Nothing Can Separate Us Series

Introduction

Anyone who studies the Bible carefully knows that there are times when we reach a soaring peak of revelation and are left nearly breathless by the view.

This happens when we come to the last great section of Romans 8.

Commentators have called Romans 8:31-39 “a hymn of assurance,” “a triumph song,” and “the highest plateau in the whole of divine revelation.”

But surely these accolades are too weak.

This is a mountaintop section.

It is the Mount Everest of Paul’s letter to the Romans and thus the highest peak in the Himalayan range of the Scriptures.

On this Resurrection Sunday, let us be encouraged by the truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Scripture

Let’s read Romans 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 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? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.

Lesson

Strictly speaking, there are seven questions in these verses, two in verses 31 and 35, and one in verses 32, 33, and 34.

But the first question is not part of the set.

It is a formula Paul has for moving from exposition to the conclusion of an argument.

He has used it several times in this letter to the Romans.

Paul asks in verse 31, “What then shall we say to these things?”

In other words, “In light of what I have been teaching, what conclusions follow?”

Then follow five unanswerable questions.

The last two questions in verse 35 are two parts of the same question.

So there are five main questions.

These five questions concern things that might be imagined to defeat God’s plan for us or to harm us.

But each question is unanswerable, because there is nobody or nothing that can defeat God’s plan for us.

Commentator John Stott says,

“The Apostle hurls these questions out into space, as it were, defiantly, triumphantly, challenging any creature in heaven or earth or hell to answer them or deny the truth contained in them. But there is no answer, for nobody and nothing can harm the redeemed people of God.”

Romans 8:31-39 teaches us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of five unanswerable questions.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. “Who Can Be Against Us?” (8:31b)

2. “How Will He Not also… Give Us All Things (8:32)

3. “Who Shall Bring Any Charge?” (8:33)

4. “Who Is to Condemn?” (8:34)

5. “Who Shall Separate Us from the Love of Christ?” (8:35-39)

I. “Who Can Be Against Us?” (8:31b)

The first of five unanswerable questions is in verse 31b: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Taken by itself, the second half of this question is not at all unanswerable.

“Who can be against us?”

Why, many people and many things can be against us!

And not only can they be against us, but they are against us!

The Bible teaches that every Christian has three great enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world is against us because Christianity is an offense to it and is opposed to its God-rebelling ways.

The world will try to get us to conform to it if it can, and failing that, it will try to overcome us.

Our flesh is also an enemy because it contains the seeds of sin; we are unable to escape its malevolent influence throughout our lives.

And, as if that were not enough, we have a powerful enemy in the devil, described by the apostle Peter as “a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Yes, there are plenty of enemies against us.

But what are these when combined with the verse’s first half, “If God is for us...”?