In the year 168 AD there was a great persecution of Christians which swept through Asia Minor (what is now modern Turkey). In the city of Smyrna, there was an 86-year-old bishop named Polycarp who was especially pursued because he was the last living disciple of the Apostles. His followers hid him away for weeks, trying to protect him from persecution, but the Roman authorities finally found him. The Roman governor wanted to make an example out of Polycarp, so he summoned all of the city into the arena. They brought out the elderly Polycarp and tied him to a stake, and the governor asked the bishop to renounce his faith in Christ. Polycarp answered, “Eighty-six years I have served my Lord Jesus Christ, and he never once wronged me. How can I blaspheme my king who has saved me?” He threatened him with the prospect of being mauled by wild beast and with being burned alive, to which Polycarp answered, “You threaten me with fire which will burn for an hour and then will go out, but you are ignorant of the fire of the future judgment of God reserved for the everlasting torment of the ungodly. But why do you delay? Bring on the beasts, or the fire, or whatever you choose; you shall not move me to deny Christ, my Lord and savior.” At this, the crowd called for him to be burned alive, yet when they lit the flames, he would not burn. Frustrated, the governor ordered him to be stabbed to death.
Polycarp is a famous example of millions of martyrs who chose death over the renunciation of their faith in Christ. When we hear a story like this, we marvel at how they could endure persecution with such faithfulness. The answer to that question is found in Rom. 8:31-39. In this passage we find our last answer to the question of how the Christian can suffer with hope in this present age. We can hope in suffering because we have no fear of judgment, and we can rely on the faithful love of God.
First, from verses 31-34 we find that we have no fear of judgment. Paul asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This is not to say that there aren’t people who are set against us. No, the point that Paul is making is that the primary concern we should have in our lives is for the judgment of God. It is lost on many just how terrible the judgment of God will be. The Bible describes that judgment as eternal fire, outer darkness, gritting of teethe, and an abiding sense of despair. We’ve already seen in Romans that we are all sinners. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. And, even though we have faith in Christ and God has given us his Spirit, we still struggle with sin because of our attachment to this fallen world. So, we know that if it were up to us to prove our worthiness at that great and final judgment that is to come, we have no hope of escaping the darkness, fire, and despair of Hell. But, God has acted graciously towards us when we were still sinners. So, in verse 33, Paul says that there is no one who can bring a charge against us. God is the one who has justified us (or declared us righteous), so who can condemn us. No one can condemn us because the very Son of God died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Not only that, but he rose again to defeat death for us, so that we might rise too. And, he now sits at the right hand of God that he might intercede for us. Right now, and every second of every day, Jesus Christ represents us before the Father. When ole Satan raises his hand to accuse us, Jesus points to the nail scars in his hands and says, “Bought with a price.”. If we are called to stand before a court of men for the sake of our belief in Christ, they may do their worst. They may accuse us of immorality because we don’t meet with their perversions. They may accuse us of hatred because we testify against sin and warn of judgment. They may even condemn us to die. But they cannot condemn us to eternal judgment because Jesus has already defeated Hell for us.
Second, we can rely on the faithful love of God as we suffer. In verses 35-39, Paul goes on to ask, “who can separate us from the love of Christ?” This is a reasonable question to ask, given what Jesus has done to save us. If no one can condemn us because Jesus has died, risen, and intercedes for us, then that means that the only one who could condemn us Is Jesus. So, is there anything that can separate us from the love of Jesus? Paul asks, can tribulation? The word tribulation means “pressure”. It’s a general term that is a placeholder for any trial that we might face. Then, he gets more specific. Can distress separate us from the love of Christ? Distress is any kind of natural calamity, like a hurricane or flood. Next, can famine? What about nakedness, which speaks of destitution – being so poor that you can’t afford clothes? Can danger, like political unrest or rioting? Can the sword, which is a placeholder for war?
Now, I think Paul gives this list of calamities because in any of these situations, it can be tempting to think that God is set against us. We can be tempted to think, when we lose all of our belongings to a fire, that God doesn’t love us. We might think that God hates us when we face a plague, a lockdown, an inflationary spiral, and a recession within the course of two years. But I want you to pay close attention to Paul’s emphatic answer in verse 37. Can anything separate us from the love of God in Christ? No! In fact, it’s not just that we can’t be separated from God’s love, but we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” In other words, regardless of what we may lose in this life, we still have Christ, and Christ is enough! He gives us victory over sin. He gives us strength when we are weak. He has overcome the world, and we will, too.
Paul ends this thought in verses 38 and 39 by listing out all of the things that have no power to separate us from the love of Christ. First, whether we are facing the threat of death or living the fullness of this life, we cannot be separated from the love of Christ. Second, there is no authority, whether angelic or human, that can separate us. Third, there is nothing in our past, present, or future that can separate us. Lastly, there is nothing in all of the created order that can separate us.
You see, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ because we did nothing to earn his love to start with. God’s love for us in Jesus Christ is given by his grace. We don’t deserve it. So we can’t lose it because the circumstances of our lives have changed. And, beyond that, God’s love is perfect. That means that there is nothing we can do to add to it, either. God doesn’t love you any more than he loved you at the start. And he won’t love you any less because you caught him by surprise. God’s love for you is based on his grace, not on who you are or what you’ve done. And this gives us all the confidence we need to face suffering with hope. So, may we leave ready to face suffering knowing that God’s love for us endures beyond anything that this world may bring.
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