Anyone who studies the Bible carefully knows that there are times when we reach a soaring peak of revelation and we're left utterly breathless by the view. This happens when we come to the last great section of the book of Romans, chapter 8. Commentators have called Romans chapter 8, verses 31 through 39, a hymn of assurance, a triumph song, and the highest plateau in the whole of divine revelation. But surely these accolades are too weak. This is a mountaintop section. It's the Mount Everest of Paul's letter to the Romans and thus the highest peak in the Himalayan range of God's Word. And on this Resurrection Sunday, I want us to look at this passage, and this is the result of the resurrection. What is the result of Christ being risen from the dead? What are the benefits that come to us as the people of God? We learn that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So if you're able, I invite you to stand as I read to you from Romans chapter 8. verses 31 through 39, Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 31. 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, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 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 have been killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will continue forever. God of life, your Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. Your Spirit inspired the prophets and the writers of Scripture. Your Spirit draws us to Christ and helps us to acknowledge Him as Lord. We ask that You will send Your Spirit now to give us deeper insight, encouragement, faith, and hope through the proclamation of the resurrection gospel. I pray this all in Your precious name. Amen. Strictly speaking, there are seven questions in these verses, two in verses 31 and 35, and one each in verses 32, 33, and 34. But the first question is actually not part of the set of questions. It's a formula Paul has for using from exposition to the conclusion of an argument. He's used it several times in this letter to the Romans. And so Paul asks here in verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? In other words, in light of what I've been teaching, says Paul, what are the conclusions that follow? And then follow five unanswerable questions. The last two questions in verse 35 are actually two parts of the same question, and so there are five main questions. And these five questions concern things that might be imagined to defeat God's plan for us or to hurt us. But each question is unanswerable because there is nobody or nothing that can defeat God's plan for us. Commentator John Stott says, the apostle hurls these questions out into space, as it were, defiantly, triumphantly, challenging any creature in heaven or earth or hell to answer them or deny the truth contained in them. But there is no answer, for nobody or nothing can harm the redeemed people of God. So in Romans chapter 8, verses 31 through 39, we learn that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of these five unanswerable questions. So the first unanswerable question is at the second part of verse 31. If God is for us, and by the way, I invite you to look at your Bibles. It's helpful for you to see it written as well as I point you to the text. If God is for us, who can be against us? Now taken by itself, the second half of this question is not at all unanswerable. Who can be against us? Why, many people and many things can be against us. And not only can they be against us, but they are against us. The Bible teaches that every Christian faces three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is against us because Christianity is an offense to it and is opposed to its God-rebelling ways. The world will try to get us to conform to it, and failing that, it will try to overcome us. Our flesh is also an enemy because it contains the seeds of sin. We're unable to escape its benevolent influence throughout our entire lives. And as if that were not enough, we have a powerful enemy in the devil described by the Apostle Peter as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Yes, there are plenty of enemies against us, but what are these when combined with the first part of the verse? If God is for us. There's the good news of God. Now in Greek, I'll give you a Greek lesson this morning. You don't have to pay for this. This is extra. There are four conditional clauses that use the word if. And the word here in this sentence implies no doubt. Now Paul is just banished out in the previous verses. He's shown us how God has foreknown us by setting His love upon us and predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of His beloved Son. Then He called us and justified us and glorified us. And so here in verse 31, the word if could actually be translated as since. since God is for us, and that makes all the difference in the world. That's as if Paul is challenging us to place all possible enemies on one side of an old-fashioned scale, as it were, and we're weighing feathers on this side, and then he takes a big brick and he drops it on this side, and as it comes crashing down, the feathers go scattering into the wind. If or since God is for us, who can be against us? Who can stand against God? The answer is, of course, no one. No one and nothing can defeat us if God Almighty is for us. But someone says, That assumes God does not change toward us. No one can indeed stand against God, but what if God should grow tired of us or forget about us or move on to something else? And Paul deals with this speculation in verse 32, which is the second unanswerable question asking. Look at it. 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? Each of these five questions is unanswerable because each is grounded on some undeniable truth. And the undeniable truth in this verse is that God has given us His Son. If Paul had merely asked, will God give us all things? We might hesitate, for how could we be confident that He would? He's given us much to be sure, but all things? Wouldn't we be right to think that even God has limits to His grace and generosity? That might be reasonable to think were it not for the fact that God has already given us His Son. Jesus is the greatest gift God has to give. Yes, He gave Him. And He gave Him not merely in some mystical way. God gave Jesus over to death so that we might be rescued from the judgment that is due to us for our sins. And the assurance we have is the resurrection because the resurrection proves that God has accepted Jesus' sacrifice for us. And so Paul challenges us to look at the cross and reason as follows. If God did that for us, sending His own Son, Jesus, to die in our place, is there anything that can be imagined that God would withhold from us? God has already guaranteed us all things since He has not withheld His Son. Listen, this verse is a blank check. for all our actual needs. For example, we need strength to overcome temptation. By ourselves, we cannot resist the temptation to sin. So will God give us the strength we need to overcome temptation? Of course He will. Paul says, "...no temptation that is not common to man has overtaken you. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but will with the temptation also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it." We all need a friend to help us through life's dark places so we don't lose hope. Will God provide a friend for us? Absolutely. Jesus said, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. And He goes on to say, and behold, I'm with you always. to the end of the age. Do we need direction for how we are to live and please God? God Himself will provide direction. God says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Do we need comfort? When we've lost a loved one, God is the only source of sure comfort. Jesus promised and He said, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper or comforter to be with you forever. And will God be with us in death's dark hour? Of course He will. He will sustain us in death and bring us joyfully into His glorious presence. The Bible says, precious in His sight is the death of His saints. And in case somehow we think that some critical need of ours has been overlooked, that I've missed something, We remember Paul's words to the Philippians when he said, So dear friends, if God gave us Jesus, the greatest of all possible gifts, He can also be counted on to provide us with these necessary lesser gifts as well. The third unanswerable question moves into the legal area as if we were now in a court of law asking whether someone might exist somewhere to accuse us and thus bring us into final spiritual condemnation before God. The question is in verse 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Who could do that, Paul asks. since it is God who justifies. Maybe you remember that great scene in the prophet Zechariah where the high priest of that day, Joshua, was standing in the temple, no doubt preparing to present the people's sacrifice. And Satan was also there, standing there, accusing him. Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes that were a symbol of his sin. The devil was arguing that Joshua is not fit for his office because he was a sinner. Did you know who else was there? God. And he rebuked Satan and he said, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? God was referring to Joshua. Then we are told how Joshua's filthy clothes were removed and how he was clothed with rich garments and a clean turban, symbols of his justification through the finished work of Jesus. And so who could accuse him now? The answer is clear. No one. No one at all. Why? because God had justified Him. And this is the picture Paul's question brings to mind. Many may bring charges against us, the world, the flesh, the devil, but if we are God's elect, the Apostle Paul states emphatically, it is God who justifies. Who could secure our condemnation when the highest judge of all, the supreme judge, God, has already acquitted us? The fourth unanswerable question is so closely related to the third question that some consider to be asking the same thing, and yet there is a difference. Paul had asked earlier whether the good purposes of God could change toward us, and concluding that they could not, since God had already given us Jesus, the greatest gift of all. Now Paul goes further, asking whether Jesus' attitude could change. Verse 34 asks the question, who is to condemn? And Paul answers, 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. This is a striking image. The idea is that Jesus is interceding for us. And the word that is used here is paraclete. And a paraclete is a comforter. And Jesus used the word of the Holy Spirit when He told His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit to be their helper. And John used this word to refer to Jesus, saying that He is also a paraclete, a helper, an advocate with the Father. The idea is that this is a picture of a divine law firm with two branches, a heavenly branch and an earthly branch. On earth, the Holy Spirit pleads for us, interpreting our petitions correctly to the Father. But in heaven, Jesus pleads or intercedes for us on the efficacy of His shed blood and the resurrection is the proof that God has accepted His sacrifice to show that we are saved persons and that nothing, nothing can now rise and come and bring condemnation against us. And the final, all-embracing, and climactic, unanswerable question is in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And the answer carries us to the chapter's end. With this fifth and final question, Paul does what we have been doing with these other four questions. He looks around for a possible answer. He brings forward all the enemies he can think of which might separate us from the love of Christ. We may have to endure tribulation, or distress, or persecution, the pressures of an ungodly world. We may have to undergo famine or nakedness, that is, the lack of adequate food and clothing, which Jesus promised to the heavenly Father's children. We may have to experience danger or sore, that is, the danger of death, an actual death, even martyrdom, which is the ultimate test of our faith. And these are real tests. Scripture warns us in Psalm 42 that God's people are for His sake being killed all the day long. That is, we're continually being exposed to the risk of death like sheep for the slaughter. Yes, these are enemies indeed. These are real sufferings, painful sufferings, perilous sufferings, hard to bear. But can they separate us from the love of Christ? No. Far from separating us from the love of Christ, in all these things, in these very sufferings, in the experience and the endurance of them, we are more than conquerors. Nothing, beloved, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. So, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? No one. 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? He gave us Jesus. He will also give us all we need. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? No one. Why? Because it is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? No one. Moreover, 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. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, no, no, no, a thousand times, no, 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 can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So let me ask, what do you say to these things? What is your response? You may respond with indifference to the question and the doctrines of grace behind it. You really couldn't care less about the answer because you actually think this whole thing is rather foolish. Or you may respond with hostility. You think it's actually arrogant to believe that God has shown some special favor to some people and not to everyone. You don't believe that God acts in such a marvelous way. Or you may respond with joy. You believe there is no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus. And as you hear all that God has done for you in Christ, your heart swells with overflowing joy. You believe that God's love is indeed great. You believe that His love for you is the very foundation of your salvation. You know that you love God because He first loved you. You know He demonstrated His love for you by sending His Son, Jesus, to die and to be risen again from the dead for you. You believe that the love of God in Christ is the greatest reality in the entire universe. It is the strongest, most steady, firm, unbending, solid, substantial, constant, uniform, dependable truth in the entire world. And so I ask you, what do you say in response to these five unanswerable questions? Do they strike a positive note in you? Do you find yourself rejoicing? Do you find yourself saying, yes, that's true? If so, that proves that God is working in your life, bringing you out of darkness into His marvelous light. But if this teaching does not seem appealing to you, if it doesn't seem true or if you regard it with indifference, I warn you that you are not a Christian and do not know the Lord Jesus in a saving way. Therefore, I present Him to you as Savior. I urge you to repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus. This very gospel, the good news of the love of God in Jesus Christ, is commended to you. As Paul wrote, God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What then do you say to these things? May the grace of God enable you to respond to this message with great joy by believing the truth about the good news of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank You for sending Jesus, who lived and died, was buried, and then three days later was resurrected again, brought back to life. It's a sign that You had accepted His sacrifice for sinners like us, and that on a resurrection Sunday like today, we can rejoice in the glory and the goodness of these wonderful truths. that we can hear these five unanswerable questions and know that You have done everything for our salvation, for sinners like us, and how we rejoice in the goodness and the glory that You have given to us. Our Father, if there is anyone here today who is not a Christian, who does not yet know Jesus savingly, would you grant that person faith in Jesus and repentance of sin? I pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.