Fear Nothing Part Two. (Romans 8: 31-39)

Fear Nothing – Part Two:

📖 Scripture Romans 8:36–39

🗣️ Summary:
In this second half of our journey through Romans 8, we go deeper into the heart of one of the most comforting passages in all of Scripture. Paul reminds us that suffering is not new to God’s people—it has always been part of the story. But even in suffering, we are not defeated. We are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.

In it comes his defiant, soul-assuring proclamation: nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We look closely at every category Paul names—death and life, angels and rulers, time itself, powers and principalities, heights and depths—and find that not one of them has the power to cut us off from the unshakable, never-failing, always-pursuing love of Christ.

This isn’t a sentimental love. It’s a victorious, suffering-tested, cross-proven love. A love that holds us when everything else gives way.

🕊️ Key Themes:

• The enduring love of God in suffering
• Jewish and early Christian views on angels and spiritual powers
• Assurance in the face of trials, fear, and doubt
• Interpreting Paul’s poetic climax in Romans 8
• Why our confidence in Christ can hold, even when we feel like crawling across a frozen river

🧠 Big Idea:
God’s love is not changed by our circumstances. It is proven in suffering, present in every trial, and victorious over every power. If you are in Christ, nothing—absolutely nothing—can separate you from that love.

💬 Final Word:
No matter which way the wind blows in your life, God is love. And in Christ Jesus, that love will never let you go.

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Transcript

Fear Nothing Part Two. (Romans 8: 31-39)

TRANSCRIPT:

....Paul had faced nearly all of these dangers and pressures—he recounts them in detail in 2 Corinthians 11. But why does he list them here? Because these are the sorts of trials that tempt us to question the love of God. When life threatens us, when illness strikes, when we lose someone we love, when the pressure is unbearable—we start to wonder: does God still love me? Can He?

So, Paul doesn’t just talk theology; he turns to Scripture. In verse 36 he quotes Psalm 44:22: "For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." The suffering of God’s people is nothing new. It stretches all the way back. The faithful have always seemed to live under the shadow of death. We walk with a sentence hanging over our heads—daily death. It’s as if we’re on death row, and we’ve not yet been executed.

You’ve likely had those moments. When everything felt like it might collapse. When a loved one’s life hung in the balance. When your job was slipping through your fingers. When illness overtook you. In those moments, the question comes: If God loved me, would He really let this happen?

That’s the question Paul is answering: Can anything separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? And his answer in verse 37 is triumphant: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

More than conquerors. That phrase is remarkable. We don’t just survive—we prevail. And we do so not through sheer grit or determination, but through the love of Christ. 

It is His love, not our strength, that turns suffering into glory, trial into testimony.

In verse 18, Paul had already laid the foundation: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us." Suffering, then, is not a contradiction to love—it is the proving ground for it.

And so, Paul says, in all of these situations we are not conquered. We conquer. And not in our own strength. Through Him who loved us. The love of God is not sentimental; it is victorious. As John Milton once said, “He who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe.” But we overcome not just through might, but through love. And that is a deeper victory.

And now Paul gives his personal testimony. Beginning in verse 38, he declares with utter conviction: “For I am persuaded…” This is no tentative thought. This is settled assurance, born of suffering and saturated in faith: “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.”

Let’s look briefly at each of these.

First, conditions: death and life. Not even death, the ultimate enemy, can separate us from God’s love. In fact, Paul says elsewhere that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). And life? That includes everything—joy and sorrow, temptation and distraction, loss and gain. Nothing in life can undo God's love.

Then he mentions angels, rulers, and powers. These may be spiritual beings—good or evil—or earthly authorities. 

Even angelic powers cannot separate us from him. What does that mean. At this particular time the Jews had a highly developed belief in angels. Everything had its angel. There was an angel of the winds, of the clouds, of the snow and hail and frost. of the thunder and the lightning, of cold and heat, of the seasons. The Rabbis said that there was nothing in the world, not even a blade of grass, that had not got its angel. 

According to the Rabbis there were three ranks of angels.

·         The first included thrones, cherubim and seraphim.

·         The second included what they called powers, lordships and mights.

·         The third included angels and archangels and principalities. 

More than once Paul speaks of these angels ( Ephesians 1:21 ; Ephesians 3:10 ; Ephesians 6:12 ; Colossians 2:10 ; Colossians 2:15 ; 1 Corinthians 15:24 ). Now the Rabbis believed that they were grudgingly hostile to men. They taught that in Satan’s fall from the heavenlies they had become angry when God created man. It was jealousy in that they did not want to share God with anyone and had begrudged humanity having a share in relationship with him.

The Rabbis also propagated a non-biblical legend that when God appeared on Sinai to give Moses the law he was attended by his hosts of angels, and the angels begrudged giving Israel the law, and assaulted Moses on his way up the mountain and would have stopped him had not God intervened. 

So, Paul, thinking in terms of his own day, says, "Not even the grudging, jealous angels can separate us from the love of God, much as they would like to do so."

No age in time can separate us from Christ. Paul speaks of things present and things to come. We know that the Jews divided all time into this present age and the age to come. Paul is saying: "In this present world nothing can separate us from God in Christ; the day will come when this world will be shattered, and the new age will dawn. It does not matter; even then, when this world has passed and the new world come, the bond is still the same."

No malign influences (powers) will separate us from Christ. 

Paul also speaks about height and depth. These are astrological terms. The ancient world was obsessed and controlled on what William Barclay  calls, “The tyranny of the stars.” They believed that a man was born under a certain star and thereby his destiny was settled. 

There are some who still believe that still today; but in the ancient world people were really haunted by this supposed domination of a man's life by the influence of the stars. Height (hupsoma, in Greek) was the time when a star was at its zenith, the high point in the sky and its influence was greatest: Depth (bathos, Greek) was the time when a star was at its lowest, waiting to rise and to put its influence on someone. Paul says to these haunted men of his age: "The stars cannot hurt you. In their rising and their setting they are powerless to separate you from God's love."

Regardless, none of them hold sway over the love of God. Colossians tells us that Christ triumphed over all these at the cross. So, no force in heaven or hell has the power to undo what God has done.

Then Paul speaks of things present and things to come. That covers the whole sweep of time. Nothing now, and nothing that ever will be, can interfere with His love. Then height and depth. Perhaps he means heaven and hell. Or perhaps he means the highest mountain and the deepest sea. Either way, he’s saying: no place you can go, no height you can reach or depth you can fall, will remove you from the reach of God’s love.

And then comes the final flourish: “nor any other created thing.” That covers everything. Everything that exists is created—except God. So, Paul is saying, “Nothing created—absolutely nothing—can separate you from the love of God in Christ.”

And notice again, Paul ends as he has done in each of the last four chapters: by using the full name of Jesus Christ. This love is not generic. It is “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s where it resides. That’s where we find it. That’s where we live.

Let me close with a reflection. Nothing can separate you from God’s love. That’s the truth. But not all believers grasp it equally. Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 that the saints might “comprehend… the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Even Romans 8, with all its majesty, can only begin to hint at it. Words cannot contain it.

So, pray. Pray that you would grasp it more fully. That you would grow in your understanding of just how wide, how long, how deep, and how high is the love of God in Christ. Because the love is always there. It never changes. But our experience of it—and our confidence in it—can.

Let it settle in your soul: God loves you. God is for you. And nothing—absolutely nothing—can ever change that.

Let me close with a little story—one I’ve always loved.

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher, was once walking through the countryside with a friend when they spotted a weather vane atop a barn. On it were the words: “God is Love.” Spurgeon, ever the theologian, turned to his friend and said, “That’s a bad sign. A weather vane turns with the wind, but God’s love never changes.” But his friend smiled and replied, “No, you’ve got it wrong. That sign means that no matter which way the wind blows—God is love.”

And you know what? That’s exactly what Romans 8 is saying. No matter which way the wind blows in your life—whether it’s a gentle breeze or a hurricane—God is love. And God loves you. If you are in Christ, that love will never, ever change. Not for a moment.

This whole chapter—this whole book!—is about assurance. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be this: Nothing.

Nothing can condemn you.

Nothing can accuse you.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

No person, no pressure, no pain. No circumstance, no suffering, no season of doubt. If you belong to Jesus, then God is for you—and if God is for you, who could possibly stand against you?

Think about what Paul says here. Christ died. Christ rose. Christ intercedes for you. The Holy Spirit intercedes for you. You have been declared righteous by God Himself. The result? Your future glory is guaranteed. Your salvation is secure. The love of God is a fixed, unchanging, eternal fact.

It’s like a if you were crossing a frozen river, You might be nervous, thinking the ice might not hold. So you crawl along, inch by inch, afraid you might fall through. And then suddenly, a large truck loaded with logs rolls right past him, crossing the frozen river with ease. You feel safe and secure now.

Listen to me—you’re not going to fall through. The ice will hold. Christ is your solid ground. But maybe you're crawling today, unsure, afraid. If you’re in Christ, you don’t need to crawl. You can walk. You can run. You can live in freedom. Because the essence of the Christian life begins with this unshakable truth: nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And yet, it’s often in suffering that we’re most tempted to doubt. Paul knew that. That’s why this chapter brings us back to the cross. When life hurts—when famine or fear or disappointment knock at your door—it’s then that you must look at the cross and remember: He 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?

That’s it, friend. That’s Romans 8. The cross is your proof. Your foundation. Your confidence. And Paul says it as strongly as words will allow: Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, hear me now as we close:

You may fall flat on your face.

You may feel cold, and tired, and done in.

You may lose the music in your life or walk through suffering that feels unbearable.

But even so—God will hold you.

Nothing—no hardship, no loss, no death, no demon, no doubt—can change the fact that you are loved, forgiven, and forever free in Jesus Christ.

And if God is for you—what else really matters?

Paul has told us today that you can choose to think of every terrifying thing that this or any other world can produce. Not one of them is able to separate the Christian from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, 

He Lord of every potential terror and Master of everything this world or the spiritual realm might throw at us.

Of what then shall we be afraid?

So, walk out into the world today not with fear, but with freedom. Not crawling but standing tall and pressing forward. Because the wind may blow in any direction… but God is love. Always.