I have nothing new to say on this very familiar portion of scripture — which is for many a favourite. But what I have to say is, I hope, true. I have bor­rowed the title from the last chapter of J. I. Packer’s book, Knowing God. (If you haven’t got a copy of it get one, and read it. It’s a classic. A classic has been described as a book that everyone knows about but very few have read. I hope that’s not true of this book.) My outline is borrowed from John Stott. It first appeared in ‘Men Made New’ — an exposition of Romans 5-8 which he delivered at the 1965 Keswick Convention and subse­quently enlarged and expanded it in his commentary on Romans in, ‘The Bible Speaks Today’ series.

I mention this in particular to acknowl­edge the debt that I owe both of these men. John Stott died recently — in July 2012. He wrote about 50 books. Two of his earlier books, Basic Christianity and Baptism and Fullness, were par­ticularly helpful to me as a young Christian. Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God helped clarify for me what was then a controversial area. I mention this to emphasise the importance of reading good books in the life of the Christian. Spurgeon said, ‘It’s not the reading of many books that makes a man wise — but the reading of a few (good) books well that makes him wise’. Chester­ton said, ‘A room without books is like a body without a soul’.

The passage before us is majestic. It’s the apostles’ grand and glorious climax and conclusion, not merely to what was said in verses 28-30; but to everything said since chapter 5:1. Stott writes of the last 12 verses of Romans 8 that, ‘the apostle soars to divine heights unequalled elsewhere in the New Testament. Having de­scribed the chief privileges of justified believers — peace with God (Rom.5:1-11), union with Christ (Rom. 5:12-6:23), freedom from the law (Rom. 7:1­-25), and life in the Spirit (Rom. 8:1­-27) — his great Spirit directed mind now sweeps over the whole plan and purpose of God from past eternity to an eternity still to come; from the di­vine foreknowledge and predestina­tion to the divine love from which ab­solutely nothing will ever be able to separate us.’

Now I want you to pause; to think and reflect; to savour what we have in Christ. Remember that Paul’s pur­pose was to write a pastoral letter. Romans was never designed to be a systematic theology. It was never meant to be abstract doctrine. It’s a book for living. Paul’s purpose is to produce Christians who know what they believe and who are assured of their eternal security in Christ. He wants us to know that we are as safe in the hands of God now as we will be in the glory when we will be in His very presence. This is what the Lord would have us all know and enjoy.

The Westminster Confession of Faith chap 18:1 states,

...such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Our God is a God we can trust at all times: even in times of perplexity. ‘We cannot always trace God’s hand, but we can always trust God’s heart.’ (Spurgeon).

Notice the five questions the apostle asks; and all defy an answer.

Question 1: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (v.31b)⤒🔗

If Paul had simply asked, ‘who is against us?’ we could answer it easily. The world, the flesh and the devil are against us. The unbeliev­ing persecuting world is against us. Indwelling sin is powerfully against us. Death, which is working in us, is against us. The devil and all the powers of darkness are marshalled against us. There is the catalogue of hardships mentioned in verse 35 that are against us. Sometimes under calamity the whole universe seems to be against us. So we don’t have to look too far to dis­cover things that are against us. But Paul doesn’t ask the simple question, ‘Who is against us?’

His question is: ‘If God is for us’ — i.e. ‘since God is for us;’ the God who has justified us in Christ, adopted us; reconciled us; the God who has loved us from eternity past and will love us into eternity future; the God who lives in us by His Spirit; the God who works all things for the good of those who love Him; who predestined us, who called us, who justified us and even guaran­tees our glorification; if such a God is for us — ‘who can be against us?’ To that question there is no answer. All the powers of hell may be against us, they can point their weapons at us; but they can never prevail because God is on our side. Think of Psalm 124, ‘If the Lord had not been on our side — we would have been swallowed up — we would have been swept away ... Our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heaven and earth.’

Question 2: ‘He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all – how will he not also, along with Him, gra­ciously give us all things?’ (v.32)←⤒🔗

Follow the simple logic of heaven here. It’s the argument from the greater to the lesser. (For another example see Rom. 5:10)... If God has given His best and His highest, if He has given us His unspeakable and indescribable gift (the Cross plac­ards the generosity of God; The Cross is the great testimony of His love for us); will He not also give us all lesser gifts that we need. He will give us all things we need for life and godliness. What we have in Christ is a first class salvation. If ever you are tempted to think that God is niggardly and narrow and mean — go back to Calvary!

Let me tell you the story of an art col­lector, who had in his private collec­tion some of the world’s greats — Rembrandts, Van Goghs, and Pi­cassos, etc. This man had a son who was killed in the war and never came back. Sometime later a mate of his son turned up at the father’s house and was able to tell this man what had happened to his son on the bat­tlefield. He also brought a gift with him — a painting of his comrade — the man’s son. That painting was no masterpiece, but it occupied central place on the mantle. It was a prize among his masterpieces... Some years later the man died. All his great works of art were up for auction. Buy­ers assembled from all over the world; commissioned to buy for various mu­seums and galleries and private col­lections. The first item on the list was the painting of the man’s son. There were no bidders. ‘Who will bid me $200?... $150?... $100?’ The gar­dener offered $75. The gavel came down. The offer was accepted. The auctioneer then announced: ‘Gentlemen, the auction is now over. The terms of the auction as stated in the will were: ‘the person who gets the Son gets everything.’ This may be only a story — but it makes the point. We have everything we need in Christ — past; present; future!

Question 3: ‘Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?’ (v.33)←⤒🔗

Again if the question was, ‘who will bring any charge against us?’ an­swers are not hard to find. Our hearts condemn us. Our conscience ac­cuses and condemns us. People who know us well could condemn us; we have critics who watch us like hawks who want to condemn us. The devil is called ‘the accuser of the broth­ers’ (Rev. 12:10). Many of his accu­sations are credible and valid. He devises many schemes to condemn us. One of his most vicious and malicious schemes is to stir up sin in our hearts. He can bring sudden tempta­tion into our minds — even at times blasphemous thoughts! They take us by surprise and we wonder, ‘where did that come from?’

Poor Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrims’ Progress had this experience as he was going through the Valley of the shadow of Death. Bunyan writes of Christian; ‘Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many griev­ous blasphemies to him which he ver­ily thought had proceeded from his own mind...’ (Penguin ed. Page 98). Such an experience was distressing and confusing.

What would you do when something like this happens? Where will you go? To whom can you turn? To whom can you appeal? Paul replies: ‘It is God who justifies’. We are justified by faith in Christ. Satan has no weapon that can penetrate the ‘breastplate of righteousness.’ None of his slanderous accusations can penetrate the righteousness we have in Christ. He is our defence. He is our Advocate. He is our Mediator. Our defence rests not on what we have done but on what Christ has perfectly and completely done in his life, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven.

Let’s be clear: It’s not faith in Christ that saves us. ‘It is Christ who saves us — through faith.’ Our faith can be a poor and crumbling thing, but Christ alone is qualified and able to save us because of who He is and what He has done.

Question 4: ‘Who is he that con­demns?’ (v. 34a)←⤒🔗

We have plenty of opponents and critics who will try. But nothing sticks. Why? Because of Christ Jesus ‘who died, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.’ Jesus has an ongoing ministry — it continues even now. So that we can confidently say, ‘there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 8:1). Think of Simon Peter. He sinned. He denied his Lord. He screwed things up. He made a mess of things. He was a ‘write off.’ ... However, before Peter’s denial Jesus had said to Peter, ‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers’ (Luke 22:31-33). Peter was condemned by everyone — by himself, by the other disciples, by Satan — but not by Christ! ... God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. Sinclair Ferguson helpfully states that, ‘when Satan’s darts of con­demnation bring you low, never forget: God never sees you as His child without first looking at you through the Son — His Son — who is interceding for you’. John Owen writes, ‘Jesus Christ is the beam of the Father’s love and through him the Father’s love reaches down and touches us.’

Question 5: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ (v. 35a)←⤒🔗

The apostle lists several adversi­ties; including sin, suffering and death (all of which Paul experienced with the exception of the ‘sword’). He includes a quotation from Psalm 44:22; a psalm of com­plaint to God in the midst of suffer­ing. In the context of the psalm, the suffering did not come because of Israel’s infidelity. It came about de­spite the fact that Israel had been faithful. In other words, trouble is par for the course: it has always been part and parcel of the experi­ence of God’s people. However, God’s love for us is like a circle: it is endless and unbreakable.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Paul says some­thing remarkable in verse 37; ‘in all these things we are more than con­querors through Him who loved us.’ It’s ‘in these things’; not ‘after these things’ or ‘in spite of these things’ or ‘apart from these things’. It’s in the sphere of these things that we are more than conquerors. We would like to be airlifted and evacuated when these things strike us. But we don’t live in a scientifically con­trolled environment. We are not living in a perfect world. We live in a fallen world and caught up in the same bun­dle of life as everyone else. We are not immune from the rough and tum­ble of life. Indeed, as believers we can expect more trouble for the privi­lege of following Jesus. But it’s ‘in’ these things that we are ‘hypernikomen’ i.e. ‘more than con­querors’. What does that mean? We know what a conqueror is. But what does it mean to be ‘more than a con­queror’?

Hendriksen comments insightfully, ‘A conqueror is a person who defeats the enemy. One who is more than a conqueror causes the enemy to become a helper.’ That’s exactly what God did, for example, with Saul the arch persecutor and enemy Num­ber One of the Church! God con­quered him. But He did more than that. He put him to good use so that the Church’s greatest persecutor became the Church’s greatest preacher. That’s what God does with ‘all these things.’ He turns these ‘enemies’ into ‘allies’ that now work for His glory and our good.

What is the secret and source of our victory? Is it our faith? Is it our per­severance? No. It is, ‘through Him who loved us.’ He, that is Christ, is able to overcome all His and our enemies. He is our sover­eign protector, our sovereign bene­factor, our sovereign champion, and our sovereign keeper.

Christian reader, let us rejoice in God’s adequacy!