Romans 8.31-37
What then are we to say about these things? If God is
for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up
for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will
bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to
condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love
of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all
day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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.
The Roman Christians were
well aware of the dangers of following Christ. Intermittent waves of
persecution had meant that many of them had probably seen friends and family
killed. Paul had suffered much already, and would eventually be killed by the
Romans, but he is confident in the face of suffering, because nothing can
separate him from God’s love.
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