Summary of Romans 8:1-18

Now, for those who are in the regime of Christ, who are His members, there is no condemnation. For the pattern [law] of the Spirit of life in Christ has rescued us from the pattern [law] of sin and death [of which he spoke eloquently in chapter 7]. For God has accomplished what the law could not do, for it was weak through the flesh. God sent His own son in a flesh like that of the flesh of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that the just requirement of the law could be fulfilled in us, provided we live our lives not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh; but those who follow the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to pursue what the flesh wants is to head towards death. But to pursue what the spirit wants is to head to life and peace. The aim of the flesh is hostile to God. The flesh as such is not subject to the law of God. It cannot be subject. So those who are in the flesh [who follow the flesh] cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit -- provided the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have and follow the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body has died to sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus lives in you, then He who raised Jesus will also make your mortal bodies alive at the end, through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brothers, we have no obligation to live according to the flesh. If we do that, we will die. But if we put to death the deeds of the body we will live. All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

You did not receive again a spirit of slavery tending to fear, you have received the Spirit of divine adoption, by which we can say: Abba (Father). The Spirit who is within us gives testimony that we are sons of God. If we are sons, then we also can inherit the kingdom, we are heirs along with Christ, provided that we suffer with Him, so we may also be glorified with Him. These sufferings of the present time -- I judge they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that we shall see.

Comments on 8:1-18

In chapter 7 we saw a strongly focused picture of a person under the law without the help of grace. He was in the regime of the flesh, he was fleshy. Now in chapter 8, after Paul's impassioned scream at the end of chapter 7, he answers the question he had asked about who would rescue him. So here is a different kind of focused picture, or, we could call it a system as system picture. The system of being in Christ, in the spirit, can produce nothing but good. In itself it is fail-safe. However Paul had had some unpleasant experiences from preaching that we are free from the law, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 6. So here a number of times in chapter 8 he will break the focus and speak in a factual picture.

He begins with saying the system itself, of being in Christ, is fail-safe, so there can be no condemnation for those who are in Him. They have left the regime of death and sin, and gone into the regime of the spirit and life. The Spirit is an interior power -- not a constraint from without -- that tries to lead us to do what Christ did, as He did it. If we follow the Spirit, we will not violate the law, and we need not even think of the law, following the Spirit keeps us away from violating it. (If we did not recognize this as focused, we would probably say with Luther: If you once take Christ as your personal Savior, you may sin, and there is still no condemnation for you).

The law made demands we could not carry out, because of the weakness of our flesh -- this is said in a focused way, leaving out the fact that even though the law did not give the needed strength, yet that strength was to be had even before Christ. God sent His Son to gain that strength for us, so we could fulfill what the law calls for -- for if we violate it, we are lost, and will not inherit the kingdom. He does not mean that keeping the law merits salvation, he merely means that violation of the law earns punishment. But he feels he needs to warn us: even though the system itself is fail-safe, yet we could fail if we follow the flesh instead of the Spirit. What the flesh wants is aimed at death; what the Spirit leads to is life and peace.

This leads Paul to give a repeat of the focused material from chapter 7: flesh as such cannot produce what pleases God, for flesh moves in the opposite direction. So those who follow the flesh (who are in the flesh) cannot please God. This is one of the things that led Luther to think we cannot help sinning mortally all the time. He did not see that there are the two kinds of pictures, focused and factual. (Incidentally, we have a very similar focused picture in 1 John 3:9: "Everyone who is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him. And he is not able to sin, since he was born of God." The same Epistle uses a factual picture in 1:10: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.")

If we have the Spirit and follow the Spirit, we belong to Christ. Now, to belong to Christ means to be a member of Christ, which in turn means to be a member of the Church, for the Church is His Mystical Body. Therefore, those who follow the Spirit, who do what the Spirit writes on their hearts (of which we spoke in comment on 2:14-16) are members of Christ, are members of the Church, without formal adherence, but this is enough to satisfy the requirement: no salvation outside the Church. Vatican II in Lumen Gentium 49 said what seems to mean the same: "All who belong to Christ, having His Spirit, coalesce into one Church."

The Spirit we have received allows us to call God our Father. We are sons of God. If we are sons, then we have a claim to inherit the kingdom, even though we have not earned it. We are heirs along with Christ. But Paul again breaks His ideal focused picture to warn: to be heirs with Christ we must be like Him, we must suffer with Him, in order to be able to be glorified with Him. "The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us." Here we also think again of 2 Corinthians 4:17 which says that what is now light and momentary in our suffering, is producing for us beyond measure an eternal weight of glory. These two passages are a wonderful help when we must face something extremely hard to take.

Summary of Romans 8:19-30

All of visible creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. Creation was subjected to foolishness, contrary to its own will. That happened because of the one who made it subject [Adam]. Yet, creation waits in hope. For it will be freed and made no longer subject to corruption. It will join in the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.

But at present, all visible creation groans together with us, and is in birthpains. In fact we ourselves though we have the Spirit as the first fruits, groan in ourselves as we wait for our adoption as sons, for the redemption of our body. For now we are saved in hope, not in final reality. A hope that is already realized is not hope but possession. For no one hopes for what he already has. But if we are in hope, and do not yet have it, we wait in patience.

Similarly, the Spirit helps our weakness. We do not know what prayer to make or how to pray as is needed. But the Spirit Himself prays for us with silent groans. But He who searches hearts [God] knows what the Spirit wants, knows that according to the will of God, He prays for the holy ones. God Himself brings it about that everything works together to produce good for those who love Him, for those who are called into the Church according to His design.

Those whom He chose in advance, He also predestined to be like the form of His Son, as His members. Those whom He predestined, He also called into the Church. And those whom He called into the Church, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also gave them glory.

Comments on 8:19-30

Paul now turns his eyes from Christians alone to all creation and Christians in it. Creation was put into disorder, and groans, waiting to get out of it when the sons of God are also freed from the disorder. For before the fall, the higher part of Adam and Eve, the soul, was subject to God. Their lower part, the body, was subject to their soul, and could not rebel against it in the way he pictures in Romans 7:14-24, for Adam and Eve had the coordinating gift we explained above in comments on 5:12.

But when Adam and Eve's higher part, the soul and will, rebelled against God, then the punishment of disobedience was disobedience, as St. Augustine said.²⁵ For their lower nature rebelled against their soul. And all creation felt the disorder and rebelled against our race.

But all lower creation waits for this to be changed. We now have the beginning of our sonship, but not the fullness of it. When we get it, then all creation will be delivered from slavery to corruption: we now are filled with the process of tearing cells down and rebuilding: metabolism. That will come to an end. And all lower creation will be renewed at the same time, and made free from such corruption. So it seems there will be immortal birds! St. Francis of Assisi would surely vote for that!

When Scripture speaks of fire at the end, it is a fire that renews, does not destroy, as is clear from Paul's words. The vision of God will be in the souls of those saved. But their bodies shared in doing good, and so should be rewarded too. Their condition will be patterned after the risen body of Christ. Two things: On the one hand, He had real flesh. He himself let the Apostles touch Him, and even ate -- though He did not need food -- to show the reality of His flesh. On the other hand, He could come through the locked door where the Apostles were hiding, without bothering about the door. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:44 speaks of it as a spiritual body. But it cannot be mere spirit -- it is patterned after the body of Christ, and Paul was arguing with Greeks who did not want a physical body. Had he meant a body of spirit, not of flesh, there would have been no need of argument.

A note: If the usual theory about unbaptized babies, that by Thomas Aquinas is correct, namely, that they have no punishment, but do not have the vision of God -- then will their parents be able to be with them? Definitely yes, their bodies can be together. The babies, if they lack the beatific vision, will not know what the parents have in their souls. (St. Thomas, De malo q.5, a.3 ad 4). However, it may be that God has a better way. Since the Church has not spoken, we may speculate. First, St. Thomas says that God's hands are not bound by the Sacraments.²⁶ This is obvious. Also, the redemption is more abundant than the fall (Romans 5:15, 21). But before the fall, many theologians think God did provide for infants. And St. Paul reasons that if God had not provided a means of salvation outside the People of God before the time of Christ, He would seem to be not their God. So He did provide (Romans 3:28-30). In 1 Corinthians 7:14 Paul says that in a marriage where one remains pagan, the other is converted, the pagan is "made holy" by the marriage, i.e., is brought under the covenant. He says the same of the children, and does not say "provided they are baptized." Further, God shows in Scripture a great concern for rebalancing the moral order if it is upset by sin.²⁷ It seems likely He is also concerned to rectify the physical order. So in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, after death Abraham does not charge the rich one with violation of charity -- of course he was guilty. Abraham mentions only that in the previous life, the rich man was in comfort, Lazarus in misery. Now it is time to balance things. So we wonder: Would God decide that babies deprived of any chance at life -- especially if cut to pieces in abortion -- should have things rebalanced too? It seems not impossible. The new catechism in §1261 says that given the great mercy of God Who wills all to be saved, and the tenderness of Jesus to children (Mk 10:14) "Let us hope that there is a road to salvation for babies who have died without Baptism."

The Holy Spirit Who dwells in our souls helps our weakness at present. We do not know well enough how to pray or what to pray for. But the Spirit within us prays for us, and of course His prayer is heard.

How can it be that God the Holy Spirit prays to God the Father? As we saw in consideration of Romans 1:17, God's Holiness loves everything that is right and in good order. In that framework, Jesus when He asked to be baptized by John said it is fitting for us to fulfill all that rightness calls for (Matthew 4:15 -- He had emptied Himself, as Philippians 2:7 says, and so would not claim any special concessions because of His divinity. So He willed to come with sinners, as if He were a sinner, to John's baptism). Also, even though Jesus was and is God, yet in His humanity He willed to be led by the Holy Spirit. This was foretold in Isaiah 11:1-3. Isaiah 61:1-3 says "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Jesus refers this to Himself in Luke 4:18. Several other times in the Gospels we see this influence. The Spirit came upon Him at His baptism. He was led into the desert by the Spirit. He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit (Lk 10:21).

St. Thomas expresses the principle behind all of this.²⁸ We paraphrase since a literal version would be obscure -- Thomas uses the word hoc 4 times, shifting the sense each time. We paraphrase: "God wills one thing to be in place to serve as a title for the second thing, even though the first thing does not move Him." This is in His love of good order. Other effects of this policy: The merits of Christ are infinite, so He would not have needed to add those of Our Lady in earning redemption. Yet He did. (We spoke of earning Redemption, for there is a further phase, giving out the merits. In that phase, He wants us to be like Christ, for a different reason: so we may be open to receive -- and again, in His love of good order, wanting titles to be present. Of course, her whole ability to do anything comes entirely from Him, and so in that sense, her role does not add to His). Further, with Jesus and Mary, there would be no need for intercession of the Saints. Yet He does add that. And He bound Himself by promise, "Ask and you will receive" and by covenant, in the same attitude. Thus He arranged for titles for what He would do anyway.

In verse 28 we find a beautiful and consoling thought. "Everything [but sin of course] works together for good for those who love God." This is merely Paul's general framework. If we make a synthesis of this thought it would be this: A person is saved and is made holy if and to the extent that he is not only a member of Christ, but like Him. In the life of Christ, two phases: first, a hard life, suffering and death; second, glory. The more we are like Him in phase one, the more in phase two.

Some have said that if one is anxious he lacks confidence in God and so he is wasting his effort. We should have confidence in God. But to what extent? We distinguish two areas 1) Those that come under the promise of "Ask and you shall receive." But this, as St. Augustine explains, applies only to salvation for ourselves and what is needed for it. (As to others -- they may be placing an obstacle). 2) All other things: Even without a strict promise, we can ask for and get many things. But we cannot pin down precisely what will be given. If we ask for something that would be harmful, He will not give it. (The exhortation to have faith like a mustard seed and one can move mountains refers to charismatic faith, a different thing. In it we do not whip ourselves into a feeling of trust, but God takes the initiative, and gives first the confidence, then the result. Please recall the comments made on 1 Corinthians, chapters 12-14).

But if one does what he can about anxiety, then it can be used as a means of likeness to Christ. For He too had anxiety. His human soul had the vision of God from the first instant of conception. Thus He saw in hideous detail all He would suffer. When we see a possible evil coming, we can say: Perhaps it will not come, perhaps it will not be so bad. He had no such refuge: the vision was mercilessly clear. At two times in His life He let us see inside Him as it were. In Luke 12:50: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how an I straitened until it be accomplished." It means He felt in a tight spot until He could get it over with. In John 12:27 He was speaking to a crowd in Jerusalem shortly before His death. He allowed Himself (for He could have held in) to break into the discourse: "Now my heart is troubled. What shall I say? Father save me from this hour!" Then in the garden, the nightmare caught up with Him. We can scream and wake up from a nightmare -- He found it had Him.²⁹

Verses 29-30 have occasioned long, bitter debates, and much worry for many souls, even blackness of near despair for those who did not understand. Paul says that God "predestines" those whom He chose in advance. Predestines to what? In context, Paul has been speaking in an idealized, mostly focused picture, of full membership in the Church. For in verse 27 things work for good in "those who are called." Called in Paul regularly means called to full membership in the Church. (We say full, since there is a lesser but substantial membership, of which we spoke at 2:14-16). Chapter 9 will help further to see that Paul is talking abut membership in the People of God. That is a great help towards final salvation, but does not predetermine it.

So God does call people to full membership. We might make a comparison. Imagine God looking over the scene before history begins. He sees a great checkerboard with a square for each human of all ages. He sees three kinds of squares. Class 1 includes all the external means of grace, Mass and all Sacraments. Class 2 has some Sacraments. Class 3 has no external means. In it, of course, God does offer graces interiorly.

But He notices too that humans differ greatly in their resistance to grace (resulting in sin). Some are so resistant that no matter where He would put them, they would be lost. He will not waste class 1 squares on them, for that number is not infinite. The others are all such they could be saved if they got the proper assignment. Some within this group need the very best, class 1. Others can get by with class 2 or even 3. So there is at least this way -- perhaps He has a better way -- to make assignments so no one will be lost because of the kind of assignment to a square. (There needs to be the three classes since the Gospel could not reach everywhere at once, and since even though the founder of a heresy may be guilty of grave sin, yet those in later generations, born into the heresy, are unlikely to be guilty. So unless God would multiply miracles all over, so as to make them virtually ordinary, there must be the three classes of squares).

Within this framework, God does call some to class 1 squares. We saw at the end of chapter 1 of First Corinthians that God seems to give the class 1 and 2 squares to those who are more resistant, who need more. In chapter 9 of Romans Paul will say merits are not the reason for His assignments.

So now in verses 29-30 Paul is saying that God chooses some for class 1, and gives them along with that, justification, and then he mentions glory. Glory could mean either divine help here³⁰, or final glory. If it means the latter, Paul is using his focused way of speaking: the Church is a fail-safe institution. Yet several times in this chapter, as we have seen, Paul injects a condition: provided we suffer with Him, provided we follow His spirit.

For information on predestination to heaven, see this author's New Answers to Old Questions,³¹ or Our Father's Plan, Chapter 12. Briefly, the conclusion reached there is this: God's decisions have three logical steps. First, He greatly wills all to be saved. (He has proved that will as we saw in Romans 5:8). Second He looks to see who resists His grace gravely and persistently, to such an extent that they cannot be saved, for they persistently throw away the very means that could save them. These are let go, rejected. Thirdly, all who have not resisted in that way, are predestined to heaven. (I.e., He arranges so that their death comes when they are in the state of grace). This is not because of merits (which have not yet been seen on the screen as it were), but because He wanted to do that, in stage 1, and they are not stopping Him. Thus there is reprobation (negative, letting them go) because of demerits, but predestination without merits. (We think again of: "You can't earn it, but you can blow it." And of Romans 6:23).

We gather the same thing from the Gospel analogy of the Father. In an ordinarily good human family, 1) the Father (and Mother too) want all the children to turn out well. 2) No child needs to say :I had better dry dishes, cut the grass, etc., and then I will get them to love and care for me. No, he gets that because they, the parents are good, not because he, the child is good. 3) Yet the children know that by being bad they can earn a slap -- in an extreme case could even earn to lose their inheritance from their parents.

Summary of Romans 8:31-39

[In view of what has been said, of the way God has arranged everything for us]: What shall we say? No one can hurt us if God is for us. After He went so far as not to spare His Son -- could He hold back anything? Who is there who could bring charges against those whom God has chosen? Not God Himself -- He justifies us. Nor Jesus -- He died for us, and intercedes for us. No one and no thing can separate us from His love -- not trouble, tight spots, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or the sword. We more than conquer through Him. So nothing can separate us -- not death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor present things, nor future things, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else!

Comments on 8:31-39

St. Paul is exultant. He has just painted a beautiful picture of the fail-safe system that God has set up to save us. This means that the system as system (focused) cannot fail. We ourselves, of course could fail it. But otherwise, just nothing -- he enumerates many things -- can ruin us, except of course our own sins. We cannot help thinking of the terribly dark picture painted by some older theologians who thought Paul was speaking of predestination to heaven, and saying God chose people blindly to save, or not to save. That would not be love, for to love is to will good to another for the other's sake. He would be willing good to the saved, but not for their sake (it would be blind), but to make a point that He was "merciful." In that unfortunate theory, after earning all graces for us, He might, without any serious fault on our part, just not feel like giving the grace of final perseverance, which He had so dearly earned for us. Paul could hardly be exultant with that thought. And we saw three times that Paul teaches God does offer the grace of final perseverance to all -- though anyone could still reject it.

Of course, as we said, this is a focused picture. And, since Paul seems to have had bad experiences with preaching freedom from the law, he has broken his focus a few times in this chapter 8. There is of course a relation to getting to heaven. Having full membership in the Church is a great help. But it does not predetermine anything. Some with their names on a parish register will be saved, some lost even so.

Paul mentions principalities and powers. In Colossians and Ephesians he has a great deal more to say about these and other groups. At first in Colossians we could not tell if he means good or evil spirits. After a while it is clear he means evil spirits. He uses these terms, it seems, because the opponents he is working against use them.