But we *do* know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose.
Paul has just said that we often do not know what to pray for. This verse answers with something we do know. It ties three things together: the reach of "all things," the people who love God, and the purpose behind their calling.
This promise sits right next to our failure in prayer. One commentator notes that we know it now, and that it holds for other believers as well as ourselves.
Even Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12, did not know what to pray for as he ought. But the Lord was faithful and showed him that His grace was enough — an answer far better than the prayer. And not Paul only — we too know that all things work together for good. Not merely that they will one day — they do it now. And this holds for others as well as ourselves, for those who love God. Without this, sorrows only irritate. Here they are blessed twice over: a blessing to those who go through them, and a blessing to other children of God.
Nothing sits outside the word "all." One writer spells out the list.
All things — not one is left out. The bitter and the sweet, adversity and prosperity, sickness and health, yes, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword: all are only instruments in the hands of our God to work out the end He has purposed. How calmly then we may rest in Him and in His love!
Faith can hold this promise long before it can trace how it works.
We may not always see how this loss, or that trial, is working for our good, but faith knows that good will be the result in time and eternity. We may have to wait before we understand how all things work for good. It was so with Peter, when the Lord told him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Someone else has said, "The sorrow may not be remedied, but the sorrow is blessed."
Jacob, in the book of Genesis, had lost one son and feared losing another. He read those troubles the opposite way from this verse.
His complaint was, "All these things are against me." And so indeed it appeared. He had yet to learn that all these things were part of God's plan for his ultimate good. At the end of his life he could speak of "the angel who has redeemed me from all evil" (Genesis 48:16).
The promise names a group, so it is worth asking who belongs to it.
The fact is, the expression "those who look for Him," like "those who love God" (Rom. 8:28), is simply a Bible way of describing believers. If a man does not love God, and does not look for Christ, he cannot be called a Christian.
Another writer points out which way that love runs.
What underlies Romans 8 is that we know God and we love Him. It is not merely that God loves us; our affections are with Him and in line with Him.
The verse does not rest our assurance on our love alone. It also points to God's call.
To assure our hearts that all is working for good, we are reminded that we are "the called" of God; and, if called, God has a purpose for us. God saves us because we need saving; God calls us because He wants us. All God's ways with us in the present have in view the fulfilment of His purpose for us in the future.
Kelly explains why calling and purpose are brought in here at all:
This is carefully stated here, in case our love toward God should weaken the thought of grace on His part. That is why purpose, and calling according to purpose, are put forward.
Our idea of a good outcome may not be God's. One writer looks at the whole section to find what God means.
And what is the "good" that God has in mind? I believe we must take this section as a whole. The great thing in mind is that God will conform us to the image of His Son. Could you think of any greater thought than that? Divine love has set itself firmly and constantly to bless us, and has entered with sympathy into every circumstance we could pass through.
- Known, not felt — the verse starts where prayer breaks down. It promises a sure outcome, not an explanation of how.
- All, not most — bitter and sweet, sickness and health, persecution and sword are all tools in God's hand. He leaves nothing out.
- Called, not merely loved — our love marks us out as believers, but our assurance rests on His calling. God saves us because we need saving; He calls us because He wants us.
- Conformity, not comfort — the "good" God aims at is likeness to His Son, so today's circumstances serve tomorrow's purpose.
- Jacob's error, our warning — "all these things are against me" was his verdict on events that were working for his good.
Because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be [the] firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:29 lifts the reader out of present suffering into God's own purpose. That purpose starts before creation and ends in glory. Two questions press for an answer. What does it mean that God "foreknew" people? And what is He shaping them into?
The verse does not say God knew what people would do. One writer points to the wording itself:
Notice something important. The apostle does not speak of a passive or bare foreknowledge (v. 29), as if God only saw in advance what some people would be, or do, or believe. His foreknowledge is of persons, not of their state or conduct; it is not what, but "whom" He foreknew.
Predestination here carries a destination with it.
In eternal love He foreknew each of the individual people in His purpose... And those whom He foreknew in this way, by an absolute and sovereign purpose, He also predestined to the blessing appointed for them. Being conformed to the image of His own Son is the destination of those He foreknew. It is not glory in general, but the exact likeness of Christ, that is the destiny — and, in a sense, the definition — of each individual saint.
The likeness reaches both character and body:
Next is predestination to be conformed to the image of His Son. Mark it well. This is not merely predestination to be saved. It is predestination to future glory, conformed to the image of Christ, who is Himself "the image of God." The moral side of the truth is surely the prominent one here. The purity, holiness, and every other blessed virtue of our Lord will have its bright reflection in His saints... Elsewhere we also learn that even our bodies will be made like His body of glory (Philippians 3:21).
The full likeness is still ahead. Yet something of it can show now.
It is possible to walk as He walked. In that sense we can be like Christ in character even now. But for conformity to His image we must wait for the coming glory. We are still in these lowly bodies. We are subject to sickness and need, and exposed to danger and death.
The title given to the Son is not about the order of births.
His title here — "the firstborn among many brothers" — is clearly about priority in His Person, not about being born first. Colossians 1:15-16 confirms this principle about the "firstborn." Christ is "the firstborn of all creation." Why? "For by Him all things were created."... The title is an official rank, far above any question of time... Yet we may thank God that in grace He has "many" whom He is not ashamed to call brothers (Hebrews 2:11).
The purpose does not stop at our blessing.
We were called according to purpose, and as foreknown of God. He has predestinated us to be like His Son — but note, it is that HE might be pre-eminent, the Firstborn in that happy circle in heavenly glory.
The certainty of the outcome rests on the Son Himself.
From God's foreknowledge of us in eternity past to the finished glory of the future, the chain of blessing is perfectly linked. No link in it can ever be broken. God's purpose is that Christ His Son should be a Firstborn among many brothers... Here He is seen as man, a "Firstborn," and that word implies others... God's purpose therefore includes, of necessity, these. If it failed as to the brothers, it would fail as to the Son of His love. They are bound up together in His thoughts.
- Foreknown — God's foreknowledge here fixes on people, not on their conduct: "whom," not "what."
- Predestined — the choice comes with a destination. Not glory in general, but the exact likeness of Christ, which defines every believer.
- Conformed — His beauty of character is mirrored in us now; our bodies share the likeness at His coming.
- Firstborn — the goal above our blessing is His rank; He stands first in the family, and He is not ashamed to call us His own.
- Unbreakable — the many are bound up with the Son's own honour. So no link from foreknowledge to final glory can ever snap.
But whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified.
God's purpose does not stay in eternity — it reaches into a person's life at a fixed moment and carries that life up into glory. The verse traces that route in four steps, and the last step reads as though it had already happened.
The four steps form one linked chain. It starts before time, touches the dated moments of our own lives, and then runs on into eternity.
After predestination came the effectual call that reached us in the gospel. Here we come down to time, to the moments in our different lives when we believed. The next step came at almost the same moment, for when we believed we were justified, not just called. Last of all: "those whom He justified He also glorified." Here our golden chain, having dipped down from eternity into time, loses itself in eternity again.
Scripture uses the word "called" in more than one way. The sense here is narrower than a general invitation.
Notice here that "those who are called according to purpose" are only "those who love God." This is not the same call as in Matthew 22:14 — the call of grace to everyone, which many refuse. Here it is the call of God's purpose, a call no one can refuse — in fact, one that "the called" would never think of refusing.
That same call has two sides.
The Christian is called by God — called with an effectual calling, spoken to by a voice that makes the dead alive. The believer is called in a double sense. As a sinner made alive, he is called from darkness to light, from death into life. And as the one God foreknew for His own pleasure, he is called out of the secret of God's purpose into the open light of His glory as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
In this step the believer is the one acted on, not the one acting.
The calling of the gospel is to believe in Jesus. The soul made alive hears and obeys. But the effect of faith is justification, as we have seen. Now justification is an act of the One who justifies, not of the one justified.
Justification is not the end point. It points beyond itself.
Justification has the glory in view. God does not justify us so that we can be lifted high in this world, but so that we can be glorified with Christ in the world to come.
The glory is still ahead of us, yet the verse speaks of it as finished. There is a reason for that.
Then notice that "glorified" appears in the past tense, just as much as "justified." This is the style of the prophets. Everything is viewed from God's side, so although the glory is still to be accomplished, it is seen as if it were already done. If God calls what does not yet exist as though it did, that pledges its existence beyond all doubt.
Many readers expect "sanctified" between justified and glorified. It is not there, and one writer explains why.
This is why this beautiful and precious climax leaves out sanctification and the life in us. The Spirit had already taught our souls about these things at the start of the chapter… Here we have certainty and security, resting on what God is and on His purposes. He has foreknown His children. He has predestinated them to a certain glory, a certain marvellous blessing: to be conformed to the image of His Son. He has called them, He has justified them, He has glorified them. God has done all this.
Every link is God's own work. So the chain cannot fail — not even where you feel weakest.
Here there is no uncertainty. God Himself has secured the sure salvation of all believers. No power of man or Satan can break any one of those four links… This divine statement of eternal security takes no account at all of our imperfect state and our weakness. "God for us" brushes aside every difficulty. It is the weakest believer's triumphant answer to every doubt of unbelief.
- Purpose starts it. Predestination reaches back before time. The whole verse describes God's own work, seen from His side, not ours.
- Calling lands it. This call is God's purpose reaching the people He marked out. It is not the general invitation that many refuse.
- Justifying grounds it. God justifies; the believer does not justify himself. And justification aims at glory with Christ, not at status in this world.
- Glory finishes it. "Glorified" stands in the past tense because what God pledges is as certain as what He has already done.
- Nothing breaks it. Sanctification is left out so that only God's acts appear. That is why the believer's weakness never enters the count.
What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who against us?
Paul reaches the end of a long argument and turns it into a question. His answer is a challenge that nobody in the universe can take up.
The question looks backwards over everything Paul has been unfolding, and one writer traces exactly how far back it reaches:
The "things" are the grace and mercy he has been unfolding from chapter 3:21 to the end of chapter 8:30. It starts with the free gift of righteousness, held out to all. It runs on until God glorifies those He has justified. In all of it, God shows Himself to be for us. So the apostle asks, what is to be the reply of our hearts to this revelation of the grace of God.
The verse does not pretend that nobody opposes the believer. It says opposition cannot decide the outcome:
But "if God is for us, who can be against us?" The world, the flesh and the devil are against us. Rulers and authorities are against us. The cosmic powers over this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12), are against us... All these things, then, can be and are against us. But God is above these things, and He is for us. This is the immovable rest of faith.
That changes how we weigh the two sides:
We tend to overrate the forces against us, because we underrate the forces that are with us. We must not make light of the enemy's power. Instead we need to grow in our sense of God's power: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
One writer describes the peace this leaves in the heart:
The result of all this for the soul is that God is for us. It is a sweet and glorious conclusion. It gives the heart a peace beyond words. It gives a rest that depends on the power and stability of God. That rest shuts out all anxiety about anything that could trouble it. For if God is for us, who can be against us?
When life is hard, the heart looks at its circumstances and starts to doubt. Faith looks elsewhere:
Unbelief looks at the trials, sorrows and difficulties of the way. Then the question rises in the soul: "Can God be for me after all?" Faith knows where the everlasting witness lies that God is for us. It is not in the circumstances we pass through. It is in the gift of the Son. If God "did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all", He must indeed be "for us".
Being "for us" is not distant goodwill. It reaches the smallest things, and even turns trials into proof of His love:
God is for us in giving. He is for us in justifying. He is for us in caring for us in everything. It was the same with the people of Israel: He took care of even their clothes on their journey through the desert... I learn in these very things the perfectness of the love of God. It comes out in the smallest circumstances, in every little detail... If it is difficulties and trials, I say, Well, it just shows what pains God is taking with me.
Three short words carry the whole weight:
How much is wrapped up in these few words, "God for us"! ... We have "God" linked to "us" by that precious little word "for". This secures everything, for time and eternity... If God is for us, then one blessed thing must follow. Nothing can stand in the way of our present peace and our everlasting happiness and glory. Not our sins, not our wrongdoing, not our guilt, not our ruined nature, not Satan, not the world, not any other creature.
Paul is not asking for information. He is throwing down a dare, and the silence that follows is the point:
"Who can be against us?" No one in the universe with the least hope of success... But every voice is silent. "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" Silence throughout the universe. No voice replies. It is God who justifies. "Who is to condemn?" But the accuser hides himself, and there is no response to the challenge.
- The Review — "These things" gathers up everything from the free gift of righteousness to the glory of those God has justified. The verse is the heart's reply to all of it.
- The Proof — The lasting evidence that God is for us is not our circumstances but the gift of His Son.
- The Rest — This peace depends on the power and stability of God, not on ourselves, so it shuts out anxiety.
- The Reach — He is for us in giving, in justifying, and in the smallest daily detail. Even trials show the pains He is taking with us.
- The Result — Enemies are against us, but none with the least hope of success. When the challenge goes out, no voice answers.
He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?
This verse is God's own proof of His love: a Son not spared, handed over, and with Him the promise of everything else. It raises three simple questions. How much do the words "His own Son" weigh? How far does "all things" stretch? And why do those gifts come only "with Him"?
This verse does not argue upward from what we are. It runs the other way.
See how again, as noted elsewhere, the Spirit reasons from what God is and has done to the blessing that follows for us. He does not reason from us to God. That is true in judgment; but in grace it flows from God in all its fruits down to us. That He did not spare His Son, and then gives everything else, is after that a simple thing.
Because the argument starts there, the past settles the future.
God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. What, then, will He withhold that is fitting for us to receive? Chapters 1 to 3 of this letter have shown what believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, once were. No one could question for a moment what they deserved. Yet God gave up His Son for them. Now, are we to think of this merely as a record of the past? Far from it. This record of the past is to give us unbounded confidence in our God in the present and in the future.
The phrase reaches back to Abraham, told to offer Isaac. Every word of that command has its echo here.
The word to Abraham is "take your son," telling us that God "did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Then Abraham is told that he is to take his "only son." Three times in the chapter it is stressed that Isaac is his "only" son (vv. 2, 12, 16). … Further, Abraham is reminded that the son he is to offer up is one "whom you love."
There is an exchange hidden in the word "spared".
We are spared because He "did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). For all eternity we will thank God for His wonderful love. That love made Him give His own Son, and not spare Him, so that we might be blessed.
The weight of this verse rests on who the Son was before the Father sent Him.
Some claim that He only became Son when He was born of a woman. That claim violates the language used. Worse, it robs these passages of their clear and obvious purpose. That purpose is to stress the immensity of the love and grace of God the Father in sending His own Son. From all eternity that Son was the object of His deepest affection and delight, one with Him in nature and being. The Father sent Him to bear the judgment of sin in our place.
"Gave Him up" is not a soft phrase. God handed His Son over to judgment and death.
The love that did not spare Him, but delivered Him to judgment and death for us, triumphs in His glorious resurrection. That triumph proclaims that nothing can be charged against God's chosen ones.
Two small words control the promise. God does not hand out the gifts apart from the Son. Older translations read "freely give" here, where the ESV has "graciously give."
The gift of the Son carries with it every lesser gift that we can hold along with Him. Notice, in verse 32, the word "freely," and also "with Him." Do we want anything that we cannot have with Him? In our folly or haste we may sometimes want such things. But when we think it over, we would not take for one moment anything that separates us from Him.
This changes how we see our circumstances.
"All things … with Christ" — in fellowship with Him. Health or sickness, poverty or riches, I am in each state with Him, and I have Him in each state. According to the apostle's reasoning, the greater includes the lesser. We have and enjoy the lesser along with the greater.
This promise meets everyday fears head on.
Are we not ashamed of our unbelief, of the doubt that trembles under circumstances? Is work scarce at the moment? Do things press on us and look very dark in this wintry weather? Do we feel we do not know how we will have food for our little ones next week? Has the living God given His Son, or has He not? And "how will He not also with Him" — blessed association! — "graciously give us all things?" Who has ever answered that question? Who can answer it?
- Direction — Faith reasons downward. It starts with what God has done, not with what we find in ourselves.
- Cost — "Not spared" echoes Abraham and Isaac: the only son, the loved son, not withheld — so that we might be spared.
- Worth — Measure the gift by the Person given: God's own Son, His delight from all eternity, handed over to judgment.
- Reach — The greater includes the lesser. "All things" come freely, but always with Him, never instead of Him.
- Result — No charge can stand against those God has chosen. He will keep back nothing they need.
Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect? [It is] God who justifies
This verse sits inside a courtroom scene. Paul has just said that God is for us, and now he asks whether anyone can still accuse the people God has chosen.
The question follows a chain of statements about what God has done. The answer lies in who is asking. Older translations read the second half of the verse as a question: "Shall God, who justifies?"
"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Shall God, who justifies?" These three verses give us three steps. First, God for us. Second, God blessing us. Third, God justifying us — clearing us from every charge. For who has the right to bring a charge against us? God alone has such a right. But will He do it — when He is the One who has justified us instead?
Paul does not say we are justified in God's sight. He says God is the One doing the justifying.
Notice how the passage attributes everything to God. It does not say that we are justified before God. It says, "It is God who justifies." So the apostle may well exclaim, "Who is to condemn?" — whoever that person may be.
The verdict is only as strong as the One who gives it.
God Himself is not only the Source of our justification but the One who justifies us. "It is God who justifies" (Rom. 8:33). From His lips came the sentence against us as sinners. Equally from His lips comes the declaration of our clearance as believers in Jesus. Our justification is therefore complete and authoritative. No one can condemn us.
Justification is a legal word, not a description of feelings.
"It is God who justifies" (Rom. 8:33). Justification is an act of the Judge. He passes a sentence of declared righteousness in favour of the one He justifies. Justification is not something that happens in the heart of a sinner, but a change in his standing before the Judge. The sinner once stood guilty, waiting to be banished forever from the face of the Judge. Now he is justified — declared not guilty — and received into God's eternal favour. This is what God does for the repentant sinner who puts his trust in the work of Christ on the cross.
Being one of God's elect has two sides to it.
God Himself raises this question, and then at once goes on to say, "It is God who justifies." He has cleared us of every charge our guilt could bring against us. And He has done it righteously. He sets us in His presence completely clear of all charge, just as though we had never sinned at all. No accusation can be brought against us. God has justified us. Election is with God — that is His side. Our side is that we came to Him in our need as poor sinners and obtained salvation.
Those God justifies are the last people who would ever try to justify themselves.
God brings no charge against His elect. Instead He justifies them — people who loathe themselves before Him, admitting not only their sins but that their nature is vile and corrupt.
There is a real accuser. God has answered him before, speaking up for Joshua, a priest in Zechariah's day.
"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" Paul here issues a challenge, just as we see the Lord issuing one to Satan on behalf of Joshua (Zech. 3). "Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" The answer lies in the question: who will dare accuse these people before God? It is God who justifies — God who has chosen them.
Accusations may still come. They simply have nowhere to go.
Satan — the enemy — may still accuse. He can list sins no one could number. But if God has justified the man, Satan protests in vain. No court will hear his charges, for God has decided the case, and there is none higher than God.
Paul's challenge is not new. The Spirit had spoken these words of Christ first.
The apostle Paul cites this passage in Rom. 8:33, and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here says of Christ... it is a precious hint that the same Spirit now applies to us what He said then in God's vindication of the rejected Christ.
- Charge — Only God has the right to bring an accusation against His people, and He is the very One who has cleared them.
- Court — Justification is the Judge's sentence. It changes your standing before Him, not your feelings inside.
- Clearance — The One who once condemned now declares the believer clear. That is why no one can appeal the verdict.
- Case — Satan may keep listing sins, but no court sits above God's to hear the case again.
- Christ — What God said in defence of the rejected Christ, He now says over everyone who belongs to Him.
who is he that condemns? [It is] Christ who has died, but rather has been [also] raised up; who is also at the right hand of God; who also intercedes for us.
The verse before said that God justifies, so Paul now asks who is left to condemn. His answer is four facts about one Person: His death, His resurrection, His place at God's right hand, and His work there now.
The question is a challenge, not a doubt. One writer shows how the verse answers it:
Secondly, "Who is he that condemns?" If God justifies, who can condemn? To answer this question the Apostle brings together in one verse, the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The letter has already shown that God justifies the believer through the death of Christ. It also shows how perfect this justification is in the resurrection of Christ. Now in the glory He intercedes on behalf of those whom He has justified. If there is an active enemy ever ready to accuse the saints, there is a living Person who intercedes on their behalf.
The small linking words matter. In the older translation these writers quote, they read "rather," "even," "also" — each a step beyond the last:
Notice how the words build: "rather," then "even," then "also." The apostle boldly challenges the right of any to condemn... Christ has died for him and borne the condemnation of sin in his place. How then can that condemnation fall on the believer? But more; He has risen again out of it, above it, and above the place it brought Him into. So where is the accusation of sin now, or the condemnation?... He goes on: "who is even at the right hand of God." There He must be out of reach of every accusation. On top of that He "makes intercession" about the sin whose judgment He bore, and out of which He has risen... The One who took that sin on Himself and became answerable for it is now not only risen, but at the right hand of God. His place there, and His title to be there — which God Himself has owned — would have to be overthrown before anything could be charged to the believer now.
Christ's death paid for our offences. But how do we know God accepted it?
The answer is "It is Christ that died." By His death He made full expiation for all our offences. But how do we know that? "Yea, rather, that is risen again." His resurrection is God's seal upon the value of His death; the proof that the price paid in it was enough... "Who is even at the right hand of God." His exaltation is the declaration of God's entire satisfaction and delight in His work which He accomplished for us. The believer's Substitute and Representative is at the right hand of God. Could He have been there if one sin had remained on Him? Impossible!
The verse ends by saying Christ "is interceding for us." What does that mean?
Some say this means He appears for us on the question of sin. It is nothing of the kind. Intercession means going to someone, on behalf of another, to get what you want for that one. It is the same word in Romans 8:26 and 34; the Spirit works in our hearts, but He does not appear anywhere for us. But Christ is standing in the presence of God, and He is the One actively engaged in obtaining for us all that we need. It is not that we go to Him, but that He goes to God for us. He is our righteousness there, He has made propitiation, and therefore He can use the grace that is in God... He ever lives to carry on this constant service on our behalf.
But what about sins committed after conversion? The enemy uses them to attack:
Now the enemy who deceived Eve would step in here and say: All that is true if you never sin after your conversion. But if a Christian does sin, surely that sin will separate him from the love of Christ. Dear young believer, make sure your shield is not down when the devil gives you this thrust. Precious answer: "Who also makes intercession for us."... From how many sins does that intercession preserve us!
Romans mostly presents Christ dead and risen. This verse is the one place it lifts our eyes to where He now is:
There is however one mention of Christ in heaven... How wonderful to think of this. Men rejected Him. Now, in His place at God's right hand, He is occupied with intercession for those who have trusted Him. On the cross He interceded for sinners; on the throne He intercedes for those who have believed on Him.
- Died — Christ bore the condemnation our sins deserved, so it cannot fall on us again.
- Raised — His resurrection is God's seal on the value of that death. The price He paid was enough.
- Seated — no accusation can reach God's right hand, and our Representative is the One seated there.
- Interceding — from there He does not argue the sin question again. He gets for us the grace we need.
- Unanswerable — God justifies and Christ intercedes. The accuser has no charge left to bring.