Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 8:35

f. τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; If this verse is to be most closely connected with Romans 8:34, τοῦ Χριστοῦ will appear the more probable reading, for there Christ is the subject throughout; but at Romans 8:28; Romans 8:31; Romans 8:39 the love of God is the determining idea, and at this point it seems to be caught up again in view of the conclusion facts which favour the reading τοῦ θεοῦ. In any case it is the Divine love for us which is meant. With the list of troubles cf. 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 11:26 f., Romans 12:10. They were those which had befallen Paul himself, and he knew that the love of God in Jesus Christ could reach and sustain the heart through them all. The quotation from Psalms 44:12 is peculiar. It exactly reproduces the LXX, even the ὅτι being simply transferred. The καθὼς implies that such experiences as those named in Romans 8:35 are in agreement with what Scripture holds out as the fortune of God's people. Possibly the mention of the sword recalled to the Apostle's memory the θανατούμεθα of the psalm, and suggested the quotation. The point of it, both in the psalm and in the epistle, lies in ἕνεκεν σοῦ. This is what the Psalmist could not understand. That men should suffer for sin, for infidelity to God, was intelligible enough; but he and his countrymen were suffering because of their faithfulness, and the psalm is his despairing expostulation with God. But the Apostle understood it. To suffer for Christ's sake was to enter into the fellow-ship of Christ's sufferings, and that is the very situation in which the love of Christ is most real, near, and sure to the soul. Cf. chap. Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24. Instead of despairing, he glories in tribulations.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 8:35

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