Are You Sure? Finding Real Confidence in God’s Love for You
Someone asks, "Are you sure?" and something shifts. A second ago you felt confident. Now you're running through it all again.
Now make the question heavier. Are you sure enough to stake your life on it? Sure enough to stake the life of the person next to you?
Most of us slow down when the stakes go up. I think I'm right, but could I be wrong? That pause is familiar to me. If someone asks whether I'm sure, my honest answer is no about 85% of the time. I'm pretty sure, but I don't want to be overconfident and end up wrong. Maybe you're an overthinker too, a questioner.
We can second-guess all day long about small things. We can also do it about something eternal, and that's what this post is about.
The Question Behind the Question
Romans 8 is one of the most incredible chapters in the Bible. It tells us the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and at work in us. We aren't slaves to our sinful nature. What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory God will reveal later. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and prays for us when we don't have the words.
And Paul starts with the Gospel right away:
"The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins." (Romans 8:3 NLT)
Maybe you've known this for a long time. You grew up singing "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." You've read Romans 10:9 and thought, yep, that's me.
But are you sure? Sure about his saving power? Sure about his love? Sure enough to stake your life on it, and someone else's too?
I'm confident in this truth. I'll also admit there have been moments in my life when a little voice popped into my head, just for a second. What if you're wrong? What if you picked the wrong belief system? Can Jesus really take away all your sin? Maybe you've had that thought. Maybe you're the kind of person who isn't convinced God could really love and forgive you.
Paul wrestles with exactly this at the end of Romans 8. So the question is: how can I be convinced?
Four Questions That Settle It
In verses 31 through 39, Paul asks four rhetorical questions, and each one reveals something about who God is. He opens with "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?" This is the conclusion to everything he has laid out in the chapter so far.
1. If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (Romans 8:31)
Paul isn't promising that no one will ever oppose us. This question is a challenge thrown straight at the enemies of God's people. In effect he's saying, do your worst.
So where does the confidence come from? How do you actually know God is for you?
The wrong answer is "my life is going well." Comfort isn't proof of anything, and life won't always feel comfortable. The right answer is that God did not spare his own Son. That proof was settled once, and it doesn't move no matter what your circumstances do.
Paul takes it a step further:
"Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?" (Romans 8:32 NLT)
If God has already given the greatest thing imaginable, why would he stop short on the smaller things? If he didn't hold back his Son, he isn't going to hold back on you.
2. Who dares accuse those whom God has chosen for his own? (Romans 8:33)
Accusations come from all kinds of places. Growing up, mine came from my little brother Charlie. Never do something in front of Charlie that you don't want your mom to know about. I learned that the hard way.
Accusations also come from ourselves, and from Satan. Revelation 12:10 describes him as an accuser who stands before God day and night, building his case. Look what they did. Look at that sin. Declare them guilty. Send them to me.
That can make us wonder whether there's a point where God has had enough. A point where he says, "Never mind, you're no longer one of mine." Paul's answer is a clear no, which may be news to anyone who was taught to picture a harsh, vengeful God who gets angry every time they mess up.
"Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself." (Romans 8:33 NLT)
Paul is echoing Isaiah 50:8, where the Lord's servant asks, "Where are my accusers? Let them appear!" What matters isn't what your accusers say. It's what God has done.
None of this means there's nothing to accuse us of. We're sinful people, and sin is costly. Please don't walk away thinking sin isn't a big deal. But the Gospel doesn't say you've never sinned. It says your sin does not get the final word, because Jesus has already dealt with it. The voices of Satan, the world, and our own memory aren't wrong that we've sinned. They're wrong about what that sin means for us now.
3. Who then will condemn us? (Romans 8:34)
Accusing and condemning are different things. Think of a prosecutor and a judge. The prosecutor argues you should be found guilty. The judge is the one who declares you guilty and hands down the sentence.
Jesus, the only one without guilt, took a death sentence that was never his to carry. He didn't just die, he rose, and he is interceding for us right now at the right hand of the Father.
"Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf." (Hebrews 7:25 NLT)
That word "forever" matters. This wasn't a one-time transaction that ended at the cross. The one who holds all authority in heaven and on earth is standing next to the Father, pleading for you. Right now.
It's easy to think of salvation as purely a future thing, a ticket into heaven someday. But Jesus didn't die just so we could get to heaven. He died so we could live like him here and now.
"For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." (Romans 6:4 NLT)
Follow the thread all the way through. Jesus took the accusation meant for us. He absorbed the condemnation meant for us. He rose, defeating the death that condemnation demanded. And now he intercedes for us. Pastor Jonny Ardavanis put it in a way that has stuck with me: Satan says, "Turn that sinner back over to me," and Jesus says, "Over my dead and resurrected body."
4. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? (Romans 8:35)
Then Paul lists the things that seem like they could:
"Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, 'For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.')" (Romans 8:35-36 NLT)
That last line can feel out of place. It's actually a quote from Psalm 44, a plea from a weary, defeated psalmist. The psalm begins by remembering God's faithfulness in the past, then shifts. The psalmist is under attack and scorned even though he hasn't turned away from God, and he cries out asking why God is allowing it. But before he finishes praying, he says this:
"Rise up! Help us! Ransom us because of your unfailing love." (Psalm 44:26 NLT)
To ransom someone is to pay the price to set them free. The psalm holds three things together: God's goodness, real suffering, and the need for a savior.
I think Paul chose it on purpose. In Roman culture, people believed in many gods, and a common assumption came with that: if something bad happened to you, you must have upset one of them. Suffering was proof of disobedience. That idea wasn't limited to the pagan world, either. When people go through hard times today, many still conclude they're being punished, or that they've somehow fallen outside of God's love.
Paul is confronting that belief head on. When your spouse betrays you. When your child gets sick. When you lose your job, or get the diagnosis you were dreading. When anxiety and depression start creeping in. When you lose someone you love. Does that mean God doesn't love you?
Paul's answer is no. Hardship doesn't mean God's love is absent.
The "slaughtered like sheep" imagery matters for another reason. Isaiah 53, a prophecy of Jesus, uses the same language: "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter." Jesus entered this life, faced hardship and persecution and pain himself, and brought light out of it. He didn't just push through suffering on the cross. He entered the darkness of death, and as the Light overcame it.
So your affliction is not your punishment. Hard seasons aren't just something to grit your teeth through. They can be places where the light of Christ gets carried into dark spaces. Paul says all of this not to minimize what we face, but to tell us that overwhelming victory is ours in Christ.
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37 NIV)
The Greek is closer to "super-conquerors." We aren't just equipped to survive hardship. We're equipped to bring Christ's love and healing right into the middle of it. That's part of what Jesus died for: to restore us to what we were always meant to be, image-bearers of God's light.
So, How Can You Be Convinced?
Paul's final verses begin with two words: "I am convinced." Some translations say "I am persuaded." After walking through every threat, every accuser, and every fear, he has enough evidence to make this declaration:
"I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39 NLT)
That confidence isn't reserved for Paul, and it isn't reserved for people who have it all figured out. It can be yours, because the same Jesus who saved Paul saved you.
So go back to the questions from the start and see how you'd answer now.
Are you sure?
Yes. I am sure that God loves me. He gave his Son to save me.
Are you willing to stake your life on it?
Yes. I will live every day with this confidence. I will pursue Christlikeness with passion, draw nearer to God, and love his people.
Are you willing to stake your neighbor's life on it?
Yes. I will follow the command of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations. I will share my faith with love and care, and pray that others find and follow Jesus.
One Last Thing
Paul asks who can separate us from the love of Christ, and after every threat, every accuser, and every fear, the answer is the same as it's always been: no one. Nothing.
The lamb who was led to the slaughter is the same Christ who was raised to life. The one who bore our condemnation is the same one who now intercedes for us. And the love that held him to the cross is the same love that holds you right now, whatever you're going through.
You don't have to earn your way back into that love. You don't have to wonder whether you've finally done enough to lose it. It was proven once, at the cross, and it has never wavered since.
So go into this week as more than a conqueror. Not because your circumstances have changed, but because nothing, nothing in all creation, can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you're reading this and you haven't yet settled the question of Jesus for yourself, or you just want to talk it through, we'd love to hear from you.