Devotional · Romans 8:31–39
Some fears come back in the night. Is God really for me? Will my sins be held against me after all? What if something happens that takes me away from Him?
The end of Romans 8 was written for exactly those fears. Paul has just set out God’s purpose for His people, from before time to its end: “those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Not one link is missing, and not one person drops out between the first and the last. Now he stops and asks:
“What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
He does not mean that no one will oppose a Christian. Many will. He means that no one can succeed against those whom God is for. Then he takes the fears one by one.
Is God for me? Paul does not ask us to judge from how life is going. He points to the cross:
“He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
God did not simply tell us He loves us. He showed it, at the highest cost there is. Having given the greatest gift, He will not hold back the lesser ones. That does not mean everything we would like to have. It means everything we need between the day He called us and the day He brings us home.
Will my sins be held against me? There are accusers enough: the devil, “the accuser of our brothers”; other people; and often our own hearts, which remember what we would rather forget. Paul’s reply is short:
“Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33)
When the Judge Himself has declared you righteous, no other voice can change the verdict. And He has done it justly, because of Christ:
“Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)
Think who is speaking here. The One who will judge the world is the very One who died for His people, rose to show the debt was paid, and speaks for them now before the Father. The only one with the right to condemn us is the One who took our condemnation. “Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts” (1 John 3:20).
Can anything separate me from His love? Paul names the worst things he can think of:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35)
Notice what he does not say. He does not say these things will never happen to a Christian. He quotes a psalm to show they always have: “For Your sake we face death all day long” (verse 36). For many believers in the world today, those words are not a figure of speech. Hardship is not a sign that God has stopped loving you, and still Paul says:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
Not after these things, but in them. And not by our own strength, but “through Him who loved us”. A believer can lose a great deal in this life. He cannot lose Christ.
Then Paul gathers up everything else there is. Death cannot separate us: for the Christian it means to be “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Nor can life, with all its failures. Nor any power, seen or unseen. Nor the present, nor whatever the future holds, the what-ifs that keep us awake. Nothing “in all creation… will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verses 38–39).
Who is “us”? Every promise here is for those who are “in Christ Jesus”. It is not for everyone whatever they believe. But the door is open, and the way in is the same for all: turn from your sin and trust Christ alone to save you. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
And if you belong to Him, take these questions with you into the hard days, and answer them as Paul did. If God is for you, who can be against you?
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain. They keep its American spelling.