Romans 8:31-39

Romans 8:31-39

God Is For You

I.                    Easter proves that God is for you, so you must know that nothing else can truly be against you (Vv. 31-34)

a.       Having just taught the doctrines of justification, sanctification, election, and glorification in Christ, Paul now guides us in applying these truths to our lives through a series of questions. His first question in response is actually more of a statement. The “if” at the beginning of this phrase actually means, “since or because”, “Since God is for us, who is against us?”. Since God is who He says He is in His Word, and has done what He says He’s done, then no one else measures up to Him. If He’s for us, then no one can truly be against us despite their best efforts. But we know the reality we experience in life is that the world, our flesh, and Satan all attempt to stand against us and weigh us down heavily in life. Whether it’s what the world tells us we need, what we feel we’re missing, or what others seem to always have that we don’t, we’re missing nothing when we trust in Christ for everything we need because as Paul reasons, if God did the greater thing and gave His own Son over to suffering and death because He loves us and desires to restore our relationship with Him, won’t He do the lesser things like provide us everything we need? So while we often feel as though the world and life are stacked powerfully against us, like we’re alone, lack the strength to overcome, lack the knowledge of which direction to go, and feel like we’re hanging on by a thread, we must rest in the reality that the cross proves that God is for us, so all that tries to stand against us has already failed. Since that’s the case, ow Paul asks who’ll accuse us or condemn us? Satan is the great accuser. He’ll sway the world to accuse us of stupidity, hate, exclusion, and judgment. He’ll sway us to accuse each other, and he’ll even attempt to sway us to accuse ourselves of sinfulness and powerlessness. But all these accusations are absolutely powerless to condemn us if we’ve been justified in Christ. God alone is the only just Judge of all His creation, He gave His righteous Son to be charged, convicted, condemned, and sentenced to death by men, but God reversed their sentence, raised Jesus from the dead, and in Him permanently reversed the just sentence of condemnation and death for all people who repent and trust faithfully in the Person and work of Jesus Christ! So now in Christ, no one has the ability to accuse us, and no one has the authority to condemn us! So how do we make these truths the continually living and working experience of our lives? (Vv. 31-34; Gen. 3:1-15; Ps. 2:9; 27:1; 56:1-13; 118:6-8; Isa. 50:8-9; 53:12; 54:17; Zech. 3:1-7; Matt. 6:33; John 3:16-17; 8:1-11, 30-36; 14:16-19; 15:12-19; 16:5-15; Rom. 5:1-11; 8:1, 26-27; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21; Gal. 5:15-17; Eph. 2:1-9; Phil. 4:19; Col. 2:13-15; Heb. 4:14-16; 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2; Rev. 12:10)

II.                 Easter proves that God is for you, so you must be convinced that nothing is able to separate you from His love in Christ Jesus (Vv. 35-39)

a.       Now Paul asks, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”, by which he means who can undo what Christ did in us through His salvific work, and what He’s doing in us through sanctifying, and glorifying work? He gives a representative list of possible negative things which might feel like they’re separating us from His love. In our culture, we most often connect these circumstances to God’s displeasure because we crave beauty, success, wealth, power, popularity, and influence, and if we don’t see these things in ourselves, we don’t see our lives as victorious, even in Christ. But Paul recalls the words of Psalm 44 to dispel this lie, and bring to mind our Savior who is victorious over all things through His suffering. In Christ we’re super-conquerors, not in spite of life’s challenges and difficulties, but because of them. Paul is utterly convinced that nothing can separate us from Jesus’ love, nothing physical, no spiritual principle or power, not at any time, in any space, and not any created thing because Jesus’ power and victory are total and complete. So In Christ we live in His victory as super-conquerors, not because He removes our stress, anxiety, fear, doubt, health issues, relationship issues, financial difficulties, employment issues, scholastic issue, temptation of addictions, or the persecution and hatred of those who oppose our faith, but because He proves His victory over those things through our lives. We’re called to consider less the power and impact of all those things over us, and consider more the power and impact of Jesus’ power within us! Easter proves that God is for you! What do you say to these things, are you convinced? (Vv. 35-39; Gen. 50:19-20; Job 1:20-22; Ps. 22:1-21; 23:4-6; 44:22; 139:7-10; Isa. 26:3; 53:3-10; Matt. 5:3-12; 28:20; John 5:22-24; 14:27; 16:33; 19:30; Rom. 8:18, 28; 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 9:23-27; 15:54-58; 2 Cor. 4:7-11, 16-18; 6:1-10; Eph. 6:10-12; Phil 2:5-11; 3:7-16; 4:4-13; 2 Tim. 1:10-13; Heb. 13:5b-8; Rev. 12:11-12)