Assurance of salvation belongs to the gift of God for his children. It is not an added gift given only to some of the saved, or attained by those who strive for a higher form of Christianity. Assurance belongs to salvation – salvation is, by its nature, an assured thing. That is as we also confess in Lord’s Day 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism: true faith is at the same time a sure knowledge and a firm confidence. Assurance, firm confidence, belongs to true faith; and true faith belongs to all those who are saved in Christ. That is not to say that there may be times when we lose the sense of assurance of God’s favour. The brokenness of life, the attacks of the oppressor, the weakness of our condition, can all play a part in taking away the sense of God’s favour. With the Canons of Dort, V 11, “This Assurance Not Always Felt,” we confess this reality. Nevertheless, with the surrounding articles we confess that assurance is God’s gift to those whom He receives in Christ.

Our assurance of God’s love and favour is not based upon something that is in us. Faith looks away from self to God and his work in Jesus Christ. Faith is secure(d) in the outside of ourselves historical person and work of Jesus Christ, in the historical events which God in Christ accomplished among us. Faith (which includes assurance) comes through the power of the gospel concerning Christ; and the power of the gospel of Christ is God’s covenant faithfulness, his righteousness revealed in Christ (Romans 1:16-17).

Romans 8:32 comes in that section of the letter to the Romans where the apostle is taking stock so far of God’s righteousness, God’s covenant faithfulness. In doing this, the apostle extols God’s justice and God’s love through which his covenant faithfulness is manifest for all the world to see, for Jew and Gentile equally to enjoy. This verse, Romans 8:32, particularly focuses on the love of God.

The thing that the apostle is teaching here comes in the form of a rhetorical question, designed to arrest our attention and force us to the only conclusion.

He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him over for us all, how will He not also with him freely give us all things?

We must conclude: Yes, it is not possible that God will not do that, having already done this first. We must notice the comparison being made, a comparison between the greater (harder) and the lesser (easier) thing: If God has already done the ultimately great thing – let’s say the hardest thing – it is not possible that He would not now do the lesser thing, the easier thing. That’s the nub of the argument, which we must catch.

What is it that God has done which is the sure guarantee of, and which includes, things to come? He has not spared his own Son, but delivered Him over for us all. The words “has not spared his own Son” have been seen by many to be a reference to what Abraham did in sacrificing his son Isaac (Genesis 22). There is here a word association, which alerts us to the deeper meaning of what the apostle is saying. The act of Abraham to not spare his own son Isaac was, in effect, the ultimate act of Abraham’s covenant faithfulness and loyalty and love for the LORD. In this regard, that God did not spare his own Son but delivered Him over as the sacrifice for sin, can rightly be said to be the ultimate act of God’s covenant faithfulness and loyalty and love. There is no higher act of covenant love conceivable than that God spared not his own Son for us; that He delivered Him over to the hour of darkness on our account. And, even more: by this revelation of love, the LORD, who acted in his great faithfulness, fulfilled also Abraham’s act of faithfulness, on Abraham’s behalf. We know: Abraham’s son was, in fact, spared – Abraham’s supreme act of covenant love was cut short, in mercy, by the angel. God gave his Son, then, to perform the ultimate in Abraham’s act of covenant love. God, in His Son, gave Abraham and his seed, gave us, the complete fulfillment of the covenant from both sides, in his own Son Jesus Christ who performed the divine and human covenant love to the end. This happened in history, in our world, in our flesh and among us, witnessed and testified for us. This is the heartbeat behind God’s justifying us: He, in covenant fulfilling love, gave the way to, made perfect provision for, our justification: in his Son.

This is the basis for our being assured of “the rest:” How will He not also with Him freely give us all things? What can hinder the road to glory now? So the apostle can speak of “overwhelmingly conquering” through Him who loved us, more than conquerors through all these things: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword. Indeed, nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. We could put the words of the text in terms of verses 28-30: He who has justified us in Christ, how shall his great love now not also glorify us with Christ? What Paul writes here has been illustrated somewhere thus: someone who has to bike over a steep hill to get home will certainly not give up when he has made it over the top of the hill – it’s all downhill from there! He who did not spare his own Son ... how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? He has done the greatest thing for us. Who could ever consider the notion that He would now not do the rest? It is not possible to imagine. The very thought should be put away. Be assured, therefore: God is for us; who spared not his own Son!