Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 3/21/2007

Question
Can you give me a summary of Romans 8:31-39?I would also like to how these verses can apply to a person who maybe feeling like an outcast.

Answer
Dear Shante,

Thank you for your questions about Rom. 8 and how it would relate to someone who feels like an outcast. First, lets look at the Scripture:

Rom 8:31  What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  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?
Rom 8:33  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemns? 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.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
Rom 8:37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
Rom 8:39  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.

When Paul uses the pronouns “we” and “us,” he isn’t referring only to him and/or the Christians at Rome. He includes all who read his words. So you and I are included in all this encouraging information. There is nothing that can take us away from Christ, once we have accepted Him and daily live with and for Him.

We may experience sickness, injuries, even death. But Paul explains that even these will not separate us from the care of Jesus. There need be no more fear, because when we are in Christ, we are bound for His kingdom. Nothing can stop us if we have a daily relationship with Jesus

Perhaps another statement of Paul will explain it:

Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

There is no outcast when you become one with Jesus. All you need to do is to say something like: “Dear Lord, I’m a sinner, but You died to save sinners. I believe that you did that, so please save me from my sins and accept me as your child. Amen”

You need to surrender yourself to Jesus every day, and stop thinking of yourself as an outcast. In Christ you are a child of God:

John 1:12  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
John 1:13  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

As a child of God, the King of kings, you are a member of the royal family. And in God’s family a person’s earthly status makes no difference, for are all one in Christ Jesus.

I’d like to invite you to visit my web site www.PettyPress.com. Besides 16 of my books, there are 40 Bible lessons, over 100 Bible questions answered, and much, much more.

If you have any other questions, feel free to write directly to me.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr., Instructor
Allexperts.com
petty@hyperusa.com