All Roads Lead Through Romans
By Neil Earle
MISSION MINDED: Paul wrote Romans in part to prepare for his visit to the great capital. Click map to enlarge.How happy I was at my father’s funeral to be asked to read Romans 8:31-39 – an Anglican standard.
So what’s so special about Romans 8?
We preachers like to joke that Romans comes with a warning label: “This book may change your life.” It did for Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Karl Barth. In Romans the great missionary-evangelist, the ever-active Paul of Tarsus, is promoting his missionary plans to reach Spain with his message (Romans 15:24). He is known to them only by reputation and probably wonders if the church in the great capital will support him (Romans 1:10-11). So unlike his letter to Galatians – which was dashed off in anger and hurt – or Corinthians, which dealt with a church loaded with pesky problems – Paul in his letter to the church at Rome sets forth some practical implications of Christ’s entry into the world.
‘Against the Ten Terribles (Romans 8:38-39)’
In a series of skillfully arranged contrasting phrases, St. Paul sketches the terrible obstacles that seem to stand in the way of God’s people. The first pair is “neither death nor life” to which William Barclay reports: “In life we live with Christ; in death we die with him; and because we die with him we also rise with him. Death, so far from being a separation, is only a step into his nearer presence.”Life too is stressful. We never know what’s coming next. But Paul proclaimed to all who would hear that for him “to die is gain.” He was safe in the arms of the Lord.
“Neither angels nor demons” reminds us of the unseen battles that sometimes occur. The Jews in Paul’s day believed there were good angels and bad angels and the bad ones were supposed to exert influence on events here below (Daniel 9:12-14). But Christ has triumphed over all things visible and invisible. Whatever forces of evil there may be in the unseen world, they are in subjection to Jesus (Ephesians 1:21).
“Neither the present nor the future.” It is human to worry about the future and some preachers scare people about the worst possibilities. But one pastor put it well. “I do not know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.” The “any powers” relate to “height and depth” and were technical terms for the astrological forces that were supposed to control the destiny of mankind. The Greeks had a god named “Fate” and many Romans worshipped “Fortuna” as determining our destiny. Though millions today consult their personal horoscopes, Paul knew better. As F. F. Bruce wrote: “Nothing in the course of time nor in the expanses of space can sever the children of God from their Father’s love.”
Barclay has an intriguing take on “nothing else in all creation” which he translates as “no other world.” Barclay writes: “Suppose that by some flight of imagination there emerged another and a different world, you would still be safe; you would still be enwrapped in the love of God.” That’s it. No Hollywood space tale can scare us, no H.G. Wells “war of the worlds” can deter us. God is all in all. Through Christ in us, activated by the Holy Spirit, we are more than conquerors against the Ten Terribles.
Paul’s Holy Triumph
Let’s set some context. Romans 1 painfully details the exquisite mess we humans have made of our free will. Romans 2 exposes the tragic consequences of the First Century Jewish religion to recognize its Messiah. Romans 3 turns the divine scrutiny on you and me – “all have sinned.” Romans 4 is a turning point – it sets forth true hope and faith as exemplified through the life of Abraham. But beginning in Romans 5 Paul begins to climb a magnificent staircase. He offers a “God’s eye view” of the human prospect culminating with Romans 8:31-39.
Matthew Henry called Romans 8 a “holy triumph.” Pastor John Stott organized Romans 8:31-39 around five unanswerable questions and this is a good way to get into this magnificent declaration of Christian hope.
First, Paul asks If God is for us who can be against us? Death is not destroyed among us but it has been defeated. Just as the Allies in WW2 who came ashore on D-Day turned the tide on the Longest Day but had to fight through to V-E Day on May 8, 1945, so Christians are still embattled. Sin, death and tragedy still claim their toll. “Who will deliver me from this body?” Paul cried out in Romans 7. There is this cruel and sometimes discouraging sin/righteousness tension in our lives. Baptism got us started but there is a life of snares and seatbacks ahead on the Christian journey. Theologians explain this as the difference between justification and sanctification, expressed well by a Presbyterian pastor:
“Believers are perfect as to their justification, but their sanctification is only begun. It is a progressive work. When they believed in Christ they knew but very little of the fountain of corruption that dwells in them…the carnal mind seemed to be dead but they found afterwards that it was not dead. So some have experienced more sore trials after their conversion than when they were awakened to a sense of their lost condition…But He that hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Quoted in Tyndale Commentary on Romans, page 147).
The Curse of the Cross
The good news is that Jesus stands besides us in all our afflictions. This explains Paul’s second question: He who did not spare his own Son from the cross, how shall he not give us all things? That is, he gives us all that makes for a victorious battle in spite of many reverses. Jesus is our Advocate, our own Perry Mason for the defense. God shows he is for us and shows his infinite desire to come to our aid through sending his son Jesus who died as a criminal, was vindicated by the Holy Spirit and then wants to live a good life inside us through the Holy Spirit. This is a truly astounding Christian claim – that Jesus voluntarily became a curse for us and took all of our iniquities upon himself (Galatians 3:13). This point is fundamental and helps make Romans so special.
The third question is “Who will bring any charge against us?” The analogy is of a courtroom and the question was well answered by William Barclay: “You think of Jesus as the Judge who is there to condemn, and well he might for he has won the right. But you are wrong; he is not there to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause” (Romans: Daily Study Bible, page 117).
We rejoice immeasurably in the certain hope of who our public defender is. When I read this at St. James Anglican to that perfectly attentive crowd of 200 it made me think even as I was reading, “Dad was not perfect. Many out there knew his serious faults and foibles. But here is the assurance from God's Word that the heavenly Father has covered his sins and ushered him into glory.” As John Stott put it, because God has justified us “all accusations fall to the ground. They bounce off us as like arrows off a shield” (The Message of Romans, page 256).
Neil Earle and John Stott (2005)No Condemnation
Question number four makes the point even more forcefully: who is he who condemns? As Stott answered, sometimes our own heart condemns us as we all well know (1 John 3:20). So do our detractors and every demon in hell. But Stott continues: “It is not just that Jesus rose but that he was raised by the Father, who thus demonstrated his acceptance of the sacrifice of his Son as the only satisfactory basis for our justification,” Thorough his continual intercession for us in heaven he continues to secure for us the benefits of his death. Right there is the strongest reason for solid Christian hope.
Question 5 is “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”. Here Paul rehearses his own seven afflictions and the ten terribles that bedevil us all (see box). But beyond all the earthly perils we have to go through, Paul drives on to the utmost assurance: “For I am convinced,” Paul said, and these words really struck home to me with dad’s casket before me. Paul describes Christians as “more than conquerors.” More than conquerors – how does that apply to our duel with death and sin and the forces of darkness?
It applies in real action. It is seen when Christians do such extraordinary things as Paul facing death almost regularly in his ministry, or St. Peter requesting to be crucified upside down in a shameful awareness of his inadequacy to follow Jesus. In the 400s AD Patrick was a rich young man captured by pirates and taken to the wild coasts of Ireland where people made drinking cups of their enemies’ skulls. After six years Patrick escaped and – in defiance of all human or psychological law – responded to a growing call from God to go back and convert these same wild Irish.
Imagine that! Where does such strength come from? How do we get to be “more than conquerors?” The Greek is hypernikomen – super conquerors. All this depends on the Son interceding in heaven for us and the Spirit here on earth.
Paul ends by stating that simply nothing – nothing in all creation – will separate us form the love of God which is in Jesus Christ. That includes none of the seven afflictions Paul then categorizes in Romans 8:35. Not trouble, not hardship, not persecution and Paul knew lots of this in his colorful life. Neither famines, nakedness, danger nor sword (and Paul was beheaded by these same Romans) – nothing shall deter Christ inside of us from receiving the victor’s crown that is ahead for us.
These affirmations make Romans 8:31-39 a very very special weapon in the Christian’s armor. It is a sure tonic for anyone engaged in the Christian battle. William Tyndale, the martyred translator of the New Testament, said of Romans: “the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is.” Try it. You’ll see.