How You Can Know You Are Going to Heaven - Romans 8:31-39

Copyright June 30, 2024 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

If you talked to the average person on the street and asked “Do you believe you are going to Heaven?” A large number of those people would say, “I hope so.” Others would be completely stymied by the question. Either they don’t believe in any kind of afterlife, or they have no idea how to answer the question. This is true even of people who attend Christian Churches. This morning, I want to contend that Paul wants us to be SURE we are going to Heaven.

Whenever someone says, “I know I am going to Heaven.” They are likely to receive critical comments from people who think they are arrogant to suggest that they have earned Heaven. But no one should be saying they are confident of Heaven because they earned it. If I anchored my eternity to what I believed I had “earned” I would face the prospect of death terrified. Our confidence of Heaven comes not from our behavior or goodness, it is anchored squarely in the character and promise of God.

This morning, we look at the end of what we know as chapter 8 of the book of Romans. Some suggest this is the finale to chapters 5-8. If you recall, we suggested that Paul tells us about “No condemnation”, “being led by the Spirit”, “Putting away the old nature,” The groaning waiting for our full redemption, and even God’s choosing people for salvation due to nothing we ourselves have done - with an increasing crescendo of joyful excitement. As I hear Paul dictating the words before us in 31-39 he may be standing and almost screaming them!

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

Paul wants us to have an assurance of salvation. In other words, He wants us to be able to live without looking over our shoulder and endlessly wallowing in the latest sinfully rebellious act we have done because we wonder if this is the act that will get us kicked out of the kingdom. He wants us to live with joy and confidence.

This text is divided up by seven questions. Each of these questions are rhetorical, meaning the answer is clearly implied.

What Shall We Say?

Notice what it says in the New Living Translation of the Bible, “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?” Last week we looked at some of the most debated verses in the Bible and yet Paul is talking about these concepts as “wonderful.” Perhaps we are missing something. The ideas of predestination, election, and Foreknowledge being things that we find confusing or difficult is one thing, but viewing these doctrines as a reason for rejoicing is another.

Yet, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If our understanding of these words is accurate: as pointing to the fact that the Lord chose us due to nothing we have ever (or would ever) do, then God is the One who determined to save us and is the One committed to see that choice carry on all the way to our residence on the new earth at the end of time. To affirm that salvation is the act solely of God in our lives, we should rejoice. We don’t understand why God would do this, but we know He has. In fact, I would contend any other reading of these verses siphons’ the joy out of them. The ever-present fear of our own failure looms heavy over such thoughts. If we believed our salvation hung ultimately on our decision, we could never be confident about eternity because we would know that we could just as easily choose to walk away.

It is the assurance of God’s choosing, predestination, calling and justification that will bring us to that point of glorification or Heaven.

If God is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

When I was growing up in Chicago, we would go out into the cement alley behind our houses and play various sporting events, basketball, football and baseball. There were a number of us who were around the same age and then there was Scott. Scott was in high school while we were in grade school. He had 30 lbs on us, he was 7-8 inches taller, and his skills were significantly more advanced. Whichever team had Scott was the team that was going to win.

We certainly have many who can be against us in this world. As time goes on, the list of opponents seems to keep growing. Some Christians find opposition from their own government (and I’m not sure we are as much behind this as we think). You may face rivals at work, annoying neighbors, hostile thugs, those who want to exploit your kindness and even some family members. These people may be against us, but they will not and they cannot defeat us in the ultimate sense. This is the picture Paul is drawing: if God is for us . . . the winner is declared before anything even starts.

But how do you know if God is for you? We go back to verses 29-30. If we have turned to Christ as our Savior and Lord, then it shows that God has chosen and foreknown us. But it also shows that we are predestined to live eternally with Christ and that means our glorification is secure because His Word is secure.

But won’t that make people lazy about their faith? Not at all. The true believer has the Holy Spirit inside of them and they will be striving to grow in grace and truth. Just as the Holy Spirit draws us to faith, so the Spirit draws us toward holiness. It is a delight to serve the Lord.

We all hit dry periods in our Christian growth. Life gets out of balance, trials make us reluctant, or we are just plain tired. However, for the true believer, these stagnant times are short and few and far between.

Who Dares to Accuse One Who Belongs to God

Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of being at a ball game and you say something unflattering about a child playing on the field only to discover that the parents of that child are sitting right near you? Generally, that does not turn out well. This is because we are intensely loyal to our children. We naturally want to defend them. How much more will the Lord defend those who belong to Him . . . those He brought to salvation and new life?

The Lord defends us against the accuser Himself, Satan. We see how God defended Job. We see Him vindicate Abraham and David. We saw the Lord time and again defend Moses against those who grumbled against Him. As the Devil whispers accusations against God’s people The Lord will defend and protect us.

In our world, words scar. The Lord will defend us from those words here by telling us the truth again and again. The Bible talks about vindicating those that belong to Him. He is not just vindicating us, He is vindicating Himself! He has placed His honor and likeness on us and will not sit by while that honor is attacked.

Who Will Condemn Us?

Once again, the implied answer to this question is no one. Lots of people try to condemn us. Satan, the accuser, is always whispering things in our ear, saying “we are not good enough,” or God will not accept us until “we get our act together.”

There will be people who charge us with hypocrisy if we ever once get irritated or stumble in any way. There will be those who feel you aren’t doing your job the way you should. There will be those who criticize the way you live out your Christian life.

Of course, the last condemning voice we need to silence is ours. We are constantly giving ourselves messages that we are not good enough. We see the failures and weaknesses in our lives. We are hard on ourselves . . . perhaps because we feel we don’t deserve the grace of God. And, of course, we don’t! That is why it is called grace. Paul says,

34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Jesus has already paid the price for our sin. . . past, present, and future! There is only one righteous judge, and it is not us! If that Judge has declared us forgiven and not guilty, that is what we are. Our Lord has already atoned (or paid for) our sin with His own sacrifice of His life. This is the part of the text that staggers us. ALL of our sin: past, present and future has been forgiven! Again, this is not a license to sin but it is an incentive to confidence and gratitude.

How do we know this? Because Jesus was raised from the dead and now sits at the place of honor at God’s right hand and He is praying for us. He is not condemning us,

He is supporting us! The Lord is patient with us. He sees what we CAN be through the work of the Holy Spirit. He is not distracted by our failures or struggles.

Can Anything Ever Separate us from Christ’s Love?

Most people in the church would answer this question, “If I am not living a good enough life, it will cause God to turn away from us.” This comes from the notion that I am saved because of something I have done, therefore, I can get unsaved.

The whole point of this passage is debunk such a notion. This discourse started with God loving us even though we had no desire for Him. In spite of our sinful and rebellious lives and attitudes the Lord chose to love us. He not only chose to love us but also chose to draw us to Him, forgive our sin, and lead us all the way home to the time of the New Heavens and New Earth.

Think about how you handle your children. You know your children aren’t perfect. You understand they will make mistakes. Your love takes those things into consideration. You want your children to be the best they can be so you give them a hand to get up and help them start over again. You may have to, on occasion, use tough love, but it is still love.

If we drift from the Lord, the Bible says we may face the discipline of the Lord, but discipline is about training and leading. it is not about punishment!

Do Trials Indicate a Wavering of God’s Love

Paul asks another question: Should the trials of life say to us that God mad at us? Let’s be honest, we have a tendency to ask ourselves this question all the time. Something difficult, frustrating or bad happens during a day and we wonder if this is a payback for some sin or bad thought we engaged in. We have this deeply rooted feeling that every bad thing is somehow our fault.

If your ball team loses a big lead and the game, you wonder if this was your fault because you were not nice to your spouse or you neglected some task in order to watch the game. You wonder if a relationship breakup was because of some failure to help someone on the road. Two things: first, contrary to our thoughts the world does not revolve around us. And second, this is not the way God works.

Does God sometimes let us live with the consequences of our choices? Yes. If we don’t do our homework we will get a bad grade; if we don’t do our job, we may get fired; If you expect everyone else to pay your bills you may find yourself in great debt.

Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 “(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) as a way of showing Christians are not immune from suffering but it is not evidence that God does not care. In the New Testament Jesus warned us that if they persecuted Him, they will persecute us.

The world around us does not like the message of Christ. They crucified Jesus because, if you will, he was not “woke enough.” He refused to get with the program of the religious leaders. Instead, Jesus stood by what He knew to be true. And He was killed. We may not be killed but life can be made pretty miserable for anyone who holds to Biblical ethics or sexuality, or for a Biblical view of marriage. You will be shamed, fired, fined, and ostracized by many around you. BUT . . . that does not mean God doesn’t love you, it simply shows that you are doing something right because you are being identified with Christ!

Paul says in the times of “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, “overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” That victory is seen in the way God uses the hard times in our lives for good and in the very fact that no matter what the world does to us, in the end we experience eternal life with Christ.

It would be a whole lot easier to bet on sports if you were betting on a replay of the game and you knew the final score! When disaster seemed to strike your team you would be calm. Why? Because you know how it all ends. That’s the way it is in life.

In the story of “The Cross and the Switchblade” David Wilkerson was trying to tell gang leader Nicki Cruz about Jesus. Cruz didn’t want to hear anything about it. He told the street preacher to shut up. He said, “Don’t you know that I can cut you up into a hundred little pieces? Wilkerson, confident of the victory that is ours in Christ simply said, “You could do that but every one of those pieces would tell you that Jesus loves you!”

That’s what it means to know how the story ends. No matter what happens to us we know how we end up. Paul said, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Basically, Paul is saying “No matter what happens, it is win/win.” Either I am successful with my ministry with the aggressor or I get to be with Jesus! Both are great options!

We Should be Convinced

This entire passage has been a grand crescendo. This is when the fireworks go off and the cymbals clash. I imagine the Apostle Paul SHOUTING these last words,

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you understand the nature of God’s love (it is independent of anything we have done) and His commitment to His plan. We should rejoice and celebrate with every ounce of strength that we have available to us.

Paul says we are not separated from God’s love by death, demons, or fears or worries. We can’t be separated by our worries about tomorrow, he says not even the powers of hell itself can separate us from His love. This is a powerful and life altering statement.

Implications

Consider a few of the implications of what we have just looked at. First, you can stop fretting over your past failures and focus on your future opportunities. The past is forgiven. This is true for every person who has placed their faith in Christ (rather than their experience, their good deeds, or their church) knows that they have entered into a relationship that was begun by the Lord, maintained by the Lord, and will be persevered by Him into eternity. Our confidence in our heavenly destination is not based on our goodness but on His promise. Our Savior promised that He would lose not even one of those the Father had given Him. That includes you, if you have turned to Him for salvation and new life.

Second, we can stop living fearful that we are going to make a fatal mistake and do something that negates our salvation.” Once we understand that it is His goodness that matters we can stop looking at ourselves and start pursuing Him with abandon. We can see others and share the message of grace with them. We can stop trying to “fix people” and simply tell them about the Savior who knew them before they were born and who wants to make them new . . . forever!

As we tell people that we know we are going to Heaven when we die, we will be quick to let them know that this confidence is in God’s promise not in our performance. It will be a humble yet joyful testimony, not an arrogant one. We don’t talk about the persevering of the saints to win and argument . . . we talk about it to convey good news! REALLY good news.