Romans 8:31-39
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This is our last week in Romans 8, and I have loved getting to explore the depths of this encouraging chapter as a church. The apostle Paul has walked us through
• our condition in the flesh as people who cannot submit to God’s law,
• the grace of God in sending his Spirit to give us a new mind that desires the things of God.
• the beauty of our justification in Christ and receiving what Jesus has earned because he took upon himself what we have earned through the cross,
• the ongoing struggle we have now as we wrestle against our flesh and putting sin to death in our lives knowing that God’s Spirit sustains us and will one day glorify us with Jesus
• the struggle that all of creation has as it experiences the death, decay, and disease brought on by sin but also the promise that God will make all things new as he glorifies his people,
• and the sovereign plan of God that began before the foundation of the world as he foreknew a people for himself that he will one day glorify as he conforms us to the image of his Son.
Let’s actually read last week’s passage, verses 28-30 again:
Romans 8:28–30 ESV
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
And now, we get to the final 9 verses, which is the crescendo of this glorious chapter. Paul has just looked into the majesty of God’s eternal plan of salvation in verses 28-30, so where does he go now?
Romans 8:31–39 ESV
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul asks the same question you might be tempted to ask after reading the incredible display of God’s sovereignty in verses 28-30—”What then shall we say to these things?”
• for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose
• those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son
• those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified
What shall we say to these things? The fact that God works everything together for good for those whom he’s called to himself sounds almost too good to be true. And I think Paul recognizes that, which is why he finishes the chapter asking 6 different rhetorical questions to drill down deeply into our hearts, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is who he says he is and will do for his people what he has promised to do.
ILLUSTRATION: Ryan asking me to lunch and me asking the rhetorical question, “Where should we eat?” (Canes)
Each of these rhetorical questions assumes an obvious answer that Paul is trying to get across. “What then shall we say to these things?” What he’s really asking is, What then shall we say against these things? Can we poke holes in them? Can we make them untrue? And as he’ll make increasingly clear with each subsequent question, his answer is a resounding “No!”
Why not? Why can’t the chain of God glorifying all he justified and God justifying all he called and God calling all he predestined and God predestining all he foreknew be broken? Why will all those who are called by God have everything work together in their lives for the good of being conformed to the image of his Son? Because “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
And the answer? No one! No one can be against us and succeed. Now, why do I add the phrase, “and succeed?” Look a few verses down at verse 36:
Romans 8:36 ESV
36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Clearly, people can be against us. Paul isn’t saying we won’t have enemies or we won’t experience suffering. He’s spent most of chapter 8 and the end of chapter 7 saying the exact opposite. No, the point of Paul’s rhetorical question in the back half of verse 31 is that no one who is against you can succeed in breaking the chain of verse 30. No one can stop God from using everything in your life to make you more like Jesus because no one is stronger than our God.
POSSIBLE ILLUSTRATION:
One more comment on this verse. Notice how Paul’s question is qualified. He doesn’t just state, “No one can be against us.” He says, “If God is for us.” So, who’s the “us”? Since these verses are expounding on the claims Paul made in verses 28-30, we can go back there to figure out who the “us” is.
Romans 8:28 ESV
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Clearly, Paul is talking about Christians when he says, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” But this also highlights the biblical reality that God must be for this “us” in a way that’s different than the way he is for the world. Think about John 3:16.
John 3:16 ESV
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That clearly sounds like God is for all people. So then, why do some people fail at being conformed to the image of his Son if God is for everyone? Well, let’s look at John 3:16 for a second. How does the verse say God loves the world? What’s the result of him loving the world? He gives his only Son to die for the world, so that whoever would believe in Jesus would have eternal life.
So, God is for the world generally in the sense that he sent his Son with an open offer that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. For those who do not believe, they will fail to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
But then there are those who do believe, and by believing they find themselves as having been called, having been justified, having been predestined. And to those who do believe in the Son, God says, “I am for you and will bring to completion this work that I’ve started in you” (Philippians 1:6).
ILLUSTRATION: I love you to my friend vs. I love you to my spouse (I mean both, but they are applied differently)
Continuing in verse 32, we get our next question:
Romans 8:32 ESV
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
When it comes to the loving and sovereign work of God in redeeming his people, we can’t speak against it and others can’t stop it because God is gracious in providing for it. Essentially, Paul’s saying in this verse, “If God didn’t spare Jesus but gave him up for us all (the all referring to all those who love God and are called by him from group in verses 28-30), then he will surely give us all things.”
Now, if you remember from last week, this is not the first time Paul has used the phrase “all things.”
Romans 8:28 ESV
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
So, God works all things, and he gives all things. For what purpose? Paul’s not saying in verse 32 that God is going to give us all the wealth and prosperity we could imagine (again, read verses 35-36 to see Paul’s expectation that we will go through all kinds of difficulty in this life as we follow Jesus). What he’s saying is that he will give us all the things we need to be conformed to the image of Jesus and one day be glorified with him.
Sit with that for a second. This is what Paul’s telling us in this verse: If you struggle with feeling like a failure as a Christian, if you’re wrestling with guilt that you can’t seem to escape certain addictions or sin in your life, if you’re not a believer and wondering if God could change someone like you and give you peace and joy and a purpose, Paul’s encouragement isn’t to look to Jesus. If God is willing to give his Son for you, then you can be confident he will give you everything you need as he more of the character of Jesus in you till he one day fully glorifies you.
As Paul transitions to his fourth rhetorical question in verse 33, he asks, “What about us? Can’t someone bring evidence for why we shouldn’t be glorified with Christ? “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” To which, once again, Paul assumes the answer “No one”. Why not? Because, “It is God who justifies.”
Here’s a beautiful promise of the gospel: no one’s accusation can undo your justification from God—Christ’s righteousness that has been given to you is infinitely greater than what anyone else can claim or prove against you. We talked about this at the start of our Romans 8 study. The term “justified” in Greek was used judicially as someone was declared innocent. Of course, when a judge and jury declares you innocent in a court today, that doesn’t mean you didn’t do the crime. You very well might have. But, it does mean that from that point forward you get all the legal benefits of innocence.
This is what happens when we believe in Jesus’ work in our place through his death and resurrection. We are declared innocent. We are declared righteous. Now, you might wonder, that doesn’t seem just or fair. In a court room, if a murderer was declared innocent, we would call that injustice, we’d call it a tragedy. Why is God allowed to do that just because someone believes in Jesus.
And that’s because the gospel of Jesus is the only spiritual belief in the world that unites grace and justice. Being declared innocent even though you’re guilty of sin against God? That’s grace. But the penalty of our sin, the sentence by the judge for our crime still being paid—that’s justice. In the gospel, both grace and justice occur. God’s grace is given to us because his justice was placed on Jesus. As Paul summarizes it in Romans 3:26, the gospel makes God both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
No one can bring a charge against you to God if you are in Christ. No one can say, he shouldn’t receive eternal life, he’s not righteous… because the righteousness of Jesus has been graciously placed upon you. And no one can say, he shouldn’t receive eternal life, he needs to pay for all his sin… because the death and resurrection of Jesus justly paid your debt.
In verse 34, Paul gives us a similar question:
Romans 8:34 ESV
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
This rhetorical question brings us all the way back to the first verse in the chapter.
Romans 8:1 ESV
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why can’t anyone condemn us? Paul says because Christ died, was raised, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and is interceding for you (even at this very moment). And if God has honored Jesus like that by seating him in the place of authority at his right hand, then you can be confident he will honor Jesus’ work on your behalf. Jesus was condemned for you, so that nothing can be condemning to you when you believe in him.
But it also says he’s interceding for us, which is an incredible thing to think about. How does the Son of God intercede to the Father for us. I want to read three passages with three particular examples.
John 17:9 ESV
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
Jesus is interceding for you in a personal way (not for the world, but for those who are his, who he knows).
John 17:15–17 ESV
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus is interceding with the promise of Romans 8:28-30, that God would sanctify making you more like him as you live in this world.
Luke 22:31–32 ESV
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Jesus is interceding for your protection from temptation, and the strengthening of your faith. We’ve now seen this in a couple places in Romans 8: If you are a Christian, then whenever you feel like you don’t know how to pray or what to do in life, you can find peace in the fact that the entire trinity—Father, Spirit, and Son—are personally conversing with one another about how this time will work for your good as you continue to be slowly conformed to the image of Jesus.
Paul gives us one final question before offering his summary conclusion for the chapter, and he asks this last question two different ways.
Romans 8:35 ESV
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Verse 34 showed us what Christ has done and is doing for us. Now, verse 35 asks who can separate us from him? Could something limit or break his ability to save us?
In the second half of the verse, Paul’s offering a list of terrible realities we go through in life. And with each of these areas of suffering, Paul’s asking, can this cause Jesus to fail in saving us? Could these things happening be evidence that we’ve been cut off from the love of Christ?
But when Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 in the next verse, he’s letting us know that things like famine and persecution are not punishment for us falling away from God—
Romans 8:36 ESV
36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
And then, finally in verse 37, we get Paul’s actual answer. No! These things can’t separate us from the love of Christ.
Romans 8:37 ESV
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Of course, by saying “in all these things”, Paul is letting us know that these kinds of hardships will happen to us, but in them, we are more than conquerors. Now, what does that mean. Why not just say “we’re conquerors?”
ILLUSTRATION: General Asa painting… A conqueror kills his enemies. He wins, so you’d think that would be a good thing for us to be conquerors over all these hardships in life. But Paul doesn’t call us that, he calls us “more than conquerors” because we don’t have to defeat our enemies (Jesus is the one who did that in his crucifixion and resurrection anyway).
We don’t have to get rid of these “enemies” in our life because they will ultimately end up serving us. All these things meant to destroy us will be used for our good (that’s the promise of Romans 8:28)
And this sets up Paul’s glorious conclusion and the pinnacle of our assurance as followers of Jesus:
Romans 8:38–39 ESV
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Similar to how Paul started the promise of verse 28 saying “And we know”, he circles back to our confidence through Christ by saying, “I am sure.” Everything mentioned in these verse will ultimately serve the purpose of God, not get in the way of God’s purpose for you. Take death, for example. In Philippians 1:20-21, Paul says,
Philippians 1:20–21 ESV
20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
To extent we see the beauty of Christ and the promise of our glorification with him as a future reality, we will see whatever time our life on this earth ends as gain. And we could go down each of these in Paul’s list.
If these things can’t separate us from God’s love working through Jesus to conform us to the image of his Son, then the focus of our trust needs to be on the one that lovingly binds us to God (i.e., Jesus)
