5:9 much more. Paul argues from the greater to the less. If God would do for us the work of reconciliation, at the cost of the suffering and death of His Son, He will not withhold the final salvation that is “by him,” and by “his blood” as the ascendant Mediator. Keeping for final salvation those who have already been justified is simply God following through His initial purpose of love to them. The decisive, and more costly, expression of this loving purpose was Christ’s actual reconciling death, which guarantees the justification and glorification of those for whom he died (8:32).