The Great Eight - Pt 36

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. (Romans 8:31-37 ESV).

We are coming to the close of our study in “the Great Eight.” The Apostle Paul has saved the best for last. In this great chapter he comes to five questions to draw out the amazing privileges of belonging to Jesus Christ. In verse 31 he asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In verse 32 he asks, “How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In verse 33 he asks, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” in verse 34 he asks, “Who is to condemn?” And finally in verse 35he asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” The answers are so plain and so wonderful, Paul lets us supply them and rejoice in them.  Verse 31: No one can be successfully against us — not even terrorists.  Verse 32: God will supply everything we need — even when all seems lost.  Verse 33: No one can make a charge stick against us in the court of heaven — no matter who accuses us.  Verse 34: No one can condemn us.  Verse 35: No one and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. These verses are so relevant. No matter the age or the circumstance, as Paul details the kinds of things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ, we cannot help but be taken to an unshakable assurance of our eventual and eternal destiny. Paul talks about some of the things of his day when he lists “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” However, we could easily substitute our own experience with these kinds of things today. He is declaring there is nothing, NOTHING, so horrible that they could separate us from the love of Christ. No. Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love. All of us have those “boogeymen” in our lives that frighten us. It may be any one of dozens of crises. Rest assured. Jesus has conquered and taken every one of them captive. In their place we have the love of God!