All of Scripture is powerful and amazing and can change our
hearts and lives (see Hebrews 4:12). But
some passages carry more meaning to different people. One passage that I fall more and more in love
with every time I read it is Romans 8:31-39.
So let me take you on a little journey to unlock some of the awesomeness
I have found in this passage. Just as I
told you about I Peter, though, I want to come at this recognizing that my
thoughts on it are not the inspired word of God. They are the thoughts of a fallible human. I encourage you to take a look at this
passage for yourself. Dig into it and
ask the Holy Spirit to teach you from the passage.
I’ll break this down into bite sized sections, but for
today, I want to start with the passage as a whole and do an overview of it and
give you some of the context.
Romans 8:31-39 (NKJV):
“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
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things? Who shall bring a charge against
God’s elect? It is God who
justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is
also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your
sake we are killed all day long;
We are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
Just reading it reminds me of God’s amazingness. And I haven’t even really started you in on
digging deeper into it. I am so excited
to unpack this with you. And I would
love to know how it impacts you.
Anyway.
The book of Romans is an amazing, reasoned argument for
faith in Jesus Christ. It is a brilliant
reminder of grace as the basis for our salvation as opposed to works. And preceding these verse in Romans 8 is a
pretty powerful discussion of suffering.
It is a promise that our suffering is temporary. “That all things work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”
(8:28). It is a promise that the Holy
Spirit intercedes on our behalf and does so far more fervently than we ever
could. It assures us of our identity.
We will be going through these verses more in depth. I will give you my thoughts as I study them
out. But I would love it if you actively
studied this for yourselves. My words
are so inadequate to convey how important the Bible is for our lives. I will take you back to the verse I
referenced in the beginning: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and
of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
No comments:
Post a Comment