Penultimate Assurance

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I have some questions for you:

  • Are Some People Predestined to Hell?

  • Why Did So Many Jews Refuse to Believe in Jesus?

  • Are the Jews Still the Chosen People?

You know you’re interested! Our final All-Church Bible Study of 2024 is Wednesday, 10/30, and we’ll be covering those questions as we look at chapters 9-11 in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. 6:30-8:00 PM. Sanctuary. Dinner beforehand.

P.S. Our new Romans reading guides are in! Pick yours up at Asbury, or email Sandie and she’ll mail you one. Readings begin on 11/1, and I’m really excited to work through this final section of Romans with you.

 This is going to be a fascinating evening, and I hope you’ll make every effort to attend. Bring friends!

 
 

Romans 8:35

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

 
 

When I was in high school, I distinctly remember trying to seem smart by working the word “penultimate” into an essay. I thought “penultimate” meant something like “extremely ultimate” or “super ultimate” or something like that. (It shows how little thought I really gave to it, since “ultimate” implies last or final, so how could something be extremely final?!)

It was several years later that I learned what that “penultimate” actually means “the next-to-last” or “second to last” or “the one before the last one.”

It is important that we remember that Paul has been talking to the Roman Christians about how even suffering and difficulty can be part of God’s plan. He has assured them that all things are working together for good, even the hard things (see Romans 8:28). He has reminded them that the presence of the Holy Spirit is a comfort even in the midst of suffering, and that the inner witness of the Spirit tells them that they are beloved children of God (see Romans 8:16).

Here, Paul is not merely reminding the Romans that ultimately things will be okay—though of course that’s true and he believes that—rather he is also giving them what N.T. Wright helpfully refers to as “penultimate assurance.” That is, he is assuring things that even in the midst of hard things in this life, God is still with them. This is the great testimony of the martyrs—that even at the darkest hour, the love of God was still with them.

Many people reading this will have had similar experiences: at a really dark point—say a cancer ward—they still knew that God was with them. As he builds toward his majestic climactic point, Paul wants the Romans to know that none of the bad things that occur are enough to move them out of experiencing the love of God.

· Famine was all-too-common in the ancient world;
· Nakedness was the situation one found oneself in before crucifixion for
example, or after shipwreck;
· Danger from both man and beast was often encountered by travelers;
· The sword was used by the executioner (Paul uses the word for “short
sword,” the kind executioners used).

What these and the other examples do is show us that there is no situation in life whereby we are totally bereft and separated from God. Looking back on your life in Christ, what could you add to that list?

Not grief

Not cancer

Not divorce

Not addiction

None of these things can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.