Romans 8:28-39 (CSB)
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
Because of you we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted 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 persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This section of Romans follows directly after the famous Romans 8:28 verse. Having looked at that verse the last couple of weeks, I wanted to continue on in this chapter. For reading this passage, with the proper understanding of what verse 28 is saying, helps us understand the rest of this chapter.
More than any other writers of the New Testament, I think the Apostle Paul is the person who is most misquoted. So often, people pluck one of his verses out of context and then use it as a proof of their false theology. This section is a prime example of this. They take verse 30 and believe in “predestination” because of it. Or, they use verses 38-39 as proof that Christians cannot lose their salvation. Without going into great detail, this is not proof of the doctrine of predestination. Rather, it is simply stating that God, who is omniscient, knew beforehand those who would be saved. And as to whether this passage is a proof that once saved we are always saved, well, it can’t possibly mean that, because we know Scripture is clear that it is indeed possible to lose your salvation. Look at what Hebrews 3:12 (NASB) says: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” That means there is the possibility of falling away. Hebrews 4:1 (NASB) restates this truth again. It says, “Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” Again, there is the warning to not lose our salvation. There are many more scripture verses saying the same thing, but as this is not a sermon on losing our salvation, I don’t want to get into the finer details of either of these topics, but rather make the point that this is not what Paul is concerned about in this section.
Paul is continuing a thought that goes along with what we’ve been talking about in the past two sermons. The idea is we do not need to fear tomorrow, nor worry about trouble or afflictions, for not only can God use them, as Romans 8:28 tells us, as a means to shape and grow our faith, but we don’t need to fear anything, for “If God is for us, who is against us?”
The God who gave His only Son to die on the cross for us, He is for us. For God is so much for us, as verse 32 says, that “He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?”
The “everything” He grants us is first and foremost, forgiveness and salvation. It says in verse 29 that, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” which means that He has forgiven our sins, cleansed us, and He has justified us. That means He has declared us holy through Jesus’ cleansing blood. The devil can’t hurl accusations at us and tell us that we are sinners and are unclean. The devil can’t accuse us of being unrighteous. Look again at verses 33-34, it says, “Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.”
For those who have received Christ and have been made a child of God, our sin can no longer separate us from God’s love, for we have been forgiven. We don’t have to worry about that any longer. We’ve been justified by Christ, and so not even sin can separate us from the love of Christ. These are some of the “things” He’s worked together with us for our good. And then this passage lists some of the other things that can’t separate us from God’s love but which can actually be used by God for His purposes. Let’s see what they are.
Romans 8:35 says, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.” Here we see a series of nouns which, at first reading, might seem like synonyms. They are similar in a lot of ways, but they are also very different from one another. The first word, translated as affliction, is the Greek word thlipsis and it means, “persecution, affliction, distress, tribulation, trouble.” It’s used by Paul in Romans 5:3. Do you remember it from last week? HELPS Word-studies says this word, “carries the challenge of coping with the internal pressure of a tribulation, especially when feeling there is ‘no way of escape’ (‘hemmed in’).”
The next word is similar but different. Here, according to HELPS Word-studies, the word translated as distress is “stenoxōría, which focuses on the external pressure exerted by circumstances.”
So, so far, we have internal pressure and external pressure, and neither of these pressures can separate us from God. Even when we are attacked from within and without, we cannot be separated from God’s love. Paul is so confident of this that he states this without equivocation. For he knows that afflictions and distress are used by God to build endurance, proven character, and hope inside of us. There is no affliction or distress we might face which can separate us from the love of Christ.
In Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, he says about this verse, “From the love of Christ - This expression is ambiguous; and may mean either our love to Christ or his love to us. I understand it in the former sense, and suppose it means, ‘Who shall cause us to cease to love the Saviour?’ In other words, the love which Christians have for their Redeemer is so strong, that it will surmount and survive all opposition and all trials. The reason for so understanding the expression is, that it is not conceivable how afflictions, etc. should have any tendency to alienate Christ’s love ‘from us;’ but their supposed tendency to alienate ‘our love’ from him might be very strong. They are endured in his cause. They are caused, in a good degree, by professed attachment to him. The persecutions and trials to which Christians are exposed on account of their professed attachment to him, might be supposed to make them weary of a service that involved so many trials. But no, says the apostle. Our love for him is so strong that we are willing to bear all; and nothing that these foes of our peace can do, can alienate us from him and from his cause. The argument, therefore, is drawn from the strong love of a Christian to his Saviour; and from the assurance that nothing would be able to separate him from that love.”
I agree with Barnes’ Notes, and see, too, how from Paul’s perspective, trials and tribulations could never separate him from Christ’s love. Paul proves himself to be a role model of the Christian faith. From Paul’s point of view, having been subject to intense affliction and distress, he has seen the fruit of enduring the trials, and it strengthened his faith. Yet, I have known people who have suffered terribly, and it seems to have separated them from the love of Christ. I’ve known people who have gone through trials like this verse describes and instead of drawing them closer to Jesus, it caused them to lose their faith and fall away. How could that happen when Paul is saying the none of these things can separate us from the love of Christ?
Ellicott’s commentary makes an important distinction. He says, “The love of Christ.—That is to say, the love which Christ has for us, not that which we have for Christ.” I think Ellicott is clarifying that it’s not that our love for Christ can’t be separated from us, but rather it’s Christ’s love for us which cannot be separated. That’s a big difference, isn’t it? I think the people who face affliction and distress but fall away from God have walked away. They separated themselves from Christ’s love by withdrawing.
Isn’t this what Jesus was describing in His Parable of the Sower and the seed? In Matthew 13:18-23, Jesus explains what the parable means. He says, “So listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”
Jesus is explaining that some people hear the word of God and accept it at first. They want to believe and follow God. But their faith is not deep. They haven’t understood God’s word, and they haven’t applied it to their lives, like the ones who have produced fruit. These shallow faith people are on “rocky ground.” They hear the Word with joy, but it doesn’t go deep. There is no root. So then, when afflictions and distress happen to them, they fall away. But Paul, from his correct perspective of someone who has borne fruit through his obedience to God’s word, he isn’t thinking about the people who are shallowly believing in God. He’s thinking from his point of view, and he is sold out for God. He’s not compromising or doubting who God is. He’s fully committed. And so he knows that nothing will cause him to lose his faith in God.
He goes on to say that nothing, not even persecution, can separate us from Christ’s love. This word is diógmos. HELPS Word-studies defines this word as, “properly, pursuit (chase); persecution – literally, ‘the hunt to bring someone down like an animal,’ trying to suppress (punish) their convictions.”
As Ellicott’s Commentary notes, “Shall tribulation? The Apostle is speaking from his own actual experience.” Ellicott is correct, for Paul and the early Christians were constantly subjected to persecution, yet they held to what Jesus says in Matthew 5:11, “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.” Instead of it destroying their faith, they viewed it as a privilege to suffer for God.
It’s been said that persecution actually causes the Church to grow, but I’ve also read counter arguments for this idea, though. I’m not sure if it grows or not, for sometimes it causes shallow faith Christians to abandon their faith. But for those who endure, persecution will cause faith to grow. A powerful example of this is seen in the account of Stephen, the first Christian martyr’s death. Acts 7:54-60 tells us what happened: “When they heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, ‘Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ And after saying this, he fell asleep.”
Stephen was not separated from the love of Christ. He exuded Christ’s love, and from the words he said before he died, we can assume he felt surrounded by God’s love as he died. So even persecution, for those who endure in the faith, does not separate us from Christ’s love.
Back to the list of words: the next two are “famine or nakedness.” Paul is saying that even the lack of basic necessities, such as food and clothing, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. I think this is also communicating the idea that the lack of these things is not proof that God is against us. Just as the next two words, “danger or sword” are also not reason to think God is against us. Being in peril or being threatened with violence are sometimes the cost of following Jesus, but they are no reason to think God is against us. Paul is saying all of these things cannot separate the believer from the love of Christ.
Yet, as I mentioned about Christians who fall away, I think it’s a human tendency to feel like God has separated His love from us when we are suffering. But the early church was constantly exposed to dangers and persecution, and yet they didn’t view their suffering as evidence that God didn’t love them. They saw that the more trials they endured, the more their faith in God grew, because they gained confidence in God’s ability to help them. Paul wants to encourage the fellow believers to have this correct perspective. He then quotes from Psalm 44:22, and says in verse 36, “As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
He’s saying that they are regarded and treated as poorly as sheep who are being led to slaughter because of their faith in the true God. In Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, it explains this Psalm by saying, “Their attachment to the true religion - their devotion to Yahweh as the true God - was the secret cause of all the calamities which had come upon them. As a nation they were [God’s] friends, and as such they were opposed by the worshippers of other gods.”
In other words, their calamity, persecution, or tribulation was not a result of them doing something wrong. Their trouble was brought about because they were following God. That’s what happened to Stephen. That’s what happened to Paul. That’s what has happened to countless Christ followers all throughout history and still happens today all over the world. Christians are persecuted and treated as “sheep to be slaughtered” simply because they are Christians. It’s because of Christ that we are attacked, just as the Psalmist says.
Rather than letting this discourage him, Paul follows this up by saying a very powerful statement. And it also happens to be another verse that is often quoted. Verse 37 says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Something I’ve noticed, though, is most people who quote this verse skip the first part of the sentence. Maybe you’ve seen this on greeting cards or up on someone’s wall? It’s usually personalized and will say, “I am more than a conqueror through him who loved me.” It’s a wonderful, positive, uplifting verse to know, isn’t it? Yet, it follows directly after the verse about being led to slaughter! At the very least, we shouldn’t quote only the part about being more than conquerors; we mustn’t skip the words, “No, in all these things." For Paul is making it clear that even in the midst of affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and even death, in those things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
How can Paul say such a positive statement? How can God love us is He is allowing all those bad things to happen to His followers? Wouldn’t all those terrible things happening to Christians prove that God doesn’t exist, or if He does, that He isn’t very loving? A lot of people think this way and it keeps them from wanting to believe in God. They say, ‘If God exists, why do bad things happen? Why doesn’t God stop the bad things?’ These are important questions that trip up so many people, Christians included. But it’s not that difficult to understand if you remember one thing: the devil is real. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that we have an adversary, who is the devil, and he prowls around like a lion looking for people he can devour. People also have a free will, and people sin and harm other people. It’s not that God causes all the bad things to happen. He is grieved when bad things happen. But He is not helpless or silent or apathetic. He has intervened in the most amazing way. God Himself allowed Himself to be killed on the cross. He made a way for all of us who would believe in Him to live forever with Him in a perfect new world where there will be no sin, no devil, no pain and no suffering. That is why Paul then states again his main point in verses 38-39 which says, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God that is ours through our faith in Jesus.
It makes me think of 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 (NIV), when Paul echoes this same idea. He says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”
Paul’s perspective was that Christians are going to suffer for their faith. Did you catch that he said, we “are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake.” It’s simply a part of the life of the Christian. But if we endure and keep our faith when suffering, then we reveal Jesus to the world. Then we become testimonies of God’s love and faithfulness. That means our suffering is not just for our benefit. God wants to mold us more into His likeness so we can be a better witness to the world.
I know that none of us want to suffer. I certainly don’t welcome afflictions, but let us find hope and even rejoice in this truth: nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not afflictions, not distress, not persecution, not famine or nakedness, danger nor sword, not even death can separate us from the love that God has for us. For Christ dying on the cross for our sin has proved to us that He is for us, and so nothing that comes at us can separate us from His love. No matter what we are going through, let us remember that God is with us and loves us. His love has not abandoned us, even if we are suffering. Let us remember this truth so we endure the suffering and lean on Him to help us, and allow Him to grow our faith through the suffering. Let us not give up, so that the world may see our faith and join us in following Jesus.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your great love for us. Please fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we can have strength to endure the troubles we face. Help us to always remember that You are with us and are for us. Thank You for making us more than conquerors through Jesus’ our savior’s sacrifice. In His name we pray, amen.
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