31 What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since God did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for all of us, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with Himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? Will Jesus Christ? No, for He is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? 36 (Even the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed everyday; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all of these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. 39 Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In all of Scripture, I can’t think of any verses that give more comfort than Romans 8:31-39. We can only imagine the joy in Paul’s heart as he wrote these words of encouragement to the Christians in Rome
On one hand, they were fighting a physical enemy, and on the other hand, they were fighting the sin within themselves – both were bent on destroying them. It is no different for us today. Face it, the world is dark and will stop at nothing in its quest to extinguish Christ’s light. But, Paul asked the ultimate rhetorical question – “If God is for us, who can be against us?” When we accept the free gift of God’s grace, we align ourselves with the one that can’t be beat! Isn’t that great? We can’t lose. Our victory, no, “our overwhelming victory” is carved in stone.
Of course, we still struggle. …”But if we are to share in His glory, we must also share His suffering.” Romans 8:23. But, isn’t it better to struggle, knowing that in the end we will win? Our eternity is guaranteed by our faith. Nothing can ever take that away.
There will be moments of doubt, even for the strongest believers. There will be times when doing the right thing will result in persecution. We could lose everything we own. We may go hungry. Christians are threatened with death, everyday, all around the world. Does this mean that God no longer loves them? Of course not. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
When we put our faith in Christ, our perspective changes. We no longer see our lives as mortal – a beginning and an end. We now see them as eternal. Our life on earth is just a stepping stone that leads us to the rest of our life. It is the path that we choose that leads us to our eternal destination.
In 1 Samuel, we find the story of young David, the shepherd boy. The story follows David’s life from when he was called in from the field as a young boy, and much to the surprise of everyone, was anointed to be the King of Israel by the Prophet Samuel (though not immediately). A short while later, he slew Goliath, the giant of the Philistine army, and became an instant celebrity. Saul, the current King of Israel, became jealous of David and attempted to murder him. This lead to David’s escape into the wilderness and a decade long pursuit by Saul. David kept his faith in God through the ordeal, until a moment of human weakness overcame him.
1Samuel 27:1 “But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing for me to do is to escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me, and I will finally be safe.”
David was called, “the man after God’s own heart”. During most of his life, his faith in God was unbelievably strong. But, in this moment, David forgot the promise that God had made to him. David was anointed to be the King of Israel. There wasn’t anything that Saul and his army, or Satan and his demons could do that would stop David from becoming king. Let’s stop and think about that again – let it sink into your heart. God promised David that he would be the King of Israel. Samuel anointed him as king. There is nothing that anyone or anything could have done to stop David from becoming king. It was God’s promise – It was carved in stone by the very finger of God. David could have, and maybe should have trusted God and not ran at all. Saul could have captured him, imprisoned him, beat him and tortured him. But, no matter what, David would still become King of Israel at exactly the appointed time that God had determined.
We have that same promise. As believers, we are guaranteed that when we leave this earth we will be with Jesus Christ in heaven. No one or no thing can take that away from us. Our name is written in the Lambs Book of Life. We have been redeemed. We are now children of God, and nothing can separate us from His love.
But, David let his situation become greater than his faith. His first mistake – he stopped praying. His second mistake – he started thinking. And his third mistake – he began to compromise.
We do the same thing, don’t we? We find ourselves in bad situations. Maybe financial debt or trouble in a relationship. We might even pray that the Lord deliver us through this trial. But, when we don’t get immediate results, we take matters into our own hands.
People throw out sayings like, “God helps those who help themselves” as if it were a verse in scripture. That’s not God’s plan. God helps those who put their faith in him.
David slipped to an all-time low, in this moment. He aligned himself with the Philistines, who were the enemies of Israel
“David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him.” 1 Samuel 30:6 NLT
Finally, David came to his senses, and called out to God. David had drifted away from God for over a year. And, God restored everything that was taken and more.
God’s love for David never ceased, no matter how far he drifted away. And as Paul explained to the Roman Christians, and all of us today, there is no situation that we can get ourselves into that can separate us from God’s love. How can we say that for certain? He proved it when sent His Son to die in our place.
Romans 8:38-39 are verses that I stand on when I’m worried. I bring these to mind when I find myself in a situation where I have no direction. Situations where I have no idea what will happen next. Situations where I feel lost and abandoned. I stand on the promise that God loves me, and that nothing can take that away. “…nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing.
Study Questions
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Do you truly believe this in your heart? The power of faith is only as strong as the person who made the promise in whom our faith rests. God made us this promise. Is there anyone more powerful?
Is Christ with you wherever you go?
I often use the image of rock climbing as a picture of our relationship with Christ in our life. The climber has a harness around his waist with a rope attached. At the other end of the rope is his billet partner. As the climber ascends, the billet partner takes up the slack in the rope. The two talk to each other throughout the climb so that the billet partner knows just how much slack to give. Christ is our billet partner in this life. If we keep talking to Him, we will always be safe. But, as David found out, when we stop talking to Him and start taking matters into our own hands, He stops taking up the slack. He will always be at the other end of the rope, nothing can ever separate us from that, but we take the chance of falling and getting hurt when there is too much distance between us and Christ.
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