NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US
Romans 8:31–39
Paul has taken us from suffering to glory.
Creation groans.
Christians groan.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
God is working toward His purpose.
And Paul has just said that those whom God justified He also glorified.
Now Paul stops and asks:
“What then shall we say to these things?”
— Romans 8:31
What conclusion should we draw from everything he has just said?
His answer is one of the strongest statements of assurance in the New Testament.
IF GOD IS FOR US
Paul asks:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
— Romans 8:31
Paul does not mean nobody will oppose Christians.
He has just talked about suffering.
In a few verses he will mention persecution, famine, danger, and even the sword.
People may certainly be against us.
Paul's question is bigger:
If God is for us, what enemy can finally defeat God's purpose for us?
That is a very different question.
LOOK AT WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE
How do we know God is for us?
Paul points to the cross:
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all...”
— Romans 8:32
God's love is not merely something He says.
He demonstrated it.
Paul made the same point earlier:
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8
If God has already given His Son for us, Paul asks:
“How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
The cross is Paul's evidence.
When suffering makes us wonder whether God still cares, Paul points backward:
Look at the cross.
WHO CAN BRING A CHARGE?
Paul now sounds almost like he is standing in a courtroom.
“Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?”
— Romans 8:33
Then comes the answer:
“It is God who justifies.”
Remember where Romans began.
Humanity stood guilty before God.
Paul spent the opening chapters establishing that:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
— Romans 3:23
But now the Judge Himself has justified.
So Paul asks:
Who can successfully overturn God's verdict?
WHO IS TO CONDEMN?
Paul asks another question:
“Who is to condemn?”
— Romans 8:34
Remember how Romans 8 began:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Now near the end of the chapter Paul returns to the same thought.
Why no condemnation?
Paul points to Christ.
Christ:
died,
was raised,
is at God's right hand,
and:
intercedes for us. (ESV Bible)
Paul's assurance rests on what Christ has done and is doing.
CHRIST DIED — AND WAS RAISED
Don't miss Paul's progression.
Jesus didn't merely die.
Paul says:
“Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised...”
The cross was not the end.
Christ was raised.
And He is now:
“At the right hand of God.”
That is the language of authority and victory.
The Jesus who died for us is alive.
And He:
“Indeed is interceding for us.”
Earlier in the chapter the Spirit interceded for God's people.
Now Christ is interceding for them.
They are certainly not abandoned.
WHO CAN SEPARATE US?
Now Paul asks the question toward which the whole paragraph has been moving:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
— Romans 8:35
Then he starts naming possibilities.
Tribulation?
Distress?
Persecution?
Famine?
Nakedness?
Danger?
Sword?
These are not imaginary problems.
Paul knew suffering.
Following Christ did not protect Christians from persecution or hardship.
But Paul's question is:
Can any of these things separate us from Christ's love?
His answer is:
No.
SUFFERING DOES NOT MEAN GOD HAS ABANDONED US
Paul quotes Psalm 44:
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
— Romans 8:36
That is important.
Paul doesn't say:
If God really loves you, these things won't happen.
He says they do happen.
God's people suffer.
God's people may even be killed.
The presence of suffering is not evidence that God has stopped loving His people.
That is Paul's point.
MORE THAN CONQUERORS
Then comes Paul's answer:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
— Romans 8:37
Notice carefully.
Paul does not say:
We avoid all these things.
He says:
“In all these things.”
The victory is not that Christians never suffer.
The victory is that suffering cannot defeat what God is accomplishing in Christ.
And we are not conquerors because we are unusually strong.
We are conquerors:
“Through him who loved us.”
PAUL STARTS NAMING EVERYTHING HE CAN THINK OF
Paul continues:
“For I am sure...”
— Romans 8:38
Then comes a sweeping series of contrasts.
Death or life.
Angels or rulers.
Things present or things to come.
Powers.
Height or depth.
Then, just in case something has been left out:
“Nor anything else in all creation...”
Paul is closing every door.
No created power can overpower God's love in Christ. (ESV Bible)
WHAT DOES PAUL ACTUALLY SAY CANNOT SEPARATE US?
This is where careful reading matters.
Paul names things that might attack God's people from the outside:
Suffering.
Persecution.
Danger.
Death.
Spiritual powers.
Present circumstances.
Future circumstances.
Anything else in creation.
And he says none of them:
“Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That is tremendous assurance.
But we should let Paul say exactly what Paul says.
DON'T MAKE PAUL ANSWER A DIFFERENT QUESTION
Sometimes Romans 8:38–39 is used to answer the question:
Can a Christian ever choose to abandon Christ?
That is an important question.
Other passages speak about faithfulness, falling away, denying Christ, and continuing in faith.
But that is not the question Paul is answering here.
Paul is encouraging suffering Christians.
His question is:
Can anything that happens to you overpower God's love and tear you away from Him?
Paul's answer is emphatic:
No.
Death can't do it.
Persecution can't do it.
Satanic powers can't do it.
Nothing in the present can do it.
Nothing waiting in the future can do it.
No created thing has that power.
We should receive the assurance Paul gives us without making the passage say more—or less—than Paul says.
FROM “NO CONDEMNATION” TO “NO SEPARATION”
Look at how Romans 8 begins and ends.
It begins:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
— Romans 8:1
It ends:
Nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 8:39 (Bible Gateway)
No condemnation.
No separation.
And both are:
In Christ Jesus.
That is the great message of Romans 8.
READ PAUL BEFORE READING A SYSTEM INTO PAUL
We don't need to weaken this passage because we are afraid someone might misuse it.
And we don't need to make it prove something Paul isn't discussing.
Let Paul's assurance stand at full strength.
For those who are in Christ:
God is for us.
God justifies us.
Christ died for us.
Christ was raised.
Christ intercedes for us.
And no power in all creation can separate us from God's love in Christ.
That's what Paul says.
And that's enough.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Paul began Romans 8 with:
No condemnation.
He ends with:
No separation.
Between those two statements he has talked about:
the Spirit,
adoption,
suffering,
hope,
resurrection,
God's purpose,
and:
future glory.
The Christian may suffer.
The Christian may groan.
The Christian may face persecution.
The Christian will eventually face death unless Christ returns first.
But none of those things means God has abandoned His people.
Paul's final words are:
Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And now Paul is ready for a new question.
If God's promises are so certain...
what about Israel?
That takes us into Romans 9.
NEXT: HAS GOD'S WORD FAILED?
Romans 9:1–13
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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