hands. If this is the case, how great the security it affords the believer He who is engaged to effect his salvation is the director of all events and of all worlds.
Who also TUQiketh intercession for us, i. e. who acts as our advocate, pleads our cause before God, presents those considerations which secure for us pardon and the continued supply of the divine grace ; see v. 26. Heb. 7 : 25. 9 : 24. 1 John 2:1. He is our patron, in the Roman sense of the word, one who undertakes our case ; an advocate, whom the Father heareth always. How complete then the security of those for whom he pleads ! Of course this language is figurative ; the meaning is, that Christ continues since his resuVrection and exaltation to secure for his people the benefits of his death, every thing comes from God through him and for his sake.
(35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? This is the last step in the climax of the apostle's argument ; the very summit of the mount of confidence, whence he looks down on his enemies as powerless, and forward and upward with full assurance of a final and abundant tri- umph. No one can accuse, no one can condemn, no one can separate us from the love of Christ. This last assurance gives permanency to the value of the other two.
The love of Christ is clearly Christ's love towards us, and not ours towards him. The latter indeed would give a good sense, ' Nothing can induce us to give up our love to the Redeemer.' But this interpretation is entirely inconsistent with the context and the drift of the whole chapter. Paul M^as speaking of the great love of God towards us as manifested in the gift of his Son, and of the love of Christ as exhibited in his dying, rising, and interceding for us. This love, which is so great, he says is unchangeable. Besides, the apostle's object in the whole chapter is to console and confirm the confidence of believers. The interpretation just mentioned is not in accordance with this object. It is no ground of con- fidence to assert or even to feel that we will never forsake Christ, but it is the strongest ground of assurance to be convinced that his love will never change. And, moreover, v. 39 requires this interpretation ; for there Paul expresses the same sentiment in language which cannot be misunderstood. " No creature," he says, " shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." This is evidently God's love towards us. .
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, &c. This is merely an amplification of the preceding idea. Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, &c. That is, whatever we may be called upon to suffer in this life, nothing can deprive us of the love of him who died for us, and who now lives to plead our cause in heaven, and, therefore, these afflictions, and all other difficulties, are enemies we may despise.
(36) As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, &c. A quotation from Ps. 44 : 22, agreeably to the LXX. translation. Tha