Romans 8 ends with a series of questions, beginning in verse 31. And all of them are rhetorical questions. Meaning, the answer is obvious. 

Verse 31 - If God is for us, who can be against us. NOBODY, NOTHING!

Verse 32 - He who did not spare his own Son… how will he not…? OF COURSE HE WILL!

Verse 33 - Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? God justifies!

Verse 34 - Who is to condemn? NOBODY!

Now we come to the last question and it is meant to present to us the climactic point of Romans 8. This is the climax. The love of God. It is wonderful to know that God is for us. It is precious beyond words to know that since he did not withhold his Son, he will give us all things with Him. It is comforting to the core to know that we are justified by the Judge of all the earth and therefore no condemning charge can sink us. But this! This is the climax. This is the top of Mount Everest. The love of Christ. 

Romans 8 is about assurance. There is one argument after another to drive home the point that if you are a true believer, you are safe forever. Some call it eternal security, or once saved, always saved. I prefer to refer to it as the perseverance of the saints. True saints will persevere to the end in faith. 

And here at the end of Romans 8, this truth is sealed in these final five verses. You see, there are basically two ways to think about the Christian life and persevering to the end. One asks, 

Is my love for Christ strong enough to endure to the end, through all the difficulties and trials and sufferings of life?

The other approach asks,

Is Christ’s love for me strong enough to keep and strengthen me to persevere through all the difficulties and trials and sufferings of life.

I hope you see the difference. Our love for Christ is important. Our allegiance to Jesus matters. It matters in an enormous way. BUT, our love and allegiance to Him is predicated, rests upon, is grounded in his faithful love for us. And that is what is drawn out in these verses: the faithful love of Christ. I do want to say something… if there is anyone here today who is not a Christian. The last thing I want for you is to be comfortable in your lost state. My prayer is that you would rightly be disturbed and flee to Christ for salvation… even today. 

I read somewhere that the art of preaching is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. However, if you are a true child of God - bought by the blood of Christ and indwelt by His Spirit - I want you to be convinced of the love of Christ and to glory in it so you are emboldened to live for Jesus Christ in this dark and perverse generation. So let’s jump in. 

Paul asks the question “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” He could just say, “nobody and nothing…” and move on. But he doesn't. The Holy Spirit through the inspired apostle wants to leave no doubt. No loophole. 

BIG IDEA: There is no possible way that anything or anyone can separate true Christians from the love of Christ… EVER. I want you to be convinced. Not in some passive way. Not because you want to believe anyways. I want you to be convinced of this from this most precious and glorious text. 

So I want to look at four foundation stones that help to form this immovable, solid foundation 1) Paul’s audience - who is he writing to? 2) We need to see what the love of Christ does for us. 3) We need to adopt Paul’s confidence. 4) We need to remember the focal point (bullseye).

Paul’s Audience

First, notice who Paul is addressing. Who can take this great promise to the bank? This is so important! The noise is really loud right now! Distractions are at an all time high. And one of the things that we are distracted from is allowing the love of Christ to shape our lives in private and public. What if the loudest in your soul was not the pressures of your job or the challenges in your home or the ever revolving door of new toys you want or the need to stay caught up on social media or the 24/7 political news cycle or the NFL playoffs, but the love of Christ! And so you need to know, is this addressing you? So often we hear a text like this and it just seems to be something out there, rather than “O, God is addressing me!”

Who shall separate us (who is us) (v. 35). We (who is we) are more than conquerors (v. 37). Nothing in all creation can separate us (who is us) (v. 39).

Well, we could go back to the beginning of the chapter and trace Paul’s thought, but the shorthand answer is that this is a promise for those who are in Christ. It is not for those who show up to church. It is not for those who are Christians in name only… meaning they are Christmas and Easter Christians or Sunday Christians. This is a glorious promise for those who are in Christ through conscious, living faith in his shed blood. And so, are you? Are you trusting in Christ alone? Then beloved, listen to what this says. Once you believe that he is indeed addressing you, we need to see what the love of Christ does or what it accomplishes.

The Triumphant Love of Christ

Again, Paul could have just answered the question in verse 35 with, “Nobody, let’s call it a day”. But he doesn’t. Instead he asks a series of additional questions. And in this we see that Paul is listing out some serious opponents that we face. Can these things separate us from Christ’s love? 

Tribulation → Pressure, to be pressed, oppressed. To feel like a boulder is pressing you into a pancake.

Distress → To be in a narrow place. Squeezed. 

Persecution → to suffer for Christ. Social ostracism, physical torture, imprisonment, etc. 

Famine → lack of food

Nakedness → exposure to the elements

Danger → threat of harm

Sword → Death by execution

Can any of these things separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 37 Paul says, “No.” These things cannot separate us from the love of Christ. It is worth noting that Paul experienced each one of these in his life… and of course the sword at the end of life. Listen to Paul as he defends his apostolic calling:

23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

Paul knew what it was to suffer all these things and he says none of them can separate us from the love of Christ. But Paul doesn’t just say “no”. It is not just that these adversaries are unable to separate us from the love of Jesus. Paul goes further. He said, 

No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us… (v. 37)

It’s worth parking for a moment. It is “in all these things” that we conquer, not after or on the other side of these things. Certainly not the idea that Christians with enough faith will triumph by not having to face these things. No way! That sort of thinking is so foreign to the New Testament. It is “in all these things”. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego encountered the Lord “in the fiery furnace”. And we too can be confident that our loving Savior will not leave nor forsake us when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. 

But notice how Paul says, we are “more than conquerors” in all these things. I think the ESV gets it wrong, because it puts the emphasis on what we are instead of what we do. The word is a verb. If we could transliterate it more literally we would say something like “hyper-conquer”. The NASB says, “we overwhelmingly conquer.” We will not merely conquer, but overwhelmingly conquer. You know what that means? When we face persecution, danger, or the sword, they will actually serve our ultimate good. 

Of course, we do not conquer this way through our willpower. Nor is it because we have a way of making the best of things. We overwhelmingly conquer through the Him who loved us - Jesus Christ. Now that we have this settled, let’s hear Paul’s confidence and adopt it. 

Adopting Paul’s Absolute Confidence As Ours (v. 38-39)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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. (v. 38-39)

Paul says, “I am sure”. The NASB says, “I am convinced”. Paul is utterly convinced that nothing and nobody can separate us from the love of God. This is Paul’s confidence… and Paul wants his readers to adopt this confidence. And we know this because he doesn’t just say, “I am convinced nothing can separate me from the love of God”; he says “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” 

And we see something similar to what we saw in verse 35 - a list is made. And we see several things paired together. Paul says, I am convinced that:

Neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Physical death in any form. Death cannot separate us. Neither can life - anything that is associated with living. When we consider how out of control we are in our lives, we have to all humbly agree with what Bilbo told Frodo:

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off too.

Oh, but what confidence we can have that nothing in all of life - no danger we meet on the road of life - can separate us from the love of God. 

Nor angels nor rulers can separate us from the love of Christ. This speaks of the spiritual realm. There are dangers in the physical world of life, but even more in the spirit world. Good angels cannot separate us from Christ’s love. Rulers can refer to earthly secular kings and authorities, but this probably refers to nefarious spiritual authorities. It is true that the devil is a roaring lion seeking to devour believers. And we must stand firm against dark spiritual forces in high places. But we can be assured that the devil and all his hordes of demons cannot separate us from the love of Christ. 

Nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of God. Think about current events. We face challenges, no doubt. Big ones. But they can never separate us from the love of Christ. Nor can future events. Events unseen and completely unknown to us. Perhaps Trying times such as the world has never seen. But we can rest assured that the mighty love of Christ will be with us and cause us to triumph through it all!

Nor height nor depth can separate us from the love of God. Probably what Paul has in mind is heaven and hell. Neither the height of heaven, nor the depths of hell can separate us from the love of God. l

And just in case someone is looking for a loophole, an open door through which someone can slip out of the loving hands of Jesus, Paul concludes with this “nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God.” Some people are certain that true believers can escape the love of God. Paul says, nothing in all of creation. What else is there? Well, you have created things and the Creator. And God has already made it clear that those who have run to Christ for refuge he will never, no never, no never forsake. 

Finally, let’s make sure our focal point is remembered.

The Love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord

What is the anchor? What is the immovable anchor that connects us with God’s love? 

The Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (v. 39)

Paul switches from the love of Christ to the love of God in Christ… Why? Well, it is possible that he wants to make it clear that those Christ loves in this faithful way, the Father loves as well. The Father and Son are one. That’s true and important. But I think something else might be in play here, and it’s this. How is the Father’s love demonstrated to us most clearly? It is “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Specifically in the giving of His Son. This is the height of love! If you want to know, “How do I know that God loves me?” especially when all hell seems to be breaking loose on you, where does the bible point us? To the cross. We so often look at our circumstances as a measure of the love of God. But the way for the love of God to ring louder in our souls than the noise of this world is to come back again and again to the cross. That is the demonstration and measure of his love for me! Let me give you a few passages to confirm this. We all know John 3:16, but it’s worth drawing out. There is a good reason why it is so well known. It is the gospel in one sentence. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes should not perish but have eternal life.  

He gave us his Son. This is the demonstration of His love. First John 4:9-10:

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

One more. Romans 5:5-6. This connects the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit… with the demonstration of God’s love being the cross:

5 hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Well, I am convinced, like Paul. Are you? What if we truly were convinced? What impact would it have on our lives? What if you had this kind of assurance? What difference would it make?

1. Joyful Courage. Crossing a lake with ice 12 inches thick - timid v. joyfully. You are that secure. More secure! And so live in that joy and courage. You are loved and God will not let you go!
2. A desire to spread this love of Christ. You would not be able to just keep it to yourself. It would spill out in your conversation. You’d look for opportunities to share it with others - word / deed.