- Lesson Six in the Connect360 unit “And Then We Came to Romans: A Study of Paul’s ‘Weighty and Strong’ Letter” focuses on Romans 8:31-39.
Paul turned to a descriptive list of contrasting pairs to illustrate God’s prolific love.
He wrote he was “convinced” or “persuaded” (8:38), meaning he had thought these things through and had come to an unshakable conclusion.
He believed with full conviction God’s love cannot be pried away from us by these powerful forces.
Neither death nor life, angels nor demons, present nor the future, nor any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be a match for the love of God.
It should be a great comfort knowing nothing in all creation is able to pull us from our home in Jesus. We are fully secured in his love.
Once on a vacation, I witnessed a popular attraction where adventurous individuals would cling to a bar above a great ravine. When they grew tired, they would drop from the bar and free-fall into the ravine, where a harness and bungee cord bounced them back to safety.
Some participants were excited to let go of the bar and experience the fall. For others, when it came time to drop, they would lose confidence. Fear set in, and they clung to the bar with everything they had. Inevitably, their strength would fail, and they would fall anyway.
I’m certainly not passing judgment. I was watching from afar with my feet on solid ground, after all.
Some Christians approach their faith like those clinging to the bar, afraid to fall.
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They fear if their grip fails, if they make one too many mistakes, they will fall away from Christ into eternal separation. They think everything relies on their ability to hold onto the bar.
The good news of Romans 8 is it was never our grip that secured salvation—and thank goodness!
God’s love is the harness and bungee cord that secure us to everlasting life. Whenever we fall, he’s still there, ready to rescue us.
This passage should fill us with confidence. Not confidence in ourselves, but in Christ. We are held in God’s unbreakable grip.
On our own, we will come up short. Our strength will run out, circumstances will get the better of us, and we will be overcome by the forces of opposition.
But with God on our side, who can stand against us?
Paul’s grand proclamation calls us to confidence in Christ. We are held by the love of Christ, so we no longer have to be quieted by fear and insecurity.
We are anchored in what God did on the cross, and what he continues to do in us through his Spirit.
The final verses of Romans 8 put God’s great love for us on full display. His love is the ultimate security and the greatest fulfillment.
It empowers us to be more than conquerors through our present sufferings, and it can never be taken from us.
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