{"id":1841,"date":"2010-07-05T20:26:58","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T01:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1841"},"modified":"2010-07-05T20:26:58","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T01:26:58","slug":"romans-831-powerful-loving-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-831-powerful-loving-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 8:31 &#8211; Powerful Loving Father"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Banner-MOG-701.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1808\" title=\"Ministry of Grace\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Banner-MOG-701.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"421\" height=\"80\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #840404;\"><strong>Romans 8:31- Powerful Loving Father<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What then shall we say to these things? If God <em>is<\/em> for us, who <em>can be<\/em> against us?<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>God is powerful and is watching over us, His children.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"color: #000080;\">For<\/span>\u201d is translated from <span style=\"color: #840404;\"><em>huper<\/em><\/span>, which primarily means \u201cover\u201d or \u201cabove.\u201d Figuratively, however, it means \u201cfor\u201d in the sense of protection, care, or favor.<\/p>\n<p>The word \u201c<span style=\"color: #000080;\">against<\/span>\u201d is from <span style=\"color: #840404;\"><em>kata<\/em><\/span>, primarily meaning \u201cdown upon.\u201d \u00a0So, I suppose we could translate the second half of this verse as, \u201cIf God is over us, who can come down upon us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we go on, take a few minutes and read through the entire eighth chapter of Romans up to this verse. This chapter is like a trip up the side of a volcano in which the sides get steeper (as the theology gets more personal) until we reach the rim of the volcano in verse thirty-one. Between this and the remainder of this chapter, we see an eruption of the glorious benefits of being an adopted child of God. God\u2019s love and God\u2019s blessings to us just burst forth in these remaining verses.<\/p>\n<p>Paul starts off this eruption with a couple of rhetorical questions. The first is, \u201cWhat then shall we say to these things?\u201d In this question Paul is challenging all of us to take stock of what he has been telling us in this chapter, namely:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. We have been given the righteousness of Christ.<\/li>\n<li>The Holy Spirit of God lives within us and gives spiritual life to our mortal bodies.<\/li>\n<li>This Spirit has freed us from the bondage of sin and we have been adopted by God. We are now His children.<\/li>\n<li>We are heirs of God Almighty.<\/li>\n<li>But, as joint heirs with Jesus Christ, we will also suffer in this world just as He did.<\/li>\n<li>However, this suffering can\u2019t even be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us at the end of this age.<\/li>\n<li>All creation groans under the curse of sin, expectantly waiting for the end of the age when we will be glorified.<\/li>\n<li>The knowledge that this glorious future awaits us enables us to endure our present suffering.<\/li>\n<li>In the midst of this suffering, the Holy Spirit is our prayer partner, praying for us in ways we can\u2019t even comprehend.<\/li>\n<li>In spite of our suffering, we know that God will produce good in us through this suffering.<\/li>\n<li>God completely knows us.<\/li>\n<li>God has chosen us as His adopted children.<\/li>\n<li>God has already declared us to be as righteous as Christ.<\/li>\n<li>God will give us glory like Christ has.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The second rhetorical question is, \u201cIf God is for us, who can be against us?\u201d The answer obviously is, \u201cNo one!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Application<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In light of all of these wonderful things, it is obvious that God loves each one of us and is a loving father to all of us. And just like a neighbor kid claiming that his dad is bigger, or stronger, or smarter than yours, Paul knows that our Father is greater than anyone or anything that may stand against us. Therefore, be courageous because \u201cIf God is for us, who can be against us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And this is just the beginning of Paul\u2019s exciting volcanic eruption.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In God\u2019s service,                                                                                    for     His        glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/WILLKR%7E1.000\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/moz-screenshot-2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Signature1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1809\" title=\"Will\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Signature1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"63\" height=\"35\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013                                                                                  \u2013    \u2013     \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   \u2013   &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>If                                                                                    this         message    or      this      link     was                    forwarded      to           you     by   a                    friend               and           you                     wish    to          receive              future          verses                 directly     to             your                 inbox,      send                    an         e-mail            to:<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Will_e-mail1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1810\" title=\"Will_e-mail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Will_e-mail1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"156\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romans 8:31- Powerful Loving Father What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Truth to Learn God is powerful and is watching over us, His children. Behind the Words \u201cFor\u201d is translated from huper, which primarily means \u201cover\u201d or \u201cabove.\u201d Figuratively, however, it means \u201cfor\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[997,880,998,895],"class_list":["post-1841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-against","tag-for","tag-hyper","tag-kata"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-tH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}