Sermon Text: Romans 8:28–39
Date: August 9, 2026
Event: Proper 14, Year A

Romans 8:28–39 (EHV)

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, 29because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified.

31What then will we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him?

33Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies! 34Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! 35What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36Just as it is written:

For your sake we are being put to death all day long.
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Find Your Confidence in Christ!

Confidence is a desirable trait. It can be attractive to a potential significant other on a date or an employer on a job interview. It can be a real stress reliever going into a big test or competition, being confident of where you stand and the work you’ve put into getting to that point.

But misplaced confidence can be a disaster. The person who has had too much to drink and is confident that they’re good to drive is a danger to themselves and others. The student who is sure they know what’s on the final exam and chooses not to study may be in for a rude awakening.

So we want to have confidence, but in the right things and in the right way. We don’t want to create fiction to depend on, but we also don’t want to let despair take over when things get rough. So what are we to do? Find confidence, but find it in Christ!

Romans chapter 8 is for many people (myself included) one of their favorite chapters of the entire Bible, and for good reason. We are midway through this letter, and this chapter is a high point in his line of thought. He’s spent chapter after chapter laying out the horrible spiritual condition that all people are in because of sin and what God has done to fix it. And here the rubber hits the road. What does it mean to be justified freely by God’s grace in our day-to-day life? What does it mean that we are to be dead to sin, yet still see sin so prevalent in our lives? How can we explain the horrible things we and others go through while at the same time confessing that our all-powerful God is in control?

Christians can and should be optimistic in all things, but not out of a sense of empty “it’ll get better” or a mindless “you’ve just gotta have faith.” The Christian can be optimistic not because of themselves, but because of God. God has made us promises, and we can be absolutely certain he will keep those promises. In that confidence comes peace, not from within us, but from God.

But in that we have to be careful that we don’t create promises that God never made. As I face a problem in my life, I need to be careful not to overstate or warp what God’s promises are. The famous words of the opening verse of our reading, Romans 8:28, is an easy passage to misapply in this way. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. Someone staring down a cancer diagnosis might hear that verse and say, “God will work this for good! I’ll get better!” Maybe! But that’s not specifically what God is promising here, is it? Working something out for good is different than doing what we want him to do. What if the good he chooses to work from that cancer is to teach you patience amid suffering? What if the good he chooses to work from that cancer is to let you be a light to others in your confidence in Jesus’ love? What if the good he chooses to work from that cancer is to cause the end of your earthly life to bring you home to eternal life? All of those are good; none of those are the good that we might imagine or want God to work in that circumstance.

God’s drive and focus are always on the eternal. All we can see around us is the earthly and the temporal, which means that’s where we want things to get better, where we want to see good worked, but God has the more important matters of our eternal well-being in mind. Given that reality and the context of our reading for this morning, we do well to consider that God is not working out things for our arbitrary, subjective good. He’s certainly not working all things out in the way we want him to work them out. No, he’s working them out for our true good, our eternal good.

And that’s clear in the comfort that Paul brings in this section. More than once he lists things that threaten us or hardships we might have to endure. The point should be pretty clear: the Christian will have suffering in his or her life. Just as Jesus promised crosses to bear, so God through Paul is giving us a list of the things we might have to endure: trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. What are the things that we may run into in a troubling way? Death, life, angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powerful forces, height, depth, or anything else in creation. That last one is quite a stinger, isn’t it? Where might trouble come from? Oh, anything in all of the created order in which we live.

But Paul has such confidence despite this unending list of hardships and struggles! Why? How? The answer is both simple and complex: Jesus. Paul sees Jesus as the ultimate expression of God’s love for us. If Jesus died for us, why should we expect that any gift or any work of God would ever be considered too big? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? If Jesus is our Savior from sin (and he is!), why would he withhold anything else good from us?

To fully appreciate that, we need to see clearly where we stand with God. We know that we are sinners who fail each and every day. Our consciences love to remind us of those failures, causing us to feel guilty, and Satan loves to whisper in our ears that what we’ve done is beyond even God’s patience, love, and forgiveness. Satan’s ultimate, despicable goal is that we view ourselves beyond God’s grace, doomed to hell with no way out.

That’s Satan’s perspective, which doesn’t seem like the sort of thing we should put a lot of stock and faith in. Rather, what is God’s perspective? Paul lays it out: Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies! Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! Can Satan bring an accusation against us? Sure, he can try. But unfortunately for him, God, our judge, has already made the ruling. He has pronounced on you and me the verdict of “Justified!”, that is, “Not guilty!” So Satan can huff and puff and throw a fit all he wants; it will not change the fact that God has declared us free from sin.

And why has he made that verdict? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! Jesus’ death paid for our sins; his resurrection proved that the payment was accepted. We are free from sin, completely forgiven. And if that were not enough, Jesus himself intercedes for us; he prays for us! Not that there is actually a danger of our heavenly Father forgetting what has happened and treating us as our sins deserve, but Jesus himself pleads our case to his Father and ours continually. “Father, you punished me in their place. I died for them! Love them! Take care of them! Do not be angry with them!”

The unspoken answer to Paul’s question “Who is the one who condemns?” is “No one.” Jesus’ work has made sure of that. And so that’s our relationship with God: perfect, without any fear of condemnation, punishment, or reversal. God has sealed that in the blood of Jesus. Which then leads to Paul’s next question: What will separate us from the love of Christ? If God has said that we belong to him, what is going to be able to pull that relationship apart?

One of my favorite TV shows when I was little was Knight Rider, the story of a man solving crimes with the help of his wildly advanced super car, KITT. The car looked on the outside like a normal car that would have been susceptible to the normal things cars would be vulnerable to, be that in the hands of thieves or those looking to wreck it or hurt those inside it. But KITT was different. This car was impenetrable to either the thieves’ tools, the criminals’ firearms, or many other more severe threats. Generally speaking, unless there was a narrative reason for it to go otherwise, if you were inside of KITT, you were safe.

That’s the kind of safety that Paul is describing in the love of Christ. KITT didn’t make the bullets disappear, but he did protect his occupants from their effects. Likewise, our connection to Jesus doesn’t make the sorrow and the hardship of this life disappear, but it does completely incapacitate their ability to do anything to hurt us or separate us from our Savior. We’ve already seen Paul’s lists of things that might try to do that, and they all fall at Jesus’ feet, powerless, dead, unable to do anything to hurt us or separate us from God.

Our eternal safety is certain. Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. And when he comes, we will be with him forever. The troubles of this life can’t do anything against us; in all these things we are more than conquerors (superconquerors!) through him who loved us.

That is confidence to face the difficulties of today without fear. Not looking to ourselves, but to Jesus. Not creating made-up promises that we want to be true, but clinging to everything he’s said and done. You, my fellow conqueror, are safe in your Savior. Find your confidence for today and forever in Christ alone. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria