“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

-Romans 8:31b, ESV

Like many of Paul’s questions throughout the book of Romans, this is rhetorical.  Based on everything preceding it, the answer is “nothing and no one”.  While a vast array of physical and spiritual powers arise against us, if God is for us, they plot in vain.  Still, it is easy to quickly pass over this while delving into the rest of the glorious truth of “the great eight”.  What does it really mean that God is for is, and under what conditions is it true? Thus, I want to focus on the implications of the condition “if God is for us”.  If God is for us, ALL of God is for us, meaning all of His attributes.  We will examine this by discussing what it means for God to be for us and how that is possible before discussing the implications of His specific attributes being for us not against us.

Is God For Us?

First, what does it mean that God is for us? J.I. Packer uses Romans 8:31 as the centerpiece to the last chapter of Knowing God. Here, he defines “for” used in that verse as “on behalf of”. (pg. 260)  Thus, the phrase could be rendered, “if God is acting on our behalf”.  This has a legal connotation, bringing to view a lawyer acting on behalf of a client—except this lawyer is also the judge.  Romans 8:33b-34a restates this in such terms: “It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?”, thus “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (Romans 8:33a, ESV).  This does not mean charges will not be brought against us—indeed the devil accuses the saints constantly (Revelation 12:10)—but that those charges will be dismissed for the elect, since God justifies.  But God’s action on our behalf goes beyond justification.  After listing various trials that Christians may face, Paul says that none of these can separate the believer from God, thus God’s perfect advocacy makes saints “more than conquerors” amidst these circumstances (Romans 8:37).  This is stunning, as a conqueror is the pinnacle of military prowess, having not only achieved victory but achieved it decisively and completely.  Who is more than a conqueror?  One on whose behalf someone else conquers, as Hezekiah was more than a conqueror when the Angel of the Lord obliterated the Assyrian army on his behalf.  Therefore, if God fights your battles, the outcome is never in jeopardy.

But is God for us?  If the answer is “no”, we cannot lay hold of this hope.  Romans 8:37 gives the basis of this hope: “through him who loved us”.  Romans 8:39 defines “him” by saying “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  Thus Christ (and only Christ) is the basis of God acting on our behalf.  Apart from Christ, God does not act on our behalf but against us, as we are hostile to God (Romans 8:7), dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), and given over to condemnation (Hebrews 10:27) as God’s enemies (James 4:4).  But Christ came and took on flesh on our behalf (Romans 8:2-4), lived a life of perfect fulfillment of the Law on our behalf, took on our sin and died on our behalf, was raised from the dead on our behalf, and now intercedes to God the Father on our behalf (Romans 8:34b).  Thus, God is for us if and only if we are in Christ.  All who are united to Christ by faith have God acting on their behalf and can therefore claim this promise, but all who are not united to Christ by faith—whether by hostile rejection, indifference, or earnest religious works—are still at enmity with God and cannot claim this promise.  How do we know?  “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).  If we are His children (as all who are in Christ are), God is indeed for us, meaning that all of His attributes work on our behalf.

All of God’s Attributes on Our Behalf

Shai Linne extolls the various attributes of God most notably in his album entitled Attributes of God, including this line in the song “Mercy and Grace”: “because of the cross, all His [God’s] attributes are for us”.  Some of these attributes (like love, wisdom, patience, kindness, grace, and mercy) are rightly studied and celebrated in the church, but those that seem less comforting are often either neglected or looked upon with fear and skepticism.  These include God’s justice, righteousness, anger, jealousy, judgement, and wrath.  While a healthy fear (respect) of these is appropriate, those who are in Christ must not dread them but instead rejoice in them because these operate on our behalf just as much as the others.

Justice and Righteousness

Romans 8:33-34 states clearly that no one can condemn those whom God has justified through Christ.  This turns our right response to the justice and righteousness of God from dread to comfort.  Before Christ, the Law pointed to God’s righteousness and man’s inability to meet God’s standard of righteousness.  The entire argument of the first seven chapters of Romans (and much of the rest of Scripture) is that God’s righteous standard cannot be met apart from faith in Christ.  But this means that by faith in Christ, God’s righteous standard not only CAN BE met but IS met by faith in Christ.  Since Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, God declares us righteous. And once the truly righteous God has declared us righteous, no one can reverse that ruling—not even God Himself.  This is not because the omnipotent God lacks the power but because it would be against the nature of the immutable God to change His mind (Numbers 23:19, Psalm 110:4). In fact, were God to declare saints bought by Christ’s blood as anything but righteous, He would in fact be unjust, as He would be punishing us for sin Christ already paid for.  Thus, the righteousness and justice of God work on our behalf to secure our righteousness in Christ.  As John Newton stated:

“Let us wonder; grace and justice join and point to mercy’s store; when thro’ grace in Christ our trust is, justice smiles and asks no more: he who washed us with his blood has secured our way to God.”

-John Newton, “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder”, 4th verse

Anger and Jealousy

God’s righteousness and justice clash with sin to produce anger.  In our modern emphasis on the love of God, it is easy to lose sight of the anger of God.  Now, the love of God is assumed, overshadowing and even eliminating any notion of the anger of God not only in society but in many of our churches.  Yet God’s anger is a constant theme in both the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 1:37, 3:26, 4:21, 9:8, 9:20, 1 Kings 8:46, 2 Kings 17:18) and New Testament (Mark 3:5, Revelation 14:10).  Thus, Scripture clearly teaches that God is angry with people because of sin, and there is nothing anyone can do can quench or appease His anger.

God’s anger is magnified by another often overlooked trait: His jealousy.  This is certainly not the first attribute of God that comes to mind, but God uses jealousy as His name, “for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14).  The word is next used in Numbers 5 of a husband suspecting his wife has committed adultery, which sheds light on the glorious nature of God’s jealousy.  Del Tackett defines this type of righteous jealousy as “zeal that arises when sin threatens a covenant relationship”.  Whether the relationship is between husband and wife or God and man, this type of jealousy is the correct response to sin, not in spite of love but because of love.  The bible often compares idolatry to adultery, so a lack of jealousy from God about idolatry (like a lack of jealousy from a husband about adultery) would actually communicate indifference—a lack of love.  Thus, God’s jealousy is His zealous and relentless commitment to maintain His covenant relationship with His Bride.  This brings us back to “for us” in Romans 8:31, which J.I. Packer describes as declaring God’s covenant commitment:

“The goal of grace…is to create a love relationship between God and us who believe….And the bond of fellowship by which God binds himself to us is his covenant.  He imposes it unilaterally, by promise and commandment.”

–J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 261

Since we are the Bride of Christ, His jealousy protects and sustains that covenant relationship. 

Still, as the Bride, the pervasiveness of sin that steals our affections causes us to relate to the wayward wife that commonly personifies Israel in prophecies (Isaiah 50:1-2, Ezekiel 16 and 23, Hosea 1-2).  Since our hearts are still idol factories, we often find ourselves guilty of spiritual adultery.  We echo the words of Robert Robinson in “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.”   Though it is good and necessary to solemnly contemplate, grieve, and repent of our sin—a practice the American church must relearn—too much identification with the adulteress metaphor is detrimental, making us think we can never please God and that he merely puts up with us.  Since Scripture is clear that without faith in Christ it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), it is equally true that with faith in Christ it is possible to please God.  God delights in us as we grow in faith, love, and unity as the Body of Christ.  And while we may wander, our identity is no longer the wayward wife, but the Bride Christ has chosen and will keep. Paul said, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11b, ESV).  Our hope is in future glorification, which God’s jealousy ensures.  This means that just as surely as Christ has purchased the Bride and the spotless white wedding gown she will wear, the Holy Spirit will most assuredly finish His work of sanctification and present the Church to Christ without blemish (Ephesians 5:27, Revelation 19:7).  The zeal (i.e. jealousy) of the Lord will do this (Isaiah 9:7)!  Thus, we can rest in God’s jealousy for us (not against us) and exclaim along with God: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3, ESV).

Judgment and Wrath

The anger of God naturally leads to an even more unpopular concept: wrath, which is inescapable in any serious study of Scripture.  From Genesis 3 to Revelation 20, the theme of God’s wrath and vengeance is prevalent.  This is not the unjust vengeance of Lamech (Genesis 4:23b-24), but the just and righteous judgement of the holy God against all sin which He cannot tolerate and so vehemently abhors.  God’s wrath is seen presently by Him giving sinners up to their sin and its consequences (Romans 1:18-32), but it is most fully seen in the Final Judgement.  The author of Hebrews explains:

“Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God…and has outraged the Spirit of grace?…It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. 

-Hebrews 10:28-31, ESV

Thus, the wrath of God is to be feared, causing unbelievers to declare that being crushed by boulders of a collapsing cave is far preferable (Luke 23:30, Revelation 6:14-17). 

While dread is the appropriate response of the unbeliever to God’s wrath and coming judgement, the believer has a much different perspective.  Just a few verses prior to the unbelievers’ dread is the believers’ response: anticipation.  In Revelation 6:10, the martyred saints emphatically ask how long until God’s wrath is poured out.  Specifically, they are asking how long until God avenges their blood.  Here, they are obedient to the command in Romans 12:19 to not avenge themselves but “leave it to the wrath of God”.  Thus, whenever we are wronged or suffer injustice, the wrath of God becomes our refuge as the righteous wrath of God will avenge us without us needing to avenge ourselves—as any pitiful attempt at vengeance we could muster would fall woefully short.  But while we anxiously await the wrath of God, we should not wish it on anyone but pray that they would trust Christ and thus be saved from God’s wrath.  In His incredible patience, God withholds the final outpouring of His wrath until all who are predestined to trust in Christ believe.  So while we pray that Christ would come quickly and right all wrongs (Revelation 2:20), we should pray that God would forgive our enemies, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:24).

Conclusion

By examining the relation of God’s more feared attributes to the believer, including His justice, righteousness, anger, jealousy, judgement, and wrath, we see that in the end, all of God’s attributes work in favor of those who are in Christ.  Thus, instead of dreading or choosing not to think about these attributes, we can take great comfort in them.  As God works out our salvation, all of His attributes combine perfectly to sustain us in Christ, restore creation for our future enjoyment, and finally present us to Christ as the spotless Bride on the Last Day.  This is how all things work together for our good, so we say with Paul:

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

-Romans 11:33-36, ESV