1. Christ Jesus Will Intercede for Us
Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.. Romans 8:34
The Devil or people often keep pointing their accusing fingers at us and say, “You are not a Christian, look at the things you have done”. In this verse Paul gives an answer to this accusation by pointing out that Christ is sufficient as our intercessor.
(a). Christ Jesus is the one who died. Focusing on our past guilt or even present failures only makes us more miserable. Paul puts the focus on Christ who has died for us. It would be absurd for Jesus who came to earth to die for us to condemn the ones He died for.
(b). Christ Jesus was raised for our justification. Christ’s death satisfied God’s justice, thus providing the basis for our justification. But His resurrection was God’s stamp of approval, showing that God accepted Christ’s death as payment for our sins. Paul staked everything in the Christian faith on the bodily resurrection of Jesus. “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17. When you struggle with doubts or with guilt, go back to the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. It is a solid place to stand. He was raised to justify us.
(c). Christ Jesus is now exalted to the right hand of God. “The right hand of God” is figurative language to say that Jesus is now far above all rule and authority. He is over every power in heaven and on earth. This means that no one, not even Satan, can challenge Christ’s rule in safeguarding us from his destructive attacks. Christ has ascended to the position of supreme authority in heaven where He represents us.
(d). Christ Jesus is now interceding for us. He presently intercedes with the Father for our welfare. There are two helpful examples of this in the Bible. The first is when Jesus tells Peter that Satan has demanded permission to sift him like wheat, and then adds in Luke 22:32, “but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
The other is Christ’s wonderful prayer in John 17, just before the cross, where He prays for His disciples. He prays for us as well who would later believe through their witness. Jesus’ throne at the right hand of the Father is not a throne of judgment, but rather a throne of grace, where we are invited to find mercy and grace to help with all our needs (Heb. 4:16). We may feel too ashamed to pray because of our failures and sin, but we can be assured that Jesus is there interceding on our behalf.
God Is For Us Because..
2. He Will Eternally Love Us
The Apostle Paul now reaches the summit of the first 8 chapters of Romans. It is the love of God for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is eternal, unchanging, unfathomable, and life transforming. It will enable us to persevere through trials and get the victory over sin and temptation in our lives. Paul asks this question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Romans 8:35. Then he goes through the potential things that could separate us from that love. We could call this our “worry list”.
Worry List #1-The “Big Seven”-
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Romans 8:35
Let’s look at Paul’s list: First, he mentions trouble (tribulation), a general word for difficult trials. It has the idea of external pressure. Jesus used this word when He said in John 16:33), “These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Hardship (distress) has the nuance of a narrow or tight spot. It may have to do with the inward feelings that we battle when we go through tribulations. It was used for an ancient form of punishment, where prisoners were put into cages or cells where they did not have room to stand, sit, or lie at full length. They felt the reality of constantly being squeezed by their circumstances.
Persecution literally means to pursue someone to harm him. While God has so far spared most of us in America from physical persecution for our faith, that is not so with thousands of our brothers and sisters in other countries who are being tortured and killed for their faith. We may yet see the same here.
Famine and nakedness both point to extreme poverty and deprivation, especially (in this context) because of our commitment to Christ. In some countries, if you’re a Christian you can’t get a job to provide for your family’s basic needs. And in some places, famine is a reality that believers suffer. Again, it could happen here.
Danger means “peril”. Paul uses this word eight times in 2 Corinthians 11:26 to describe the many dangers that he had faced in his labors for Christ.
Sword refers to execution or death, which Paul finally suffered for his faith. The quote from Psalm 44:22 in verse 36, shows that it is for the Lord’s sake that His people suffer martyrdom. The world just considers believers as “sheep to be slaughtered.” And it shows that such suffering is nothing new. God’s people have experienced it down through the centuries
Paul then says that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”. What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? I got an understanding of this verse many years ago sitting around a campfire in the High Sierras at an elevation of 10,000 feet. A group of us had hiked to this spot going over 2 mountain passes of nearly 12,000 feet. We sat around the campfire reading this passage from Romans 8. One of the hikers asked the question posed above. None of us knew the answer. He answered his question by saying a “victor” is more than a conqueror”. A conqueror may still be involved in the conflict but a victor has put it all behind him. The battle is over. We hikers all could appreciate his answer because we had just conquered 2 challenging mountain passes carrying 40 pound backpacks and felt like victors sitting around the campfire at our campsite. We can be victors over all the things that Paul has listed because His love will never desert us if and when we experience them.
As if the above list were not enough, Paul adds a series of contrasts to reinforce his argument that absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Worry List #2-The “Big Ten”-
First, neither death..can separate us from God’s love. If Christ has saved you, death takes us into His presence-Philippians 1:23. The moment we die our spirits go to be with the Lord. There is no such thing as “soul sleep.” As Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
He also states that, neither life..can separate us from God’s love At first, it may seem strange that Paul says that life cannot separate us from God’s love. But life can be a bigger threat than death. In the parable of the sower in Luke 8:14, Jesus identifies the thorny ground as “the worries and riches and pleasures of this life,” which choke out the word so that it does not bear fruit. Paul in another epistle mentioned the desertion of Demas, who “loved this present world”.
Then Paul mentions neither angels, nor principalities. Paul is saying that there are no spiritual powers, good or bad, that could possibly separate us from God’s love. Paul is citing extreme contrasts to show that absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love. In Galatians 1:8, Paul says that even if an angel from heaven preaches a gospel contrary to the gospel that Paul had preached, he is to be accursed. It’s not possible that an angel from heaven would do that, but Paul is stating an extreme hypothetical situation to make his point.
Neither things present, nor things to come, could refer either to our present circumstances as contrasted with things that could happen to us in the future before we die. Paul is referring to everything that can possibly happen to us. No bad circumstance now or in the future can separate us from God’s great love.
Neither height nor depth possibly means that nothing in heaven or in hell can separate us from God’s love. Or, it may have a physical connotation: However high or low you go, you can’t get away from God’s love. It’s everywhere!
Then, as if Paul were afraid that he had missed something, he throws in a catch-all: nor any other created thing. He is saying, “Name anything that you can conceive of. God will work it together for good for His saints, and so it cannot separate us from His love.”
Paul’s conclusion is that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Thus we have four reasons why we can confidently say that God Is For Us.
Author: John Spence