Homily 15 — Romans 8, verses 28 to 39

“And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” [a]

Here, it seems to me, he has raised this whole subject with an eye to those who were in danger — or rather, not this only, but also what he said a little before it. The words “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”; and “the whole creation groans”; and “we are saved by hope”; and “we wait for it with endurance”; and “we do not know what we should pray for as we ought” — all of these are said to them. He is teaching them not to choose what they themselves may think useful, but what the Spirit may suggest. For many things that seem profitable to us sometimes do us a great deal of harm.

Quiet, for instance, and freedom from dangers, and living without fear seemed to them to be to their advantage. And what wonder if they thought so, when even the blessed Paul himself thought the same? Yet afterward he came to know that the opposite of all these is what is to our advantage, and once he knew it, he was content. So the man who begged the Lord three times to be freed from dangers, once he heard him say, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (Second Corinthians 12, verses 8 and 9), was afterward glad to be persecuted and insulted and made to suffer wrongs past repairing. “I glory,” he says, “in persecutions, in insults, in hardships” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 10). And this was his reason for saying, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.” And he urged everyone to leave these matters to the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is very mindful of us, and this is the will of God.

Having cheered them, then, by every means, he goes on to what we have heard today, putting forward a reason strong enough to win them back. “We know,” he says, “that all things work together for good for those who love God.” And when he says “all things,” he includes even the things that seem painful.

For even if trouble should come upon us, or poverty, or imprisonment, or famines, or deaths, or anything else whatever, God is able to turn all these things into their opposite. This is indeed one mark of his power beyond words: that he makes things that seem painful light for us, and turns them into what helps us. So Paul does not say that no grievance comes near “those who love God,” but that it “works together for good.” That is, God uses the grievous things themselves to make the people so plotted against proven and approved. And this is a far greater thing than keeping such grievances from coming near, or stopping them once they have come. [c]

This is what he did even with the furnace at Babylon. He did not keep those holy men from falling into it, nor did he put out the flame after they were thrown in. He let it burn on, and by that very flame he made them all the more wonderful. And with the apostles too he worked other wonders of the same kind continually (Mark 16, verse 18). If men who have learned to live by philosophy can turn the things of nature to the opposite of what they are meant for — if even in poverty they seem better off than the rich, and shine through disgrace — how much more will God do both these things and far greater ones for those who love him! One thing only is needed, a genuine love for him, and everything follows from that.

Just as things that seem harmful do good to these, so even things that are profitable do harm to those who do not love him. For example, the display of miracles and the wisdom of his teaching only harmed the Jews, and so did the rightness of his doctrine. For the first they called him possessed (John 8, verse 48); for the other, a man who would make himself equal to God (John 5, verse 18); and because of the miracles they even set about killing him (John 11, verses 47 and 53). But the thief — crucified, nailed to the cross, reviled, and suffering countless ills — not only was not hurt, but even gained the greatest good from it. See how for those who love God all things work together for good!

Having mentioned this great blessing, then — one that goes far beyond human nature, and that to many seemed even past belief — he draws a proof of it from blessings already given, in these words: “to those who are called according to his purpose.” Consider what I have just said, he means, in the light of the calling, for example.

Why, then, did God not call everyone from the first? Or why not call Paul himself at the same time as the rest? Does it not seem that the delay did harm? Yet by the outcome it was shown to be for the best. He mentions the purpose here, however, so as not to put everything down to the calling. For in that way both Greeks and Jews were sure to find fault: if the calling alone were enough, how is it that not everyone was saved? That is why he says that it is not the calling alone, but also the purpose of those who are called, that brings about salvation. The calling was not forced on them, nor was it compulsory. So everyone was called, but not everyone obeyed the call. [g]

Verse 29: “For those whom he foreknew, he also marked out beforehand to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

See what surpassing honor! What the only Son was by nature, they too have become by grace. And still Paul was not satisfied with calling them conformed to it, but adds another point as well: “that he might be the firstborn.” And he does not stop even here, but after this goes on to mention yet another point: “among many brothers.” In this way he wants to use every means of setting the relationship in a clear light. Now all these things you are to take as said of his becoming man; for as to his being God, he is the only Son. See what great things he has given us! So do not doubt about what is to come. For he shows his care for us on other grounds as well, by saying that these things were ordained in this way from the beginning. People have to form their ideas of things from the things themselves; but with God these things were settled long ago, and from of old he was well disposed toward us, Paul says.

Verse 30: “And those whom he marked out beforehand, he also called; and those whom he called, he also counted righteous.” [i]

He counted them righteous by the washing of new birth. “And those whom he counted righteous, he also glorified” — by the gift, by the adoption.

Verse 31: “What then shall we say to these things?”

It is as if he said: “Then let me hear no more about the dangers and the malicious schemes from every side. Even if some do not believe in what is to come, they still have nothing to say against the good things that have already taken place — God’s friendship toward you from the first, your being counted righteous, the glory. And yet he gave you these things by means that seemed distressing. The things you thought disgraceful — the cross, the scourges, the chains — these are what have set the whole world right. Just as by what he himself suffered, forbidding as it looked to human eyes, he brought about the freedom and salvation of our whole race, so he is used to doing with what you endure: he turns your sufferings into glory and renown for you.”

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Someone may say: “Why, who is there that is not against us? The world is against us — kings and peoples, relatives and fellow citizens.” Yet those who are against us are so far from thwarting us at all that, even against their will, they become the causes of our crowns and win us countless blessings, since God’s wisdom turns their plots into our salvation and glory. See how truly no one is against us! This is what gave Job fresh luster: the fact that the devil was up in arms against him. The devil stirred up his friends against him, his wife against him, and sores, and servants, and a thousand other schemes. And it turned out that none of them, taken all together, was against him. Yet that was no great thing for him, great as it was in itself; what was far greater was that they all turned out to be for him. Since God was for him, even the things that seemed to be against him all came over to his side.

The same thing happened with the apostles. The Jews and the Gentiles, false brothers, rulers and peoples, famines and poverty, and ten thousand things besides were against them — and yet nothing was against them. For these were the very things that made them most brilliant and conspicuous, and great in the sight of both God and men.

Just think, then, what a word Paul has spoken about the faithful, those who are truly crucified — a word not even the emperor with his diadem can claim for himself. For against him plenty of barbarians take up arms, enemies invade, bodyguards plot, and many of his subjects rise in revolt again and again, and a thousand other things besides. But against the believer who pays careful heed to God’s laws, neither man nor devil nor anything else can stand! If you take away his money, you have won him a reward. If you speak ill of him, the bad report gives him fresh luster in God’s sight. If you drive him into starvation, his glory and his reward will be all the greater. If — what seems the hardest blow of all — you hand him over to death, you are weaving a martyr’s crown around him. What, then, can compare with this way of life, against which nothing can be done, where even those who seem to be plotting harm serve it no less than benefactors? That is why he says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Then, not satisfied with what he had already said, he sets down here too the greatest sign of God’s love for us, the one he is always dwelling on: I mean the slaying of his Son. He did not only count us righteous, he means, and glorify us, and make us conformed to that image; he did not even spare his Son for you. And so he goes on to say, in verse 32: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?”

The words he uses here are extravagant and exceedingly warm, to show his love. How, then, is he to neglect us, when for our sake “he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”? Think what goodness it is not to spare even his own Son, but to give him up — and to give him up for all, and for people who were worthless, unfeeling, enemies, and blasphemers. “How, then, will he not also with him freely give us all things?” What he means is something like this: “If he gave his own Son — and not merely gave him, but gave him up to death — why doubt any longer about the rest, when you have the Master? Why hesitate about the possessions, when you have the Lord? For he who gave the greater thing to his enemies, how will he do anything but give the lesser things to his friends?” [k]

Verse 33: “Who will bring any charge against God’s chosen ones?”

Here he is taking on those who say that faith is of no profit, and who will not believe in the complete change. And see how quickly he stops their mouths — by the worth of the one who chose. He does not say, “Who will bring any charge against God’s servants?” or “against God’s faithful ones?” but “against God’s chosen ones.” And being chosen is a sign of virtue. If, when a horse trainer has picked out colts fit for the race, no one can find fault with them, and whoever did find fault would be laughed at, how much more, when God picks out souls, do those who “bring any charge” against them deserve to be laughed at!

“It is God who counts righteous.” Verse 34: “Who is he who condemns?”

He does not say, “It is God who forgave our sins,” but what is far greater: “It is God who counts righteous.” When the Judge’s sentence declares us righteous — and a Judge like that — what does the accuser matter? So there is no reason to fear trials, for God is for us and has shown it by what he has done; nor again the idle talk of the Jews, for he has both chosen us and counted us righteous — and the wonder is that he did it by the death of his Son as well. Who, then, is to condemn us, when God crowns us, and Christ was put to death for us — and not only was put to death, but after this also intercedes for us?

For “it is Christ,” he says, “who died — yes, rather, who is risen from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

For though he is now seen in his own dignity, he has not stopped caring for us; he even “intercedes for us,” and still keeps up the same love.

For he was not content only to be put to death. And this is, for the most part, a sign of very great love: to do not only what falls to one’s own part, but also to appeal to another on someone’s behalf. This is all Paul meant to show by the interceding. He uses a way of speaking better suited to human beings, stooping down to meet us, so that he might point out the love. For unless we take the words “he did not spare” in the same sense too, many inconsistencies will follow. And so that you may see that this is the point he is aiming at: he first says that Christ “is at the right hand,” and only then goes on to say that he “intercedes for us.” Having first shown his equal honor and rank, he makes it plain from this that the intercession is a sign not of inferiority, but of love alone. [l]

For he is life itself (Psalm 36, verse 9), a spring of good things of every kind, with the same power as the Father both to raise the dead and to give them life, and to do everything else the Father does. How, then, could he need to plead as a suppliant in order to help us (John 5, verses 19, 21 and 36)? By his own power he set free those who had been given over and condemned, even from that condemnation. He made them righteous, and sons, and led them to the very highest honors, and brought about things no one had ever hoped for. After achieving all this, and after showing our nature seated on the King’s throne, how could he need to plead as a suppliant to do the easier things (Acts 7, verse 55; Hebrews 10, verse 12; Revelation 7, verse 17)?

You see how every argument shows that he had no other reason for mentioning intercession except to show the warmth and strength of his love for us. For the Father too is presented to us as pleading with people to be reconciled to him: “For we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading with you through us” (Second Corinthians 5, verse 20). Yet though God pleads, and men are “ambassadors in Christ’s place” to men, we do not on that account understand anything to be done that is unworthy of his dignity. From all that we are told we gather one thing only: how intense the love is. So let us do the same here. If, then, the Spirit even “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words,” and Christ died and intercedes for us, and the Father “did not spare his own Son” for you, and chose you, and counted you righteous, why be afraid any longer?

Or why tremble, when you enjoy such great love and such great care is taken over you? So, having shown God’s great providence over us from the first, he then brings out what comes next in bold style. He does not say, “You ought to love him too,” but, as if carried away with enthusiasm at this providence over us that is beyond words, he says, in verse 35: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”

He does not say “of God” — so indifferent is it to him whether he names Christ or God. “Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Notice the blessed Paul’s good judgment. He does not mention the things we are caught by every day — love of money, and desire for glory, and slavery to anger. He sets down here things far more overpowering than these, things with power to do violence to nature itself and to break open a firm resolve, often even against our will: troubles and distresses. For even if the things he mentions are easy to count up, each single word holds within it thousands upon thousands of trials. When he says “trouble,” he means prisons and chains, slanders and exile, and all the other hardships. So in one word he runs through a whole ocean of dangers without limit, and by a single word sets before us all the evils people meet with. And yet he defies them all!

That is why he puts them as questions, as though it were beyond dispute that nothing could move a person so loved, one who had enjoyed so much providence. Then, so that this would not seem to be a man carried away beyond himself, he brings in the prophet too, who had declared it long before, and says, in verse 36: “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44, verse 22). [m]

That is, we are exposed to everyone, to be ill-treated by them. Yet against so many and such great dangers, and these fresh horrors, the cause for which we struggle is given as consolation enough — or rather, not enough only, but far more than enough. For it is not for men, nor for any other thing of this life, that we suffer, but for the King of the universe, he says. But this is not the only crown. He wreathes them with another as well, and that one varied and manifold. Since, being human, they could not undergo deaths without number, he shows that even so the prize is no less. For even if by nature we are fated to die once, by choice God has granted us to suffer this every day, if we are willing. From this it is plain that we will depart with as many crowns as we have lived days — or rather, with many more. For it is possible in one day to die not once only, or twice, but many times. The one who is always ready for this keeps receiving a full reward continually. This is what the psalmist hints at when he says, “all day long.” And that is why the apostle brought him before them: to rouse them all the more.

For if, he means, those under the old covenant, who had the land as their reward, and the other things that come to an end along with this life, looked down so much on the present life and on its trials and dangers, what forgiveness would we find if we are so listless after the promise of heaven, and the kingdom above, and its blessings beyond words, that we do not come up even to the same measure as they? He does not say this, it is true, but leaves it to his hearers’ consciences and is content with the quotation alone. He also shows that their bodies become a sacrifice, and that we must not be disturbed or troubled at God’s having so arranged it.

And he urges them on in other ways besides. To keep anyone from saying that he is merely philosophizing here, before having any experience of the realities, he adds, “we are regarded as sheep for the slaughter,” meaning the daily deaths of the apostles. You see his courage and his goodness. For as sheep make no resistance when they are slaughtered, he means, neither do we. But since the weakness of the human mind, even after such great things, was afraid of the multitude of trials, see how he rouses the hearer again and gives him a lofty and exultant spirit by saying, in verse 37: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

What is truly wonderful is this: not that we are conquerors only, but that we are conquerors by the very things meant as plots against us. And we are not merely conquerors, but “more than conquerors” — that is, we conquer with ease, without toil or labor. For without going through the things themselves, simply by setting our mind right, we raise our trophies over our enemies.

And with good reason, for it is God who fights alongside us. So do not doubt it if, though beaten, we get the better of those who beat us; if, though driven out, we overcome our persecutors; if, though dying, we put the living to flight. For when you take into account both the power and the love of God, nothing prevents these wonderful and strange things from coming to pass, and that most advantageous victory from shining on us. For they did not merely conquer, but conquered in a wonderful way, so that people might learn that those who plotted against them were at war not with men, but with that invincible Might. See the Jews, then, with these men among them, completely at a loss, saying, “What shall we do with these men?” (Acts 4, verse 16).

It is marvelous indeed that, although they had hold of them and had made them answerable to their courts, and imprisoned them and beat them, they were still at a loss and perplexed, because they were being defeated by the very things by which they expected to win. Neither kings nor peoples, nor the ranks of demons, nor the devil himself had the power to get the better of them. All of them were defeated, and badly, finding that everything they planned against them turned out in their favor. That is why he says, “we are more than conquerors.” For this was a new rule of victory: for men to win through their adversaries and never once be defeated, but to go out to these struggles as though they held the outcome in their own hands. [n]

Verses 38 and 39: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

These are great flights of speech. And the reason we do not enter into them is that we do not have so great a love. Yet great as they are, he wanted to show that they were nothing beside the love with which God loved him. So it is after that love that he sets down his own, so that he would not seem to be saying great things about himself. What he says is something like this: “Why speak of things present, and of the evils that belong to this life? Even if someone were to tell me of things to come, and of powers — of things such as death and life, of powers such as angels and archangels and all the higher orders of beings — even these would be small to me compared with the love of Christ. If someone threatened me with the death to come, the death that never dies, in order to separate me from Christ, I would not agree to it; nor would I if he promised me the life without end. Why mention kings here below, and consuls, and this person or that? For if you tell me of angels, or of all the powers above, or of all things that exist, or of all things that are to come, they are all small to me — those on the earth and those in heaven, those under the earth and those above the heavens — compared with the pull of this love.” [o]

Then, as though these were not enough to show them the strong longing he had, he imagines into being still other things just as great, and says, “nor any other creation.” What he means is nearly this: even if there were another creation as great as the visible one, and as great as the one known to the mind alone, none of them could part me from that love. He says this not as if the angels were trying to do it, or the other powers — far from it — but because he wants to show, to the very utmost, how strongly love drew him to Christ. For he did not love Christ for the sake of what belonged to Christ; he loved what belonged to Christ for Christ’s sake. To him alone he looked, and one thing only he feared: falling away from his love for him. For that in itself was more dreadful than hell, just as remaining in it was more to be desired than the kingdom.

What, then, would we deserve, when he is found to count not even the things in heaven as anything compared with his longing for Christ, while we value things of mire and clay more than Christ? He, out of longing for him, would accept falling into hell and being banished from the kingdom, if the choice between the two were put to him; but we do not even rise above the present life. Are we worthy, then, to touch so much as his shoes, when we have fallen so far short of his greatness of soul? For Christ’s sake he thinks nothing even of a kingdom; but we think lightly of Christ himself, and make a great deal of the things that are his. And I wish it were even the things that are his! But as it is, not even that. With a kingdom held out to us, we leave it alone, and spend all our days chasing shadows and dreams. [t]

And yet God, in his love for humankind and his great gentleness, has done what a loving father would do whose son no longer cares to stay with him all the time: he finds another way to bring it about. Since we do not have the right longing for him, he keeps setting all sorts of other things before us, so as to hold us close to himself. Yet not even for this do we stay with him; we keep running off to childish toys. Not so Paul. Like a noble-hearted child, open and devoted to his father, he seeks only to be where his father is, and sets no great store by anything else. Or rather, he is much more than a child. For he does not value the Father and the Father’s things at the same rate. When he looks to the Father he counts those things as nothing, and would rather be punished and beaten, so long as he was with him, than be apart from him and live at his ease.

Let us shudder, then, all of us who do not rise above money even for Christ’s sake — or rather, those of us who do not rise above it even for our own sakes. For Paul alone truly suffered everything for Christ’s sake — not for the sake of the kingdom, or his own honor, but out of his love for him. But as for us, neither Christ nor the things of Christ draw us away from the things of this life. Like serpents, or snakes, or pigs — or rather, like all of them at once — we keep dragging ourselves through the mire. For in what are we better than those animals without reason, when with so many and such great examples before us we still keep bending down, and cannot bring ourselves to look up to heaven for even a little while?

And yet God gave up even his own Son. But you will not so much as share your bread with the one who was given up for you, who was slain for you. For your sake the Father did not spare him, and that though he was truly his Son. But you do not even look at him when he is wasting away with hunger — and that though you would only be spending what is his, and spending it for your own good! What could be worse than such lawlessness as this? He was given up for you, he was slain for you, he goes about hungry for you. It is out of what is his that you would be giving, so that you yourself may reap the gain — and still you do not give!

Is there any stone so senseless as those who, in spite of such great inducements, go on in this devilish hardness of heart? For he was not satisfied even with death and the cross alone. He accepted becoming poor as well, and a stranger, and a beggar, and naked, and being thrown into prison, and suffering sickness, so that in this way at least he might call you back. He says: “If you will not repay me for having suffered for you, have mercy on me for my poverty. And if you do not care to pity me for my poverty, be moved by my sickness, be softened by my imprisonment. And if even these things do not make you merciful, then do what I ask because the request is so easy. For it is no costly gift I ask, but bread and a roof and words of comfort. But if even after this you still will not give way, then at least for the kingdom’s sake become better, for the sake of the rewards I have promised. Have you no regard even for these? Then at least out of plain human nature be softened when you see me naked, and remember that nakedness in which I hung naked on the cross for you; or if not that, then the nakedness in which I am naked now through the poor. I was bound then for you, and I am bound still for you, so that whether you are moved by the one reason or by the other, you might be inclined to show some pity. I fasted for you; again I am hungry for you. I was thirsty as I hung on the cross; I am thirsty also through the poor, so that by the one as by the other I may draw you to myself and make you merciful for your own salvation. “That is why, though you owe me repayment for kindnesses without number, I do not demand it of you as of a debtor. Instead I crown you as one who has done me a favor, and for these small things I give you a kingdom. For I do not say, ‘Put an end to my poverty,’ or ‘Give me riches’ — and yet I became poor for you. I ask only for bread and clothing, and a little relief for my hunger. And if I am thrown into prison, I do not insist that you loose my chains and set me free. One thing only I look for: that you visit me, who was bound for you, and I will count that favor enough, and for this alone I will give you heaven. And yet I set you free from the most galling chains; but for me it is quite enough if you will only visit me when I am in prison. “I could indeed crown you even without any of this. But I want to be in your debt, so that the crown may give you some confidence. This is why, though I am able to provide for myself, I go about begging, and stand beside your door, and stretch out my hand: my wish is to be provided for by you. For I love you exceedingly, and so I long to eat at your table, as those do who love someone. And I glory in this (John 15, verse 8). And when the whole world is looking on, then I will proclaim you like a herald, and in the hearing of all I will display you as the one who provided for me.” [u]

Yet we, when anyone provides for us, are ashamed and hide our faces. But he, because he loves us exceedingly, will then tell out what we did, even if we keep silent, and with much praise; and he is not ashamed to say that when he was naked we clothed him, and when he was hungry we fed him.

So let us lay all these things to heart, and not be content with merely praising them, but let us actually do what I have been speaking of. For what good are this applause and these shouts? I ask one thing only of you: that you show these things in real action, the obedience of deeds. This is my praise, this is your gain, this makes me more splendid than a diadem. When you have left the church, then, this is the crown you should make for me and for yourselves, through the hands of the poor: that in the present life we may be nourished by a good hope, and after we have departed to the life to come we may attain those good things without number. May we all attain them by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.