Romans 8:31 NLT
“If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”
After sharing some of the incredible things God has done and is doing for us preceding this verse, Paul says something that is totally crucial to living a successful Christian life—the belief that God is FOR you, that He is on your side!
He asks a rhetorical question, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” It is better understood to say, “Since God is for us, who can be against us?”
The answer is—no one or thing can be against you if God is FOR YOU!
Notes
Exodus 3:12 NKJV
“… ‘I will certainly be with you.’ …”
Joshua 1:9 NKJV
“… ‘Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’”
Notes
Illustration
I recently read a true story about a man named Keith Hartsell of Wheaton, Illinois, who was driving around with a friend of his in California. He noticed that his friend’s cell phone was locked with an unusual password—pro nobis.
Keith asked him what pro nobis meant and why he chose that for a password. Keith’s friend told him it was Latin and it meant “For Us,” and then he suddenly started choking up.
Keith thought, “Why would those two Latin words cause so much emotion?” Then his friend composed himself and explained that after walking through deep personal pain, true healing came when he learned that God is “for us”—or the Latin phrase pro nobis.
Keith’s friend said that after his parents’ divorce, he had entered a season where he felt that God didn’t care or that God had given up on him. But he finally found hope through those two simple words—pro nobis (for us).
You see, when he decided to believe that God was pro nobis, that God had even sent Christ to die for him, the thought that God had somehow left him vanished forever.
Notes
In our text the Apostle Paul lays out several proofs that God is on our side…that He is “for us.” First, we know He is FOR US because:
I. His Spirit helps us in our weaknesses
Romans 8:26-27 NLT
“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
Notes
Then secondly, we know God is for us because He has decreed that:
II. All things will work together for your good
One commentator writes that all things work together “strongly and sweetly, in a variety of unthought-of and unexpected ways; for the spiritual and eternal good to the Christian.”
Notes
And finally, we know God is FOR US because:
III. He did not spare His own Son
Romans 8:32 NKJV
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Romans 5:8 TLB
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
John 3:16a NKJV
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, …”
Illustration
He did it hopefully to bring us home to Him:
“A little boy was found crying at a busy street intersection.
When he was asked why, he said he was lost. Yes, he knew his name but not his home address. Upon further questioning about landmarks near his home, a church was mentioned.
The boy brightened up and said, ‘There’s a church with a cross that’s lighted at night near my home.’ He thought a bit, then said, ‘Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.’”
1 Peter 3:18 TLB
“Christ also suffered. He died once for the sins of all us guilty sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God. …”
Notes
And because of Jesus’ death on the Cross, Satan was defeated, our sin was erased, death can’t hold us, and the grave can’t keep us!
So….“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
The answer is no one and no thing!
Romans 8:37-39 NKJV
“Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Notes