A Word in Season: If God is for Us (Romans 8:31)

The Gospel in Romans and Our Need for Christ

In the letter that he wrote to the Romans, the Apostle Paul presents this sweeping, this stunning panorama of God's saving purposes. He sets out the reality of the Gospel as it comes to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, who have no righteousness of their own to plead.

He exposes our utter dependence upon the saving work of the God of heaven, the accomplishment of redemption in and through his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in whom God shows himself both just and the justifier, so that, cleansed by the blood of his sacrifice and clothed in his righteousness, we are able to stand before God, considered in him we are truly alive, we are delivered from spiritual death and the looming reality of death and judgment that follows.

We instead have life in this last Adam and in him there is now no condemnation. If we, by faith, have received the effects of his saving work, if we have reached out that empty hand and God in his mercy has granted unto us the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are truly safe.

Romans 8 and the Golden Chain of Salvation

And in Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul describes some of the promises and the prospects that are wrapped up in that. He tells us that with these realities in mind we can be confident that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

He assures us that if God foreknows there's that golden chain of salvation, the links inseparably joined together, which issues in the glory of the saints. And for the comfort of the Roman Christians and our own comfort, he then asks in verse 31, What then shall we say to these things?

What's the conclusion that we should reach? And the first part of the conclusion, and we're only going to touch on it, is that if God is for us, who can be against us? It's a stunning declaration. God, the almighty, the all-merciful, who is for us, in the person of his son, he is working and operating in us, toward us, on our behalf.

He has undertaken to deliver us from sin and from death and from hell. He has once and for all addressed the fearful reality of our sinful nature and our sinful deeds through the saving accomplishments of the Lord Jesus, in whom God shows himself just and the justifier of the one who believes in his son.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith

This salvation is not of works. It is by grace. It is through faith. And in it, God is showing himself disposed to deliver and actually saving all those upon whom he sets his love. So here you have God, the almighty, who is acting on behalf of his chosen people to bring them to himself, both in time and then for all eternity.

To call a people out of the world to be his own beloved ones and to preserve them and to guide them and to guard them to the end. And so says the apostle, if God, this God, our God, is for us, who can be against us?

Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of God

What will you set against God? What's going to undermine those divine promises? What can take away those glorious prospects? If the God who made all things, the God who sustains all things, the God who governs all things, who by the word of his power can raise up and cast down, who gives life according to his sovereign will, who secures that life according to his glorious purposes, what in heaven or earth standing against him could take us away, could divide us from him?

Yes, you might say there are many who come against us, but none can stand against those for whom God himself is standing. So when we look at what is taking place around us, when we look at whatever may be coming against us, when we consider whether it's death or life or angels or principalities or powers or things present or things to come or height or depth or any other created thing, nothing is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now if God is for us, who can be against us?