^8:31What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ^8:32Indeed, he who³⁵ did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? ^8:33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?³⁶ It is God who justifies. ^8:34Who is the one who will condemn? Christ³⁷ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. ^8:35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?³⁸^8:36As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”³⁹^8:37No, in all these things we have complete victory⁴⁰ through him⁴¹ who loved us! ^8:38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers,⁴² nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, ^8:39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Romans 8:31: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Footnotes

35 Grk “[he] who.” The relative clause continues the question of v. 31 in a way that is awkward in English. The force of v. 32 is thus: “who indeed did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—How will he not also with him give us all things?”
36 An allusion to Isa 50:8 where the reference is singular; Paul applies this to all believers (“God’s elect” is plural here).
37 A number of significant and early witnesses, along with several others (𝔓46vid א A C F G L Ψ 6 33 81 104 365 1505 lat bo), read Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) after χριστός (Christos, “Christ”) in v. 34. But the shorter reading is not unrepresented (B D 0289 1739 1881 𝔐 sa). Once Ἰησοῦς got into the text, what scribe would omit it? Although the external evidence is on the side of the longer reading, internally such an expansion seems suspect. The shorter reading is thus preferred. has the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity. Grk “who also.”
38 Here “sword” is a metonymy that includes both threats of violence and acts of violence, even including death (although death is not necessarily the only thing in view here).
39 A quotation from Ps 44:22.
40 ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form of νικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”
41 Here the referent could be either God or Christ, but in v. 39 it is God’s love that is mentioned.
42 ἀρχή 6 takes this term as a reference to angelic or transcendent powers (as opposed to merely human rulers). To clarify this, the adjective “heavenly” has been supplied in the translation. Some interpreters see this as a reference to fallen angels or demonic powers, and this view is reflected in some recent translations (, ).