Week 17: Chapter 16 — Nothing Can Separate Us

1.Romans 8:31 asks, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Ortlund treats this not as a rhetorical question that shuts down all opposition but as a question that acknowledges real opposition — and then answers it with the greater reality of God's "for-ness." What does it mean for God to be "for" you? How is this different from God simply being kind or tolerant?

2.Paul lists a series of things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ: hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. These are all external sufferings. He then adds: height, depth, things present, things to come, powers, death, life, angels, rulers. What do these escalating lists suggest about the comprehensiveness of Christ's protective love?

3.Ortlund argues that the most threatening item on Paul's list, for most modern believers, is not persecution or danger but the fear that our own sin and failure will finally separate us from Christ's love. Where does Paul address this fear specifically in Romans 8? How does his argument hold?