What God Can Do (Romans 8:31-32)

Introduction

Paul is about to come to the end of a section of his letter in which he has explained several elements in the salvation God has provided for sinners. That salvation involves an eternal plan, as we have seen, and is full of amazing features that enable those who experience it to rejoice in God. As the apostle comes to the end of this section he asks a series of questions. Yet he is not acting as a teacher giving out exam questions because he also provides the answers to his own questions. He could be perceived as a lawyer putting the final arguments into his case. Yet he is probably preaching to the converted, so the image of a lawyer addressing the unconvinced seems unlikely. Maybe it is best to view him as a guide who summarises for his group the various places they have visited on a busy day. We have already noted the illustration that regards Romans 8 as describing the Alps of Christian experience, with Paul as the guide leading us to various viewpoints in order to see the riches of God's plan for his redeemed people.

There is another detail that we can notice regarding this set of questions and answers at the close of Romans 8. Behind the decision of Paul to write in this manner is the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. It would seem apt to deduce from this fact that he wants his people to ask questions about biblical truths in order to maintain assurance in their hearts. Of course, the questions should be asked reverently, not rebelliously. And the questions should be sensible and spiritual, ones for which the Bible provides clear answers. It is not spiritual to ask questions that the Bible does not answer - the word for that is speculative, not spiritual.

It could be a good spiritual exercise for us to write out Paul's questions here and put the paper aside for a couple of hours until his answers are not automatically in our mind. Then we could take the questions, write out answers to them, and then check to see if we have similar answers to those that Paul gives here.

We should also note that Paul realises that he also needs the answers to the questions that he asks. He reveals this by using first person pronouns. Although he was an apostle who had experienced amazing encounters with God and had been given profound understanding of the things of God, he was still a Christian who needed spiritual comfort. And his comfort would come from the same Source and resources that every other Christian has. This of course means that we can all be of benefit to one another in the process of providing spiritual comfort. Some may have greater understanding, but it is greater understanding of the same resources, which also means that those currently with less understanding can grow into them.

We can note in passing that this method of Paul is a reminder that the Christian faith welcomes hard questions. There is not an issue that the Christian faith cannot explain as far as its primary causes are concerned – for example, the primary cause of the problems in the world, including why there is suffering, is sin. One of the devil’s successes has been to persuade people that the Christian faith is intellectually weak or that it collapses under the pressure of difficult questions. The problem is not that the Christian faith does not have answers; instead the problem is that most people do not like the answers that the Bible gives.

Paul first asks a general question before listing and answering several specific questions. The general question is, ‘What then shall we say to these things?’ He wants a harmonious and shared response from the Christians in Rome. Although he has not yet met many of them he feels comfortable with them because he and they share the same goals, and here the shared goals are developing Christian understanding and assurance. Both of those inner experiences usually happen together.

Who can be against us?

Several answers can be given to this question from a Christian perspective? There are at least two external opponents, and they are the devil and the world. Both of them are determined foes of God and his kingdom and often they work together against Christ and the church. Sometimes their method is that of intense persecution whereas at other times their method is temptation of Christians to compromise their allegiance and devotion to Jesus. Moreover they don’t engage in a short-term strategy. Sometimes their attacks can feel like a war of attrition as they persist in opposing the Lord's cause. In order to resist them we need to wear the spiritual armour that Paul details in Ephesians 6. Yet although their blows are severe, in the end they are not against us. If believers are persecuted and martyred for the sake of Jesus, they will receive a great reward from God. If they are led astray by a combination of the world and the devil, God will recover and restore them.  

In addition to the external opponents that every Christian faces, there is also an internal power that attempts to prevent Christians obtaining the blessings that Jesus has purchased for them and that God the Father has promised to them. The internal power is personal sin, which remains within a believer after conversion. Its power is weakened because the Christian is also indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, personal sin is so pervasive within a Christian that it affects everything he does. In this life, he never performs a totally sinless action. At a basic level, we can say that he never gives God 100% of what could have been given, and even his best actions could have been better. Yet because they can go to God for pardon, it turns out that even our sins cannot be against us permanently.

What else can be against us? One obvious factor is our human weakness. Even if we were perfect as humans we would still not be omnipotent or omniscient. The tasks given to us as members of God’s kingdom are so great that not even a gifted person such as the apostle Paul could do any of them in his own strength. Obviously we can do outward things. For example, if I was to have three meaningful conversations daily with different people about Jesus, it would take me sixty years to speak once to each person in Inverness. Of course, if every Christian in Inverness were to do so, it would only take one month or less to reach the whole town. But even if we were to manage that target annually, we still cannot convert one person by ourselves.

Another problem that could be against us is our lack of adequate insight into the situations we face. Life from one perspective is an ongoing lists of decisions and with regard to many of them we cannot see or understand all the angles. Even if we had the power, we do not have the wisdom with which to grasp all the aspects of a situation. And most situations intertwine with numerous other ones, and all we can say to God is that we do not know what to do.

We could also consider the possibility of the holy angels being against us because we have rebelled against their Master. It is the case that they will be involved in dispensing judgement on the wicked at the final day. Yet when it comes to dealing with God’s people, the angels serve them instead of being instruments of punishment. They are for us now and will be so always.

And there is the enemy of death. We can see how it destroys the hopes and pleasures of countless numbers. It seems so powerful because no-one can escape from it permanently. Yet as we observed when thinking about martyrs, death does not prevent believers from being with God. Although it is such an enemy it becomes the door for God’s people to enter his presence. Eventually it will lead to the great resurrection.  

Who is for us?

Paul’s straightforward answer to this question is God. It is possible to think of God in many ways, but often it can be done in an abstract manner. We are familiar with the way philosophers reduce God to a concept for discussion as if they could possibly be the judges as to his existence or not. Or we can recall how a claim to be serving God moved many of the political ideas and reforms of the past and present. So what does Paul want us to think about when he says that God is for us?

When Paul asks, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’, he is stating a proposition that every thinking person would accept. God is the most powerful being that exists, who possesses infinite energy and strength, and who can treat with disdain the strongest exhibition of earthly or creaturely power. It is logically true that if God is for a person, then it does not matter who is against that person. If God acts on behalf of a person, that person is going to win.

Paul here however points to a very tangible and indisputable way in which God helped every one of his people and that is to think about what he did at Calvary. There he gave his Son in order to benefit all his people. The Father gave up his Son willingly and fully. Of course, we must ask to what the Son was given up. The answer to that question is astounding – the Son was given up by the Father to his wrath. So we can see that Paul is asking his readers to remind themselves continually that God has dealt with our biggest problem already, which was the punishment that our sins deserved. We always have to keep in mind the truths mentioned in John 3:16.

Several commentators see here a contrast with the experience of Isaac who was spared by his father Abraham according to God’s instruction. I don’t know if Paul has Gethsemane in mind when he refers to the fact that God spared not his Son. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus had asked the Father if there was a possible way whereby he could spare his Son from what the cross involved. The answer to the Son’s request was that there was not a way. Therefore the Father delivered him up to the penal sufferings of the cross.

We could ask, ‘Why did God give his own Son for us?’ One answer would be that God did so because he loves us, but this answer requires us to ask in what way or ways did he love us. A more expansive answer is that God loves us as part of his eternal plan in which the Trinity arranged for what each of them would do in order to provide salvation.. His love for us involved more than giving his Son for his people. The giving of his Son removed the barrier to God giving anything to those he loved. Now that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins God will perform everything else he has planned. I liked the comment of C. H. Mackintosh on this verse: ‘The language of unbelief is, “How shall He?” The language of faith is, ‘How shall He not?”

What will God give us?

This question is answered by the question in verse 32: ‘How will he not also with him freely give us all things?’ We can break this statement down as we apply it to ourselves. First, what are the ‘all things’ referring to? They could look back to the inheritance that Paul wrote about earlier in the chapter, the creation that will be liberated when Jesus returns. If that is what Paul means, then he is telling us to do two things: first, we should always look back to the cross and, second, we should always look ahead to the glory that is to come.

It is possible that Paul has in mind by ‘all things’ the fact that God will give to each of his people everything that they will need for living for him in a sinful and dangerous world, and that there is no external power that can stop God from providing for their needs. What do we need? We need his pardon daily, we need his presence daily, we need his power daily, and we need to be reminded of his promises daily. In this regard there is a wide range of blessings covered by ‘all things’.

Personally I see no reason why both options cannot be true. Paul draws our attention to how God provides those blessings when saying that they are given freely or graciously. God does not give them reluctantly or haphazardly. Instead he ensures that they will all be given. We are reminded here of the incredible faithfulness of God. Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins according to the will of the Father we will receive everything they planned to give us in this life and in the eternity to come.

What should our response be? First, if we have not yet realised it, this reality is a great incentive for becoming a Christian. When we trust in Jesus we enter into a relationship in which grace provides all that we need for all the way that we will be led by the Saviour. After all God has not yet withdrawn his fist gift, that of his Son. Second, if we are Christians, reflect often on the faithfulness of God. He was faithful to the divine agreement between the Trinity when he spared not his own Son and he will be faithful to every other detail as well. He will always provide what we need.