Romans 8:31-39

Over the last several weeks, we have been looking at Romans chapter 8. We are going to start the last section of that chapter tonight, although it will most likely take us two weeks to get through the whole section.

Let’s start by reading the verses:

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.

OK, so this whole chapter is full of quotable sections, and this is one of the more encouraging. Unless you just focus on verse 36, which seems like a downer.

But we need to understand what it is that Paul is saying here, what he is talking about, and where he is going with this. So let’s dive in and see what we can find.

To start off, Paul asks a question: What should we say to these things?

What things?

And that is the question we have to ask. When we read and study scripture, most of the time, we take it in chunks. Take our reading plan for example: There are a few verses in the Gospels, a few verses in the rest of the New Testament, usually a chapter of poetry (for most of the year it is Psalms), and a couple chapters of Old Testament.

If we study the same way, sometimes we can get buggered up because we miss the connection between what we studied last time and what we are studying this time.

But we have to remember that scripture was not written in chapter and verse. Especially the epistles, which are just letters. They were written the same way we would write a letter or an essay. Maybe they didn’t have specific rules about how many sentences make up a paragraph, but the art of writing long-form prose is pretty unchanged over the centuries.

So as we come to verse 31, we have to ask, “what are ‘these things’ that Paul is talking about?”

He is talking about what he just said in these verses:

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.

So....what should we say to these things? How do we understand these things?

And I don’t mean that figuratively and ethereally. Paul was writing to a congregation in Rome in the first century. Where to claim the name of Christ was equivalent to saying you wanted to be killed in the most painful and violent way possible.

Think about this. This church is in ROME. The center of the Roman Empire and probably the most concentrated area of imperial cultic worship. The citizens of Rome worshiped Caesar, as well as the other household gods and mythical deities that had been contrived. And all that was perfectly accepted. It’s a lot like today, where you are free to make up whatever gods you want. You want to pray to mother earth? Cool. Want to worship the weird scraggly pine tree in your back yard? Cool. Sounds eco-friendly.

In fact, I would argue that most of the first century Roman citizens, and most 21st century progressives would agree that you are free to worship who you wish, how you wish.

Except for you Christians.

And we may get hung up on this, because, first of all it seems antithetical to their stated belief of tolerance. We shouldn’t, and not just because Jesus (and Paul, and Peter, and…etc.) told us they would hate us.

See the problem the world has with Christianity is the same it has always had.

They don’t care that we worship God.

They care that we worship God exclusively, and view every other purported deity or higher power or whatever as false.

The world, both in Paul’s day and in ours, cannot abide Christians because we don’t just worship our God in peace. That would be fine with them.

No, we have to try to convert them to our way. Because we have the audacity to think that worshiping God Almighty is the only way to get to heaven.

The arrogance!

Obviously, we can’t know that. The Bible is a fairy story written by men to keep women in their place and perpetuate a lie that some heady teacher who had some decent ideas about how we should love each other was killed for it and then actually was raised from the dead.

That just sounds stupid. And anyone who believes that junk is just as stupid as that sounds. No one with half a brain believes that garbage.

Except we do.

Christians have stood our ground for 2,000 years. Dying for a faith that seems ludicrous to the outside world.

And that enrages them all the more that good, smart people would willingly die for something they cannot understand.

And so, despite theological nuances and disagreements that have created various denominations throughout the centuries, the church universal has believed the fundamental tenants of scripture since before Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome.

And in Rome they were suffering persecution from an outside world that loathed them. Even though we see that the local Roman governments in Judea and the surrounding areas basically rubber-stamped Christianity in it’s infancy as an offshoot of Judaism that it wasn’t willing to combat (Acts 25), later Roman rulers viciously opposed it and its exclusivity. How dare these people not worship the emperor?

How dare these people not bow to the cultural norms, like affirmative gender ideology and complete freedom of sexual expression?

And the straw that broke the camel’s back as it were, for the culture surrounding Paul and for our culture today:

It’s one thing for you to live your life that way, whatever. But you want to tell me how I’m supposed to live? You have the audacity to call my behavior sinful or *gasp* wrong? How can you determine right and wrong? Truth and fiction?

To quote Pontius Pilate (from John 18:38), “What is truth?”

This culture that we find ourselves in is not much different than the culture of Paul’s audience in Rome.

We as believers do believe the Bible to be true, without error. We believe that it instructs us for how we are to live. We believe that without a personal relationship with Christ, we cannot have any hope to enter heaven. And so we seek to tell others this objective truth, this actual real reality - Submit to the lordship of Christ Jesus of face eternal punishment.

We would, in the eyes of the world, tell them how to live their lives. And that is the most unacceptable and contemptible thing of all. That is why Christians are hated and not tolerated; viewed as judgmental and holier than thou.

We actually seek to live what we believe, but out belief isn’t some personal belief for us alone. We believe together with millions of others around the world: without Christ, there is only death.

And we are hated for it. And persecuted for it.

Here in America, we are usually just made fun of. For the most part, the only thing that really suffers is our feelings.

But in other areas, there is real persecution. There is torture, pain, death.

Because sin is black and hell is real. Jesus warned us. The Apostles warned us. Paul warns us here.

But he reminds us too: God works these sufferings together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

So, what should we say to that?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

I love this verse.

I think about the fact that I love sports but I am terrible at them. I played football and tennis in high school, but mostly I was a backup, and didn’t really see the field during games much. I wasn’t that good.

Even later on, playing pick-up basketball or church-league softball, I always considered myself the weakest link. I’m a terrible athlete. And that is ok, I don’t have an issue with that.

I try not to take it too seriously.

But I also don’t like losing every game.

But imagine that you’re playing pickup basketball at the park, and you see some guys who are pretty good are on the other team. We have a few good athletes, sure, but we also have me, so I’m like a negative.

But our last slot is filled by Steph Curry. Or Michael Jordan in his prime. Or LeBron James.

Like, those guys may be good, but they don’t stand a chance against us, right?

A little over 17 years ago now (because Jessica was pregnant with Zachary, who turned 17 today), the church we were at had a sports league. One of the things we did was flag football. This was in the metro Atlanta area.

On this day, we were playing a team that had two guys who had played high level college football (one at Georgia, the other at Georgia Tech), and both were on the practice squad for NFL teams, but not good enough to make the full roster.

I’m in my late 20s and you could use a sundial to time my 40 yard dash.

But it fell to me to play cornerback against one of these guys, and so to compensate for the 18 inch height difference and the immeasurable speed difference, I did what all good players do. I talked way more trash than I could possibly back up.

We would line up and I would talk about how intimidated he was of me. They would throw to the other side and I would say it was because I was covering him like a blanket (I wasn’t). The dude was good natured and took it all with grace. But one play, he had had enough. He took off, and I lost him. Like, I think he teleported he moved so fast. Fortunately, the QB’s pass missed him and as he’s jogging back, I said, “Wow, so scared that won’t even throw something catchable to you, huh?” He laughed, but I knew the truth. If this dude wanted to smoke me for real, there was nothing I could do about it. I was completely outmatched.

Paul reminds the church at Rome that the one on their team is way more capable than a struggling undrafted rookie going against an overweight lineman.

God, the creator of the universe, the commander of the armies of Heaven, the one who gives us every breath and holds every atom in its place, is for His people.

And if God is for us, who could possibly be against us?

Paul goes further in verse 32:

God didn’t spare Jesus, his own Son, but instead gave Him up for all of us. If He did that, how would He not give us all that He has promised?

R. C. Sproul points out something helpful in this verse:

The Gospel of God: Romans God’s Sovereignty and the Christian Response (8:28–39)

Notice Paul uses a word in verse 32 that would be easy to miss if we read over it too quickly. It is the word idion—he that spared not his own Son. Why does Paul put in that qualifier? Why does he not just say, He that spared not his Son?

Well, in this chapter he has expounded the whole concept of adoption. But there is a distinction that the apostle makes here. God has an only-begotten Son who is uniquely the Son of God and that’s what the Greek means here when the apostle speaks of his own Son. His own Son is distinguished from all those who are sons of God by adoption.

Paul is saying this: Look at the extent to which God has gone to ensure our ultimate victory. He has spared nothing to bring it about, not even his own Son. Here Paul refers to the inheritance the Father has laid up for the Son being shared with us, and our participation in the benefits of what rightfully belongs to Christ alone. God delivers up his own Son for us, and in doing so he is willing to give us everything that he has promised and set apart for his Son.

God gave Jesus up to die as our atoning sacrifice to make a way for us to have this adoptive family relationship with Him. Why would He do all of that if He wasn’t going to keep His promises? Why would He do all of that if He did not have our absolute good in view?

Now, we are limited by space and time to our own lifespan. We are limited by our history. God sees all of eternity past and eternity future.

When we look back on past sufferings, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see many times how God was working things for our good even when they didn’t seem good.

God doesn’t need to look back, because He controls it all. He knows it all.

And if He is for us, He will not fail to do what He has promised.

I love Sproul on this:

The Gospel of God: Romans God’s Sovereignty and the Christian Response (8:28–39)

Divine sovereignty is the ultimate source of comfort for the Christian believer, because it means that God is in control of his destiny. What could be more comforting to the Christian than to know that the outcome of his life is not in the hands of fortuitous circumstances, but is in the hands of a benevolent God?

Now, I do want to reiterate that these couple of verses should not suggest to us that everything will be just peachy; rather that God is in charge of our destiny. The worst thing that anyone can do to any of us is to kill us. And for the redeemed, death means life. Because in our death, we finish the sanctification process and proceed to the glorification.

Many may oppose us, but none will prevail over us (that is what verse 31 means with the “who can be against us.”)

So, we continue:

Romans 8:33–34 ESV

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.

Now, we have to understand the language that Paul is using here. There are always people who will accuse us of things. Paul is saying that no one can bring a charge against the redeemed that has any merit.

That is not to say that we do not sin. This is referring more to slanderous statements about us.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in order to lead to repentance. Satan attempts to slander us and bury us in guilt.

Sproul:

The Gospel of God: Romans God’s Sovereignty and the Christian Response (8:28–39)

Suppose the Spirit has convicted me of my sin, and I have confessed it. God has promised to forgive my sin, but Satan starts telling me, ‘How can you be a Christian? Look at what you did!’ As he starts taking away my peace, it is at that point I am to say, ‘Satan, who shall lay any charge to God’s elect? Get out of here! You have nothing to say because I am a justified man.’ It is God who justifies. That is the point the apostle is making here. God, the supreme Governor, the supreme Judge, has declared that I am justified.

And when we look at verse 34, we see that is where we have to deal with sin. Because Christ was condemned for me, for my sin. Now, others may wish for me to be condemned, but because Christ has paid that debt, once for all, He is now standing at the right hand of the Father (the idiom represents this as the place of power), and He intercedes for us.

As Sproul says:

The Gospel of God: Romans God’s Sovereignty and the Christian Response (8:28–39)

Christ is our Advocate, as well as our Judge. Even now he is making intercession for us. So my sin has been covered from every conceivable angle.

Next week we will get into what could separate us from the Love of Christ.

Let’s pray.