Skip to main content

Day 1 Romans 8:31-39 Devotional

Pray:

Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Romans 8:31-32,

“31 What, then, Shall we say in response to this? 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?”

Understand:

This week we move to the end of chapter 8. Like a crescendo in a musical piece, the chapter builds to share the truth that we are more than conquerors in Christ. Paul wants his readers to internalize the truth he has been teaching; he wants to move us to a new level of confidence in God’s provision. He wants us to grasp what God has done for us in the resurrection of Jesus. He wants us to know that we have nothing to fear—like Paul, our security rests on God’s love made known in Jesus!

That’s why he asked the question: “What, then, shall we say to this?” What is the “this”? It’s everything he said in chapters 5-8. Think back to what we’ve looked at as we’ve moved through these chapters over the last few months: we talked about how we have peace with God through faith in Christ; how we were dead in Adam, but now have life in Christ; how we’re dead to sin and alive to God; no longer slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness; how we’ve been released from the law and bound to Christ; how we now have life in the Spirit; how we’ve been justified and made children of God—co-heirs with Christ; finally, how we can have confidence that we will be glorified together with Christ. This is what Paul is asking us to respond to…

So how do we respond? I think we stand in amazement of all God has done! I don’t see any other option for us. We stand with Paul and his irresistible conclusion: “If God is on our side, who is against us?” Think about that…God, who is the judge, is also the advocate appearing for us. No one can advocate against us and think they will triumph over Him—no one!

It would have been amazing enough if Paul had stopped here, but he didn’t. He goes on to write that because God is on our side, there is nothing He will not give us. Do you see it in the passage? It’s in verse 32 where he said, “Graciously give us all things.” Our guarantee of this truth is the fact that He has already given His own son—He did it for us!

Don’t miss the weight of the ‘all things’ in this verse. The ‘all things’ are our final glory and all that God provides to bring us to that glory; it’s the ‘good’ that we looked at last week.

Apply:

Take some time today and think about your response to God’s work in your life. Ask Him to help you grasp the truth of what we’ve studied over the last few months. You might even set aside time to flip through your Bible. Look back over the headings in chapters 5-8 and ask God to help you grasp more fully the work that has been done in your life because of Jesus. Ask God to give you a heavenly perspective as you work to live a single story life for His Glory.

*From what you have just read and considered, what is a personal implication/application for your life today?

Live:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the Gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live out this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the Good News today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.

 

Inspiration and insight for the devotionals came from the following books: Reading Romans with John Stott; The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World (The Bible Speaks Today Series), Stott, John; Romans (The NIV Application Commentary Book 6) Moo, Douglas J.; Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies) Moo, Douglas J.; Believers Bible Commentary; The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, with the New International Version, Romans through Galatians; NIV Application Study Bible. The Cambridge Bible Commentary, Romans, Best, Ernest.

Leave a Reply