This week’s passage – the last 12 verses of Romans 8 – is extraordinary, like a stunning mountain range, “the biblical Himalayas” – with Romans 8:32 as the “Mount Everest” of the book. It will take your breath away with its beautiful reassurance of God’s love.  

But those wonderful words of reassurance are preceded by Paul’s straightforward acknowledgement that many of us are contending with very tough times.  For now, says Paul in verse 18, we are suffering.  But then he goes on to say that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

This week’s passage, beginning in verse 28, continues to elaborate on our confidence in the present, given God’s promise of future glory:  “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love  him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  The first two words are key:  “We know.”  Life is full of uncertainties and mysteries.  But we can know this with certainty:  God is working out His good purposes for us.  Life throws all manner of things at us:  good, bad, and ugly.  The Bible does not say “all things are good”, but that God works in all things for the good.  What is “the good” that God has for us?  It is not our comfort, or even what we might deem good.  The good God has in view is that we “be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:29b) 

No matter what the circumstances we are contending with, and even when we ourselves fall into sin, God is determined to make something of the mess!  The Bible is full of examples – from Joseph’s being sold into slavery, but eventually effecting the salvation of all of God’s people (Gen. 50:20) to Jeremiah’s assuring God’s people that the exile was not the end of the story for Israel (Jer. 29:11), to the way God used Jesus’ murder to effect the salvation of the world (Acts 2:23).

In verses 29-30, Paul describes how God goes about making us like Christ:  “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the  image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he  predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom. 8:29-30)  

Verses 29-30 have been likened to a golden chain, forged by God, a chain of five links. Each link is connected to the next to form an unbreakable chain.  Let’s look at each of those links:

1. God foreknew.  That God knew beforehand cannot mean that God sees who will believe and that is the basis of their election.  If so, our salvation would be based on our merit rather than on His mercy.  Not at all!  Paul’s whole emphasis is on God’s free initiating grace.  Instead, he’s reaching back to the Old Testament word verb “to know” which means to love intimately, in a deeply personal relationship of love and care.  It describes the love that moves God to make covenants with His people.  In Amos 3:2, for example, God tells Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth…”  The NIV sometimes translates this verb (“to know”) “to care”.  In Psalm 144:3, for example, the Psalmist asks:  “Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that  you think of them?”  This foreknowing is synonymous with fore-loving, looking forward to a relationship with you even before you were born!
2. God predestined.  The word for “predestined” means “to decide upon beforehand.”  Not only did God feel affectionate toward you, but God resolved to act on that love.   Ephesians 1:4-5 says:  “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship…”
3. God called.  This calling is not just an invitation. It is what theologians refer to as an effective call; it produces results!  It is the sort of calling that raises the dead to new life, as when Jesus called Lazarus:  “Lazarus, come out of that tomb!”  
4. God justified.  As soon as we come to faith, God finds us “not guilty.”  We are on good terms with him.
5. God glorifies.  The first four links in this chain are forged as soon as we come to faith, but the fifth and last link is in the future:  God glorifies.  But Paul chooses to emphasize the certainty of God’s finishing this what He’s begun in our lives by using the past tense to refer to this last step, our glorification.  So certain is Paul that our final destiny is new bodies in a new resurrected world, he states it as if it’s already happened. 

We’re almost to the summit of these biblical Himalayas!  Paul invites us to pause to catch our breath, to reflect on what he has said, by asking a rhetorical question:  What, then, shall we say in response to these things? (Romans 8:31)  Then he pushes on to conclude with five rhetorical questions:

Question #1 (Rom. 8:31):  “If God is for us, who can be against us?”   Paul knows even better than we that we have to contend with enemies – from the world, the flesh, and the devil to those Paul himself referred to in 1 Cor. 16:9 when he observed “many oppose us.”  But his point in asking this rhetorical question is that none of those enemies can compare to the greatness of our God.  He will not be thwarted in working out his good purposes.

Question #2:  (Rom. 8:32)  “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  God the Father, and Jesus Himself, were willing to pay any price to effect our salvation.  There is no good thing He will withhold from us as His beloved children.  In Gal. 2:20, Paul describes the way this truth shaped his life:  “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Questions #3 and #4 (Rom. 8:33,34):  “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns?  No one.  Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and  is also interceding for us.”  Sometimes it is the Evil One who accuses us; other times it is a judgmental person pointing a finger; and sometimes it is our own conscience accusing us.  But God will not entertain any such accusations – because he has declared us “not guilty” in Christ.

Question #5:  Paul’s final question (Rom. 8:35a):  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”  Keep in mind the terrible persecution that Paul’s first-century readers faced.  He describes some of those fearsome dangers in the latter part of the verse:  “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Rom. 8:35b).  Paul answers his question in verse 37:  “In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who  loved us.”  Paul coins a new phrase, to be “super-victorious!”  There are winners and losers, but then there are more than conquerors!

Paul concludes with his unqualified assurance of God’s love:  “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor  demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor  anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”  (Rom. 8:38,39).

So what can separate us from God's everlasting love?

• Nothing in the human experience — neither death nor life 
• Nothing in the spiritual realm — neither angels nor demons 
• Nothing in time — nothing present or future 
• Nothing that opposes God’s people — no powers 
• Nothing in space — neither height nor depth 
• Nothing in the world — nothing in all creation 
• There is nothing that can separate you from His love!  In fact, there is nothing you can do that would make him love you more – and nothing you can do that would make him love you less!

How do these wonderful truths bear on our lives – individually, and as a church?  How can taking these truths to heart make Village a more harmonious, missional, outward-looking church? 

• This passage gives us assurance, not arrogance.
• It makes us humble, not proud.
• It makes us eager to share the Good News, not complacent.

The Apostle Paul has been our guide in an ascent to the glorious heights of God’s love.  Let’s allow that vista to shape our hearts and lives – and our life as a church!

1. Have you experienced God’s using difficult or painful times to effect your being “conformed to the likeness of his Son” – i.e., to make you more like Jesus?  (It might be a past experience or a current experience.)
2. Pastor Pete explained that God’s foreknowing us is best understood to be God’s fore-loving us.  God was looking forward to a relationship with you even before you were born!  How does it feel to know that you are the object of God’s love – not only in the present, but even long before you were born?
3. Pastor Pete suggested several ways in which being convinced of the depth of God’s love might impact us – personally, and as a church.  How do you see the truths of this passage impacting your life, and our life as a church?