Nothing Can Separate Us from Him

This week, I hope to finish our study of Romans chapter 8. We have learned a lot from this one chapter of Scripture. We have been reminded that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We are told that “what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” We learned that the “Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” We also are reminded that, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.” We are given testimony of God’s desire to adopt us, Christ’s desire to be a sacrifice for us, and the Spirit’s delight to make us like Him.

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“36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered 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 convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 8:36-39 (NASB)

Verse 36 might be a little confusing, yet as we look at it we must admit that we are indeed facing death each and every day, each and every moment. We do not choose this death, but Christ did and He did it, so that we might be victorious.

“We are conquerors: though killed all the day long, yet conquerors. A strange way of conquering, but it was Christ’s way; thus he triumphed over principalities and powers in his cross. It is a surer and a nobler way of conquest by faith and patience than by fire and sword. The enemies have sometimes confessed themselves baffled and overcome by the invincible courage and constancy of the martyrs, who thus overcame the most victorious princes by not loving their lives to the death,”

— Matthew Henry Bible Commentary on Romans 8:36

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“They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.”

— Revelation 12:11 (NASB)

Verse 37 says that we are more than conquerors, and it adds that it is through Him who loved us. You see we are not conquerors on our own. Sure, there are times when we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but more often that is how we keep going: keep working, keep loving, keep running, keep caring, keep on keeping on. To truly conquer all the things that the enemy and life throws our way requires someone much more like a super hero than I.

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The beauty of this idea, is that Christ, not only saves and conquers for us, but he loves us. Once again, we are reminded of His love. I think that truly believing God loves us, is very hard for us to do. We often find it much easier to love and forgive others, but when it comes to loving and forgiving ourselves we stumble, fall and sometimes just give up. Aren’t you glad, that our view of ourselves does not limit Christ’s view of us?

Verse 38 and 39 begins with Paul’s confidence in the person of the Christ. If Paul can be confident in Him, should we also share that confidence? Paul says he is “convinced.” From that we can derive that at one point in time, Paul did not share this conviction or confidence. If you are familiar with Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, the Lord Himself changed his name to Paul and convinced him of the truth and solidity of the Gospel and the person of Jesus Christ.

What is Paul convinced of?

“That neither - “

death nor life

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angels nor demons

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the present nor the future

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nor any powers

height nor depth

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nor anything else in all of creation

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Will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We must realize that God’s love is only fulfilled through the sacrifice of His perfect Son. It is that love, the love that we obtain when we call Him Lord, that will keep us forever with Him. Nothing, will be able to separate us from Him and from His love. If you want a real romance story, then this is it. He is the great warrior prince who will never leave you, and if you are taken away and enslaved by the enemy, He will not rest until you are back in His loving arms.

I wanted to share this chapter with you, because it is such an encouraging one to me. I hope you have been encouraged by it as well.

God is for Me

I want to go back for a minute and review some of what we have learned in Romans chapter 8. From the very first verse we are reminded that if we are in Christ Jesus we are not condemned (8:1). We are told that the law could not do what it was made to do, which was put us in good standing before an almighty God. It is only the Holy Christ who could bring us to this place, where we are no longer condemned (8:2-4). We are reminded that if we walk according to the flesh we will reap destruction and death, but if we walk according to the spirit, His Spirit, we will reap life (8:5-11). Verses 12-17 talk about our position in Christ. We have been adopted as sons and daughters because of what Christ did for us on the cross. Because of this bond, we suffer with Christ as creation suffers in wait for its return to original beauty and perfection. Our sufferings lead to glorification and redemption (8:18-25)

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In the next section of the chapter we learn about our victory in Christ. We learn the blessedness of not being alone in our sufferings and that the Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray (8:26-27). We also learn that God causes all things to work together for good. In fact he foreknew, predestined, conformed, called, justified and glorified (8:28-30).

Today we are going to look at one verse:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

— Romans 8:31 (NASB)

The things that the verse is referring to is everything that came before, thus the reason for the first few paragraphs of review. Matthew Henry states that Paul is speaking “as one amazed.”

“He speaks as one amazed and swallowed up with the contemplation and admiration of it, wondering at the height and depth, and length and breadth, of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”

— Matthew Henry's Commentary - Romans 8:31

The word delight comes to my mind. We are amazed, but not in a fearful, anxious way. We are amazed and delighted, much like a mother who receives a dandelion bouquet from their child. We see it as a remarkable, precious gift.

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After the realization and amazement at all that God has done for us, Paul asks the question, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” It is easy to begin listing all the things we may feel are against us: other people, viruses, age, rising prices, our own poor choices and even the unseen enemy whose name is Satan. While it may seem that these things are against us and indeed we daily fight against many enemies both seen and unsee, the fact of the matter is God is for us.

“If God be for us, who can be against us? The ground of the challenge is God’s being for us; in this he sums up all our privileges. This includes all, that God is for us; not only reconciled to us, and so not against us, but in covenant with us, and so engaged for us—all his attributes for us, his promises for us. All that he is, and has, and does, is for his people. He performs all things for them. He is for them, even when he seems to act against them. And, if so, who can be against us, so as to prevail against us, so as to hinder our happiness? Be they ever so great and strong, ever so many, ever so might, ever so malicious, what can they do? While God is for us, and we keep in his love, we may with a holy boldness defy all the powers of darkness. Let Satan do his worst, he is chained; let the world do its worst, it is conquered: principalities and powers are spoiled and disarmed, and triumphed over, in the cross of Christ. Who then dares fight against us, while God himself is fighting for us? And this we say to these things, this is the inference we draw from these premises.”

— Matthew Henry Commentary - Romans 8:31

I love the sentence, “All that He is, and has, and does, is for his people.” There are so many things we do not know about God, but the parts we do know, the parts revealed through His word and the Gospel all point to His great care and concern for His creation. Like a gentle gardener tenderly works his garden, God tends to our lives. Oh yes, the storms will blow. The wind will whip and and swirl around us. The rain will pelt and batter against us, but He is aware of it all and when the sun comes out again, He will come and cut away the damage, nourish our broken souls and enable rebirth and new life to come from it.

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Are you feeling today that everything is against you? God is for you. No matter what your situation is, He is watching over you. Let him tend to your battered heart and create something new.