Friday DIVE – April 4, 2025 – Romans 8:31-39

Friday DIVE / By

WELCOME . . . and THANKS for joining us for another dive into the Bible.

 

TONIGHT’S TEXT

Romans 8:31-39  NRSV Updated Edition  

31 What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?   33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.   34 Who is to condemn?  It is Christ[Christ Jesus] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.   35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?  36 As it is written,  

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;  we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.   38 For I am convinced 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.  

 

GOING DEEPER

1.  The CONTEXT … A summary, as per The Enduring Word Commentary … 

A. Romans 7 was all about the Futility of Trying to Please God by Living in the Flesh 

B.  Romans 8 is about the Benefits and Blessings of Living Life in the Spirit contrasted with Living Life in the Flesh.

1.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom.8:1) 

2.  Life in the Spirit is much different from Life in the flesh. (Rom.8:2-4)   

3.  Christians cannot please God in the flesh. (Rom.8:5-8)

4.  Christians are empowered to live in the Spirit. (Rom.8:9-11)

5.  Obligations of Christians as children, heirs and joint-heirs (Rom.8:12-17)

6.  Present suffering and Future glory — No comparison (Rom.8:18-25)

7.  The Golden Chain of Salvation – the Reason All Things work together for Good (Rom.8:26-30)

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.  30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  

 

Back to our text for tonight …    

Romans 8:31-39

Romans 8:31-39  NRSV Updated Edition  

 31 What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?   33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.   34 Who is to condemn?  It is Christ[Christ Jesus] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.   35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?  36 As it is written,  

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;  we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.   38 For I am convinced 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.  

 

What, in that passage, stands out for you?

  • For me … it’s what I see as three themes/ideas …
    1. Romans 8:31 … If God is for us, who (of any significance) can be against us?
    2. Romans 8:33-35 … Three questions to console us
    3. Romans 8:30 … A list of things that cannot separate us from God or His love

Let’s dive in …

Romans 8:31

31 What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us? 

  • Which “things” is Paul referring to?
    • the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses
    • all things work together for our good
    • those who are justified will be glorified

 

  • The triumphant victory of the life in the Spirit.
  • If God is for us, who is (can be) against us?
  • If all we had were the first few chapters of the Book of Romans, some might believe that God was against us.  Now that Paul has shown the lengths that God went to save man from His wrath and equip him for victory over sin and death, who can doubt that God is for us? (Guzik)
  • “Our weak hearts, prone to legalism and unbelief, receive these words with great difficulty: God is for us… They have failed Him; but He is for them. They are ignorant; but He is for them. They have not yet brought forth much fruit; but He is for them.” (Newell)  DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS?
  • Most all men say or think that God is for them – terrorists commit horrible crimes thinking that God is for them.  Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit guards this statement with an “if,” so we may know that just because a man thinks God is with him does not make it so.   God is only for us if we are reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ. (Guzik)   DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS?
    • Editor’s note:  In one sense, God is for all people (in the sense that He loves all people) … BUT God is FOR “us” (as His people) in a special way … given that He predestined us and called us according to His purpose for us.
  • Who can be against us?  Likewise, despite the suffering Christians face, if God is for them, what does it matter if others are against them?  One person plus God makes an unconquerable majority.
  • We certainly can be deceived into thinking that God is for us when He actually is not (as do cultists and those like them).  Yet it cannot be denied that for those who are in Jesus Christ, God is for them!
  • From PreceptAustin.org …
    • This verse means more than the fact that God is graciously disposed toward believers but that He is for us in all that He does.  Beloved, as you read this note, you may feel “defeated”,  but Paul’s encouraging truth is that evil will never prevail.  Believers will always be led to victory in Christ because God is for us.  Write your name in the verse and believe it is true …  “God is for __________________”  
    • The obvious implication is that if anyone were able to rob us of salvation they would have to be greater than God Himself, because He is both the Giver and the Sustainer of salvation. To Christians Paul is asking, in effect, “Who could conceivably take away our no-condemnation status?” (Ro 8:1-note). Is there anyone stronger than God, the Creator of everything and everyone who exists? 
    • That is, “What difference does it make who is against us?”  If God is for us, is there anything that can be against us that is greater than he?  

 

Romans 8:32

32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?   

 

  • Evidence that God is for us: the gift of Jesus Christ.
  • He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
  • a. He who did not spare His own Son: If the Father already gave His ultimate gift, how can we think that He won’t give us the smaller gifts?

 

This is one of the most lyrical passages Paul ever wrote.  In Romans 8:32, there is a wonderful allusion which would stand out to any Jew who knew his Old Testament well.  Paul says in effect: “God for us did not spare his own Son; surely that is the final guarantee that he loves us enough to supply all our needs.”  The words Paul uses of God are the very words God used of Abraham when Abraham proved his utter loyalty by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command.  God said to Abraham: “You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen. 22:12).  Paul seems to say: “Think of the greatest human example in the world of a man’s loyalty to God; God’s loyalty to you is like that.”  Just as Abraham was so loyal to God that he was prepared to sacrifice his dearest possession, God is so loyal to men that he is prepared to sacrifice his only Son for them.  Surely we can trust a loyalty like that for anything. (Barclay)

 

  • All that I need is Jesus … because all that I need is in Jesus.

 

Romans 8:33

33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.   

 

  • 3. (33-39) The security of the believer in God’s love.
  • a. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? We are secure from every charge against us. If we are declared “not guilty” by the highest Judge, who can bring an additional charge?

 

  • Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?  (No one, because) it is God Who justifies.
    • If we do not supply these words, it might sound as if God is going to bring a charge against His elect, the very thing that Paul is denying!

 

Romans 8:34

34 Who is to condemn?  It is Christ[Christ Jesus] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.   

 

  • b. Who is he who condemns? We are secure from all condemnation. If Jesus is our advocate, promoting our benefit, then who can condemn us?
  • c. More than conquerors through Him who loved us: No matter what our circumstances, none of the sufferings of this present time  can separate us from the love of God. This makes us conquerors and more.

 

It is difficult to know just how to take Romans 8:33-35.  There are two ways of taking them and both give excellent sense and precious truth.

(i) We can take them as two statements, followed by two questions which give the inferences to be made from these statements.

(a) It is God who acquits men — that is the statement. If that be so who can possibly condemn men? If man is acquitted by God, then he is saved from every other condemnation.

(b) Our belief is in a Christ who died and rose again and who is alive for evermore — that is the statement. If that be so, is there anything in this or any other world that can separate us from our Risen Lord?

If we take it that way two great truths are laid down.

(a) God has acquitted us; therefore no one can condemn us.

(b) Christ is risen; therefore nothing can ever separate us from him.

(ii) But there is another way to take it.  God has acquitted us.  Who then can condemn us?  The answer is that the Judge of all men is Jesus Christ. He is the one who has the right to condemn — but so far from condemning, he is at God’s right hand interceding for us, and therefore we are safe.

It may be that in Romans 8:34, Paul is doing a very wonderful thing.  He is saying four things about Jesus.

        1.  He died.
        2.  He rose again.
        3.  He is at the right hand of God.
        4.  He makes intercession for us there.

Now the earliest creed of the Church, which is still the essence of all Christian creeds, ran like this: “He was crucified dead and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead; and sitteth at the right hand of God;from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Three items in Paul’s statement and in the early creed are the same, that Jesus died, rose again, and is at the right hand of God.  But the fourth is different.

        • In the creed, the fourth is that Jesus will come to be the judge of the quick and the dead.
        • In Paul, the fourth is that Jesus is at God’s right hand to plead our case.

It is as if Paul said: “You think of Jesus as the Judge who is there to condemn; and well he might for he has won the right.  But you are wrong; he is not there to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause.”

I think that the second way of taking this is right. With one tremendous leap of thought Paul has seen Christ, not as the Judge but as the lover of the souls of men.

 

  • It is as if Paul said: “You think of Jesus as the Judge who is there to condemn; and well he might for he has won the right.  But you are wrong; he is not there to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause.” (Barclay)

 

  • From PreceptAustin.org …
    • QQQ … “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.  Yet distance makes no difference.  He is praying for me!” ~ Robert Murray McCheyne, a beloved Scottish minister of the 19th century

 

 

Romans 8:35a

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? 

    • Our belief is in a Christ who died and rose again and who is alive for evermore — that is the statement.
      • If that be so, is there anything in this or any other world that can separate us from our Risen Lord?
      • Christ is risen … and we are united with Him (hypostatically and spiritually — as per Romans 6:3-5,8-10) … therefore nothing can ever separate us from Him.
  • Because Paul knows that nothing can separate us from God … or the love of God … he goes on to ask a series of rhetorical questions (to drive home his point) …  

Romans 8:35b

Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 

  • nakedness:  “This term today suggests indecency on parade.  Then it meant a lack of clothes simply because one had no ways or means of getting any.” (Earle)
  • sword:  This word implies  execution.  It is the only item on the list that Paul had not yet personally experienced (1 Corinthians 4:11, 15:30).

 

  • “No affliction, no hardship, no peril can separate us. The disasters of the world do not separate a man from Christ; they bring him closer yet.” (Barclay)

 

Romans 8:36

36 As it is written,  

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;  we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 

 

 

 

Romans 8:37

37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious(conquerors) through him who loved us.   

 

  • More than victors (conquerors):   How is the Christian more than a conqueror?
    • He overcomes with a greater power, the power of Jesus.
    • He overcomes with a greater motive, the glory of Jesus.
    • He overcomes with a greater victory, losing nothing even in the battle.
    • He overcomes with a greater love, conquering enemies with love and converting persecutors with patience.
  • Consider that … a single war will often consist of many battles … It’s possible to win a battle and lose the war …
    • To be a conqueror is to win a battle …
    • to be more than a conqueror is to win the war (not just a battle).

 

Romans 8:38

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 

 

In Romans 8:38-39, Paul makes a list of terrible things.

Neither life nor death can separate us from Christ.  In life, we live with Christ; in death, we die with him; and because we die with him, we also rise with him.  Death, so far from being a separation, is only a step into his nearer presence; not the end but “the gate on the skyline” leading to the presence of Jesus Christ.

The angelic powers cannot separate us from him.  At this particular time the Jews had a highly developed belief in angels.  Everything had its angel.  There was an angel of the winds, of the clouds, of the snow and hail and hoarfrost. of the thunder and the lightning, of cold and heat, of the seasons.  The Rabbis said that there was nothing in the world, not even a blade of grass, that had not got its angel.

According to the Rabbis there were three ranks of angels.

    • The first included thrones, cherubim and seraphim.
    • The second included powers, lordships and mights.
    • The third included angels and archangels and principalities.  More than once Paul speaks of these angels (Eph. 1:21; Eph. 3:10; Eph. 6:12; Col. 2:10,15; 1 Cor. 15:24).

Now the Rabbis — and Paul had once been a Rabbi — believed that they were grudgingly hostile to men.  They believed that they had been angry when God created man.  It was as if they did not want to share God with anyone and had grudged man his share in him.  The Rabbis had a legend that when God appeared on Sinai to give Moses the law he was attended by his hosts of angels, and the angels grudged Israel the law, and assaulted Moses on his way up the mountain and would have stopped him had not God intervened.  So Paul, thinking in terms of his own day, says, “Not even the grudging, jealous angels can separate us from the love of God, much as they would like to do so.”

No age in time can separate us from Christ.  Paul speaks of things present and things to come.  We know that the Jews divided all time into this present age and the age to come.  Paul is saying: “In this present world nothing can separate us from God in Christ; the day will come when this world will be shattered and the new age will dawn. It does not matter; even then, when this world has passed and the new world come, the bond is still the same.”

No malign influences (powers) will separate us from Christ.

 

 

 

Romans 8:39

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.  

  • Paul speaks about height and depth.  These are astrological terms.  The ancient world was haunted by the tyranny of the stars.  They believed that a man was born under a certain star and thereby his destiny was settled.  There are some who still believe that; but the ancient world was really haunted by this supposed domination of a man’s life by the influence of the stars.
    • Height (hupsoma) was the time when a star was at its zenith and its influence was greatest;
    • depth (bathos) was the time when a star was at its lowest, waiting to rise and to put its influence on some man.

Paul says to these haunted men of his age: “The stars cannot hurt you. In their rising and their setting they are powerless to separate you from God’s love.“

  • Nor any other created thing:  Nothing which appears to be good or nothing which appears to be evil can separate us from the love of God. (Guzik)
  • No other world can separate us from God.  The word that Paul uses for other (heteros) has really the meaning of different.  He is saying: “Suppose that by some wild flight of imagination there emerged another and a different world, you would still be safe; you would still be enwrapped in the love of God.” (Barclay)

 

 

 

Conclusion

WHAT CAN WE TAKE AWAY?

A.  The chapter begins with “no condemnation“

    • Romans 8:1 … Not condemnation … b/c those “in Christ” have been justified (declared righteous/not guilty) by the Only One whose verdict really matters — God.

B.  The chapter ends with “no separation“

    • Romans 8:35-37 … Nothing material/physical
    • Romans 8:38-39 … Nothing abstract/spiritual

C.  Two quotes, in closing …

    1. According to David Guzik (of EnduringWord) … “Nothing which appears to be good or nothing which appears to be evil can separate us from the love of God.”   
    2. According to William Barclay (of DSB) … “Here is a vision to take away all loneliness and all fear.  Paul is saying: ‘You can think of every terrifying thing that this or any other world can produce.  Not one of them is able to separate the Christian from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, Lord of every terror and Master of every world.‘  Of what then shall we be afraid?”

 

CLOSING SONG

 

CLOSING PRAYER

 

ANNOUNCEMENT(s)

  1. Next Sunday LinkUp … this coming Sunday (April 6) … 10:00 a.m. … will be face-to-face … at Christian Pen.
  2. The keynote passage:  Philippians 3:4-14

 

 

From Barclay’s Commentary …

THE LOVE FROM WHICH NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US

Romans 8:31-39

What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  The very God who did not spare his own Son but who delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall impeach the elect of God?  It is God who acquits.  Who is he who condemns?  It is Jesus Christ who died, nay rather, who was raised from the dead, and who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trial, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it stands written, “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.”  But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor the present age, nor the age to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

This is one of the most lyrical passages Paul ever wrote.  In Romans 8:32, there is a wonderful allusion which would stand out to any Jew who knew his Old Testament well.  Paul says in effect: “God for us did not spare his own Son; surely that is the final guarantee that he loves us enough to supply all our needs.”  The words Paul uses of God are the very words God used of Abraham when Abraham proved his utter loyalty by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command.  God said to Abraham: “You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen. 22:12).  Paul seems to say: “Think of the greatest human example in the world of a man’s loyalty to God; God’s loyalty to you is like that.”  Just as Abraham was so loyal to God that he was prepared to sacrifice his dearest possession, God is so loyal to men that he is prepared to sacrifice his only Son for them.  Surely we can trust a loyalty like that for anything.

It is difficult to know just how to take Romans 8:33-35.  There are two ways of taking them and both give excellent sense and precious truth.

(i) We can take them as two statements, followed by two questions which give the inferences to be made from these statements. (a) It is God who acquits men–that is the statement. If that be so who can possibly condemn men? If man is acquitted by God, then he is saved from every other condemnation. (b) Our belief is in a Christ who died and rose again and who is alive for evermore–that is the statement. If that be so, is there anything in this or any other world that can separate us from our Risen Lord?

If we take it that way two great truths are laid down. (a) God has acquitted us; therefore no one can condemn us. (b) Christ is risen; therefore nothing can ever separate us from him.

(ii) But there is another way to take it. God has acquitted us.  Who then can condemn us?  The answer is that the Judge of all men is Jesus Christ. He is the one who has the right to condemn — but so far from condemning, he is at God’s right hand interceding for us, and therefore we are safe.

It may be that in Romans 8:34, Paul is doing a very wonderful thing.  He is saying four things about Jesus.

        1.  He died.
        2.  He rose again.
        3.  He is at the right hand of God.
        4.  He makes intercession for us there.

Now the earliest creed of the Church, which is still the essence of all Christian creeds, ran like this: “He was crucified dead and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead; and sitteth at the right hand of God;from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Three items in Paul’s statement and in the early creed are the same, that Jesus died, rose again, and is at the right hand of God.  But the fourth is different.

        • In the creed, the fourth is that Jesus will come to be the judge of the quick and the dead.
        • In Paul, the fourth is that Jesus is at God’s right hand to plead our case.

It is as if Paul said: “You think of Jesus as the Judge who is there to condemn; and well he might for he has won the right.  But you are wrong; he is not there to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause.”

I think that the second way of taking this is right. With one tremendous leap of thought Paul has seen Christ, not as the Judge but as the lover of the souls of men.

Paul goes on with a poet’s fervour and a lover’s rapture to sing of how nothing can separate us from the love of God in our Risen Lord.

(i) No affliction, no hardship, no peril can separate us. (Romans 8:35.)  The disasters of the world do not separate a man from Christ; they bring him closer yet.

(ii) In Rom. 8:38-39 Paul makes a list of terrible things.

Neither life nor death can separate us from Christ. In life we live with Christ; in death we die with him; and because we die with him, we also rise with him. Death, so far from being a separation, is only a step into his nearer presence; not the end but “the gate on the skyline” leading to the presence of Jesus Christ.

The angelic powers cannot separate us from him. At this particular time the Jews had a highly developed belief in angels. Everything had its angel. There was an angel of the winds, of the clouds, of the snow and hail and hoarfrost. of the thunder and the lightning, of cold and heat, of the seasons. The Rabbis said that there was nothing in the world, not even a blade of grass, that had not got its angel. According to the Rabbis there were three ranks of angels. The first included thrones, cherubim and seraphim. The second included powers, lordships and mights. The third included angels and archangels and principalities. More than once Paul speaks of these angels (Eph. 1:21; Eph. 3:10; Eph. 6:12; Col. 2:10,15; 1 Cor. 15:24). Now the Rabbis — and Paul had once been a Rabbi — believed that they were grudgingly hostile to men. They believed that they had been angry when God created man. It was as if they did not want to share God with anyone and had grudged man his share in him. The Rabbis had a legend that when God appeared on Sinai to give Moses the law he was attended by his hosts of angels, and the angels grudged Israel the law, and assaulted Moses on his way up the mountain and would have stopped him had not God intervened. So Paul, thinking in terms of his own day, says, “Not even the grudging, jealous angels can separate us from the love of God, much as they would like to do so.”

No age in time can separate us from Christ. Paul speaks of things present and things to come. We know that the Jews divided all time into this present age and the age to come. Paul is saying: “In this present world nothing can separate us from God in Christ; the day will come when this world will be shattered and the new age will dawn. It does not matter; even then, when this world has passed and the new world come, the bond is still the same.”

No malign influences (powers) will separate us from Christ. Paul speaks about height and depth. These are astrological terms. The ancient world was haunted by the tyranny of the stars. They believed that a man was born under a certain star and thereby his destiny was settled. There are some who still believe that; but the ancient world was really haunted by this supposed domination of a man’s life by the influence of the stars. Height (hupsoma, GSN5313) was the time when a star was at its zenith and its influence was greatest; depth (bathos) was the time when a star was at its lowest, waiting to rise and to put its influence on some man. Paul says to these haunted men of his age: “The stars cannot hurt you. In their rising and their setting they are powerless to separate you from God’s love.”

No other world can separate us from God. The word that Paul uses for other (heteros) has really the meaning of different. He is saying: “Suppose that by some wild flight of imagination there emerged another and a different world, you would still be safe; you would still be enwrapped in the love of God.”

Here is a vision to take away all loneliness and all fear.  Paul is saying: “You can think of every terrifying thing that this or any other world can produce.  Not one of them is able to separate the Christian from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, Lord of every terror and Master of every world.”  Of what then shall we be afraid?

 

 

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top