Romans 39 The Five Questions about God’s Love (Rom 8:31-39)

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rm 8:38-39)

The Five Questions About God’s Salvation
Paul continues to talk about the certainty of Christians’ hope in God’s salvation by raising 5 rhetorical questions , which prove the certainty of Christians’ salvation.
 
1) If God is for us, who can be against us?
First, Paul asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rm 8:31).
 
If Paul just asked ‘Who can be against us,’ there would be many answers. There are many things that attack and oppose Christians. Our sinful nature is against us. Temptations and our desires of the flesh are against us. Even though Satan was defeated, he isn’t completely destroyed yet. Even now, Satan prowls around looking for someone to devour. All the different kinds of difficulties we face are also against us.
 
So, Christians obviously face many obstacles. The reason the first question is rhetorical is because of the if-clause. “If God is for us”
 
Paul is saying that if God is for us, nothing can be against us. All of the problems, obstacles, and difficulties that keep us from having faith in God lose their strength before God’s power.
 
God foreloves, predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies us. He’s still working on our salvation. If we truly rely on the fact that God is for us, we’ll come to know that nothing can really be against us. 
 
2) Second, Paul asks, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32)
 
Again, if Paul just asked, “Will God give us all things?”, we might be a bit skeptical. We might answer, “probably not.” Because we don’t fully know all the plans, blessings, and gifts God has for us, we might doubt the fullness of His provision.
 
However, the part before Paul’s question banishes our doubts about God’s provision. Paul urges us to look at Jesus’ cross and encourages us to remember the fact that God already gave us everything in Christ. God didn’t even spare His own Son. God sacrificed what He valued most to save us. This truth gives us the assurance that God will provide us with all that we need.
 
Here, the way Paul supports his claim is similar to the way he did it in Romans 5. Regarding the certainty of our salvation, Paul said,
 
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Rm 5:9-10)
 
The reason that we can be sure of our future salvation lies in the works God has already done for us. God, who gave His only Son to justify us, won’t give up on us, but will faithfully guide us with His amazing grace until we are completely redeemed.
 
Likewise, we can also be assured that God will graciously give us all things because He already gave us the one who is most precious to Him. In fact, God gave us everything by giving us His Son. Therefore, the cross is the strongest evidence that guarantees that God will continue to take care of us and provide us with all that we need.
 
3-4) Now, third and fourth questions. Paul asks,
 
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Rm 8:33-34)
 
Paul takes us to a courtroom. God is the judge and our accuser is Satan. What’s worse, all the things he says about our sins are true. We’re guilty of our sins. We can’t make any excuses.
 
However, Paul asserts that no one can bring any charge against us and that no one can condemn us. That’s because we have the perfect lawyer in the courtroom—Jesus. And, Jesus’ defense on our behalf is that He has already paid the penalty for our sins.
 
The foundation of Jesus’ defense is the precious blood He shed to pay for our sins. Jesus pleaded our case with His body on the cross. So, every charge against us will ultimately fail because our sins were already paid in full with Jesus’ sacrifice.
 
That’s what the apostle John also said in First John.
“If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 Jn 2:1-2)
 
Jesus Christ is our advocate. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rm 8:1) because “[God] condemned sin in [His] flesh” (Rm 8:3)
 
This amazing truth gives us confidence of our salvation. Jesus Christ died on the cross, was raised to life, and is at God’s right hand. Jesus not only died for us in the past, but is also interceding for us even now. His ministry for our salvation hasn’t ended yet and He won’t stop praying for us until we see Him face to face.
 
If we focus on who we are, we’ll fail. However, if we truly rely on Jesus Christ, we will be forgiven and justified through His blood.
 
5) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
This is the height of Paul’s argument. Paul lists adversities Christians might face.
 “Trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” (Rm 8:35)
 
These are difficulties that exist in Christian life. They are hard to endure and challenge our faith. Paul experienced these all. He doesn’t deny the existence of suffering in Christian life. Rather, Paul encourages us to rejoice in them because “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rm 8:37).
 
Jesus Christ also suffered and overcame. So, He is able to empathize with us in suffering. Not only that, but Jesus is with us in the midst of hardships, gives us the strength to overcome them, and encourages us to fix our eyes on Him. If we accept this fact as truth, we will also be more than conquerors in all situations through Jesus who loves us.
 
Confidence in the Love of Christ
Now, let’s read the last two verses of Romans chapter 8.
 
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rm 8:38-39)
 
Here, Paul reaches the climax of his argument. He said that he was convinced that nothing would be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
 
The five questions he raised above were about who God is and what He does for His people. God is for us. He didn’t even spare His own Son and He graciously gives us all things. God chooses and justifies us. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised to life for our righteousness, and is interceding for us at the right hand of God.
 
All of these facts reveal to us how much God loves us, and more importantly, that there’s nothing in the world that can separate us from His love. Therefore, there’s nothing we should worry about and there’s no one who can be against us or condemn us. That’s the confidence Paul had in Christ that enabled him to overcome all of his hardships and joyfully follow Jesus.
 
We all need this strong assurance. As I said before, the world we’re living in is full of unstable things. It’s hard for us to have perfect assurance. However, the hope we have in God is fundamentally different. It’s certain because its basis is God’s unfailing love for us.
 
Even though we’re exposed to all kinds of temptations, sins, and difficulties, we should be reminded of the fact that the promise of victory is already given to us.
 
God never said that we wouldn’t have any troubles. Rather, He guarantees that they can’t separate us from His love. These truths were shown clearly on the cross and are poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit so that we can put our hope in God alone.