Audela

Verse study

He that spared not his own Son

Paul answers every future fear with a past event, and borrows the exact words spoken on Mount Moriah to do it.

Romans 8:32

Loading Romans 8:32…

Read the whole chapter here

In the Greek

ὅς γε τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οὐκ ἐφείσατο

hos ge tou idiou huiou ouk epheisato

Ouk epheisato, did not spare, is the same phrasing the Greek Old Testament uses in Genesis 22:16 of Abraham not withholding Isaac.

An argument from the greater to the lesser

Paul does not soothe anxiety by promising that nothing hard will happen. He reasons. If God has already given the most costly thing He could give, the smaller gifts are not in question.

The logic only works one direction. It cannot be reversed into a promise of prosperity, because the all things Paul has in view are the things that serve verse 29: everything needed to bring a child of God safely to the likeness of Christ.

Moriah answered at Calvary

In Genesis 22 God says to Abraham, you have not withheld your son, your only son. Paul now says it of God Himself, and the sentence has a different ending.

Abraham's hand was stopped and a ram was caught in the thicket. At the cross, no voice from heaven interrupted, because there was no other substitute to provide. The Lamb Abraham spoke about in Genesis 22:8 was on the altar.

Delivered up, and by whom

Paradidomi, delivered him up, is the same verb used of Judas betraying Jesus and of Pilate handing Him over. Paul applies it to the Father.

This is not a claim that the Father was cruel. Acts 2:23 holds both truths together: delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and taken and crucified by wicked hands. The cross is the deepest evidence of God's love, not an exception to it (Romans 5:8).

Christ connection

Every other gift a believer receives is downstream of this one. Christ is not one of the all things freely given. He is the reason the rest are certain.

Where this runs in Scripture

  • You have not withheld your son, the sentence Paul reuses of God.

  • It pleased the Lord to bruise him; the Father's purpose in the Son's suffering.

  • God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

  • God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Carry this today

When you next doubt God's goodness toward you, do not begin with your circumstances. Begin at the cross and reason forward, the way Paul does here.

Continue through Romans 8

From Audela Wear