Romans 8:31-39 is the concluding synthesis of the arguments given by Paul in the preceding sections beginning Rom. 3:21.
If God is for us, who can be against us...?
All the arguments set forth so far have shown how God has been working out a way out for man who's very existence has been placed under the wrath of God. The way out is provided by God Himself: in handing over His Son, letting His grace fill the Christian's existence, through the gift of justification thanks to Christ, who died, was raised from the death and now intercedes at the right hand of God. By all these actions, God shows how great and indomitable His love is (v. 39).
He did not spare His Son, but handed him over for our sakes...
John 3:16 is readily recalled as an echo of these words: "For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son..." Jesus Christ is the one handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification (4:25). It was through his obedience (an obedience even unto death, see Phil. 2:6-11) that the death which entered through Adam's sin was replaced by the promise of life through justification (5:17)
Will He not give everything else...?
The "everything else" here are the fruits of Christ's self offering.
- Salvation of the Gentiles as well as the Jews (Rom. 3:29-30)
- Freedom from Sin (Rom. 6:17-22)
- Freedom from the Law (Rom. 7:4-6)
- Divine Sonship through Adoption (Rom. 8:14-17)
- Destiny of Glory (Rom. 8:18-25.29-30)
All the above has been made possible by God's gift of Christ. What remains now is the faith of the Christian who must entrust himself to God in Christ.
It is God who acquits us...
In Rom. 5:6-7 Paul had already highlighted the evidence of God's love in the death of His Son
For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed only with difficulty does one die for a just person though perhaps for a good person one might even have the courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
It is through the blood of Jesus that we have been acquitted (3:24-26; 5:9) and therefore freed from the wrath of God. And more, the same Christ now is seated at the right hand of God and who intercedes for us (cf. Hebrews) is the same one who took our place, dying in our stead, so that we might live (4:24-25, 6:4, 7:4, 8:11). What indeed can separate us from this love?
