Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Romans 8:34-36 [NKJV] - Quote in verse 36 is from Psalms 44:22
When I first read this from the New King James, I initially read it as ‘Jesus will be the One Who condemns us…”, but after some study, this is not the case. No, it is because Christ died for our sins and that the Father resurrected Him that there is NOTHING that can condemn us because there is nothing to be condemned for…Jesus has stood in the place of us and taken what we had deserved. Not only that, that same Jesus stands at the right hand of the throne and intercedes on our behalf through His Spirit Who lives IN us! So, then Paul goes on to ask rhetorically, “Who can separate us from the Love of Christ???” So, all these answers to the questions reaffirm the opening statement in 8:1, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ and make it clear that none could ever dare to stand up before God’s throne to condemn those who have died with God’s Son.
Here is an interesting tidbit I gleaned from the Tyndale Commentary I was reading on this passage. There are some Jewish religious texts that claim that three different levels of ‘famine’ cause drought and tumult because of the failure to pay various prescribed tithes. ‘Pestilence’ comes from the failure to bring death-penalty cases before the court. The ‘sword’ comes from delaying justice. Horrible ‘beasts’ afflict the world because of false swearing and profaning the sacred name Yahweh that it was forbidden to pronounce. ‘Captivity’ (exile) comes from idolatry, incest and bloodshed. —-> The assumption behind these assertions is that various forms of suffering are God’s proportionate punishment for our sins. Paul’s theological perspective on suffering is starkly different. First, he insists that the afflictions believers might face are not punishments for sin. Second, he insists that nothing that might happen to believers can terminate Christ’s love for us or exclude us from participating in Christ’s glory to be manifest at the end of the age. Christians are not to ask if they have done something that has brought such misfortune upon them. What has brought about their suffering is publicly living out their faith in Christ. That faith also gives them the assurance that Christ’s love for them is unwavering and everlasting.
Application:
I have to ask myself – “Am I suffering for my Faith in Christ?” The answer is YES. Now more than ever. Not only that but I am ready to suffer more if it means living according to and in obedience to God’s word. I never thought I would see the day where I might lose my job because of what I believe…but friends, that is more probable every day.