Six Questions
by John D. Morris, Ph.D.
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8:37)
The eighth chapter of Romans is replete with unthinkable blessings graciously bestowed on the believer. Then, Paul asks in the first of six questions, "What shall we then say to these things?" (v. 31). The answer is that God is on our side. Next, he asks, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The answer: No one with ability to harm us. Paul continues: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (v. 32). Since God has given us the most important gift, it stands to reason that He will give us ("with him") all the marvelous (although lesser) things mentioned earlier in the chapter and elsewhere in Scripture. Christ and the attendant blessings are ours, if we are not disqualified somehow.
Paul asks: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" (v. 33). No one! For we have been justified, declared to be free of sin, and "not guilty" of all charges. The only one capable of leveling a successful charge is Christ Himself, but He is the one who sacrificed to justify us. He will not charge us with anything. Likewise, "Who is he that condemneth?" (v. 34). The only one capable of condemning us is Christ, but He is the one who died as He took on Himself our condemnation. Even now, our risen Lord is championing our innocence before His Father. Certainly Christ will not condemn us.
The only remaining scenario in which it would be possible for us to lose our standing is for someone to "separate us from the love of Christ" (v. 35). "Who can do this?" Paul asks. There follows a list of seventeen possibilities, but Paul is persuaded that none of these, "nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v. 39). Instead, "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (v. 37). JDM
This article was originally published December, 2009. "Six Questions", Institute for Creation Research, https://www.icr.org/article/six-questions (accessed April 18, 2024).