The climatic conclusion to this section, and possibly the entire letter. In this conclusion, Paul says some very strong things to drive home the love of God and the promise of eternal life. He begins by saying that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. This picks up from the last section, where Paul talks about our sufferings not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed. Not only is our sufferings incomparable to future glory, our sufferings are good, because God only works for good. And so whether it is discipline or training, no matter how painful, God is working for our good.
Paul then builds up a ladder to salvation. Those God foreknew (what "known" specifically means I don't know. Does it mean that God knew those who would love Him? Or those God "knew" in the sense of loved beforehand?), He pre-destined. He called those He pre-destined. He justified us, meaning that we have been made right with God. And He glorified us, meaning that we are risen along with Jesus, being given new bodies (Rom. 8: 11).
God is also shown to be generous in His love for us. Paul argues that since God had not spared His own Son, He will spare nothing else for us. "All things" (v. 32), I believe, refer mainly to eternal life and the state of glorification. Of course God gives us good things in this life as well, but that's so insignificant to eternal life I think that eternal life by itself can be called "all things". I think here Paul is confirming that God doesn't go half-way in salvation: Jesus died to take our punishment, and then resurrected to show that we have life. We get the whole package.
Next we see a word also seen in the previous section: intercede. This is significant, because in the previous section Paul talks about the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf. Here we see that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us. Sandwiched between the two is this question: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Jesus is interceding for us, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us, and God the Father gave us His Son -- a powerful picture of the Triune God working in the lives of individuals.
Given the power at work here, we are as Paul says, "more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (v. 37). Catchy, but how are we conquerors in the first place? I don't think this verse means that we were conquerors before, and that we have become more than that. Rather, we need to look at what is being conquered: sin and death. Conquerors normally cause this, not conquer it. That doesn't make us more than conquerors, though. Rather, it is what lies beyond sin and death -- namely, eternal life -- that makes us more than conquerors. We haven't conquered eternal life (normally you have to conquer something to get it); we have obtained it, through the love of God.
This is God's love letter to us. I was going to write one (like we did at Prayer Retreat), but what's the point? It has already been written by the Holy Spirit. The question is, what shall we say in response to this?
Matthew
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