A
Study of the Book of Romans
Lesson
# 21
“More Than Conquerors”
Romans
8:31-39
What we have before us tonight is a
magnificent exposition of God’s preserving power. It is text that we often hear at
funeral’s and rightly so. But it is much more, it is a celebration of our security in
Christ.
If our security as Christians rest in our
ability to hang on the Christ then we are all in trouble, but if we recognize that our
security rest in his ability to hang to us then that is a totally different story.
In a series of rhetorical questions the
Apostle Paul summarizes the love of God.
Paul begins in verse thirty-one by
saying, “What then can we say to these things, (or in
response to these questions)?” As
we look at each of the four rhetorical questions he asks, he also wants us to see the
answer.
Question
One: Who
Can Oppose Us?
“…If God is for us, who can be
against us?”
Sometimes we feel like Jacob who once complained, “All these things are
against me.” (Gen 42:36), when in fact God says just the opposite. Verse
thirty-one when it says, “if
God is for us,” the word translated “if” in the original language literally means since or because God is for us. There is really is
no doubt this an expression of certainty.
In Jeremiah 29:11 we read this promise of God, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give
you a future and a hope.”
Answer – Many May Try But None Of That
Matters Because God Is For Us!
In verse thirty-two we are told
just how much God is for us, “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?”
God is so much for us that he
was willing to give up his own begotten Son. If he was willing to sacrifice his own Son,
how can we doubt that He will also grant to us those things what we should need.
Question
Two: Who Can Accuse Us?
“Who shall bring a charge against God’s
elect? It is God who justifies.”
Answer – Satan Is Our Accuser
Who accuses you? Well, the Bible says that Satan can and does accuse us. In the book
of Job, Satan in presented as having access to heaven to the very court of God. The book
of Job records a conversation between Satan and God in which Satan brings accusation against Job. We are told in Revelation
12:10 that Satan is our accuser. In
fact the very name Satan in Hebrew means slanderer.
Satan accuses us before God day and night. But Satan also accuses us to us.
Satan and his minions, slip up beside you and whisper in your ear, “Hey, who do you think your fooling. You’re
no good and God knows it. What good is there in you doing this church thing?” Although
Satan may try to harass us with our past sins, that which God has forgiven He will not
hold us accountable for.
Question Three: Who Can Condemn Us?
“Who is he who condemns?...”
Answer
– Christ Could But He Refuses To Do So. Christ is the only one who is
truly qualified to condemn us but instead he intercedes
for us.
Paul in his answer tells us that – “…It is Christ who
died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Christ died – paying the price
once and for all time for our sin.
Christ rose again – defeating
Satan once and for all
Christ ascended – he sits at the
right hand of God the Father
Christ intercedes on our behalf –
he is continuously in the presence of the Father as our Advocate
Question
Four: Who Can Separate Us?
The final question is posed in verse
thirty-five where we read, “Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ?”
The
word translated
“separate” is
an interesting word (chorisei) it means “to chop off or cut off.”
It would be like our English word amputate.
Answer
– Christ Love Cannot Be Broken.
The love of God can
not be broken by any of the following.
· Emotional
factors.
The
first two things that Paul mentions are emotional factors, “Shall tribulation, or distress…” The word “tribulation”
(thlipsis) means inner trouble while the word “distress” (stenochoria)
describes outer pressure. This word for
distress describes being caught between two rocks or like we say in the South, “caught between a rock and a hard place!”
Distress speaks of being surrounded by difficult circumstances until one is literally in a
tight squeeze.
· Physical
factors. (vv. 35b-37)
“… or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? (36) As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all
day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (37) Yet in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
The
word translated “conqueror” come from the
combination of two Greek words (hyper) meaning super and (nike) meaning victory. The word could then be translated
“we are super conquerors.” This does not mean that we are some kind of super
heroes but rather that we can be supremely victorious through our relationship with Jesus
Christ.
· Earthly
factors. (v. 38)
“For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come.
Paul makes a grand statement, “I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate me from the
love of God.” Paul says that even no
where that he searched in the universe had he found anything that could possibly separate
us from the love of God. Paul says “I am
persuaded or I am convinced” the word here means “to be fully and absolutely
convinced on the basis of evidence that cannot be denied.” Paul now gives a sampling
of the things he has considered.
· Heavenly
factors (39)
“nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What a difference between “height” which means the highest pinnacle on earth and “depth” which the word (bathos). The bathysphere is the deepest part of
the ocean. No matter how high you go or how low you go nothing can separate you from the
love of God. As the Psalmist says in (139:7-10)
“Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?(8) If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold,
You are there. (9)If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the utter-most
parts of the sea, (10) Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold
me.”
Paul
sums up his statement by saying, neither “shall any other created thing be able to separate us”
from our relationship with Christ. The scope of this statement is without limits. When
Paul talked of “other
created things” the word translated “other”
is heteros
and means another of a completely different
kind. He means, "Just in case there is some
realm of existence that I haven't covered, I'm going to include it here.” If is
as if Paul is saying should there found to be any other type of created thing, that doesn’t
fit into the categories already given, it cannot separate us from God either. Even if life is someday found on a distant planet
and that life be found to be more powerful than man, even that life could not come between
man and his savior. Whether that kind of life exist we do not know, but we do not have to
worry.
Conclusion
Let me close by
sharing this paraphrase of Romans 8:35-39 by Ruth Harms Calkin:
"God, I may fall flat on my face; I may
fail until I feel old and beaten and done in. Yet Your love for me is changeless. All the
music may go out of my life, my private world may shatter to dust. Even