Why "WHO CAN STAND"?

When we first started thinking of blog names, we wanted something that showed our identity was rooted in Christ.  After flipping through our Bibles and throwing around a number of ideas, the line stuck in our heads was "If our God if for us, than who can ever stop us? And if our God is with us, than what can stand against?" from Chris Tomlin's Our GodIt is a paraphrase of Romans 8:31 which reads:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Knowing we might face criticism for writing about our beliefs in a public sphere, we wanted a constant reminder that if God is for us, no one can effectively be against us.  We stand on a foundation of Christ's Word, and not our own. Paul continues to write in Romans 8
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (vs 35)
We can only have this confidence that God is for us because of Jesus Christ.  As the verse above states, because of His death and resurrection after three days, all who believe in Him are reconciled to God.

This comes through in another verse our name reflects, Nahum 1:6
Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the heat of His anger?
The answer is no one, if it weren't for the substitutionary death of Christ.  Because of that, God sees those who repent and believe in Jesus through the righteousness of Christ, because He took the penalty for our sin (2 Cor 5:21).  God is perfect and fully just, but He is merciful and altogether loving.

Psalm 30:3-4 reflects this point:
If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?  But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.
We are all sinners, not worthy of anything but the wrath of God - it's important to understand this.  But there is hope, and it is only found in Jesus Christ - the true and living God, who came to earth as a man, so that whoever believes in Him does not have to face the wrath of God, but can be fully reconciled to their creator.  Put your trust in Him and you will know true joy, peace, and fulfillment (John 15:9-11).



Romans 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

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