Romans 8:31-39: a reflection

31What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? 33Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is one of the towering passages of the whole Bible, and it is a piling-up of assurance. If God is for us, Paul asks, 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, along with him, freely give us everything? The logic runs from the greatest gift to the lesser ones: if God already gave you his Son, you can trust him for all the rest.

Then Paul throws down a challenge to every accuser and every threat. Who will bring a charge against God's chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ died and was raised and now intercedes for us. And then the great sweep at the end: neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, 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.

Sit under that list until it does its work. Paul is trying to name everything that could ever threaten you, and to say of each one: this cannot cut you off from God's love. Not death, not the day you dread, not the powers arrayed against you, not the depths you fear you have fallen to. If you belong to Christ, the love that holds you is unbreakable, secured not by your grip but by his. Whatever is against you today, it cannot separate you from the love of God. Rest your whole weight there.

Lord, if you did not spare your own Son for me, I can trust you for everything else. Thank you that nothing, not death, not the things I dread, not any power, can separate me from your love in Christ. When I feel threatened, let me rest my whole weight on that unbreakable love.