If God is for us, who can be against us? These are powerfully encouraging words, but it can be hard to see what they mean for us on a daily basis.
If God is for us, who can be against us? These are powerfully encouraging words, but it can be hard to see what they mean for us on a daily basis. Christians around the world face opposition to varying degrees. Individual Christians experience personal opposition through faith-based persecution, but also through hardship, conflict, and spiritual battle. It can be tempting to believe that everyone is against us except God during these times.
So, what do these words of Scripture mean exactly? What is the context in which we are to draw comfort from them?
Where Does the Bible Say “If God Is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us”?
The Apostle Paul wrote, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 NIV) in his letter to the church in Rome. The words appear in Romans 8, but let’s look at their context.
Throughout Romans 7, Paul describes the believer’s struggle with sin and the challenge of choosing to do what is right. Romans 7:15 NIV sums up his experience and the experience of many who seek a life of obedience: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
We can certainly relate to Paul. Anyone who has tried to live a good life, break habits of sin, or even keep a New Year’s resolution knows how hard it is to battle our inner tendencies to do what’s unhealthy or wrong.
Paul continues to detail how hard it is to live righteously in a world full of evil and sin but concludes the chapter on a hopeful note:
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:21-25 NIV)
Paul is a man who understands having real-life enemies and physical opposition. He was a Jew living under Roman rule. At one time, he persecuted and imprisoned early Christians. When he became a Christian, he was rejected many times by other Jews he attempted to persuade for the gospel. He often had to escape cities in the night to prevent himself from coming to harm. Besides this, he lost friends and co-laborers in the gospel to imprisonment, exile, and martyrdom.
Paul knows about having people be against him. Still, he also understands that there is another battle—an internal battle with sin, that must be addressed before we can adequately defend against the external forces coming against us. In Romans 7, he describes this internal battle. In Romans 8, he assures us that we are “more than conquerors” (v. 37) in Christ. Where we were once slaves to death, now we are promised freedom through Jesus Christ. We experience eternal life, and we bear witness to that in our freedom against sin.
The apostle argues that this transformation is so certain and so magnificent, that any trouble we experience from external forces pales in light of its glory and power. Because of Jesus, our souls have passed from death to life—a life that won’t end when our bodies surrender to physical death. This victory is so great that all other struggles, hardships, and other forms of opposition can only be a temporary pressure that will eventually pass along with this world.
What Does this Verse Tell Us about Those Who Oppose Us?
Paul understands and teaches that there are powerful dark forces at work in our world. The forces of sin and death that entered the world in Eden are at work. The spiritual forces of evil oppose us—which he describes in Ephesians 6:12 NIV:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
In Romans 8, Paul doesn’t try to convince us that opposition doesn’t exist, but he does assure us that it doesn’t have the final word on our lives. God has already pronounced us redeemed conquerors bound for eternal glory, so what can those against us now do to us? If we live, we live for Christ. If we die, we are with Christ. Because of Jesus, we can face all hardship and opposition from a secure position, able to withstand the harshest trial because God is already with us—forever.
Does “If God Is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us” Mean We’ll Never Have Trouble?
All the apostles wrote about experiencing trouble, trials, hardships, and persecution. They wrote their letters to the churches during significant opposition from both Jews and gentiles. Paul faced arrest, resistance to the gospel, beatings, shipwrecks, storms, conflict within the church, and the constant threat of death. Peter, John, and James all wrote about coming trials for those who follow Christ. Jesus promised in John 16:33 that “in this world, you will have trouble.” With all this assurance, we shouldn’t be surprised to experience all manner of hard times.
How Does “If God Is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us” Help in Hard Times?
When hard times come, we can be bolstered in our faith by remembering that God, ultimately, is for us. He sacrificed His Only Son, Jesus, to give us salvation, redemption, and eternal life. This world, God assures us, and its trials will end along with sin and death, but we will live on with Him to see a new Heaven and a new Earth.
One week in 2022, Christians in Ukraine were shopping, planning weddings, going to work, caring for children, and planning music for worship services. The next week, they were making life and death decisions. Do we flee the country or stay to minister to those who don’t know God? How do we care for the women and children who must flee on their own when their husbands, fathers, and brothers stay to defend their homes? What does it mean to worship from inside bomb shelters, to pray for our enemy when enemy soldiers are shooting neighbors down the road… to trust God when He says that He is for us, so who can be against us?
Because of this war on Ukraine, the global church has gained a new perspective on prayer, ministry under fire, and caring for neighbors on the other side of the world. The suffering of Ukrainian citizens and the ministry of believers called to remain in the country provide strong reminders that persecution and hardship aren’t confined to the pages of our Bibles. Evil remains active in this world, but God remains at work in followers of Jesus, so we shall not fear. God has defeated sin and death, so we have every reason to hope that He will ultimately bring all who trust in Him safely through hardship to life eternal. How we bear up under suffering and hardship, by the power of Jesus Christ, can testify to the truth and light of the gospel.
And because we know He is for us, we can pray with Christ-centered boldness when trouble comes.
Prayers to Remember God Is for Us
There are many ways to pray during hard times. One powerful way to pray is to read a passage of Scripture such as Romans 8, Psalm 23, Psalm 91, or Psalm 103 as a prayer. Another is to pray through the prayer Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13, filling in specific requests or needs throughout the prayer. God assures us that when we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us, so even when we are tearfully silent before God, we can rest assured that He is with us.
It can be helpful to remember in prayer all that God has done and all that He promises by praying with words such as these: Father God, we praise You for Your plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. Thank You for sending Your Only Son to live, die on the cross, and rise to live forever. Thank you that when He ascended to sit at Your right hand, He sent Your Holy Spirit to comfort, teach, guide, and empower us in our battle against sin and evil. We give our lives to Jesus and pray for the power to be transformed so we are like Him. Hardship has come to us, but we remember that all believers have faced hardship in their times. We remember that You are for us. We remember that nothing can separate us from Your love and that You are with us and will never leave us. We are more than conquerors in Christ, and so we proclaim that if You are for us, who can be against us? Keep us from fear. Keep us from doubt. Increase our faith and empower us to live and love in Your name, even in the face of worldly opposition. Let our lights shine in the darkness of our times until we reign with You in Your eternal kingdom.
In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
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