The Great Eight · Romans 8:31–39 · Week 6
In week six of The Great Eight, the final message in a series on Romans 8, Pastor Mark English of Christian Life Church in Bensalem, PA, teaches from Romans 8:31–39 on what victory really looks like. Your circumstances may not have changed yet, but God is for you, Christ has answered every accusation, and nothing in all creation can separate you from His love.
Key Highlights
What to Remember
If God is for you, opposition does not have the final word.
Don’t measure God’s faithfulness by the size of your problems. Measure it by what He has already done in Jesus.
Jesus sat down because the work was finished. No accusation can undo the cross.
Not after all these things, but in all these things, we are more than conquerors.
Romans 8:31–39
What Does Victory Look Like?
When you hear the word victory, what comes to mind? Winning a championship, crossing the finish line first, defeating an opponent? We naturally connect victory with winning. Pastor Mark admitted he is a very competitive person. He grew up playing team sports and competing with his older brother at everything, and he still catches himself racing to be first when two lanes merge into one. Christie has been known to ask, “What are you doing?”
That kind of competitiveness can be dangerous for a believer, because it trains us to look for victory only in the here and now. So what does victory look like when your circumstances haven’t changed? When the diagnosis remains, the financial pressure continues, or the relationship still hasn’t been restored?
According to Romans 8, you can still walk in victory even when your circumstances aren’t shouting it. Sometimes victory isn’t about what this world can give you. It’s about what this world can’t remove from you: the love of Christ.
The battle has already been won on the cross.
Paul closes this chapter with one of the greatest declarations of confidence in all of Scripture:
“What, then, shall we say in response 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, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Romans 8:31–34
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35–39
Weeks 1–5 · Romans 8:1–30
How We Got Here
Pastor Mark believes that if you could take just one chapter of the Bible to learn the nature of God, His relationship with His people, and the fact that He is for us, Romans 8 would explain it all. When Paul asks, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things?” he is looking back over everything he has already said in this chapter.
- Week 1, We’re free: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Your past no longer defines you.
- Week 2, We’re adopted: We’re not spiritual orphans anymore. We have a family.
- Week 3, We have hope: Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).
- Week 4, We’re helped: The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us (Romans 8:26).
- Week 5, We have purpose: In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, to make us more like Christ (Romans 8:28–29).
Freedom, family, hope, help and purpose. Now Paul gives the final declaration.
Have you ever gone through a hard season, wondered how you would make it, and then found yourself getting through one day, then the next, feeling a little stronger? You didn’t do that on your own. That’s the Holy Spirit sustaining you. As Pastor Mark likes to say, if he had a quarter for every time the devil said he was going down, he’d be a millionaire. And he’s still here.
Remember, Paul is writing to believers, to people who are in Christ. These promises belong to those who follow Jesus.
Point 1 · Romans 8:31–32
Opposition Doesn’t Have the Final Word
Paul doesn’t say believers will never face opposition. The very next verses name hardship, persecution and danger, and Paul knew all of them firsthand. His question is much bigger: who can ultimately overturn God’s saving purpose for His people? His answer is emphatic. No one.
To say God is “for us” means He acts on our behalf. God knew we were sinners, far from Him, and He acted for us anyway. Verse 32 gives the evidence: He did not spare His own Son. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
We don’t know God is for us because life is easy. We know God is for us because Christ went to the cross for us.
That is a precious treasure.
Pastor Mark pointed to a story in 2 Kings 6. The king of Aram was at war with Israel, but every time he planned an attack, the prophet Elisha warned the king of Israel. When the king of Aram demanded to know who was leaking his plans, his officers told him, “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom” (2 Kings 6:12). So the king sent horses, chariots and a strong force to surround the city of Dothan and capture Elisha. When Elisha’s servant saw the army, he panicked.
“‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered. ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
2 Kings 6:16–17
The enemy was real, but the enemy wasn’t the whole story. God’s power was greater than the visible threat. Your problems may be real too: the diagnosis, the financial pressure, the broken relationship. But they are not greater than the God who is for you.
This isn’t a promise that every battle ends the way we want. It’s an assurance that opposition can’t defeat God’s saving purpose. Don’t measure God’s faithfulness by the size of your problems.
Measure it by what He has already done for you in Jesus Christ.
Ask yourself: Have I become more focused on what is against me than on the God who is for me?
Point 2 · Romans 8:33–34
Accusation Doesn’t Have the Final Word
Sometimes our greatest struggle isn’t the opposition around us. It’s the accusations we carry within us. Paul asks, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). To justify means to make right, and God has made us right with Him.
- The enemy: Satan is the accuser. When he tells you your past is greater than your future, that’s a false accusation, because there is now no condemnation in Christ.
- Other people: “Who do you think you are?” If you keep believing people’s words over you, they start to become the lord of your life instead of Jesus.
- Your own heart: “I’m just not good enough.” None of that is greater than the work Jesus finished on the cross.
You have to choose whose words you’re going to believe.
Paul says Christ died, was raised, sits at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us. To intercede means to appeal on someone else’s behalf. Pastor Mark explained that in Romans 8:26–27 the Spirit intercedes for us here on earth as He makes us holy, and in verse 34 Jesus intercedes for us in heaven, keeping and representing those He has saved.
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Hebrews 1:3
Many people miss that little phrase, “he sat down.” Under the Old Testament system, priests stood day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again (Hebrews 10:11). Their work was never finished. Not so with Jesus.
“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
Hebrews 10:12
Jesus sat down because the work of redemption was complete. On the cross He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The right hand of God is the place of authority, honor and victory, and from there Jesus keeps representing us.
Picture yourself in a courtroom, and you’re guilty. They have you on camera. The charges are read, and you know every one of them is true. Then your advocate stands. He doesn’t claim you’re innocent. He simply says, “The penalty has already been paid.”
Accusations may continue, but they can’t overturn the verdict.
That doesn’t mean we ignore sin. The Spirit convicts us so we repent and turn toward God. But conviction leads to hope, while condemnation says there is none. Jesus offers forgiveness and restoration. The enemy may remind you of your past, but he can’t undo what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
Ask yourself: Am I still carrying accusations that Jesus already answered?
Point 3 · Romans 8:35–36
Suffering Can’t Separate You
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul lists seven things: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword. Yet when hard times come, we’re quick to ask, “God, where did You go? Don’t You see what I’m going through?” We’ve all been there.
Faith isn’t found in comfortable times. It’s found in times of suffering, pressure and testing. That’s where we discover the sustaining power of Christ and a grace that outlasts the pressures of this world.
People who build their faith on comfort rarely last.
After many years as a pastor, Pastor Mark has seen people cry out to Jesus for help, receive it, get comfortable, and walk away. Their faith was built on comfort rather than on who Jesus is.
At 26, Pastor Mark lay in a hospital bed battling cancer. Doctors weren’t sure he would live. He was newly married with a two-year-old daughter, and in the dark he could see Christie sitting in a chair by the door. Then the peace of God filled the room like never before, and he sensed the Lord saying, “I can take care of her better than you can.” In that moment, even in his suffering, he knew: “I’m winning this thing.”
Today he’s 57, and he plans to keep preaching for decades.
Many people don’t want to hear that suffering can’t be escaped, because they want the Christian life to be easy. But Jesus is looking for people like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were ready to face the fire rather than turn away from God (Daniel 3:16–18). This isn’t the end. “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
Have you noticed that when you’re suffering, the first thing on your lips is the name of Jesus? Deep down, you know He’s the only one who can help. When Pastor Mark was in middle school, a neighbor across their dirt road who didn’t know the Lord called his dad one Sunday afternoon and asked him to come pray, because his marriage was falling apart. His dad went right over. In time, both the husband and wife gave their lives to Christ, and today their son serves in ministry.
Something about suffering keeps the name of Jesus on our lips and keeps us close to Him. Suffering doesn’t separate us from His love. Often, it’s where we feel it most.
Point 4 · Romans 8:37–39
More Than Conquerors
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Romans 8:37
Notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say “after all these things,” or only once the trouble disappears. He says in all these things. As you walk through them, you are more than a conqueror, because you know this is not the end.
Our victory doesn’t come from being strong enough or spiritual enough. It comes “through him who loved us.”
Being more than a conqueror doesn’t mean you never face disappointment. It means disappointment doesn’t get the final word.
- We can face hardship and still have hope.
- We can face opposition and still have peace.
- We can walk through suffering and still know that God loves us.
Our victory isn’t dependent on everything going our way.
Then Paul says, “For I am convinced.” This passage has often been described as a song of triumph for the believer. To be convinced is to be fully persuaded, settled, so that nobody can talk you out of it. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Pastor Mark added a few of his own to Paul’s list: not financial distress, not a diagnosis, not a broken relationship. End of story. Don’t let your past convince you that Jesus can’t forgive you, and don’t let suffering convince you that God has stopped loving you.
Matthew 4:19
Are You in Christ?
Every promise in Romans 8 is connected to Christ. He died for us, rose for us, intercedes for us and loves us. These promises don’t exist outside of Him. So after six weeks in this chapter, here is the real question: are you in Christ Jesus? Not, do you come to church? Not, are you a good person?
Pastor Mark was raised in church and never missed a Sunday, even on vacation. In high school his dad told him he would leave football practice early on Wednesdays for church, even if it meant riding the bench, because his dad cared more about his spiritual health than his athletic ability. Yet at 17, Pastor Mark wasn’t following Jesus. He was following his own appetites.
Going to church isn’t the same as walking with Jesus.
Sooner or later, every one of us comes to the end of ourselves and becomes desperate for something more. Jesus still gives the same invitation He gave beside the Sea of Galilee: “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19). It isn’t an invitation to be perfect. Pastor Mark shared that the closer he gets to Jesus, the more he sees the sin in his own life, because you can’t draw close to the Holy One and stay the same.
If you’re not in Christ, that doesn’t make you a bad person. It means you haven’t yet accepted His invitation. Today you can have a brand new start. You can be forgiven, the old life washed away, and Jesus will give you a new one: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You won’t walk alone, and you’ll find He is faithful.
Pastor Mark admitted he wishes he hadn’t wasted the years he sat in church without accepting that invitation. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. But you have today. Jesus loves you. Trust Him. He makes all things new.
Questions About This Message
Romans 8:31–39 Explained
What does “If God is for us, who can be against us” mean?
Romans 8:31 doesn’t promise that believers will never face opposition. It means no one can overturn God’s saving purpose for His people. We know God is for us not because life is easy, but because He did not spare His own Son and gave Him up for us all.
What does it mean that Jesus intercedes for us in Romans 8:34?
To intercede means to appeal on someone else’s behalf. Jesus died, was raised to life, and now sits at the right hand of God representing those who belong to Him. He sat down because His work of redemption is finished, so no accusation can overturn what He accomplished on the cross.
What does “more than conquerors” mean in Romans 8:37?
Paul says “in all these things we are more than conquerors,” not after them. Our victory doesn’t depend on everything going our way or on our own strength. It comes through Christ who loved us, so hardship, opposition and suffering don’t get the final word.
What can separate us from the love of God?
Nothing. Romans 8:38–39 says that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Suffering may feel like distance from God, but it cannot cut us off from His love.
Who are the promises of Romans 8 for?
The promises of Romans 8 are for those who are in Christ Jesus. Attending church or being a good person isn’t the same as following Jesus. His invitation is still “Come, follow me,” and anyone who accepts it can be forgiven and receive a new life.
God is for you.
Jesus has answered every accusation.
Nothing can separate you from His love.
In all these things, you are more than a conqueror.
Life Group Discussion
Reflect and Respond
Use these questions to continue the conversation, reflect honestly, and let the message move beyond information into transformation.
Nothing in all creation
can separate you from the love of God.
