“I’m not sure that I’m a Christian.”
I’ve heard that comment and similar many times over several decades of Christian ministry. Rather than being aghast that someone lacks assurance it is actually a good starting point. The bigger problem occurs when someone professes to be a Christian but maintains a faulty basis for assurance and security. That person may roll through life without a spiritual care in the world because he is convinced that he is a Christian, when the truth of the matter may be that he is not.
What are some of the common, faulty bases for assurance? The most obvious is one’s claim to baptism and church membership. Due to a tie to the church and the significance of baptism, a person may be clueless about the gospel yet feel perfectly confident that he is eternally saved from God’s judgment. I fit that category for a number of years. I knew nothing about the gospel but due to my baptism and church membership, I felt quite confident that I was a Christian when in fact I was not.
Many times I have heard people cite their “decision” or walking down an aisle or “praying the prayer” as the basis for assurance. Yet in each there is emphasis on what “I did” rather than what God in Christ has done in me. I questioned a young lady in her mid-20s a number of years ago about her salvation. She seemed to be in an honest struggle but it was quickly scuttled when her mother reminded her that when she was five, she “prayed the prayer” and therefore was saved. Though she remembered nothing about this and could not give a clear testimony of conversion, she took her mother’s word for it that she was a genuine believer. She fell into the trap of allowing someone other than the Lord God to declare her to be a Christian.
Others maintain that they are Christians due to their reasonably good morality or their respect in the community. They just could not think of themselves as not being Christians! Their view of God and eternity would not allow them to think otherwise, even though they had never been born of God.
The common thread with all these positions demonstrates a misplaced reliance when it comes to the most important relationship in eternity. They are very confident that they are Christians but their confidence has no biblical moorings, and therefore quite worthless.
Is there any ground for true assurance of salvation? Indeed there is, as Paul has shown us throughout this study in Romans eight. Assurance belongs to true believers. The last three verses offer a good summary that focuses our attention on four reliable anchors for assurance. Do these anchors steady you in times of fear and doubt?
Assurance maintains a cross-focused perspective. We notice this in the verb tense of verse 37. “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” We expect Paul to write, “…through Him who loves us,” emphasizing the continuing love of Christ. But he has something particular in mind that calls for using a past tense. He points to the cross of Christ, the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God for us at the cross. How do we know this? Look at what he has emphasized in the context. Verse 32 points to God delivering over Jesus Christ “for us all,” language of substitution and representation. Not sparing His Son, God put Him in our place as the object to His wrath. That’s why verse 33 emphasizes the result of this atoning work of Christ: “God is the one who justifies.” Then in the next verse, to counter the threats of condemnation, we are taken to the redemptive work of Christ: His death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession. Paul capsules this as “the love of Christ” in verse 35, love demonstrated through each aspect of His redemptive action. The phrase encompasses all that He is and has done for the redeemed. So when he summarizes these verses in verse 37, he used the past tense to hone our minds to the point of our redemption: Christ at the cross.
Here is one of the most practical approaches to assurance. Return to the cross of Jesus Christ. If the ground of your assurance is walking down an aisle or praying a prayer or baptism, then you are relying upon something that you did. How does that stand up when all of life bears down upon you, when you are stripped of all personal confidence? Returning to the cross puts the reliance where it belongs—on Jesus Christ as our sin-bearer, substitute, representative, atoning sacrifice, propitiation, deliverer. When the ground of your confidence is the crucified Savior who stood in your place at the cross, who bore the full weight of God’s wrath against you, and who fully satisfied divine justice in that solitary act on your behalf, then you “overwhelmingly conquer” every foe assaulting you. Your reliance is upon Christ alone.
Return often to the cross. Meditate on Jesus Christ’s death for you. Ponder those good biblical terms and phrases like propitiation, atonement, sacrifice, Lamb of God, on behalf of, for us all, redeemer, redemption. See how they are used in their biblical contexts. Feed your soul upon the richness of Christ’s redemptive work so that you rely on Him and not yourself.
What’s the difference between objective and subjective? The latter refers to experience. Is experience unimportant? Certainly not, it is important that our Christianity is experiential. So we don’t want to minimize the experience of faith in Christ. Yet experience varies from person to person; no one standard defines genuineness. Due to your emotional framework, your experience of faith in Christ may be demonstrative or it may be quiet and calm. You can fall into a trap of judging your Christian life by someone else’s experience. I remember talking with an older gentleman when I was in my 20s about this very thing. He claimed to have had “a Damascus Road experience.” He said that as he was working his job at a tire manufacturing plant, God blinded him with the light right there! Then he said, “Unless you’ve had a Damascus Road experience like that then you are not really called by God.” Whether he had such an experience or whether he had low blood sugar or heart palpitations instead, is debatable. But trying to make his experience normative for everyone was folly. That was subjective with no objective criteria in Scripture affirming this as genuine.
When something is objective it is concrete and observable, undistorted by whim or emotion or bias. God’s Word is objective in that it is stated in clear terms using the standard of definable language. So when assurance is built on the objective work of God then it looks at what is stated clearly in Scripture concerning God’s redemptive actions. It relies on God’s decisive work at various points in history recorded in Holy Scripture.
Now, that brings us to our text. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities…shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Focus on the first verb: “I am convinced.” Grammar makes this an indelible truth. Paul used a perfect passive indicative verb. The perfect tense refers to an action that is already settled and accomplished but the results continue. So the persuasion or confidence that he refers to was settled long before and continues to remain steady throughout the demands of life and death. The passive voice is the main issue I want to raise. Had Paul inferred that his confidence rested on his experience or his response to God, then he would have used the active voice, that is, demonstrating that it was what he had personally done that brought him assurance. Plus, we would be forced to compare our experience with Paul’s as the standard for assurance. But he used the passive voice, which means that he had nothing to do with the action but rather he was acted upon. His confidence rested in the work of Another and not his own.
So what did he mean when in the face of being “considered as sheep to be slaughtered” he could speak so confidently? What was it that convinced him that nothing could separate him from God’s love in Christ Jesus? “For” serves to introduce the conclusion to his argument. In other words, “for I am convinced,” returns to the context of what the Apostle has already stated concerning objective truths regarding salvation. What convinced him? Here is where we once again see the practical application of doctrine. Paul was convinced that nothing could separate him from Christ’s love…
because God foreknew him and predestined him to be conformed to the image of His Son;
because those whom God predestined He also called, justified, and glorified;
because God demonstrated that He is “for us” by not sparing His Son but delivering Him over to die a wrath-averting, sin-atoning death in our place at the cross;
because God is the one who justifies or declares sinners to be righteous;
because Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession delivered us from condemnation (vv. 29-34).
Here is the objective, concrete, definable, historical, and purposeful work of God for those who trust in Jesus Christ. The basis for assurance finds solid foundation in this objective work rather than depending upon the whims of emotion or the shifting tides of experience. Each aspect of God’s work adds another immoveable layer to the believer’s assurance that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love! So build your assurance on what God in Christ has done and not on the level of your experience.
Why do we struggle over assurance of salvation? Often it is because we think that something too big or too horrible has dislodged us from God’s saving grace. Either we encounter suffering to such degree that we fear God has abandoned us (as we studied in the previous passage) or we fail miserably when tested by the demands of life or some circumstance seems to overwhelm our Christian faith. Intentional or not, we put limits on the effectiveness of redeeming love in those settings. Something becomes bigger in our minds than the power of God’s love and grace. Human foibles or supernatural opposition alter the promises of the gospel. In a word, the cross of Christ fails, God’s grace is inadequate, and His love meets its limit.
Now, let’s be honest. None of us would likely make such assertions! Yet we can think and live like it in the way we approach assurance. But as you probably surmised, Paul addressed this clearly. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Not only can this not happen by strong efforts opposing our faith in Christ but none of these things will be able to separate us from Christ’s love. There is no power, ability, strength, or leverage that can pry the arms of redeeming love from those who are in union with Jesus Christ!
Consider how Paul breaks it down. “Neither death, nor life,” poses the full range of human existence. “Death,” however it may take us, “life,” whatever it throws at us—up or down, neither can separate us from Christ’s love. “Nor angels, nor principalities,” takes us to the supernatural realm. He may refer to evil angels since there would be no cause for good angels to severe us from Christ. Or Paul may even have in mind angels guarding the honor of God or he may use angels hypothetically. The point is that no supernatural creature can separate you from redeeming love. “Nor things present, nor things to come,” refers to the known and the unknown. The known may be prosperity or suffering or grief or tragedy or fame or success. So can the unknown. A number in our church family has been personally struck in the past two weeks by the sudden death of a mother with young children and the tragic death of a young teenager on her way home from school. Things present and things to come may stun us but they cannot separate us from Christ’s redeeming love.
“Powers” is an ambiguous term. It may point back to the angels and principalities but that would seem oddly placed. Or it could refer to worldly rule, the powers exercised by unregenerate men against those in the faith. Or it could be a generic use of power—any kind of power. Whichever it may be, it cannot separate us from Christ’s love. “Nor height, nor depth,” points to “the immensity of the physical universe” [L. Morris, Romans, 341]. Whether in the highest heaven or the lowest depth, there is no possibility existing to separate you from redeeming love. Just in case there’s some other situation we dream up, Paul adds, “nor any other created thing, will be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Put the totality of creation together. Nothing exists—including yourself—that can separate the believer from His Lord’s love! When you are “in Christ Jesus our Lord,” that is, in relationship with Him, nothing has the ability to severe you from Him. So when you begin to place limits on just how effective Christ’s redeeming love really is, repent! Go back to this list. Put your Christ-limiting fears and attitudes at the feet of sovereign, redeeming love.
I hinted at it a moment ago but now let’s consider it more closely. When you are in Christ Jesus then you are in union with Him. You are in a living, dynamic, unchanging, and vital relationship. The whole sphere of your life is forever in Christ Jesus. He is never fickle, as we are, nor unreliable, as we sometime are, nor changing, as we are, nor does He pout, whine, despair, abandon, and give up as we may do. Nothing “will be able to separate you from the love of God, which is [i.e. which exists in the sphere of] in Christ Jesus our Lord.” By the grace of God, when you are united to Jesus Christ through faith, an eternal relationship exists. Union with Him is relational not commercial or temporal or political. God the Son laid down His life for you at the cross. The Lord of glory embraced you with redemptive love. He prepares a place for you because those whom He calls and justifies He also glorifies. So you can rely on His faithful love to never bend, break, budge, or bomb! Steadier than the earth’s orbit, His love is not rocked by “things present, nor things to come.” Purer than the driven snow, His love for you cannot be changed by “angels…principalities…nor powers.” Nothing in “death, nor life,” no “height nor depth,” nor “any other created thing” can drive a wedge between you and Jesus Christ.
If you are in union with Him then these promises belong to you. Glory in them! Apply them! Enjoy them! Sing of them! Rejoice in them! (And now reflect upon them as we consider with our senses at the Lord’s Table the death of Christ for us.)
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