Romans 8 · a question people ask
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" (8:31). Does the chapter say hard things won't come?
The chapter doesn't say so. A few verses later it names hard things: "Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (8:35), and it gives Scripture's words, "For your sake we are killed all day long" (8:36). Then it says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (8:37), and it ends, "nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (8:39). Earlier the chapter speaks of "the sufferings of this present time" (8:18). These notes promise no one any particular outcome, and say no more than the verses say.
The verses
“What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.”