Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 5 Study # 2
July 23, 2017
Humble, Texas
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1769 Translation:
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? [It is] God that justifieth.
34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1901 ASV Translation:
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth;
34 who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- I. He Did Not "Spare"... .
- A. In every use of this verse in the New Testament the concept is that of setting someone/thing outside of the boundaries of the "impact" of whatever actions were under consideration.
- B. In respect to God "sparing" His Son, the point is that, instead of putting the Son outside of the boundaries of His dealings with men, He put Him at the center of those dealings.
- 1. This verb characteristically uses the genitive form of whatever is "spared". This grammatical construction is informative: "His own Son" is not in the accusative (as we might expect), but in the genitive (making us stop to see what that communicates). This grammatical point is that God considered the "all things" of both His own Son and of the human creatures that He had created. We could, legitimately, translate this construction as "He did not spare [the interests] of His own Son...". It was for our sakes that He gave Him over and not for His sake.
- 2. The specific case in point is God's dealings with mankind as sinners and avowed enemies.
- 3. From the human point of view, men always "spare" their most "beloved" when considering how to approach a problem with some kind of solution. But from God's perspective, His "other focus" means that His first, knee-jerk, response to any/every situation is to ask Himself, "What shall I do to deal with this for the sake of those involved?".
- C. Everywhere in the Scriptures wherein the values of God are presented, it is always His "relational" values that sit at the top. John 3:16, as the most well-known, most used, verse in the Bible, says that the issue of Life is the values that God placed upon His Son and the world. The clearest example of "love", Jesus said, hinges upon the sacrifices made in the realm of "relationships" ("no greater love...). The love of God, Paul wrote, is encapsulated by the fact that He gave His Son while we were yet sinners. Every significant word in that declaration is "relational". It appears that decent relationships between persons is the focus of God above all others.
- II. He "Delivered" Him ... .
- A. This phrase follows the strongest adversative in the Greek language: BUT. It implies a considered intention to contradict what everyone "expects". This "everyone" does not include those who are informed regarding the love(s) of The God, but it does pit what those who have "created God in their own image" naturally "think" and what The God is actually like and what that means in regard to the decisions He makes that concern "the sake of" others.
- B. The verb involved is used extensively in the New Testament, particularly in the historical narratives. It is the word used of Pilate who "gave Jesus up to be crucified" (Matthew 27:26). It is used by Paul in Romans six times and three of them are easily illustrative of meaning (1:24; 1:26 and 1:28). The idea is "to turn someone over to the absolute dominion of someone or something". In Jesus' case, the issue is the problem of redemption (God's justice in balance with His intention to justify the ungodly). The requirement of the solution is the subjugation of His own Son to the consequences of the sum total of the sins of humanity as they pile up over time.
- C. This deliverance was "for the sake of all of us". Paul is not specifically clear on just who the "all of us" is (humanity in general, or the called specifically), but it hardly makes a difference in this case since the consequences of sin which the death of Jesus was to address was the death of God, the Son, Whose death in any case would be infinite overkill in contrast to the finite evil of created beings. His suffering could not be limited as an act of an infinite God, so His death would have been sufficient for the sins of multiple creations of similar outcomes. Finitude cannot even come close to any kind of approximation of infinity.
- III. He Will Give Us "All Things".
- A. This "all things" has specific boundaries hinted at in this text.
- 1. At the very heart of what God "has" given is the answer to what He "will" give.
- a. There was a very specific problem: the broken relationship between God and man.
- b. There was a very specific setting: God's commitment to our experience of His "Life".
- c. Since God "gave" His Son as the most amazing solution to the broken relationship, there can be no doubt that He "will give" any/every thing that might remain necessary for His longing for "Life" for us to be realized.
- 2. 2 Peter 1:3 catches the essence of Paul's thought: "all things that pertain to Life and godliness".
- B. This "willingness" is developed in the following sentences, but, suffice it to say, its expression remains hidden from the eyes of those who do not grasp the gift of His Son. The "gifts" of God are not always realized at the time of the giving, and they often address the deeper issues of the soul than men are privy to observe.
- C. The nature of the "free giving".
- 1. The verb is used in 19 texts/contexts in the New Testament, in many of which the Authorized Version translates the verb "forgive" (probably erroneously). This is not the typical term for "forgiveness".
- 2. The verb's use does emphasize its etymological link to "grace".
- 3. The general idea seems to be "to treat others graciously" with a specific view of their immediate circumstances. The specific nature of the "gracious treatment" is defined by the specific setting and the teachings of the rest of the Scriptures.
- IV. In General...
- A. This question takes the "for us/against us" concept another step further.
- 1. As the "for us/against us" thesis answers the first question ["What shall we say to these things?"], so also this question about God's willingness to give us all things is a further answer to the "for us" thesis.
- 2. The next question ["Who shall lay any thing to the charge...?"] actually develops the "against us" part of the second question.
- B. The larger issue, given the amount of space given to it, is the "who shall separate us..." question that has the issue of "separation" in both the question of 8:35 and the declaration of 8:39.