Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

Paul brings the eighth chapter of Romans to a thundering conclusion. Having addressed questions about the Christian life, the role of the law and the indwelling place of the Holy Spirit he now returns to the central theme of the righteousness of God which was introduced in Romans 3:21-26 and then elaborated upon in his Adam and Christ discussion of Romans 5:12-21. Paul now here addresses the deepest questions of the Old Testament as well as the Greek and Roman world, questions which recur to this day in all cultures, all historical periods and indeed all human experience. Paul begins his summary with the questions, “What then are we to say about these things?” (Romans 8:31). “These things” are nothing less than all he has discussed up to this point. Paul quotes from the tragic Psalm 44 to affirm his unshakeable confidence in the fact that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

1. Having dealt with the question of suffering (Romans 8:18-30) Paul is ready for his second concluding statement (the first having occurred in Romans 5:12-21). Paul returns to his central theme. The righteousness of God is the faithfulness of God. In spite of the sin of Adam God abandons neither humanity nor the world. His reference to “these things” (Romans 8:31) recalls the recent questions of suffering (Romans 8:22-23), the unseen hope that guides us (Romans 8:24), the weakness of our prayers (Romans 8:26) as well as the former issues of misusing grace (chapter 6) and trying to live according to the law    (chapter 7). With all that is incomplete and uncertain about our faith (“Now hope that is seen is not hope,” v. 24), Paul presents the rhetorical question, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (v. 31). The whole gospel message is that God indeed is for us (“while we still were sinners Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8).
   
   To demonstrate this truth Paul appeals to the basic example of Christ himself. God gave his own Son for “all of us,” Paul uses the precise language of the reality of sin he discussed in chapter one. There in response to human sin God gave humanity up. What Paul was describing in that chapter was the terrible judgment of abandonment. The worst thing that can happen to a human being is to be without God (Psalm 42:9-10). All the language of judgment, “the worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched’ (Isaiah 66:24), the outer darkness (Matthew 8:12), the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15) are symbolic expressions of the despair and hopelessness of life apart from God. Paul is saying that God gave Jesus up to this same judgment in sending him to the cross to benefit his enemies, all of us in our sin (Romans 5:10). Christ on the cross quotes the twenty second psalm. This psalm is a description of the torments of the hell that results from being forsaken by God, “scorned and despised” (Psalm 22:6), attacked by wild beasts (Psalm 22:12-13), surrounded by “dogs”, blood licking beasts (I Kings 21:17-24), left in the dust of death (Psalm 22:15), gloated over by a “company of evildoers” (demons?) (Psalm 22:16). This psalm describes in vivid detail the crucifixion in which Christ himself is in hell (“he descended into hell”). Christ following his physical death descends into Hades, the place of the dead (I Peter 3:18-20). However on the cross, experiencing the reality of Psalm 22, he is in hell (Mark 15:33-34).
   
   Yet Psalm 22 does not end in hopelessness. It concludes with a great affirmation of faith and confidence in the Lord (Psalm 22:22-31). Paul is saying that God gave Christ up to the full reality of abandonment and judgment on the cross so that we may be delivered and saved. Paul then adds, if God was willing to do that for us, will he not give us everything else that we could possible need?
2. We have been completely set free from guilt and sin. This is Paul’s great conclusion. We are free from the power of sin, from the law and from everything that can tear us down as human beings (Romans 8:1). Who could possible accuse us, Paul asks rhetorically. We are justified by God (Romans 8:33). This is the whole meaning of the righteousness of God, the righteousness which God gives to undeserving sinners (Romans 3:21-25, 5:1-11). Paul adds, “Who is to condemn?” (Romans 8:34). Christ Jesus is the one to whom we have to answer. He is the judge of all, the living and the dead (II Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:26-29; Revelation 1:17). Yet he is the one who is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25). Paul’s affirmation stands firm. Everything necessary for our salvation, indeed our freedom, has been accomplished by Jesus Christ (Galatians 5:1). We add nothing to it either by good works or works of the law (Romans 3:27-28, 4:1-6; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul then has interpreted the general references in chapter 2 to “doing good” (Romans 2:6-11) in terms of the “good news” of the gospel (Romans 1:1-6).
3. Paul now asks one of the most important questions in all of Scripture: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). He adds a possible list.
   1. The first thing he mentions is “hardship.” This can take many forms. Life is full of difficulties and uncertainties.
   2. He adds “distress.” This is a huge category in Scripture. It includes the effect of worshipping false gods (Deuteronomy 4:27-31; Judges 2:14-15), grief and sorrow (Psalm 31:9-10), rebellion and sin (Psalm 107:10-19). God himself will bring distress upon the world for its sin (Zephaniah 1:17-18). Paul does not hesitate to talk about the distress which results from living in the flesh and rebelling against the gospel (Galatians 5:19-21; II Thessalonians 5:1-12). It is significant that “distress” is a condition of both God’s chosen people and the world in general. David is in distress as a result of his sin (II Sam. 16:11-12; 24:14). God also will bring distress upon the nations (Luke 21:25-26).
   3. Paul next adds to the list, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and the sword. These things summarize two key figures in the Book of Revelation, the four horsemen and the great whore (Revelation 6:1-8; 17:1-6). Paul then quotes from one of the most despairing of all the psalms, Psalm 44. This psalm is a lament of the people of Israel who, in the context of the psalm, have not been faithless. Indeed the writer protests, “Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way” (Psalm 44:17). Yet they have experienced abandonment by God. More to the point, they have been made the objects of derision, scorn, shame and abuse. They have ended up in “deep darkness” (Psalm 44:13-19). There is no explanation for their suffering. The psalmist concludes with the words, quoted by Paul,

      “Because of you we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:36).

   4. Yet faced with all this despair, struggle and indeed darkness Paul makes the stirring affirmation, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Paul doesn’t answer the questions of Psalm 44. He overrides them with the claim that in Christ we are “more than conquerors” over all these things. He doesn’t explain how this is true. He insists that it is. “All” here as it has been used throughout the epistle can admit of no exceptions or else Paul’s confidence is hopelessly compromised (cf. Romans 3:12, 3:23, 5:18, 8:28, 32). The outworking of this truth is ultimately in the eschatology of the future beyond the point where “hope that is seen is not “(Romans 8:24).
   5. Paul concludes with what may well be his greatest affirmation of faith. He is convinced that we can never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus by “neither death nor life” We think of death being a separation but life itself is full of temptations and struggle that would seem to be able to move us away from God (Mark 4:13-19). Angels (faithful or fallen, Jude 1:6) cannot separate us. Paul then refers to “rulers,” originally the first powers, perhaps the “sons of God” who fell into corruption (Genesis 6:1-4; Psalm 82). Using the same word Jesus refers to Satan as having been a murderer “from the first” or “from the beginning” (John 8:44; I John 3:8). Paul adds neither “things present nor things to come.” This means nothing less than everything in the present world and anything in the future. This has to include family, friends, jobs, school, politics, physical locations, food, drink, sports, movies, video games, everything now and in the future. Certainly all our worries about present and future have to be included also. Paul then mentions “powers.” This includes all supernatural and spiritual forces, demons, devils and “elemental spirits of the universe” (Ephesians 6: 12; Colossians 2:8). He adds height and depth, literally the highest and lowest points of creation. To cement fully his meaning he adds, “nor anything else in all creation” (8:39). Paul is saying that there is nothing in all the universe, physical, material, historical or spiritual that can separate us from Christ’s love. Sin cannot separate us. The law cannot separate us. Tragedy and suffering cannot separate us. Death and Hades cannot separate us (Revelation 1:17-18). We must stand with Paul in this great statement that nothing in all creationcan ever ultimately separate us from God’s love in Christ.
   6. This is a stunning statement. Can even hell separate us from Christ? Is hell a “thing?” Paul never denies suffering and even judgment but those may not be “the end” (I Corinthians 15:24). Who is the “all of us” about whom Paul is speaking here? In the context it suggests the elect, those who have been predestined (Romans 8:29). But what of the all who sinned in Adam about whom he speaks in Romans 5:12-21? Paul will address these questions in the next three chapters.
4. Questions for Us -
   1. What are the implications for our daily lives of this climactic, concluding statement? How do we live this out in our present walk with the Lord?
   2. Paul acknowledges the pain in life in this passage (Psalm 44:22). How does this passage enable us to fell like “conquerors” in the midst of that pain?
   3. What assurance can we take from Paul’s conclusion in Romans 8:38-39?

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