God Is For Us: Romans 8:31-39 (Sermon)
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WELCOME
Good morning. We are at the end of a glorious text, Romans 8. It is like filet mignon, a five-star hotel, and a sports car. Let’s enjoy this moment.
TEXT
We are looking at Romans 8, verses 31 through 39. I am going to have M.H. read for us. Would you please stand with me, if you are able? Matt,
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 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. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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. (Romans 8:31–39, ESV)
PRAYER
Thank you. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to live, die, rise, ascend to heaven, and intercede for our sake. Thank you for your disposition toward us. Thank you for your faithfulness and power. As I share your Word, disrupt our anxious, depressed, distracted, frustrated, lonely hearts for your glory and our eternal joy. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
CONTEXT
Paul was writing to the church in Rome. He was reminding them of the gospel of Jesus Christ, hoping to strengthen their faith. He demonstrated that everyone is a sinner, no matter how moral, religious, or ignorant. Paul saw the law of God as good, identifying where sin exists. But the law cannot save us. Obviously, sin is bad. It leads to death and spiritual slavery. The solution to our sin is Jesus. He frees us from sin’s grip by the power of the Holy Spirit, through our faith in his work on the cross, as God the Father ordained.
STRUCTURE
Our passage this morning begins,
“What then shall we say to these things?” (Romans 8:31a, ESV).
“What then shall we say to these things?” Paul asked questions for his readers to consider. And then, he answered his own questions. The point he was making was that all the blessings of God laid out in Romans demonstrate that God’s people are more than conquerors through Christ’s love. We are conquerors. Some of us don’t feel like it. We feel crushed by life. If that is you, or you struggle from time to time, this passage is here to help. That is why I think it is so great.
VERSE 31
What things was Paul referring to in verse 31? I found 25 things God gives those who truly trust in him as their Lord and Savior. I will run through them, and if you want them written out, make sure you get our weekly email. Or you can look for them yourself and find more. Here we go. God gives us,
Glory,
Justification,
Calling,
And a purpose in life that we will be shaped into the image of his Son, Jesus.
He also gives us knowledge of his choosing us,
And foreknowing us.
He works all things for our good.
He prays for us,
And he helps us.
He promises a future bodily resurrection, with perfect bodies that don’t get sick or break.
He promises an inheritance,
Adopts us into his family,
And frees us from sin.
He gives us the Holy Spirit,
And leads us by his Spirit.
He gives us spiritual life,
And eternal life.
He frees us from condemnation,
And God’s wrath.
He makes us right with him.
Gives us peace with him,
And he reconciles us to him.
He saves us.
He redeems us.
And he loves us.
Some of those may seem synonymous to you. Maybe there are, so what? Price any of them out on Amazon, if they were to be sold online. How much would you pay? They are priceless. What then, Paul asked, do we say to all these things? What do we say?
REST OF THE VERSE
He inked a response with another question. Jump to verse 31:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b).
Paul knew, from personal experience, that many people can be against us. For the Christians in Rome, Emperor Claudius, between AD 49 and 50, deported the Jewish population, including Christians. He was against them. Some Jewish people were against Christians. And even some professing Christians were against fellow Christians. Paul was well aware of antagonists. He was not asking to identify opponents. He was not minimizing problems but putting them in their proper perspective. How could he do that? God is for us. It doesn’t matter who stands against us. Our God is greater. We don’t need to worry, fret, or wring our hands in fear of those who oppose. Jesus said to his students,
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, ESV).
Jesus was not using a scare tactic or fearmongering, but encouraging. He went on to teach,
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:28–31, ESV).
God values you, his children. Indeed, God can decimate a person with a breath, but he is a loving Father who cares for his kids. We don’t have to be afraid if we call God our Father. He is not a narcissistic, emotionally unstable Greek god. He values his children. He is for them, he is for us, his church. What if we let that thought, of God being for us, seep into our psyche before we are overwhelmed by all the darkness in our lives? What if we take that with us in our bouts of depression and ruminate on it as if it were the most critical reality in all of history?
DAVID
This Christmas, I watched the animated movie David with much of my family. I highly recommend it. It follows the life of David, from his days as a shepherd boy to his rise to the kingship of Israel. If you recall, he was the youngest of Jesse’s family in the sleepy town of Bethlehem, southwest of Jerusalem, about 28 miles. His job was to tend the sheep. Three thousand years ago, lions and bears were natural predators threatening the livestock. David protected the flock from both with his faith and sling. Around that time, the Philistines were enemies of the Israelite people. Luke and Peter, can you come up here, please? [Set up the ladder.] The Philistines had Goliath, a giant of a man who was nine feet tall. They spent forty days taunting Israel. David heard his blasphemous boasts against God and his people. But David had complete confidence in God’s superiority. He told King Saul,
Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” … “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” (1 Samuel 17:36–37, ESV)
And when it came time to fight David said to this towering giant,
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45b–47, ESV)
Thank you. You can sit down. And don’t act this out, Luke, in the house, you could break a window, and I like Peter’s head. David was right. God was with and for him. He survived, while Goliath did not. God is for us as well. Goliath, the Philistines, lions, and bears were against David. What seems to be against you these days? Remember, God is for you who call Jesus Lord.
ELISHA
This reminds me of another story of God being for his children. The story happened a long time after King David had died. The nation of Syria was upset at God’s prophet, Elisha. He could predict by God’s power their military moves and thwart their attacks on Israel. They sent an army to surround him and take him out in the city of Dothan. They were against him. The Bible records,
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He [Elisha] said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15–18, ESV)
What do we do when we feel surrounded, outnumbered, and out of our league? What challenges do you face? What seems to tower over you? Who or what is against you? Write the top three things down that come to mind. It is good for us to go back to the Bible when we feel crushed. Look at God’s past provision and present power. He is for you. God says,
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, ESV).
We don’t need to fear the Devil or whatever the world throws at us. God is for his children. He is for you.
VERSE 32
Let’s keep reading, verse 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?” (Romans 8:32, ESV).
Friends, God gave his own Son, Jesus, for you. John 3:16 says,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV).
Do you believe in him? Then you have eternal life. Do you believe in him? Then, he is for you. He expressed his affection for you by giving up his one and only Son. Would any of you do that? It wasn’t easy. The Bible tells us that Jesus prayed for an alternative. He sweated blood and pleaded with God for an alternative path. There was no other. He accepted the proverbial cup of suffering with the endgame in mind. He gave up his life to purchase for himself a people with his blood. He redeemed us, knowing the pain ahead of time. If God the Father and God the Son went to that great length, God won’t spare any expense for our well-being. He will give us everything we need for life and godliness.
VERSE 33
Paul wrote another question. Look at verse 33:
“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33, ESV).
Maybe you think, “Yeah, I get that God sent his Son. I get it. But I don’t feel it. You don’t know what I have done. I was bad. I said horrible, hurtful things. I sinned. I violated trust. I, you fill in the blank.” How do we deal with inner demons that haunt and shove shame in our faces? Don’t miss what Paul wrote here. God is the one who justifies us. That means, he is the one who declares us right, not us. Who is greater, us or God? What is greater, our feelings or the facts? Maybe you are your own worst enemy. Church, we have been justified, made right with God, not by our purity or perfection but by our confession of faith in him and his work. Romans 10 tells us,
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:9b, 13, ESV).
God declares us right and just through honest, heartfelt faith in him, not ourselves or our ability to make right for all the wrongs we have done. He is the one who does the hard work, not us. We can’t get any better defense attorneys. We don’t know half of our offenses against God, but God’s grace is far greater than we can conceive. He knows it all in advance and still loves us.
VERSE 34
Paul’s next question digs deeper into the echoes of guilt that blow through our lives like the whipping snow across the highway:
“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” (Romans 8:34, ESV).
Maybe you are like, “Yeah, God can say what he wants, but Satan sure is reminding me of all I have done, all the time. I don’t believe it. God can’t get me off the hook.” Oh, yeah? What does God’s Word say? Let’s read Romans 8:1 out loud together:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, ESV).
Let’s say that again. Are you in Christ Jesus? How can you be? Believe in him and his work, and you will be saved. He will be in you and you in him by the Holy Spirit of Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead will be at work in you. Then don’t lose heart. This is God’s Word. You are not the exception. Jesus died—more than that. God raised him from the dead. How many people do you know who have been raised from the dead? None, I wager. Jesus conquered death on your behalf. The resurrection demonstrates categorically that he was otherworldly. His enemies could not argue with the empty tomb. They tried but failed. No one ever found an alternate grave with a rotten body. The evidence of the resurrection is solid. Fifty days afterward, Jesus ascended into heaven and has seated himself at the right hand of God the Father. He prays for us. The book of Hebrews in our Bibles states,
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:22–25, ESV)
Satan is the Accuser, and he can bring up all our dirt he wants. He can hurl facts to demonstrate our rebellion. Yet, even with closed-circuit video evidence, we can point back to our Savior, our mediator, our advocate, and our intercessor, acknowledging the truth of our sin but the supremacy of our God over our past to make us right. Our faith is in him, not us.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, ESV).
Why? Because God is for us.
WHY?
Why? Why would God be for us? Why would God send his one and only Son to die in our stead? Turn to Romans 5.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8b, ESV).
God knew what he was doing 2000 years ago. Think of the intentionality of Jesus’s love.
He chose Judas to be his disciple.
He let Judas betray him for several months’ wages,
He gave himself up to the Father’s will for him to die,
He released himself to the temple guards for questioning,
He subjected himself to the mocking and abuse of the soldiers,
He endured the weaponized trial by the Pharisees,
He allowed himself to be brutally crucified for hours: naked, bleeding, aching, suffocating, and humiliating.
He took the anger the Heavenly Father should have had for our sins on his own innocent soul.
Why? He loved us to death.
LOOK AT YOU
See him look you straight in the eyes, knowing the real you and loving you as his life ebbed away. He loves you more than a mother loves her child. He loves you.
RABBIT
As a dad, I have read many books to my six kids over the years. One sticks out in my mind and relates. It’s a book about a bunny and his dad. They share how much they love each other, going back and forth with greater and greater expressions. And the parent always goes further. The last example they give is the bunny saying, “I love you to the moon. And the dad saying, “I love you to the moon and back.” We, parents, love our kids way more than they know. It won’t be until they have kids that they truly get it. I think there are some parallels here. It is like, I say to Jesus, “I love you, Jesus, with my life.” And this passage, and the Bible, tell us he says, “I love you, Rob, with my life and death.” And for you who truly trust in Christ as your Savior, he says that to you as well, “I love you with my life and death.” He is for you that much.
VERSE 35
Maybe his love is hard to swallow? Can something hinder God from loving us? Paul raised that last question in verse 35:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Romans 8:35–36, ESV)
Can anyone or anything divorce us from God’s affection? Can trials, stress, abuse, starvation, or death? Paul quoted King David in Psalm 44. God’s people know trials and tribulations. They know afflictions and persecutions. They are part of life. Do they block God’s love for his children?
NO
Look at verse 37 for an answer:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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. (Romans 8:37–39, ESV)
What feels like it can hinder you from experiencing God’s love? Write that down in your bulletin.
SIN
Paul said nothing can. But as I ask this question and look at Paul’s response, I am aware that our sin can hinder that feeling of being loved. Have you felt that way? I have. If that is you, I would encourage you to fully confess your sin to God and remind yourself of the Bible’s truths. Repent from that sin. That means truly turning from it. We go back to Romans 10:9, 13, and John 3:16. Call on God to save you and believe in his only means of saving, Jesus’s death on your behalf. Get help in your Spiritual life; we can’t do this walk of faith alone. The church is not a building, but a people seeking the Lord together. And remind yourself of this truth of God’s unstoppable love. And nothing can separate us from God’s love. Paul was convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that.
Facing death or life won’t separate us from God’s love.
Facing supernatural attacks or human attacks won’t separate us from God’s love.
Whatever we face in the present or future, it won’t separate us from God’s love.
No power can separate us from God’s love.
Nothing in creation can do it. We are victorious in Christ through Christ. We are the champions. No, technically, we are more than champions. How? It is through Jesus and his love for us who call him LORD.
GOD’S LOVE
God loves us so much. He gave up heaven to give us heaven.
QUESTIONS
Many of you love God and know him personally. However, you struggle and wrestle spiritually, as I do. Here are some questions to ponder this week:
What seems to be against you right now?
What hinders you from knowing and experiencing God’s love?
How can this passage help you experience God’s love?
Which verse do you find most helpful to you? Consider memorizing it or at least reflecting on it each day this week.
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