Kolb’s basement, March 19, 2008
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 But in all theses things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
Solid Enough for Suffering
John and Betty Stam were missionaries to China in the early 1900s. One morning, in 1934, the communist red army entered the small village in which they were working. Because they were foreigners and Christians, the Stams (including their baby) were taken hostage and held for a $20,000 ransom. Two days later, in another village 12 miles away, they were executed. John was told to kneel first and his head was severed from his body with a sword. Betty and another man died in the same way a few moments later.
Is justification solid enough for that? This is the most pressing question. Is the cross of Christ strong enough and trustworthy enough for that kind of suffering? Or is it like an old wooden bridge? It is easy to walk on. But anything too heavy it will cause it to crack and fall.
I am asking this now because, while currently most of us are walking on the bridge, one day we will be carrying hundreds of pounds of suffering onto it, and the question in our minds will be: can it hold? Is it solid enough for tribulation, and war, and starvation, and death?
In the Irish potato famine, 1,100,000 people died because of starvation or hunger-related diseases. World War I killed 20,000,000 people. Imagine the population of greater Kansas City being completely wiped out about 15 times and you have the picture. Is justification strong enough for massive suffering like that? Can you trust it, or will it crack underneath the weight?
This is the issue that our text addresses. Last week we said that there are four primary, pillar-like truths that Paul pulls from Romans 8 and summarizes here at the end of the chapter. The first three are “nothing is against us” (v. 31), “inheritance is coming” (v. 32), and “there is no condemnation” (v. 33-34). The fourth one, found in today’s passage, is “justification is rock-solid” (v. 35-39). This flows right out of number three. There is no condemnation (three)–and that is true and solid even in suffering (four).
Why Justification and not the Love of God?
Right now you are probably thinking, “But this text seems to be about God’s love, not justification. It says, ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’ So why are you talking about justification?” I am talking about justification because I believe that Paul has a specific emphasis with the words “the love of Christ” (v. 35) and “the love of God” (v. 39). He does not simply mean the broad, encompassing love of God. He means the love of God in the death, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus Christ-the love of God in justification.
Two interesting word usages point us this direction. First, verse 37: “we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Why does Paul say that Christ “loved us?” Why not just say “loves us.” I think it is because he has a specific emphasis: the love of Christ in the cross. His emphasis is justification. Second, verse 39: “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord.” Why does Paul say that the love of God is in Jesus Christ our Lord? Why not just say “the love of God” and leave off “which is in Jesus Christ our lord?” Again the reason is that he is not thinking broadly, but specifically. He is talking about the love of God in the crucified, risen, mediating Jesus Christ.
So this passage is really about whether justification is proven to be untrustworthy and flimsy or remains solid in suffering. I have three points to help us draw out Paul’s ideas.
1. You will suffer.
Suffering for the Christian is promised. It is not optional. Paul’s quote from Psalm 44 makes this abundantly plain, “For your sake we are put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (v. 36). Christian, that is your identity–a sheep to be slaughtered and put to death all day long. “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). It’s a promise. This is who we are.
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves,” Jesus told His followers (Matt. 10:16). “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). Do not water this down. It is not about facing small inconveniences and trials or carrying little “crosses” throughout you life. Jesus’ first-century hearers knew that is not what He meant. They knew that on a cross, you get physically crucified. If you would be His disciple, you must pick up your cross, get behind Him, and be crucified for His name’s sake. “If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul [ruler of demons], how much more will they malign the members of His household” (Matt. 10:25b)? Affliction is coming.
If this is true, one of the most pressing, life-affecting issues for us is this: can suffering and death separate us from salvation? Is justification still strong and true when there is a sword six inches above your head? We must learn how to die well. Romans 8:35-39 is where it begins.
2. Suffering cannot separate us from the justifying love of Christ
Justification is rock-solid. That is the point of this passage. It is trustworthy and strong even though we are put to death all day long and considered as sheep to be slaughtered. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (v. 35)? That is not a question seeking an answer. It is a question that is giving the answer. Nothing on this earth can take away our justification and the inheritance that it secures. “I am convinced that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [justifying] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).
So if you are Betty Stam (and if you would follow after Christ, you will be), in a small village in the middle of China, looking at your husband’s head as it rolls a few feet away from his body, you will need Romans 8. I want you to be clinging to the simple, indestructible fact that nothing (especially suffering) can separate you from the death, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus.
3. Because of justification, suffering actually becomes a means by which we conquer.
Not only is justification rock-solid. With it, suffering becomes a means by which we overcome the world. “In all these things [the tribulation, distress, famine etc. from verse 35] we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (v. 37). Why does Paul declare that we “overwhelmingly conquer” (or “are more than conquerors”) rather than simply say that we conquer? In my opinion, he is thinking back to verse 28, that God causes all things work together for our good. We do not just conquer, we overwhelmingly conquer because tribulation, distress, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword are all for us. They are a means that God uses to bring about, among other things, the sanctification of the Church, the spread of the gospel, and especially the glorious inheritance of believers. It is “in” all these things that we conquer. Not “despite,” not “in the face of,” but “in” suffering, we become overcomers.
It is no accident that where the Church suffers the most, it flourishes the most, or that where Jim Eliot is martyred, a whole South American tribe comes to faith in Jesus. It is a design. Through Him who loved us, suffering is a means by which we conquer. To die is gain. All things are better!
So again if you are Betty Stam watching your husband being killed and knowing that you are next, I want you to turn first to the fact that nothing can separate you from justification, and second to the fact that, because of justification, death is actually gain. “In” all these things we are more than conquerors!
Love is what makes it solid
I have been telling you that this is about the love of God with emphasis on justification (“in Christ Jesus”). If that is the case, we have to ask a final question. Why does Paul use the words, “the love of God” instead of simply, “justification?” I think he does so in order to draw our attention to the reason that justification is as solid as it is. Justification is trustworthy because, through and through, it is love. Love is the steel reinforcement in every board of the bridge. Do not trust a God to never condemn you who does not love you. And do not trust a mediator who is not for you. With that kind of God, you can have no confidence in freedom from death and future glory. You don’t know what He will do. Trust a God who loves you and has proven it by dying in your place while you hated Him. You can put total confidence in that kind of God to do what He has promised.
This is where missionaries and martyrs and exceptional Christ Fellowship church members are born–in this rock-solid assurance that, even though we are slaughtered like sheep, we overwhelmingly conquer through the justifying, glorifying love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com
