Bishop Barron preaches on Romans 8 as the heart of the Christian gospel
Bishop Robert Barron delivers a Sunday sermon on the second reading from Romans 8, arguing that the resurrection of Jesus is the central claim of Christianity.
Summary
Bishop Barron delivers a Sunday sermon focused on the second reading from Romans 8, which he identifies as the rhetorical and theological climax of Paul's argument in that letter. He argues that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the singular hinge upon which all of Christianity turns, and that Paul's repeated emphasis on anastasis — resurrection — was so central to his preaching that some listeners mistook it for the name of a new god.
Bishop Barron frames the resurrection not merely as a personal event for Jesus but as a cosmic revolution — a remaking of the old world. Drawing on imagery from the Book of Revelation and St. Peter's anticipation of a new heavens and new earth, he argues that the earthquake of the resurrection has shaken the old order and inaugurated a new creation that is still awaiting its full revelation.
The sermon works through Paul's list of things that might seem to separate believers from God's love — anguish, persecution, famine, peril, the sword — and argues that because the Son of God entered into all of these realities and conquered them through the resurrection, none of them can have the final word. Bishop Barron concludes by walking through Paul's cosmological list in Romans 8, showing how each pairing — death and life, angels and principalities, present and future, height and depth — is encompassed within Christ's lordship as demonstrated by the resurrection.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction: Paul as Theologian and Romans 8 as Climax
Bishop Barron: Peace be with you. Friends, we come to this eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, and I want to focus on the second reading, which is from St. Paul. I don't preach about Paul enough. He's the first really great genius theologian of our tradition. And we're reading from Romans here, especially Romans 8. Get out your Bibles. Reading Romans right through is a little complicated without a good commentary, but find chapter eight and read it, because it represents the kind of conclusion or climax to an argument Paul's been making.
Paul is a man of great passion, obviously, but he's also a man of great intellect. He was formed in the scriptures, of course — the Hebrew scriptures — but also in Greek thought, Greek philosophy, and especially Greek rhetoric. And you can sense, especially in Romans, Paul almost like a lawyer, laying out his case point by point. Romans 8 represents a culminating point in that argument. And the reading for today is the rhetorical, very poetic high point of that conclusion. So we've got to pay attention. This is one of the really great theologians of the Church naming what's essential to Christianity.
The Final Line First: The Gospel in One Sentence
I want to begin with the last line of our passage for today. After listing all sorts of things that could separate us from God's love, Paul says this: "None of this can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord." That's the gospel, everybody, if you want it. "None of these things — and I'll go through them — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord."
Now, in his Greek, Iesous Kristus Kurios, he would have said. But I always think with Paul, shaped by the Hebrew scriptures, he was thinking Mashiach, Yeshua, Adonai — the anointed one. Mashiach meant the new David, the new king. And then he calls him Adonai. Now, that's saying a lot for someone trained in the Jewish tradition, because Adonai was a term used of God himself. When you wouldn't use the sacred name of God, the Tetragrammaton, you'd use instead this term, Adonai — Lord. "Christ Jesus, our Lord."
The Hinge: Resurrection from the Dead
With that in mind, go right back to the beginning of Romans, where Paul's introducing himself, and he says this: "I'm here to declare the gospel concerning his Son, descended from David according to the flesh." There's Mashiach, there's David, the anointed one. "And declared Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness" — listen now — "by resurrection from the dead." Then the phrase: "Jesus Christ, our Lord." There it is again. Yeshua, Mashiach, Adonai. Iesous Kristus Kurios.
What's the hinge? What's the hinge upon which all this turns? There's that little phrase: "by resurrection from the dead." That's the heart of Paul's teaching. That's the heart of Christianity. That's the gospel, the good news, that euangelion. Jesus done to death by the powers that be at his time — everything in the world came at him — but through the power of God, raised from the dead, he is the anointed one, Kristus, Mashiach, and he's Lord, he's Adonai. That's the gospel, everybody.
Look to Paul's writings and you'll find it's almost like a refrain, almost comically so, so often repeated. Anastasis, anastasis, anastasis. It means literally "standing up again" — resurrection, resurrection, resurrection. It was so central to his preaching that some people thought he was declaring a new god called Anastasis. He was declaring the God of Israel, who has manifested his power in the standing up again, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And upon that, everybody, everything turns.
The Resurrection as Revolution
For Paul, this was a revolution. This was a remaking of the old world. Look at the Book of Revelation — all those texts about the destruction of the old world, the stars falling, the seas churning, earthquakes and so on. Well, that's symbolic talk about the end of the old world. The old world is giving way. Because of the earthquake of the resurrection, a new world has been revealed. Why does St. Peter talk about anticipating a new heavens and a new Earth? Because he's seen the old heavens and Earth shaken, questioned. And now we're waiting the full revelation of a new heavens and a new Earth. That's the gospel.
Paul's List: What Threatens to Separate Us from God
Now I'm going to come back to our passage in chapter eight, because what does Paul see in this? He sees this is the source of peace — the shalom, to use the great, beautiful Hebrew term. This is the shalom that we all want, and it's going to come as a function of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, of this remaking of the whole world.
So with that in mind, let's go back to this passage, which is rhetorically so beautiful, poetic even. Paul says: "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword?"
He's saying a mouthful there. Go through these. These are all things in his time and ours that would tempt us to say, "There is no God. There's no God that cares for me. There's no God of love who's looking out for me."
Anguish or distress — we live, as W.H. Auden said, in the age of anxiety. Paul knew about anguish too. But especially in our time, this sort of existential angst, a lot of people's sense of meaninglessness and purposelessness, can seem to separate us from God.
How about persecution? There are milder forms of persecution that exist even in our Western culture, but go around the world today. In the Middle East, in places like Nigeria, in places like China — is there a direct and violent persecution of Christians? You bet there is. So as Paul sensed it in his own life, we still sense it today.
How about famine or nakedness? Think of people going through enormous suffering because of political or economic circumstances. Paul knew about this too — he talks about going for days without eating.
Peril or the sword. Did Paul know about peril? Yes. He talks about being shipwrecked. The sword? He eventually died by the sword. He was decapitated. He was stoned and he was whipped. Christians from his time to our own face this kind of pain. And we're tempted to say: what does it all mean? How can God even exist? Doesn't all this separate us from his love?
Paul's answer is no.
The Answer: Conquest Through Christ
Now why? Listen to him. "No. In all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly." How? "Through him who loved us."
What does this possibly mean? It means this: Jesus goes into all of it. Now, who's Jesus? Not just another Jeremiah, another Isaiah, another great figure. No. He's God from God, light from light, true God from true God. He's the Son of God. And the Son of God goes into anguish.
Think of the cross. Paul says, "I know one thing — Christ and him crucified." Think of Christ on the cross. Anguish. Peril. Famine. Thirst. Being rejected by your own followers. Being mocked. Being the victim of institutional injustice. The worst kind of persecution possible. The Son of God ventured into all of that, took all of that on.
And here's the hinge point: in the resurrection, in the anastasis, he conquered all of it — showed indeed that God's love is more powerful than any of it. This is such an important point. Yes, in the Eschaton, all that will go away. Every tear will be wiped away. That's our great hope. These things don't go away while we're in this world, but they do not have the final word. There is a love that is more powerful than these things.
So again: "In all these things" — and Paul experienced them all himself — "we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us." It's not by my own wit and power and capacity that I conquer these things. No. It's in Christ's victory that we find victory.
Paul's Ecstatic Cosmology: Nothing Can Separate Us
Now he goes on, almost ecstatically. It's Paul the poet. Listen to him.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor present things nor future things, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us" — listen — "from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Kristus Iesous Kurios. Mashiach Yeshua Adonai.
What's he doing here with this list? He's laying out the parameters of his cosmology. We all have a cosmology, a basic view of the world. We have an Einsteinian, or maybe now even post-Einsteinian, cosmology. There used to be a Newtonian cosmology. Paul had his own — a vision of what gave structure to life.
"Neither death nor life..." It's still one of the great realities of life that we live and that we die. Neither one can separate us from Christ. Nothing in this life and neither our death can separate us. Why? Because he's risen from the dead. He's the conqueror of both life and death.
"Nor angels nor principalities..." Here's part of Paul's cosmos — that above this visible world, there's an invisible world of spiritual powers. Did Jesus do battle with them? You can't read the gospels without that. It doesn't make any sense without them. In fact, before he commences his public ministry, what does he do? He battles with Satan. The dark invisible powers that stand behind the dark visible powers of this world — that's the biblical cosmology. Well, "neither angels nor principalities" can separate us. Why? Because through the cross and resurrection, he defeated them.
"Nor present things nor future things..." Here's the parameter of time. There's the present and then there's the future that we don't see, we don't know for sure. Can both separate us from Christ? Yes. The present — I can be so caught up in my obligations. The future — I live in constant anxiety or fear about it. Paul's point is that in the resurrection, he's the Lord of both the present and the future. Don't worry about it. Behind all the preoccupations of the present, there's Christ in his call. The future doesn't belong to me — it belongs to him. He's the Lord of both the present and the future.
"Nor height nor depth..." Think of what's highest, what's deepest. In Paul's cosmology, the heights would have been the realm of the angels and the arena beyond the visible world. We've got our own version of that — think of the infinite expanse of the universe going beyond this world. The depth: the toughest, darkest times of life. Is he the Lord of the heights and of the depths? Yes. The resurrection shows he's Adonai. He's Kurios. He's Lord of all these things.
Conclusion: The Good News
Look how it ends. "Nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God." Nothing, nothing, nothing stands between us and the victorious Christ, who took upon himself all the anguish and distress and persecution and darkness of the world, and conquered it in the resurrection.
We don't have to be afraid. We've been liberated. We've found redemption. We've found salvation. This, everybody, is the good news.
And God bless you.