april 13, 2025
Welcome to Gateway! It’s such a blessing to worship with you today. If you’re new to Gateway, we want to extend a special welcome to you. Please visit GatewayOnline.org/nextsteps to get more connected.
“Love Unbroken: God’s Unshakeable Embrace” (Romans 8:31-39)
Romans 8:31-39
31 What, then, shall we say in response 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, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.
1) The cross was the answer - God is for you.
The word "if" in verse 31 isn't a conditional statement where Paul is unsure about whether God is for us. It's a rhetorical device that it used for effect. It's a declaration of the fact that God is for us. He has proven it through the cross.
If God is for us, we should expect others to be against us. God's truth contradicts much of what the world believes.
The next time the enemy whispers, “Is God really for you?” – point to Romans 8 and say, “He already proved it!” God is more committed to your future than the enemy is to your failure.
2) Nothing can outrun, outlast, or outmuscle the love of Christ.
The word translated as "trouble" in the NIV literally means to be pressed together. It's the idea of building pressure. We know what it like to face pressure, don't we? The Holy Spirit is our pressure release valve. He intercedes for us and makes sure nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
Since Jesus suffered, we should expect to suffer, too. The Holy Spirit will strengthen us, just as the angels strengthened Jesus the night before His crucifixion (Luke 22:42-44)
3) We don't just win - we crush the enemy.
Good Friday is an important part of the story, but it's not the end of the story. Jesus didn't stagger out of the tomb looking like He just got beat to a pulp. He walked out of the tomb fully alive and completely victorious!
We are more than conquerors through Christ. We don't win the race by stumbling across the finish line. We bust through the tape with chin up and chest out. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
A Prayer to Trust in Jesus:
“God, thank you for loving me even though I’ve rebelled against You. I confess that I’m sinful. I’m so grateful that Jesus died on the cross to pay for all my sins. Right now I turn away from my sins and I turn to You. I’m putting my full trust in Jesus to rescue me from my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and washing me clean on the inside. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
