There are questions that are not really questions, but statements masked asked questions. For example, When Kaye has said to me, “Are you going to wear that?” it has not really been a question. When you are at lunch with ultra-healthy friend and you order a double patty burger and they order a kale salad and ask, “Are you going to eat that?” it is not really a question. The apostle Paul used this tactic, as he wrote Romans 8, to build the case that believers in Chris are never going to be separated from God’s enduring love. The questions Paul asks and the answers he provides profoundly confront the doubts we can have about the nature of God’s love.
1. If God is for us, who is against us? [Romans 8:31]
If someone who has 100 million dollars, it does not matter to them if the bottle of water at the grocery store is $1.69 or $1.39 because the 100 million is significantly greater than the cost of the water. If something could separate you from God, that thing would be God. But because no one or nothing is greater than God, if God is for you, what does it matter if other things are against you?
2. He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? [Romans 8:32]
If we ever worry that we have exhausted God’s mercy, we should just remember that He has already given His best. Everything else is nothing compared to his Son, and He offered Him for us, so how will He withhold other things from us. The Father did not withhold the Son from you and He will not withhold His blessings from you.
3. Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. [Romans 8:33]
The Scripture teaches that Satan continually accuses about those who belong to Christ (Revelation 12:10). You have heard the insults. “If you really loved God, you would not struggle with this.” “There is no way God can forgive you for what you have done.” “Do you really think God loves you?” But, the voice of our enemy is silenced by the loud and powerful voice of Jesus. God’s declaration over us silences the Satan’s accusation against us. God is the One who justifies, and He has declared us holy and right.
4. 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. [Romans 8:34]
In the midst of our struggles and sin, Jesus intercedes for us. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father constantly reminding the Father that our sin has already been condemned – not in us but in Him. And Jesus is not reminding a reluctant Father; He is interceding for you to the Father who sent Him to the world. His grace is amazing, and we don’t run from God when we understand His grace. We run to God when we understand His grace.
5. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [Romans 8:35]
The apostle Paul’s answer to his own rhetorical question is the mic drop end to Romans 8: “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.”
