The end of our reading today from Romans 8 is just about my favorite passage in the entire Bible. It’s Paul’s triumphant end to his initial discussion in the epistle about the righteousness of God. He asks a series of questions with emphatic answers about how confident we can be in the love of God and His Son.

In verse 31, he asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That’s a question worth dwelling on for a moment. God is for us. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking God is ready to punish us as soon as we put a foot wrong. He’s not. God will discipline us, yes, but He is in our corner. And He is the Creator and Master of the Universe. Anything that comes against us in this life is no match for the one who created all things and is sovereign over absolutely everything that ever was, is, and will be. That is the God who is on our side.

In the next verse, Paul asks another question, “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?” (v32). God’s love, shown in giving his Son for us while we were still sinners, is proof that He is willing to go to the ends of the earth for us, His children. He’s not impatiently looking down on us, thinking, “there they go again, messing up. Why do I bother?” Again, He’s the creator of everything, including us. He knew what He was doing when He made us, and He knew what He was doing when He called us. Our fickle ways aren’t going to stop God from fulfilling His purpose in us. Which, as Paul says in this verse, is to give us all things graciously. He’s a Father who loves His children, and He is looking forward to the Kingdom even more than we are.

Paul asks another question in verse 33 – “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Who is going to stand up in a court of law and demand that we should not be given the Kingdom? The next verse reads like a straight answer but is better read as a rhetorical question – “God who justifies?” You think? You think the God whose covenant with the faithful is all based on Him blessing His children with justification is going to charge us? No! He’s on our side! He’s our defense attorney! So, who is going to stand up against God and us?

The next question in verse 34 is, “Who is to condemn?” and again the answer Paul gives is better read as a rhetorical question – “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us?” Is Jesus going to turn on us at the Judgment and say, “I condemn you for your sins!” when he went through so much for us? Is God’s plan of redemption not quite good enough so that the death and resurrection of His Son aren’t strong enough to turn us from sin to the new life in Christ? Of course not!

And so, Paul asks the next question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (v35). He follows that with a list of giants problems that may come into our lives from time to time – “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Is any of that too hard for the Master of the Universe and His Son to overcome?

What are we worried about? Don’t we realize who is on our side? Who is not only rooting for us but working in our lives, directly, guiding, instructing, helping us through every situation we face. “No,” says Paul in verse 37, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Paul sums it all up at the end of the chapter, and we can end with these words because there’s nothing more that I could add:

“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.”

Richard Morgan,
Simi Hills, CA