Home / Commentary / Romans / Romans Chapter 8 / Romans 8:31-35

Romans 8:31-35 meaning

Because of Jesus’s sacrifice and our faith as believers in that sacrifice, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. The Heavenly Father who loved us enough to have His Son die for us, obviously wants us to have ultimate and lasting fulfillment, He wants to give us “all things.” The world cannot rightly judge how we should live; only God can, He who loves us.

In Rome, there were Jewish “authorities” who accused Paul of suggesting that, because God’s grace is increased when we sin, then we should go ahead and sin more (Romans 3:8). In this passage, Paul restates that because of grace, there is no condemnation before God, regardless of what the competing Jewish “authorities” might say. If God is for us, who is against us? The world can’t bring charges against us. We are in perfect standing with God, as far as eternity is concerned, because of Christ, and we can experience God’s love and approval if we walk according to the Spirit of life. Nothing can condemn us of wrongdoing if we walk in the newness of life. No circumstance or enemy can separate us from God’s love. God is sovereign over all. How unappealing the world and sin should be when we remember this.

This ties in with Paul’s insistence that although we are given a free choice to walk in sin even though we have been freed from condemnation, when we choose to walk in sin we place ourselves back under that earthly condemnation from sin on the earth. Where we experience the consequences of sin, we experience a disconnection from God, but not in the eternal sense, only experientially. To follow these competing Jewish “authorities” will be to become controlled by their threat of rejection and condemnation unless their rules are followed. The result will be actually living under the condemnation of the law, which Christ delivers us from.

But we do not need to follow such manipulators. God, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? As believers, God is for us, the creator and master of everything. So if God is for us, if He has named us His sons and daughters from faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, who can condemn us before God, who will bring a charge against God’s elect? No one. God is the one who justifies. And certainly not these competing Jewish “authorities.”

Who is the one who condemns? Just as no one can condemn us before God (because God is for us) nothing can separate Christians from the love of Jesus, He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. This ties in with 8:29 where Paul states with emphatic certainty that every believer will be conformed to the image of Christ. Paul is speaking to believers, those who have put their faith in Jesus. Because of this, Paul is proclaiming that nothing, absolutely nothing, not even ourselves, can separate us from Jesus. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Our choices do, however, make a very significant impact on how we experience conformation to Jesus Christ. But even if we succumb to the flesh and go back into the death, slavery, and condemnation from which we have been delivered, God will never stop pursuing our best interest.

Biblical Text

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Check out our other commentaries:

Genesis 1:6-8 meaning
During the second day of creation, God separates the heavens from the earth.......
Hebrews 1:3-4 meaning
Christ is the exact representation of God and all things exist because of Christ. He is seated at the right hand of God and is......
Exodus 13:11-16 meaning
Verses 11 – 16 contain the LORD’s instructions dealing with the firstborn.......
Deuteronomy 5:22-27 meaning
At Mount Sinai, all the heads of Israel’s tribes urged Moses to serve as Israel’s intercessor because they all were afraid when they heard God’s......
Matthew 9:14-15 meaning
John the Baptizer’s disciples come to Jesus and ask Him why His disciples do not fast (like they and the Pharisees do). Jesus answers them......

Additional Resources

Book Theme

The Apostle Paul writes to the world-renowned believers in Rome, the center of the world at that time, in order to answer a slanderous charge made to them against Paul and his message. Paul’s detractors claim his emphasis on faith overturns the law. Paul says that ” just living by the law” does not achieve personal justice before God, while “just living by faith” does. Paul then demonstrates what a just life looks like: harmonious living with Jesus as the leader. Paul also makes clear the choice a believer has: to walk in faith and the power of the resurrection and experience resurrection life, or walk in sin and unnecessarily experience the negative consequences.

Chapter Context

Following the law, or rules, can never make us spiritual, but walking in the Spirit fulfills the law. Institutions, and people in general, are inclined to use rules to attempt to control others, using the threat of condemnation to control them. But there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus, so there is no reason for believers to submit to such control. Paul is arming the Roman believers receiving this letter, who are already world-famous for their faith, with the knowledge that no person or circumstance can separate us from the perfect and all-encompassing love of Jesus, so they will reject the competing Jewish “authorities” attempt to condemn them in order to gain control.
Further, Paul offers up the reality that serving Jesus (rather than men) will bring the suffering Jesus suffered (including rejection by men) but that suffering leads to an unfathomable reward – to be a joint-heir with Jesus, to co-inherit what Jesus inherited for His faithfulness to His Father. For all these reasons, Paul exhorts the believers in Rome, and by extension us, to reject the control of rule-making legalism and serve Jesus with a true heart.

Videos

View Romans on the Timeline