ROMANS: Nothing

It is this struggle that so many of us can find exhausting. It is this challenge to walk according to the Spirit and to shut out all of the other voices screaming for our attention that causes us to scream on our insides. Paul moves on to tell us we are not alone in these struggles, for we are part of an entire creation groaning for redemption — the restoration of Genesis 1 goodness.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

And now I am also forced to consider the “sufferings” Paul mentions here in the eighth chapter. Is it a simple reference to the internal and personal struggle with sin he has been talking about? Likely, and at least. But is he also referencing the struggle of first-century Christianity in Rome? As I study this letter, I am reminded of the struggle to survive the persecution, the ridicule, and even, at times, the executions.

To put it simply, things were not as they should be and they knew it. Things are not as they should be and we know it. There is a struggle to endure, a battle that wars inside each of us, and there are wars that battle around us, some of them literal and many of them metaphorical. But things are not as they should be.

Paul says this is true for all of creation. The entirety of creation finds itself in bondage to a curse that works against everything it is supposed to be. Paul encourages his readers to fight the good fight and engage the daily struggle because of hope. We have a deep, fundamental belief in the redemptive work of God and the restoration of all things. Though we cannot see it and experience it in its fullness now, we get tastes of it. It is this hope which helps us endure and hold out for what we do not yet see.

It’s worth noting the world that Paul speaks of — the world groaning for redemption — is this world. It is not that we sit around waiting to be beamed out of here to some other place where everything is made right. No, Paul tells us this struggle is worth it because it is this world that groans for redemption, it is this world that will be set free from its bondage, and it is this world that we hope will be made right. Not only this, but our hopes for this world can often be skewed by our limited, finite perspective. Paul conveys that when we think about this struggle and our longings, as we cry out for redemption and rescue, we don’t even know what we ask.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

It is this same Spirit who helps turn our longing and our groaning into something that rises before God — a God who hears the groaning of His creation.

It seems like all of this talk about the struggle and a new righteousness that comes by faith and the hope of a God who is making everything right launches Paul into a benediction of sorts. It ends up becoming one of my favorite passages in the New Testament:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Even though this struggle is hard and the temptation to give up is incredibly real, we have a God who hears the struggle and responds to the cry of His creation. Even though there are voices inside of us that scream for condemnation, the truth of the matter is there was and there is no condemnation, for it is God who justifies. And this God justifies because of faith, not because of our ability to prove ourselves. This justifying God is for us. And if this God is for us, then who could possibly be against us? At least, who could be against us that could matter when they stand against the acceptance of God? If God is the justifier, who is the condemner? No one — at least no one whose condemnation matters.

And then I am reminded that, in fact, maybe it is a physical and literal suffering this audience was enduring. It only makes Paul’s point stronger:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Can even literal persecution and physical suffering separate us from the love of Christ? Paul laughs off the idea.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure 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.

If this is even remotely true for the first-century believers of Rome, how much more (kal va’chomer?) should it be true for us today? If the condemnation of Caesar himself and the point of a Roman sword can’t separate us from the love of God, then what about our circumstances? If the voices that rage around the believers in Rome couldn’t condemn them, how much more helpless are the voices that rage inside of our own selves?

Simply put, if God is for us, who could be against us? What is it in our lives that could possibly separate us from God’s love?

Could our failures and our past mistakes and our horrible decisions? Could our insecurities? Could the expectations of our parents? Could the expectations of the world? Could the expectations of ourselves? Could our daily struggles? Could our addictions? Could our desires?

No. Nothing could separate us from the love of God.

Nothing.

Paul said this truth makes us more than conquerors. How true that is.

Sigmund Freud once said, “How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”

You, brother or sister, are loved. And nothing could ever change that about you.

Nothing.