ACC ~ Romans 8 v28 - 39

OVERVIEW:

In Romans 8:28 and in the following verses Paul unfolds the great mystery of predestination. Apart from Augustine, who embraced it wholeheartedly, most of the Fathers found it somewhat puzzling to accept the apostle’s teaching at face value. They did not want to deny that the world was planned and ordered by God, but neither did they want to suggest that there were some people whom God had predestined to damnation. They were convinced that predestination did not remove human free will. God’s call to salvation was generally understood to be universal. The fact that not all responded was their fault entirely and the result of a deliberate choice on their part.

Christians are safe in the love of God and have nothing to fear from anyone. When Christians reflect on the fact that God has already sacrificed his Son for them, they can hardly doubt that he will look after them in the future as well. Nobody can attack the Christian, not even the devil, because Christ has chosen us, he has died for us, and now he intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. There is no protection greater than that. Romans 8 continues with a long list of potential enemies who would separate us from God if they could, and concludes with Paul’s ringing affirmation that the love of God is greater than all of these combined. The Fathers echo his assertion and use the opportunity to explore the full meaning of the things Paul mentions so as to meet the pastoral needs of their flock.

8:28 | God Works for Good

IN EVERYTHING GOD WORKS FOR GOOD. AMBROSIASTER: It is not that God, knowing the intention of their heart and their ignorance, gives them the opposite of what they ask for. Rather he teaches them what ought to be given to people who love God. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: “For your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him.” Those who are called according to the promise are those whom God knew would believe in the future. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: When Paul speaks of “all things” he mentions even the things that seem painful. For if tribulation, or poverty, or imprisonment, or famines, or deaths or anything else should come upon us, God can change them into the opposite. For this is one instance of his ineffable power, that he can make painful things appear light to usand turn them into things which can be helpful.

Paul talks about being called “according to his purpose” in order to show that the calling itself is not enough. … The calling was not forced on anyone, nor was it compulsory. Everyone was called, but not everyone obeyed the call. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

CHRYSOSTOM: Even opposition and disappointment are turned into good, which is exactly what happened with this remarkable man, the apostle Paul. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 67.19.

THE TEMPTATION OF JOB. JEROME: When Job lost all his wealth, when he lost his sons, everything seemed to militate against him, but since he loved the Lord, the evils that befell him worked together for his good. The vermin of his body were preparing for him the crown of heaven. Before the time he is tempted, God has never spoken to him; after he is tempted, however, God comes to him and speaks familiarly with him, as a friend with his friend. Let calamity strike, let every kind of disaster fall, as long as after the catastrophe Christ comes. HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 6.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE GOD. AUGUSTINE: There is, in the foreknowledge of God, a predetermined limit and number of saints who love God as he has given them to do through the Holy Spirit poured forth in their hearts, and for them everything works together for good. LETTER 186.

PELAGIUS: Whatever we do or suffer out of love for God will grow into a reward for us. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS. ;

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: We must not worry if we find that things which we expect to turn out for our good are unexpectedly evil in the present life, because we know that in the end everything works together for good for those who love God. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: To be called according to God’s purpose is to be called according to the will. But is this the will of the one who calls or the will of those who are called? Naturally, every impulse which leads to righteousness comes from God the Father. Christ himself once said: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” Nevertheless it is not wrong to say that some are called according to God’s purpose and according to their own intentions as well. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: This is not true of everyone but only of believers. Nor do things simply work together—they work together for good. If someone asks for something which will not contribute to his good, he will not get it, because it is not good for him to get it. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

8:29 | Conformed to the Image of the Son

WHOM HE FOREKNEW HE PREDESTINED. ORIGEN: We know that Christ was in the form of God and took on himself the form of a servant also. Which of these two is it that the believer is to be conformed to? … In my opinion, new converts are conformed to the image of the servant, and as they progress in the faith, they become conformed to that image which is the image of God.

In Scripture, words like foreknew and predestined do not apply equally to both good and evil. For the careful student of the Bible will realize that these words are used only of the good. … When God speaks of evil people, he says that he “never knew” them. … They are not said to be foreknown, not because there is anything which can escape God’s knowledge, which is present everywhere and nowhere absent, but because everything which is evil is considered to be unworthy of his knowledge or of his foreknowledge. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

DIODORE: This text does not take away our free will. It uses the word foreknew before predestined. Now it is clear that “foreknowledge” does not by itself impose any particular kind of behavior. What is said here would be clearer if we started from the end and worked backwards. Whom did God glorify? Those whom he justified. Whom did he predestine? Those whom he foreknew, who were called according to his plan, i.e., who demonstrated that they were worthy to be called by his plan and made conformable to Christ. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

COUNTERING THE ARIAN VIEW OF FIRSTBORN. GREGORY OF NYSSA: For when the Arians say that the “only begotten” God, the Creator of all, … is the work and creation and product of God and therefore interpret the phrase “firstborn of every creature” to mean that he is the brother of every creature, taking precedence because of the rights of primogeniture, as Reuben did over his brothers, and that he is placed first not because of his nature but because of the rights of the eldest, this must be said to them first of all—it is not possible for the same person to be the only begotten and the firstborn as well. ON PERFECTION.

FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN. AMBROSIASTER: Those whom God foreknew would believe in him he chose to receive the promises. But those who appear to believe yet do not persevere in the faith are not chosen by God, because whoever God chooses will persevere.

Christ is rightly called the “firstborn” because he was not made before the rest of creation but begotten, and God has chosen to adopt men as his children following Christ’s example. He is the firstborn in the regeneration of the Spirit, in the resurrection from the dead and in the ascension into heaven. Therefore, the firstborn in all things is said to be our brother, because he chose to be born as a man, but he is also Lord, because he is our God. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: What a superb honor! For what the only begotten Son was by nature, we have become by grace. Christ in his human nature has become the firstborn of many brethren, even though in his divine nature he remains the only begotten. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

FIRSTBORN, ONLY BEGOTTEN. AUGUSTINE: Not all who are called are called according to God’s purpose, for the purpose relates to God’s foreknowledge and predestination. God only predestined those whom he knew would believe and follow the call. Paul refers to them as the “elect.” For many do not come, even though they have been called, but no one comes who has not been called.

We should understand our Lord as “only begotten” in one sense and as “firstborn” in another. Christ is called “only begotten” because he has no brothers and is the Son of God by nature, the Word in the beginning by whom all things were made. But by his assumption of humanity and by the dispensation of the incarnation, through which even we who are not sons by nature have been called into the adoption of sons, he is said to be the “firstborn” of many brothers. For before him there was no resurrection of the dead … but now after him comes the resurrection of many saints, whom he does not hesitate to call “brothers” because he shares in their common humanity. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 55.

WHETHER WOMEN WILL CONFORM TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON. AUGUSTINE: There are some who think that in the resurrection all will be men and that women will lose their sex. This view springs from this text and Ephesians: “Until we all attain to perfect manhood.” … For my part, I think that those who believe that there will be two sexes in the resurrection are more sensible. THE CITY OF GOD 19.22.17.

PELAGIUS: God’s purpose is his plan to save by faith alone those whom he had known in advance would believe, and those whom he freely called to salvation he will glorify all the more as they work toward it. To predestine is the same as to know in advance. Those whom God foresaw would be conformed in life he intended to be conformed in glory so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

BEGOTTEN IN HIS DIVINITY, FIRSTBORN IN HIS HUMANITY. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Christ is the firstborn Son of God according to his incarnation and according to the grace that was in him. He intercedes for us not as God but as our High Priest. But when he is called “only begotten,” then it is his divinity which is being referred to. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If as the only begotten he became the “firstborn among many brethren” and yet remains the only begotten, what is the paradox if, although suffering in the flesh according to his humanity, he is known to be impassible according to his divinity? LETTER 55.33.

CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON. THEODORET OF CYR: God did not simply predestine; he predestined those whom he foreknew. Paul says everything precisely and writes “conformed to the image of his Son” and not just “conformed to his Son.” … For our body is not conformed to Christ’s divinity but to his glorified body. It is as a man that Christ is the firstborn; as God he is the only begotten. Nor does Christ as God have brothers. It is as a man that he calls all men his brothers. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

SEVERIAN: Paul says “the image of the Son” meaning the Holy Spirit, because just as the Son is the immutable image of the Father, so the Spirit is of the Son. For those who have been made worthy by the Holy Spirit live according to the Spirit and are conformed to the Spirit, who is the image of the Son. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

8:30 | Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified

DISTINGUISHING MANY CALLED FROM SOME CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. ORIGEN: I understand this, as do most people, to mean that someone who is justified is justified because he has been called, and that someone is called because he has been predestined, and that he is predestined because he has been foreknown. … Those who think that God’s foreknowledge is limited to knowing what will happen in the future are obviously wrong, for there can be no divine foreknowledge without predestination—the two things go together. . . .

But how can it be that all who are called should be justified, when we know that many are called but few are chosen? It seems to me that here we are talking about a different kind of calling. For indeed many are called, but not all are called according to God’s purpose. … It is only those who are called according to his purpose who are justified. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: To “call” is to help somebody who is already thinking about faith or else to address him firmly in the knowledge that he will listen. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THOSE WHOM HE CALLED, HE JUSTIFIED. CHRYSOSTOM: God justified them by the regeneration of baptism and glorified them by their adoption as sons. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

AUGUSTINE: Are all those who are called justified? “Many are called, but few are chosen.” But since the elect have certainly been called, it is obvious that they have not been justified without being called. But not everyone is called to justification; only those “who are called according to his purpose.” AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 55.

AUGUSTINE: God elected believers in order that they might believe, not because they already believed. PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 17.34.

PELAGIUS: Those whom God knew in advance would believe, he called. A call gathers together those who are willing to come, not those who are unwilling. … Paul says this because of the enemies of the faith, in order that they may not judge God’s grace to be arbitrary. They are called to believe through preaching and are justified through baptism when they believe, and are glorified with spiritual powers now or in the resurrection to come. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus said: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He calls everyone to himself, and no one is lacking in the grace of his calling, for when he says everyone he excludes nobody. But those whom he long ago foresaw would come into being he predestined to participate in the future blessings and called them to receive justification by faith in him and not to sin again. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

GOD’S FOREKNOWING DOES NOT IMPLY DIRECT CAUSING. THEODORET OF CYR: Those whose intention God foreknew he predestined from the beginning. Those who are predestined, he called, and those who were called, he justified by baptism. Those who were justified, he glorified, calling them children: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” Let no one say that God’s foreknowledge was the unilateral cause of these things. For it was not foreknowledge which justified people, but God knew what would happen to them, because he is God. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

8:31 | God Is for Us

HOW GOD IS FOR US. ORIGEN: How God can be for us is made clear by what Paul has expounded in the preceding verses. It is because the Spirit of God dwells in us and because the Spirit of Christ, or Christ himself, is in us … because we act in the power of God’s Spirit, because we have received the Spirit of adoption, because we are children of God, heirs and fellow heirs of Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? AMBROSIASTER: Who would dare attack us when the Judge himself has foreknown us and pronounced us to be suitable? COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Paul was saying: “Let me hear no more about the dangers and evils which beset you on all sides. For even if some do not believe in the things to come, still they have not a word to say against the good things which have already taken place, e.g., God’s friendship toward you from the beginning, his justifying work, the glory which he gives, and so on.”

The world is against us, but … in spite of itself it has become the source of endless blessing for us. So in reality nobody is against us! HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

PELAGIUS: Paul wants to show that nobody can keep those who love God and who are loved by God from attaining the glory which has been promised, because the perfect love which is in them casts out every reason for mortal fear. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

8:32 | God Gave His Son for Us

FOR US ALL. ORIGEN: The Father gave up his Son not only for the holy and the great but also for the least and for all everywhere who are members of the church. Therefore anyone who offends the conscience of even the least and weakest of these is said to be sinning against Christ, because he is scandalizing a soul for whom Christ died. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSE: Who can grieve because a security especially dear to him has been taken away, when for our comfort the Father delivered his only Son to death for us? ON THE DEATH OF HIS BROTHER SATYRUS 1.4.

GOD DID NOT SPARE HIS SON. AMBROSIASTER: Paul urges us to rest assured on account of our faith by showing us that God gave up his Son to death on our behalf even before we had ceased being sinners, because he knew in advance that we would believe. He says that God long ago decided that all those who believed in Christ would be rewarded. Thus if God is prepared to give us the greatest things, even to the point of sacrificing his own Son on our behalf, how can we not believe that he will give us the lesser things as well? For the believer’s rewards are already waiting. Giving them to us is not nearly as difficult as handing Christ over to death for our sake. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE TRUTH AND ITS SHADOW. CHRYSOSTOM: Up to this point there was shadow, but now the truth of things is shown to be more excellent. This rational Lamb, you see, was offered for the whole world; he purified the whole world; he freed human beings from error and led them forward to the truth; he made earth into heaven, not by altering the nature of the elements but by transferring life in heaven to human beings on earth. Through him all worship of demons is made pointless; through him people no longer worship wood and stone, nor do those endowed with reason bow down to material things—instead, all error has been abolished and the light of truth has shone brightly on the world. Do you see the superiority of the truth? Do you see what shadow is, on the one hand, and truth on the other? HOMILIES ON GENESIS 47.14.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE SON. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul is here attacking the heresy of the Patripassians [who believed that the Father had suffered and died on the cross]. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: God allowed Christ to be handed over in order to preserve the freedom of choice of those who handed him over and to set us an example of patience. How can God have anything dearer to offer us? He offered us his only Son. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Would God give us the greater thing but not the lesser? Would he sacrifice his Son but withhold his possessions from us? Note too that there is one person of the Son. His human nature was given for us by his divinity. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

8:33 | God Justifies the Elect

WHO SHALL BRING ANY CHARGE AGAINST GOD’S ELECT? ORIGEN: It seems to me that this must refer to the devil, for apart from Christ, who knew no sin, there is nobody so elect or so great that the devil would not dare to attack.

Note that Paul does not talk about those whom God has called but about God’s elect. For unless you are elect and unless you show yourself approved by God in all things, you will have an accuser. For if your case is bad, if your crime restricts you, what can an advocate do for you, even if it is Jesus who intercedes on your behalf? For Jesus is the truth, and the truth cannot lie on your behalf. The advocate can help you only as long as you do not give the accuser grounds for attacking you, so that your previous sins, which were washed away in baptism, will not be imputed to you. But if afterward you sin again and do not wash the sin away by any tears of repentance, you will be giving your accuser grounds to incriminate you, and although Jesus intercedes on our behalf, even he would not call darkness light, or bitterness sweet. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: It is clear that nobody would dare or be able to override the judgment and foreknowledge of God. For who could reject what God has approved, given that nobody is equal to God? COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

IT IS GOD WHO JUSTIFIES. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that we cannot accuse God, because he justifies us, nor can we condemn Christ, because he loved us to the point of dying for us and rising again to intercede for us with the Father. Christ’s prayers on our behalf are not to be despised, because he sits at God’s right hand, that is to say, in the place of honor, because he is himself God. So let us rejoice in our faith, secure in the knowledge of God the Father and of his Son, Jesus Christ, who will come to judge us. … The Son is said to intercede because, although he controls everything and is equal to God the Father, we are not to think that the Father and the Son are one and the same person. The Scriptures speak of the distinction of the persons in such a way as to convey the message that the Son is not inferior and that the Father is so called because he is the Father of the Son and because everything comes from him. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Election is a sign of virtue. For if nobody can find fault with the colts which the horsebreaker has selected for the race, someone who pretended to find fault with them would be laughed at. So it is with the souls whom God has selected. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

PELAGIUS: Who will dare to charge believers whom God has chosen and shown to be righteous by signs and wonders for previous sins or for disregard of the law’s commands? PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

8:34 | Christ Intercedes for Us

CHRIST WHO DIED NOW INTERCEDES. CHRYSOSTOM: Christ did not merely die for us; he now intercedes on our behalf as well. … The only reason why Paul mentioned intercession was to show the warmth and vigor of God’s love for us, for the Father is also represented as beseeching us to be reconciled to him. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

IN HIS HUMANITY HE DIED, AROSE, ASCENDED AND INTERCEDES. PELAGIUS: Paul speaks of Jesus according to the form of the man he assumed, who died and rose again. Now he intercedes for us so that we may go to be with him where he is. The Arians are in the habit of stirring up false accusations on the basis of Christ’s intercession, claiming that the one to whom intercession is made is greater than the one who does the interceding. To this one must answer that God does not forget and so does not need to be constantly reminded of those whom he himself chose. Christ intercedes when, as a true and eternal High Priest, he constantly presents and offers as our guarantee to the Father, the man whom he received. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

LEO THE GREAT: If the true high priest does not atone for us, using the nature proper to us, and the true blood of the spotless Lamb does not cleanse us, then a true priesthood and true sacrifices do not exist in any other way in God’s church, which is the body of Christ. Although he is seated at the right hand of the Father, he performs the sacrament of the atonement in the same flesh which he assumed from the Virgin Mary. LETTER 80.

THE SON ASKS; THE FATHER GRANTS. SEVERIAN: The context shows that there is one person who intercedes and another who receives the plea. Nor is it improper for the Son to ask and for the Father to grant the request, for thus the complementary relationship between the two persons is maintained. … This text teaches us that there is a distinction between the Father and the Son which must not be confused. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

8:35 | Troubles Will Not Separate Us from Christ

WHO SHALL SEPARATE US? CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Let us bear about a deep love for the Creator, let us cleave to him with our whole heart, let us not wickedly waste the substance of reason like the prodigal. Let us obtain the joy laid up, in which Paul, exulting, exclaimed: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” FRAGMENTS 11.7.

WHEN IN DISTRESS. ORIGEN: Paul says this about those who have been united to Christ in all the ways mentioned above. When tribulation comes, we shall say to God: “Thou hast given me room when I was in distress.” If we have distress in the world, arising from the needs of the body, we shall call on the breadth of God’s wisdom and knowledge, in which the world cannot distress us. For I shall return to the wide fields of the holy Scriptures and look for the spiritual meaning of God’s Word, and there no distress will take hold of me. … If I suffer persecution and confess Christ before men, I am certain that he will confess me also before his Father, who is in heaven. Famine cannot disturb me, for I have the bread of life which comes down from heaven and refreshes weary souls; nor can that bread ever be wanting, for it is perfect and eternal. Nakedness does not confound me, because I am clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. … I shall not fear peril, because “God is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?” The earthly sword cannot frighten me because I have “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHY PERSECUTION? CYPRIAN: None of these can separate believers; nothing can snatch away those clinging to Christ’s body and blood. This persecution is for the examination and evaluation of our heart. God wanted us to be tried and proved, as he has always tried his own, and yet, in his trials, never at any time has his help failed believers. LETTER 11.5.

AMBROSIASTER: This means: “Who will turn us away from the love of Christ, who has given us such great and innumerable gifts?” No torments will overcome the love of a mature Christian. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE MEANING OF TRIBULATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Even though it is easy to make a list like this one, each word contains thousands of lines of temptation. “Tribulation,” for instance, includes prisons and bonds, calumnies and banishments, and all other such hardships. A single word covers oceans of dangers and reveals to us all the evils which people encounter in life. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

AUGUSTINE: Paul is exhorting his hearers to not be broken by persecution, for perhaps they had been living according to the wisdom of the flesh. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 57.

PELAGIUS: After so many and such splendid benefits and promises, what affliction could be so heavy that it might tear us away from love for Christ? In saying “us” Paul is saying that we should all be the sort of Christians that even dangers cannot separate from Christ. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Good Christians are not separated from Christ even by torture. Tepid and careless ones however, are sometimes separated from him by idle tales; if they suffer even a slight loss they are immediately scandalized, dare to murmur against God and return to their impious, detestable omens. SERMON 54.2.

8:36 | Enduring Persecutions

ALL THE DAY LONG. IRENAEUS: Here the expression “all the day long” means all the time in which we suffer persecution and are killed as sheep. AGAINST HERESIES 2.22.2.

ORIGEN: It is not enough for me to die or be crucified with Christ at one time only but “all the day long,” i.e., throughout my entire life. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CHRYSOSTOM: It is possible in one day to die not once or twice but many times. For someone who is always prepared for this will continually receive a full reward. This is what the psalmist hints at when he says “all the day long.” HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED. PELAGIUS: We suffer not for any crime but for the sake of him who said: “Blessed are you when men shall persecute you, etc.” This is especially fulfilled in Christians, for we are not permitted to defend ourselves but must endure all attacks with the greatest patience, according to the example of our Lord and teacher, who was led like a sheep to the slaughter. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

8:37 | More Than Conquerers

RELYING ON GOD’S LOVE. ORIGEN: As long as we rely on God’s love, we suffer no feeling of pain. For his love, by which he loved us and drew us to him, makes us not feel the pain and crucifixion of the body. In all these things we are more than conquerors. The bride in the Song of Songs says something similar: “I am wounded with love.” In the same way our soul, once it has received Christ’s wound of love, will not feel the wounds of the flesh, even if it gives the body over to the sword. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

SHOWING ENDURANCE. BASIL: He conquers who does not yield to those who lead on by force, but he is more than conqueror who voluntarily invites sorrows for a demonstration of his endurance. HOMILIES 22.

CONQUERING WONDROUSLY. CHRYSOSTOM: They did not merely conquer but did so in a wondrous way, so that it might become clear that those who plotted against them were at war with God and not just with men. Look how the Jews were at a loss: “What are we to do with these men?” HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. PELAGIUS: All these troubles we count as nothing because of him who loved us so much that he even dies for us. And we especially triumph when we die for his name, since it is a light thing to suffer what the Lord first suffered for others. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

8:38 | Neither Life nor Death

SUPERHUMAN TRIALS. ORIGEN: Here we pass from human temptations to superhuman trials. Of the former Paul says that we can overcome them, but although he does not say this of the latter—for only Christ can conquer them—nevertheless even here there is reason to speak of victory, since even with all the forces of the enemy ranged against us, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

“Death” here refers primarily to the death which separates the soul from the love of God, rather than what we usually think of as death, which merely separates the soul from the body. “Life” here presumably refers to the life of sin, which is constantly trying to separate us from the love of God.

“Angels” and “principalities” must refer to the devil and his hosts, against whom we have to struggle. “Things present” are the desires of this world, and “things to come” are the trials and temptations which may yet afflict us in this life. The “powers” are spiritual beings rather like angels, who must, however, be distinguished from them. They also fight to separate us from the love of God, but they cannot prevail if that love is rooted and grounded in us. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: These are all the things which have come upon us since we were abducted by the devil. Paul lists them in order to steel us against them if they should appear so that, confident of the hope and help of Christ and armed with faith, we might be able to fight against them. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

I AM SURE. AUGUSTINE: Paul says that he is sure, not merely that he is of the opinion … that neither death nor the promise of temporal life nor any of the other things he lists can separate the believer from God’s love. No one can separate the believer from God; not someone who threatens death, because he who believes in Christ shall live even if he dies, nor someone who offers earthly life, because Christ gives us eternal life. An angel cannot separate us, because “if an angel comes down from heaven and tells you something other than what you receive, let him be anathema.” Nor can a principality, i.e., an opposing power, because Christ has … vanquished them in himself. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 58.

8:39 | Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

ELEMENTS ATTACK US. ORIGEN: “Height” and “depth” attack us, as David said: “Many fight against me from on high,” and “Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CALLING ON THE LORD. ORIGEN: Human nature cannot by itself maintain the struggle against angels and heights and depths and any other creature; but when it has felt the Lord to be present and dwelling within, it will say in the confidence of receiving divine help: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.5.

SUFFERING FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul suffered everything for Christ’s sake not in order to obtain the kingdom, nor for any honor, but because of his great love for the Master. But we are not drawn away from the things of this life either by Christ or by the things of Christ. Like snakes or like swine we keep dragging the things of this world along with us in the mire. … Yet God even gave up his Son for your sake! HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

NOR ANYTHING ELSE. AUGUSTINE: Often vain curiosity about things which are unknowable. . . whether in heaven or in hell separates us from God, unless love triumphs. For love calls us to certain spiritual knowledge not by the vanity of external things but by an inner light.

“Nor anything else in all creation” can be understood in two ways. First, as a visible creature. … By this interpretation Paul means that no other creature, i.e., no love of bodies, separates us from God. Or surely it may also mean that no other creature … stands between us and God, opposing us and keeping us from God’s embrace. For beyond human minds, which are rational, there is no other creature—only God himself. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 58.

PELAGIUS: I am sure that even if someone threatens us with death, or promises life, or says he is an angel sent from the Lord, or pretends to be the prince of the angels, or gives us some honor in this present life, or holds out the glory of things to come, or works wonders, or promises heaven and staves off hell, or tries to persuade us with deep learning—I am sure that he will never be able to cut us off from the love of Christ.

Paul loved God in Christ. Love for Christ means keeping his commandments. Christ established that brotherly love is an imitation of his own love when he said: “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” So John also says: “If you do not love a brother whom you see, how can you love God, whom you do not see?” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Spiritual souls are not separated from Christ by torments, but carnal souls are sometimes separated by idle gossip. The cruel sword cannot separate the former, but carnal affections remove the latter. Nothing hard breaks down spiritual men, but even flattering words corrupt the carnal. SERMON 82.2.

PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: Nothing shall separate the one who believes in truth from the ground of true faith, and it is there that he will come into the possession of enduring, unchanging identity. The man in union with truth knows clearly that all is well with him, even if everyone else thinks that he has gone out of his mind. THE DIVINE NAMES 7.4.