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Link here for the January Challenge series.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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 things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.Romans 8:31-39 ESV
Are you anything like I am? I grew up thinking God was waiting for me to do something wrong or waiting for me to have some fun, then try to get me! I think a lot of people have this view of God. But do you get this view from this passage? I certainly don’t.
We often have a false view of God in our heads. Compare it to the truth stated here.
I think Satan loves to give us this false view of God just as he tried to give that false view to Adam and Eve in the garden. This is just another reason why it is so helpful for us to memorize the Bible. It corrects so many of our false views of God.
So here is the reminder that God is for us! And if He is for us, who can be against us? What a wonderful thought. Then, later in the chapter, he reminds us that there is nothing at all that will be able to separate us from God’s love. He goes down quite a long list, in fact, of all the things and people that could separate us from God’s love…but won’t.
Questions to think about
- Are you ever tempted to think that God doesn’t love you? Is there anything in this passage you can find to back up your feeling? Is there any truth here that can remind you that your feelings that God doesn’t love you are not based in fact?
- What kinds of things can separate us from God’s love? Who is the key to our not being condemned by a holy God?
