{"id":23162,"date":"2022-09-16T22:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-8_18-30-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-08-31T21:43:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T04:43:55","slug":"romans-8_31-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-8_31-39\/","title":{"rendered":"How Great is God\u2019s Love for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:31-39 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 8:31-39.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 8:31-35 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 31-35:\u00a0 In this passage Paul uses 7 rhetorical questions to express how immense, full, overpowering and all-surpassing is the love God has for us, such that we really have nothing to worry about when it comes to our lives, and every reason to thank God.\u00a0 All 7 questions are rhetorical, meaning that Paul asks them to make a point rather than to pose a real question.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the points Paul is making with each question:<\/p>\n

31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What, then, shall we say in response to this?…<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, God\u2019s grace in our lives is so amazing it should really leave us speechless and in awe.<\/p>\n

31<\/sup>\u2026If God is for us, who can be against us?<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, if Almighty God is on our side, it doesn\u2019t matter who else is against us.<\/p>\n

32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, if God loves us so much so as to give up for us His most precious treasure of all, His own Son Jesus, then we can trust in God to provide for all of our needs.<\/p>\n

33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, if God declares us righteous, then we are righteous and it doesn\u2019t matter who else tries to accuse us or lay charges on us.<\/p>\n

34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, if God has declared us to be righteous, and the resurrected Lord Jesus is at the right hand of the Father praying for us, any condemnation we receive from our enemy Satan or from anyone else is powerless to change who we are in Christ.<\/p>\n

35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, there is nothing and no one in all creation that can separate us from the love of Jesus.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Romans 8:36-37 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 36-37:\u00a0 In verse 36 I believe Paul may be quoting Psalm 44:22 in a sarcastic way, as if to make fun of those who quote Scripture to justify living in a constantly hopeless, defeated and depressing way.\u00a0 For Paul is basically saying that because we are so incredibly blessed by God we have no reason to live without hope or joy, as if we\u2019re just sheep to be slaughtered and every day is just death, defeat and hopelessness.\u00a0 No, because of Jesus, we have every reason to be full of life and thanksgiving.\u00a0 For in all these things (i.e. trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword) we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing Paul\u2019s Holy Spirit-fueled can-do attitude coming out big time here.\u00a0 I pray we would catch some of that too.<\/p>\n

Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 38-39:\u00a0 This is Paul\u2019s answer to his own question which he posed in verse 35 about \u201cWho shall separate us from the love of Christ\u201d?\u00a0 Nothing!\u00a0 Not even death, demons, problems in the present, frustrations about the future, any authority, no high, no low, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s the matchless, incomparable, all-powerful love of God for you and me.<\/p>\n

By the way, one of my favorite songs based in part on this passage is “Healing Is In Your Hands” by Christy Nockels and the Passion Worship Band.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t think of a better prayer to end off on than the lyrics of this song.<\/p>\n

Healing Is in Your Hands<\/u><\/h2>\n

by\u00a0Christy Nockels<\/a><\/h2>\n

No mountain, no valley
\nNo gain or loss we know
\nCould keep us from Your love
\nNo sickness, no secret
\nNo chain is strong enough
\nTo keep us from Your love
\nTo keep us from Your love<\/p>\n

How high, how wide
\nNo matter where I am
\nHealing is in Your hands<\/em>
\nHow deep, how strong
\nNow by Your grace I stand
\nHealing is in Your hands<\/em><\/p>\n

Our present, our future
\nOur past is in Your hands
\nWe’re covered by Your blood
\nWe’re covered by Your blood<\/p>\n

In all things we know that
\nWe are more than conquerors
\nYou keep us by Your love<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 8:31-39.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 8:31-35 (NIV)
\n31\u00a0\u00a0What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
\n32\u00a0\u00a0He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
\n33\u00a0\u00a0Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
\n34\u00a0\u00a0Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
\n35\u00a0\u00a0Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?<\/p>\n

On verses 31-35:\u00a0 In this passage Paul uses 7 rhetorical questions to express how immense, full, overpowering and all-surpassing is the love God has for us, such that we really have nothing to worry about when it comes to our lives, and every reason to thank God.\u00a0 All 7 questions are rhetorical, meaning that Paul asks them to make a point rather than to pose a real question.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the points Paul is making with each question:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23165,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23162\/revisions\/23165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}