Asking my favorite Bible passage is like asking me my favorite type of cheese. I like so many of them and my preference changes from week to week. However, there’s one passage I probably come back to more than any other and it’s Romans 8:31-39:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 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? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.
Here Paul writes to assure us that nothing can separate us from the love of God and he does it by making an argument from the greater to the lesser. If God did something really big for us, why would he withhold something small? If God delivered up his Son to die – the most painful thing you could ask a father to do – why would he deny us smaller things?
So why do I love this verse so much? Here are three reasons:
1. It’s an anchor – Sometimes life stinks. You know it’s true. We sing about how generous God is, but sometimes it feels like he’s holding out on us. This passage is an anchor in moments like that. If God didn’t withhold his Son from me, why would I ever think he’s withheld what I need?
2. It’s an insight – Even people who aren’t Christians will typically tell you that God is love. But talk is cheap. How do we know God loves us? He gave up his Son for us. This passage reveals the love of God in the most powerful way I can imagine. It doesn’t just tell us God loves us. He tells us what he did because he loves us. Nothing – not one thing – can take that away from me.
3. It’s a focus – There are lots of different ways you can get through the hardships of life. You can take deep breaths. You can focus on the positive. And those might work – for a while. But here, Paul gives us something that can withstand anything. By focusing on Jesus and what he’s done for us, we can keep our path straight in even the most blinding rainstorm.
I come back to this passage again and again. If you listen closely, you’ll notice that it often finds its way into my prayers. If God gave up his Son for us, what would he withhold? In light of that kind of love, we can blaze forward into this world as more than conquerors. We can go as beloved children of the King.