the time he was eighteen. Despite his handicap, he was a brilliant student and graduated from the University of Glasgow and later from seminary. He became pastor of several churches in Scotland, including a large church in Edinburgh, where he was greatly respected and loved. After he had been engaged to a young woman for a short while, she broke the engagement, having decided she could not be content married to a blind man. Some believe that this painful disappointment in romantic love led Matheson to write the beautiful hymn which begins with the following stanza:

Because our God is infinite in power and love, “we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:6). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with David, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee” (Ps. 56:3) and, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with Moses, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with the writer of Hebrews, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19).