Page 57 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

Accidents happen. Property gets destroyed. People die. Life in this world, in the here and now, looks to be
chaotic, unordered, and uncontrollable. So how can we live with confidence, assurance, and faith in God
when so much of what we see around us is the lives of people falling apart? This final paragraph
explaining the wonder of the salvation that Jesus provided for the believer provided the foundation from
which such a question can be answered. Paul wrote that the answer to that question rested in the
character of God and that it is the Spirit of God who helps us to both express our struggles properly to
God and to understand clearly how God shows us His character in His actions. He did this in such a way
that he did not depreciate the reality of difficult things that invaded their lives even as he placed those
things in their proper perspective. The events that swirled around them may have seemed unordered,
chaotic, uncontrolled and uncontrollable but they are not what they seemed. They were in reality the
outworking of the will of God (v. 27). That will is but the extension of God’s character into His creation.
Because He is sovereignly and lovingly in control even in the most hideous and humanly incomprehensible
events that invade our experience on this earth, we can still have great hope. That is what Paul was
expressing when he wrote, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
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for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Paul followed that comforting statement with a reflection on the work of God in providing salvation from
sin for people. With that reflection he summarized all that he has written about the wonder of Christ’s
redeeming, saving work over the last four chapters. In it he reminds his readers that they are saved by
God’s will, through the work of God’s Son so that they would be conformed to the image His Son as they
were invited to believe, be justified — that is, made righteous — by Christ’s work so that they can share in
His great glory. He says it this way, “For those who he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he
predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he
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also glorified.”

Nothing can separate those who trust in Christ from the love of God that has been shown to them in the
life and work of Christ. (8:31-39)

As he concluded his exposition of the salvation that is available in and through the work of the Father, the
Son and the Spirit, Paul broke out into a concluding meditation on the significance of all of this for those
who, like him, have trusted in Jesus Christ. In it he combined a flurry of penetrating questions in which he
embedded summary statements expressing the wonder of Christ’s saving work that ultimately leads to
affirmations of the great hope that He has in Christ.

The questions draw our attention to the statements contained in their midst. They are rhetorical
questions that imply their answers in the very way that they are asked. “What shall we say to these
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things?” The implied answer is that there is much that should be said. “If God is for us, who can be
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against us?” The implied answer is that there is no one who can successfully oppose God. “He who did
not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all
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things?” The implied answer: He shall certainly give us all we need. “Who shall bring a charge to God’s
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elect?” Implied answer: No one. Who is to condemn?” Again the implied answer: No one. “Who shall
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separate us from the love of Christ?” Again: No one. “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
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famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Implied answer: No.

52 Romans 8:28, ESV.
53 Romans 8:29-30, ESV.
54 Romans 8:31, ESV.
55 Romans 8:31, ESV.
56 Romans 8:32, ESV.
57 Romans 8:33, ESV.
58 Romans 8:34, ESV.
59 Romans 8:35, ESV.
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