Romans 8:29-34 – Shaped by Christ, Shielded by God

When people see words in this verse like “called”, “foreknow”, “predestinate”, “justified” and “glorified”, and look at them through these religious systems, they assume this “golden chain of salvation,” known in Latin as Ordo Salutis, the Order of Salvation, which is a supposed timeline of how God saves a soul. The Golden Chain of salvation is:

1. Calling: God invites a person to turn to Him.
2. Regeneration: God gives the person a new spiritual heart (being born again).
3. Faith and Repentance: The person turns away from sin and trusts in Christ.
4. Justification: God declares the person forgiven and righteous.
5. Sanctification: The person grows to become more holy over time.
6. Glorification: The final state of perfection with God in heaven

Regeneration is put before faith.

Paul’s epistles for the church today are firm but simple: we’re saved by grace through faith. Faith comes from hearing God’s word. We believe it, and at that moment, we’re saved, and the Holy Spirit indwells us and seals us, all in accordance with Ephesians 1:12-14.

With the man-inspired religious system, confusion and complexity pour in.

Do you believe after that regeneration, or do you have to believe to be regenerated? If so, at what point do you believe, and is that belief a predetermined moment set by God to trigger at His perfect timing, but only for those who are called?

In passages like Romans 8:28-30, people see words like “predestination” and “calling” before the word “justification” and conclude these must be steps God’s going through to save you before you actually believe. This is the Calvinist/Reformed religious system.

The simple crux of Calvinistic teaching is that God has already chosen who’ll be saved before the foundation of the world, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it, and His choice is not based on anything but on His own will. If you’re one of the chosen, you’ve won the eternal lottery, but if you’re not one of the chosen, you’re predestined to an eternity in hell, whether you believe the gospel of Christ dying for your sins or not.

Dispensational Bible study helps clear this up by taking Scripture literally and in context.

John Calvin didn’t understand the revelation of the mystery and misread passages about Israel, believing they were about the Body of Christ, but if we let the Bible say what it says in the correct context, the confusion fades.

The hardest part of Romans 8:29–30 is reading the words without assuming this Calvinistic view.

Predestination here in these verses does not mean God chose individuals for salvation before the world began.

We need to follow Paul’s flow in Romans, not the flow of the religious system’s “Golden Chain of Salvation”.

Romans 1–5 shows our sin and justification by faith;

Romans 6–7 shows our identity in Christ;

Romans 8 teaches walking after the Spirit.

The real passage is that believers, already in Christ, are being shaped into His likeness, as we see in Romans 6:5 and 7:4. That’s Paul’s focus—not a salvation timeline, but the new creature God forms in Christ.

Biblical election and predestination are always about God’s purpose for saved people, not people chosen to be saved. Failing to rightly divide the Word of Truth, as per 2 Timothy 2:15, leads to a wrong conclusion about election.

Romans 8:9–10 teaches that believers are not in the flesh but in the Spirit because the Spirit of Christ dwells in them. If we have the Spirit, we belong to Christ and share His likeness. Paul connects Christ’s death and resurrection to our own: Christ’s body died for sin and rose again, and you and I, being in Him, are counted dead to sin and alive through His righteousness. This is the mystery fellowship Paul explains in Ephesians 3—we’re members of Christ’s body, not Israel’s covenant people.

Romans 8:16–17 says the Spirit bears witness that we’re children of God and joint‑heirs with Christ. We became a child of God not by Israel’s covenants but by being in Christ, who is Abraham’s seed. Paul then introduces the “creature” in Romans 8:19–21, the new creation formed in Christ. Though we look the same outwardly, we belong to this new creature that’ll be delivered into glorious liberty.

Romans 8 also teaches the theme of suffering now and glory later. Verse 17 says we suffer with Christ now so we may be glorified with Him later. Verse 18 contrasts present sufferings with future glory. Creation groans in verse 22, and we groan too, waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our bodies in verse 23. We already have the position of sons, but we wait to live in that glory.

Hope is central and all-important. We patiently wait for what we don’t see yet in Romans7:25. Even with the Spirit in us, suffering remains a reality, and the Spirit helps our infirmities.

Romans 8:28 comforts us, showing that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This good is often unseen by others because it’s an inner‑man work, not a change of circumstances or appearance. Romans 8’s message is the new creature in Christ, suffering now, glory later, just as Christ suffered and then rose in glory.

Hope gives unbeatable strength in our inner man, and Paul says we’re saved by hope and Romans 8:28 assures believers that all things work together for good, the good of God’s purpose.

Romans 8:29 continues by showing God’s purpose: for us to be in Christ, sharing the likeness of His death and resurrection. Because Christ rose, we will too, and God intends believers to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Romans 8:30 adds that beyond resurrection there’s glory, which is our inheritance, and the riches of God’s grace, which is something above and beyond simply being raised.

Paul’s point is to comfort suffering believers by pointing to the fact that we’re in the right place if we’re in Christ. God wants us shaped by Christ’s suffering so we’ll share His resurrection glory.

But many Christians turn verses 29–30 into this “order of salvation” that we’ve already mentioned.

But we need to see the context of this passage within the whole context of the whole of Romans chapter 8, and even including the context of Romans 7 and before.

Paul’s not discussing salvation here.

Romans 8 is about walking after the Spirit, how to think and walk through our daily lives after we’re saved.

Salvation was settled back in Romans 3–5; now Paul’s teaching how to think and live as someone already in Christ.

So we must separate terms like “foreknow” and “predestinate” from this religious confusion. “Foreknow” in Scripture simply means “to know beforehand,” as seen in 2 Peter 3:17.

Paul’s not discussing God’s omniscience or His eternal decrees. He’s explaining what God already knew and what we can know because God revealed it.

Romans 11:2 shows God foreknew Israel through His promises to Abraham and Jacob. Foreknowledge here is not this mysterious philosophy; it’s simply God knowing beforehand what He Himself purposed to do. Paul uses the term to strengthen believers, not to introduce a new doctrine about how God sees the future.

In Acts 2:22-23, we have Peter talking at Pentecost. He says, and here’s what we need to see in the context of our study,

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

Do you see that?

Being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Why does Peter put that in there? Is he trying to teach that God is omniscient, all-knowing, and all-seeing? Well, the Jews knew that already. No, Peter’s saying, “When you killed him, God knew you were going to do it”.

Now, Peter didn’t know that God foreknew Israel would kill Christ until after the resurrection, when Jesus opened the Scriptures to him. Before that, Peter tried to stop Jesus’ arrest with a sword because he didn’t understand why Christ had to die. After the resurrection, Jesus explained that it behoved Him to suffer, die, and rise again. Then Peter realised God had planned Christ’s death and resurrection all along. So when Peter preached in Acts 2, he told unbelieving Israel, “You killed Him—and God knew you would.” It was both a rebuke and a comfort: a comfort because their actions did not sway God’s purpose.

God’s foreknowledge is not about an eternal decree before the world began, even though God did purpose Christ’s death. Peter speaks of God knowing beforehand what these people would do. Scripture uses foreknow, foreordain, and similar terms this way. Calvinism and other religious systems often link foreknowledge to free will, but Paul’s not discussing that here.

When he says “for whom he did foreknow,” he means the same people in Romans 8:28—those who love God, the called according to His purpose. God foreknows sons of God, those with the Spirit of adoption, the saints for whom the Spirit intercedes in Romans 8:27. These are believers waiting for the redemption of their bodies. God knows them before they manifest as glorified sons because He purposed their hope, their inheritance, and their future glory in Christ.

So foreknowledge here is God knowing the new creature, the body of Christ, and what they’ll be in resurrection—not an explanation of how individuals were saved before the world began.

Romans 8 teaches how believers should think and live in this present evil world while glory’s still future. Paul gives assurance to saints, sons of God, who’re adopted and waiting for the redemption of their bodies. These believers suffer infirmities. They need the Spirit’s intercession, and they live by hope, hope in what’s not yet seen. These are the people God foreknew and predestinated.

Calvinist predestination refers to an unknown group. They claim God decreed certain individuals, but no one can actually know who they are. This creates confusion in evangelism and makes the predestination idea unknowable. But Scripture reveals what God predestined. Just as God predestined Israel’s earthly kingdom and described it plainly, He’s revealed the destiny of the body of Christ.

Romans 8:29 states the predestined purpose directly: to be conformed to the image of His Son. This is not our daily choices; it’s not every event in life, but our future likeness to Christ in resurrection glory. Calvinism expands predestination into God determining every thought, action, and tragedy, but Paul’s simply teaching that God wants believers in Christ, once they are believers, to be shaped into Christ’s image.

Rightly dividing the Word of truth shows that Romans 1–8 is about the mystery fellowship and who we are in Christ. Predestination is always tied to God’s revealed purpose—His will for the saints in Romans 8:27, His calling according to His purpose in Romans 8:28, and the destiny He’s openly declared.

It is not an eternal decree about every detail of life. It’s God’s stated plan for the body of Christ.

Romans 8:28–30 is still Paul teaching how believers should think and live in Christ while glory is still in the future. Ephesians 1 helps clarify this. In Ephesians 1:9, God made known the mystery of His will—so it’s no longer hidden. Ephesians 1:11 says we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to His purpose. We see here that clearly that predestination concerns God’s revealed purpose for those of us who’ve already obtained the inheritance, those of us already saved. It’s not a decree about who gets saved. It’s God’s revealed plan for His body after we become His body!

The “All things” in Romans 8:28 and Ephesians 1:11 refers to the sufferings and hardships of this life that God uses for good because He has a purpose for believers: to be in Christ, to share His sufferings, and to receive future glory.

Ephesians 1:4–7 parallels Romans chapters 3–8: redemption through Christ’s blood, acceptance in the beloved in Romans 5, being in Christ’s likeness in Romans 6, and the adoption and future redemption of our bodies in Romans 8. God predestined believers to this adoption and glory.

Paul emphasises God’s purpose because the mystery revealed to him shows that Gentiles now share in Christ apart from Israel’s covenants. Predestination is always tied to this purpose. Ephesians 2:10 says believers are God’s workmanship, created in Christ for good works “which God hath before ordained.” See, the good works are what God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. It’s not the “before ordaining” of the salvation of particular believers.

1 Corinthians 2:7 says God ordained the hidden wisdom—the cross—“before the world unto our glory,” now revealed by the Spirit. The predestined, preordained thing is God’s purpose in Christ, not an unknowable decree about hand-picked individuals.

God revealed the mystery of His purpose for the body of Christ, and Romans 8:28–30 fits inside that revelation. Believers suffer now, but Romans 8:18 says the glory to be revealed in us is certain because it is predestinated. If Christ is in us, and He is according to Colossians 1:27, then the hope of glory is guaranteed.

2 Timothy 1:8–10 shows the same truth: God saved us and called us according to His purpose and grace, given in Christ before the world began, but only revealed when Christ appeared. What existed before time was God’s purpose— salvation already completed, not his choosing one person over another to be saved.

So Romans 8:29 means the “whom He foreknew” are the same people as in verse 28: sons of God, saints, those with the Spirit’s intercession, waiting for the redemption of their bodies. God foreknew them because He knows them in Christ, not in their flesh. If God knows us now, He knows our destiny, which is conformity to Christ’s image.

Predestination is not an unknown decree or a demand to prove perseverance; it’s God’s revealed purpose for all who’re in Christ. Our position in Christ—not our career, where we live, or our changing circumstances—is what God predestined. The destination is stated plainly: to be conformed to the image of His Son. We begin that conformity when we trust the gospel and share His death and resurrection.

Paul later explains this fellowship of the mystery in Ephesians 3:6: believers are fellow heirs, of the same body, partakers of His promise. Predestination is God’s purpose for the body of Christ, shaping us into Christ’s image until glory.

Most Christians know the phrase “fellowship of the mystery”, but they don’t understand it. Paul’s explaining it in Romans 8: being in Christ in such a way that we share His blessings, His Spirit’s help, and even His sufferings in this present world.

Philippians 1:21 shows this mindset: “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Living now means sharing Christ’s earthly sufferings; dying brings the gain of glory. Christ left heavenly glory, took on suffering, and died. Paul says he fills up what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the sake of His body. That is “to live is Christ.”

Philippians 3:10–11 shows the same pattern. Paul wants to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death. That’s exactly Romans 8:29. This life is where conformity to Christ begins. Now we share His sufferings; later we share His glory.

Christ is the firstborn from the dead, and believers are the “many brethren” who will follow Him in resurrection as described in 1 Corinthians 15:20–23. Until then, suffering, waiting, and faithfulness conform us to Christ. Romans 8:30 then adds “moreover”—showing glorification is even beyond resurrection: the rich, eternal kindness of God toward those in Christ.

Calvinists say believers were “in Christ” before the world began by decree, but Romans 8 shows we become Christ’s when we receive the Spirit.

Romans 8:9 says if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ, you’re “none of His.”

We received the Spirit not at birth, but when we heard and trusted the gospel (Ephesians 1:13). That’s when God knew us, adopted us, and gave us the hope of glory. Predestination is simply God’s revealed purpose for all who are in Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:14 says God called us by our [Paul’s] gospel. Calling is not a secret inner voice or a hidden decree—it’s the preached gospel that brings faith, as Romans 10:14–17 tells us. When we believe, we’re called, justified, and placed into Christ. Romans 1:5–6 calls believers “the called of Jesus Christ” because they heard and trusted the gospel. The gospel did the calling!

So Romans 8:30 is not an order of salvation. It’s the necessary consequences of being in Christ. If God foreknew us in Christ, He predestined us to glory. If He predestined us, He called us by the gospel. If He called us, He justified us by faith. And if we’re justified, we’ll be glorified. God purposed this through the cross—not through an unknowable eternal decree.

God purposed salvation before the world began. Before Adam sinned, God had already planned to save sinners through Christ. Adam’s fall was tragic for man, but not for God—He knew!

He’d already purposed Christ’s death and victory (Genesis 3:15). Christ then came in history to accomplish that purpose, and the Spirit later revealed the meaning of that work to Paul for the Gentiles. Romans 8 sits in that revelation: the Spirit gives believers help and hope, and God does everything by grace through Christ’s cross, not through an eternal decree.

Romans 8 explains what it means to be justified in Christ—our position, inheritance, and the Spirit we now have. Verses 29–30 are not a religious “golden chain,” but Paul’s summary of God’s purpose. God foreknew believers because He knows them in Christ, by grace through faith. If He knows us as His, He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. That explains why believers suffer: Christ suffered, and we’re in Him. Philippians 3 says believers share the fellowship of His sufferings before sharing His resurrection glory.

Romans 8:30 adds, “moreover,” showing Paul is expanding the point, not listing a salvation timeline.

Predestination, calling, justification, and glorification all attach to the same purpose—being conformed to Christ.

We were called by the gospel, we are justified by faith, and we will be glorified because we’re in Christ. These terms are the logical consequences of our union with Christ, not chronological steps to salvation like step 1, step 2, etc. Paul’s summarising the believer’s sanctified position: foreknown in Christ, predestined to His image, called by the gospel, justified by faith, and destined for glory.

Romans 15:16 shows Paul’s unique ministry: Christ sent him to preach the gospel to Gentiles so they might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

In Romans 8, that same Spirit indwells believers, making them foreknown, called, justified, and destined for glory; all describing the believer’s sanctified position in Christ, our union with Him and the purpose God set for us.

It’s a summary of sanctification, if you like. Each term attaches to the purpose of verse 29: being predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image, called to Christ’s image, justified to stand in Christ’s image, and glorified because Christ is glorified. Everything God gives us—position, inheritance, righteousness, and the benefits of Christ’s work—flows from being in Christ.

Before we dive into Romans 8:31, what about this question of God’s foreknowledge?

Did God know who would become members of His body, the Body of Christ, before the foundation of the world? Of course He did. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be God.

As we already pointed out with Peter’s speech at Pentecost, God foreknew. This is totally different from God mechanically causing salvation to come to selected people.

It’s like the image we’ve added below this recording. Salvation is depicted in the image as a door over which there’s a sign reading  “Whosoever will may come”. A person chooses to walk through that door, turns to look back to where he just entered, and sees another sign which reads, “Chosen In Him Before The World Was Created”.

Throughout Scripture, there seems to be what man can easily understand through study, then there’s this underlying theme that almost seems like God saying, Here’s my glory: don’t think you’re so great that you can understand everything about me!

We can easily run into the same mistake as the unbeliever, where we try to see God as “one of us” instead of realising His omnipotence and His existence outside of His created time and space realm.

Because He doesn’t fit into our human understanding, we place Him and His works into the impossible category.

But how can we possibly explain in human terms the triune nature of God Himself, three persons but One God? We can’t; we trust it by faith because He said it.

How can we explain in human terms the creation of our universe from nothing but God’s Word, or how the Spirit indwells us? Where does He indwell: our spirit, our mind, our soul? How can we begin to explain even those?

We know Paul wrote 13 epistles, and in fact, that men wrote all the 66 books of the bible. We know they wrote from their own ability and personality, and yet we also know that every line of every book was inspired by God! How can we begin to explain that?

Love, Justice, and human emotion are all unexplainable in human terms.

The reality is that the vast and unexplainable realms of God only make us more in awe of Him and more in love with Him.

We come to Romans 8:31,

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

After laying out our complete sanctification—our calling, purpose, predestination, justification, and future glory—Paul concludes: If God be for us, who can be against us?

This is not a doubting “if.” Romans 5–8 has already proven God is for us: Christ died for us, the Spirit dwells in us, and the Father justifies us, so yes, God is for us.

Romans 8:32 carries on the thought,

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?

God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up “for us all,” meaning Jew and Gentile, all sinners alike. If He gave His Son, nothing can keep us from the “all things” He freely gives in Christ.

Romans 7 ended with the cry of defeat—“Who shall deliver me?”—but Romans 8 ends with the cry of victory: No one can stand against those whom God has saved, placed in Christ, and destined for glory all by His grace.

Paul asks, How shall God not with Christ freely give us all things? Israel once had special access to God through covenants, promises, and Christ’s earthly ministry, as we’ll see soon in Romans 9. Gentiles had none of those. But now, through Christ’s death for sinners, anyone justified by faith has full access to God’s grace. If God gave His Son for us when we were sinners, why would He withhold anything else? Salvation was the hardest part—everything after flows from grace.

The key phrase here in this verse is “with Him also.” Every blessing comes because we’re in Christ. We’re a child of God because Christ is the Son. We are an heir because we’re a joint‑heir with Him. Christ was given to Israel in the Gospels, but Paul reveals additional riches that Christ purchased that were never spoken of in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. These are the “all things” freely given in this dispensation of grace.

Romans 3:24 says we’re “justified freely by His grace,” and Paul unpacks that in chapters 5–8. The Spirit now helps those believers understand what God has freely given, as 1 Corinthians 2:12 says,

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Paul’s ministry itself is the “dispensation of the grace of God given to us”, as Ephesians 3:2 says. And Ephesians 3:8,

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

This “freely” theme appears again only in Revelation 21–22, when the water of life is offered freely in the eternal kingdom.

Some of the blessings that Israel will receive then, believers already enjoy now. Romans 8 shows that because we’re united with Christ according to the mystery, no one can be against us, and nothing can remove what God freely gives in Christ.

The promises of Isaiah 54 for Israel are still future, but Paul shows that everything believers receive now comes from Christ. Every blessing—forgiveness, resurrection life, a place in heavenly places—is Christ’s, and because we’re in Him, they belong to us. This is the mystery of Ephesians 3:6:

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

The fellowship of the mystery is simply fellowship with Christ.

Romans 8:33 continues Paul’s questions:

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Since God is for us and has freely given us all things in Christ, who can successfully accuse us? Many may try, but none can make the charge stick, because justification is God’s work, not ours.

“Elect” means chosen, and in Scripture it always refers to those chosen to fulfil God’s purpose.

We were not God’s elect when we were born—we were sinners. But once we believed the gospel and were placed in Christ, we became part of God’s chosen people in this dispensation. God’s purpose, revealed in Ephesians 1:9–10, is that “all things in heaven and earth be gathered together in Christ.“

That purpose is fulfilled in two ways: through Israel’s covenants and through the new creature, the body of Christ.

Before Christ came, people could only approach God through covenants and the Jewish priesthood. After Christ’s death and resurrection, God revealed a new way—union with Christ apart from Israel and the law. Romans shows how we receive justification and inheritance without covenants, because we have Christ Himself. That’s why no accusation can remove our standing: we’re in Christ, God’s chosen vessel for His heavenly purpose.

In this dispensation of grace, believers don’t need Israel’s covenants. If we have Christ, we already have everything those covenants pointed to.

Covenants were necessary before Christ came, but once Christ finished the work, we don’t need a covenant to secure what He’s already accomplished.

So who are the elect?

Scripture shows two main “elect.”

First, Christ Himself is the elect—chosen before the world began. 1 Peter 2:6 says,

Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

And Isaiah 42:1 shows us this,

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Second, Israel is the elect nation chosen to fulfil God’s covenant purpose. Isaiah 45:4 reads;

For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Isaiah 65:9 reads,

And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

The elect are never random individuals; it’s always those chosen to carry out God’s purpose.

Matthew 24:31 speaks of Christ gathering Israel’s elect at His return, after the tribulation, not the body of Christ gathered at the rapture.

Romans 11:5 speaks of a remnant according to the election of grace, again referring to believing Israel.

Peter calls his audience a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood” in 1 Peter 2:9. That’s the believing remnant of Israel, not the Gentile body of Christ.

The body of Christ is elect only in the sense that God chose that all things be gathered together in Christ, as Ephesians 1:9–10 says, and believers today are placed in Christ apart from covenants, law, or Israel. We are elect because we’re in Christ, the true Elect, and part of God’s revealed purpose for heaven.

John Calvin mistakenly applied these passages to the church, ignoring the mystery revealed to Paul. He assumed “the elect” meant individual Christians chosen before the world began. Scripture shows something different: the elect are those through whom God fulfils His purpose.

God first chose Christ, the true Elect of 1 Peter 2:6 and Isaiah 42:1. Before Christ came, God used covenants to guarantee His purpose until Christ could fulfil them. After Christ finished the work, He revealed the mystery, where believers are placed in Christ without covenants. So election is always about God’s purpose in Christ, not individuals chosen in eternity.

Romans 8:33 fits this perfectly:

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.”

Paul has not mentioned “elect” anywhere else in Romans.

He’s been talking about saints, justified sinners, sons of God, all people walking after the Spirit.

Here he simply says: the elect are the justified. If God justified you, you are His elect because you’re in Christ, the Elect One. Charges against us can’t stick because justification is God’s work, not ours, as Romans 3:24–26 and Romans 5:1 tell us.

Ephesians 1:4 confirms this: God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

Christ was chosen before the world began; we become chosen only when we’re placed in Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:7 says God ordained the hidden wisdom—the cross—before the world unto our glory. 2 Timothy 1:9 says salvation and calling are according to God’s own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, now revealed.

We become elect when we hear the gospel, believe it, are sealed with the Spirit, and are made accepted in the Beloved, as Ephesians 1:12–13 says.

Election is not our works, it’s not our perseverance, and it’s not an unknown decree—it’s God placing us in Christ, the true Elect, by grace.

Romans chapters 3–8 show that we were sinners until we believed Christ, and then God justified us by faith.

So now Paul asks in Romans 8:34,

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.

When Paul asks, “Who is he that condemneth?” he’s returning to the issue that opened the chapter—condemnation. In Romans 7, the justified man still struggled with sin and felt wretched. But Romans 8 teaches that no one can truly condemn those in Christ.

Voices try to condemn us: our own flesh, religious people demanding works, or Satan, the accuser, as Revelation 12 points out. But none of those voices can make condemnation stick, because Christ did the work. Paul answers the question with: “It is Christ that died.” We’re not condemned for our failures because Christ died for our sins. Paul adds, “Yea rather, that is risen again”. His resurrection is;

• our justification (Romans 4:25),
• our eternal life (Romans 5:21),
• our new walk (Romans 6),
• our freedom from the law (Romans 7),
• and our hope of glory (Romans 8).

Christ’s risen life declares us righteous. He intercedes for us at God’s right hand, just as the Spirit intercedes with our infirmities. We’re crucified with Christ and now live by faith in Him (Galatians 2:20).

If Christ is at God’s right hand, and We’re in Christ, then our seat is there too (Ephesians 2:6). We’re complete in Him (Colossians 2:10).

This is why Paul can say nothing can condemn us or separate us from Christ’s love. Our position, inheritance, and justification were given, not earned. Christ died, Christ rose, Christ intercedes—and because of that, nothing can stand against our salvation. This is the grace Paul preaches: everything freely given because we’re in Christ.

We have all grace abounding unto us if we’re trusting the gospel of the grace of God.

The next episode is the final one in Romans eight, where Paul asks one more question: Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ?

Until then, may God bless you richly.