Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Romans · About this commentary
If God Is for Us
Romans 8:31-34
31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? · WEB
The argument becomes a courtroom of unanswerable questions, and every office that could condemn is occupied by an advocate.
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
The chapter's summit is a series of questions, and the form is the meaning: each question stands unanswered because no answer exists. The first sets the frame — not that believers have no adversaries; the letter knows better Romans 8:35 — but that with God for us, no adversary has standing that matters.
Verse 32 grounds the confidence in an argument from the greater to the lesser, and its wording touches Moriah: he who didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
Didn't spare his own son is the angel's phrase to Abraham Genesis 22:12 — with the ram this time not provided; the delivering-up went through Romans 4:25. The logic is the strongest a-fortiori available anywhere: the costliest gift is already given, at the relationship's lowest point Romans 5:8. Whoever paid the unpayable price will not balk at the postage — all things, the same all things just promised to be working for good Romans 8:28.
Then the courtroom, and the offices are filled one by one: who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies Romans 8:33.
A charge requires a court above the verdict, and there is none: the justifier is the highest judge himself Romans 3:26. Any accusation against the chosen must be filed with the very bench that acquitted them.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us Romans 8:34.
The answer stacks four facts, each escalating — died, yes rather raised, enthroned, interceding — and the office matters most: the one qualified to condemn is occupied full-time in advocacy. The courtroom of chapter 2, where every mouth was stopped Romans 3:19, has been re-staffed: the judge justifies, the executioner intercedes, and the prosecution's table stands empty. Condemnation is not merely unlikely for those in Christ; it is structurally impossible, which is what 8:1 claimed and these verses prove.
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