Romans 8:31: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
The Joseph narrative in Genesis 36-50 is peppered with a refrain that is very precious to the people of God down the ages: “The Lord was with Joseph.” There were many times when this felt far from real to Joseph. The narrator is making the point that, despite how it would appear to a reader of events, and despite how it would have felt to Joseph, God was with him. God had not abandoned him.
Romans 8:31 says something slightly similar, yet different.
In one sense, it is more narrow. The context focuses Romans 8:31 to be speaking of something quite specific. Will God’s good purpose for his people win out? There is much present suffering (Romans 8:18) and we eagerly wait for the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) and the consummation of God’s purposes for creation and humanity. Yet whilst we wait, there is an unavoidable chain of consequence in Romans 8:28-30: What started with God’s foreknowledge and election, let to us being called and justified, and will certainly lead to our future glorification. God is for us. Therefore nobody can be against us. (Romans 8:31 asks a question: “Who can be against us?”, expecting the answer “Nobody!”). God’s purposes will stand, because he is on our side and nobody stands in his way.
Yet at the same time, this is also broader. God is with us, yes, but as the Philistines discovered in 1 Samuel 5 it’s not necessarily a good thing to have God with you. For the people of God, redeemed by the finished work of Jesus, God is with us and he is also for us. Now this is a precious truth indeed.
“For us”
The phrase that God is “for us” is
This little phrase occurs 17 times in the New Testament: Mark 9:40; Romans 5:8; Romans 8:31, 32, 34; 2 Corinthians 1:11 (twice); 2 Corinthians 5:12, 21; 2 Corinthians 7:12; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 9:24; 1 John 3:16.
Some of those verses speak of one person being on someone's side, on their team, rooting for them. In Mark 9:40, Jesus says that anyone not against him is for him, a staggering statement, but the meaning of the phrase “for us” is clear. 2 Corinthians 5:12 invites the Corinthian Christians to take pride “in us” (
Some of those verses describe someone praying “for us”, whether that's Jesus interceding (Romans 8:34) or other Christians praying (2 Corinthians 1:11).
Hebrews 6:20 speaks of Jesus as having entered the heavenly sanctuary already, representing us, for us, on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 expresses a similar thought.
However by far the most common New Testament use is of Jesus giving himself for us, standing in our place on the cross, dying on our behalf and for our benefit. In Romans 5:8, God’s love is seen in that Christ died for us. In Romans 8:32, God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us. In Galatians 3:13, Christ became a curse for us. In Ephesians 5:2, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and as a sacrifice to God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:10, “He died for us”. In Titus 2:14, he gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness. Finally, 1 John 3:16, a very famous verse, says that we know what true love looks like because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
Back to Romans 8:31
So let's return to Romans 8:31. It is a precious verse indeed.
There’s a classic mistake with word studies, where you look up what a word can mean elsewhere in Scripture and crowbar all of that freight into the verse you’re looking at. Just for clarity, that’s not what I’m doing here. I’m noticing the way the phrase
The language of God being “for us” in Romans 8:31 has a past, present and future dimension.
In the past, the biggest demonstration that God is for us is that God gave his Son up for us, that Christ died for us, gave up his life for us, laid down his life for us, became a curse for us. That is precisely what Romans 8:32, the very next verse says. This definitive action in history is how we see (1 John 3:16) that God is indeed for us. He came towards us in Jesus.
In the future, Romans 8:32 follows the logic that the God who gave his Son for us will surely give us all the fruits of that. Nothing will be left out. Nobody buys a large amount of very expensive shopping then forgets to bring it home. Given what God has done for us, he will surely bring us home. That is the main arc of the whole of the second half of Romans 8. We’ve not seen this thought much in the other New Testament references, but it is there in the language of Christ having entered heaven to intercede for us. Hebrews 6:20 in particular is making precisely this point: Jesus is now in heaven on our behalf, which makes him our “forerunner” (Hebrews 6:21), guaranteeing that God will keep his promises (Hebrews 6:13-18).
Which brings us to the present, and the truth that God is for us. (It’s true that “if God is for us” in Romans is a verbless clause, literally “if God for us”, but the thought is present-tense so the translators are 100% correct to supply the verb “to be” in the present tense.) With the death of Christ on our behalf in the past, and our future glory guaranteed by Christ in heaven for us, we can be sure God is with us in the present.
This takes the thought from the Joseph narratives, and amplifies it. God is with us in the present, yes. Indeed, this is the context of the first half of Romans 8: God has given his people the gift of his Spirit. If you are a Christian, you have the Spirit of God living in him; if you don’t, you are not a Christian (Romans 8:9). Yet, in Romans 8:31, the opposite of “for us” is not “away from us” but “against us”. That means the verses about someone being on your side, in your team, watching your back, working for your cause, are in play as well.
If you are a Christian, God is with you, in the here and now, and the way he is with you is to be for you. God is on your side. And if you find this hard to believe at times (as Joseph would have done in Pharaoh’s prison), we can look back to the cross (the way God is “for us” is to lay down his life “for us”) and to the future (a future Jesus is already living in heaven, on our behalf, and from where he prays for us).
A Hymn
I've long found this hymn by Kathrina von Schlegel, and translated into English by Jane Borthwick, a deeply precious hymn to meditate on these truths:
Be still, my soul! the Lord is on your side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to your God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul! your best, your heav’nly friend
Thru' thorny ways leads to a joyful end.Be still, my soul! your God does undertake
To guide the future as he has the past;
Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he lived below.Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shall you better know his love, his heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.
Be still, my soul! your Jesus can repay
From his own fullness all he takes away.Be still, my soul! the hour is hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still my soul! when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
Or if you want to listen to it, this is a beautiful production of it: https://youtu.be/CmNXeReZqAg
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