Read Romans 8:31-39Have you ever questioned God's love for you? When something bad happens to you, do you wonder if God is mad at you? Do you have a hard time seeing God as loving when there is so much pain in the world? When you are disobedient or lazy spiritually, do you feel like your actions have caused God to love you less? I remember in high school having a hard time understanding God's love. I knew that God loved me in theory, but I couldn't help thinking that His love for me was tied to my actions. I thought I had to act a certain way in order to maintain His love for me. In my mind, skipping my quiet time or talking back to my parents surely made me unlovable to God. It wasn't until later on in college that I started to understand that God's love for me wasn't based on my own merit. He just loved me, plain and simple. Nothing I did and nothing that happened could change that truth. What a comfort!
I love this passage in Romans 8, because it is a powerful and moving reminder that nothing can alter God's love for His children. The passage starts out in verse 31 with the question, "If God is for us, who is against us?" I love this! It's so simple yet so profound. Sure, we will face persecution and affliction, and there are many who will be against us in our lives, especially the devil. However, we have to remember that we're on the winning team! No matter who is up against us, God is more powerful. In comparison to the God we serve, the opposition is nothing at all. God is triumphant, and if we're on His side, we have absolutely nothing to fear.
In verse 32 we're reminded of God's incredible sacrifice on our behalf. He paid the ultimate price for us by sacrificing His only Son for our sins. The reasoning in this verse is that if God was willing to give Jesus to us, of course He will give us all things freely! His love was demonstrated for us through the cross and is proof that His blessings to us will continue. We know from Ephesians 1:3 that God has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."
We see in verse 33 that there is no one able to condemn believers in Christ, because they have already been justified by the supreme Judge. This means that God has declared all believers to be righteous. Because Christ took sin on Himself, we were declared righteous. To quote one of my favorite hymns, "For God the Just was satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me." Furthermore, verse 34 reminds us that Christ who died for us and rose again now sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. He is our advocate, leaving no one to condemn us.
In verse 35 Paul lists 7 things that many people might look to as proof that God no longer loves them. He lists tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, as circumstances people often look to as evidence that God has forsaken them. We are reminded in verses 38 and 39 of a powerful truth: absolutely nothing can separate us from God's love. Do you hear that?!?! Nothing! Not your actions, not the grades you get in school, not the trials you encounter...nothing.
Can you even fathom this truth? It is hard to comprehend the supreme and unconditional love of the Lord, because there is no love like that on earth. In the relationships that we have on earth, our love for each other is conditional. We love people more depending on how they act, what they say and do, and even how they look. We love people while expecting things in return. No one on earth can love someone in the way that God does. There is absolutely nothing you can do to change the way God loves you. Let this truth sink in today. God loves
