Romans 8:31-39 "God's Great Love"

Last week I spoke about how hope for a better future can give current optimism. Today’s text connects that better future with current confidence.

Questions can serve many purposes:

I’m convinced that frequently children ask questions, not to get the answers, but simply to know that an adult is focused on them.

I’ve been in discussions and classes where a participant would ask a question just to show off how knowledgeable he or she is.

I’ve been asked questions just to reveal my lack of knowledge.

As a teacher I have asked or restated a question to avoid awkward silence, as if any noise is better than no noise.

Often the purpose of a question on an examination is NOT to stump the student, but to convince the student that he or she already knows the answer.

In today’s lesson the Apostle Paul (under the Holy Spirit’s prompting) uses rhetorical questions to build confidence in his readers.

TRANSITION: Let us draw encouragement from these 4 truths that God wants us to enjoy.

4 Probing Questions

What do we say to “current groanings”? (Ro 8.31-32)

These things – immediately before this verse, Paul speaks of the fact that God is working out a perfect outcome. But earlier in that previous paragraph he admits that things are not as they should (will) be.

The answer is provided that current conflicts and frustrations become tolerable when we know that God is on our side.

It was just 5 years ago when the world was in upheaval regarding the Covid-19 virus. Experts and novices alike were self-grouping into conflicting sides. How dangerous is the virus? How is the virus best treated? Where did the virus originate? How does the virus spread?

History now reveals that some were on the right side of these questions. Some were on the wrong side of these questions. And some placed undue emphasis on the correctness of their side.

3. Some claim that God is a fan of their football team. I’ve heard that one team left a hole in the roof of their stadium so that God could watch the games. (Since that time a new stadium has been built because they finally realized that even God shouldn’t have to watch the way they snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory). Fan’s like to claim “we are America’s team” or “we are God’s team”, while others claim that the fans are misguided in thinking that God prefers that sport at all.

4. I can’t make an absolute assertion about which sport God prefers (if any). But Ro 8.31 clearly implies that if God is on your side, it doesn’t really matter who may be against you!

5. We don’t know if God is for/against us based upon a win/loss record or statistics. We know that God is for us because graciously gave His only Son and continues to graciously give all things. We know God is for us because He gave and He gives!

TRANSITION: The reality of the first question sets up the absurdity of the next question.

Who has the right to judge me? (Ro 8.33)

If God is on your side; if God gave you the righteousness of Christ; if God is giving you all things; if God declares you are just; do the accusations of ANYone else really matter?

Does it really matter what the Evil One accuses? Does it really matter what other people think of me? Does even matter that I give credibility to the lies and misjudge myself?

If God declares me just (and He does!), other people’s opinions of me really don’t matter. My enemies’ accusations don’t matter. My self-worth is only an illusion.

When all is said and done. When each of us stands before the Great White Throne judgment or the Judgment Seat of Christ. All that really matters is if He renders a verdict of just.

TRANSITION: The final verdict liberates me from current and future condemnation.

Who has the right to condemn me? (Ro 8.34)

I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry, but some simple poems truly are memorable!

I’m rubber and you’re glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

2. I learned to truly enjoy the backhanded compliment that my friend Vernice used to extend. Vernice in now with the Lord, but in decades past He would kindly and gently say, “You’re fully entitled to your asinine opinion.”

3. I think in essence it is similar to a Texan (or any other southern lady) telling you “Bless your heart.”

4. If God does not condemn the person who is in Christ (The Christ who died, rose and is now at the position of authority in God’s presence), does it really matter if anyone or anything holds false opinions?

Sidenote: Take your eyes off me for a second and look at your Bible. Does Ro 8.34 say that Mary or any other saints, or any angels intercede for you? Sometimes it is beneficial to go right to the top. Why would I rely upon lesser beings when the Son of God himself is available to intercede for me? Now, I am not saying that people who pray to Mary or saints are evil. I’m simply stating that they are misdirected and denying themselves the BEST advocate available.

I encountered a statement after the new pope was installed recently by, now deceased, theologian R.C. Sproul. Praying to saints does not send anyone to Hell, but to request intercession from anyone less than Christ Himself robs you of the best representation and denies Christ of His rightful privilege.

TRANSITION: So, if God is for me; and His final verdict is “just” and all other attempts to condemn me are rubbish, that leaves one more interrogative.

Who can veto God’s love for me? (Ro 8.35-37)

God’s love for me is not based upon how good I am or how important I am or how many rules I keep.

Notice God’s estimation of those He loves: sheep to be slaughtered.

There are some hints we can use when studying the Bible to figure out what is important.

We can notice repetition of words or ideas

We can identify verbs and conjunctions to analyze the flow of thought.

We can give attention when prose turns to some other form of writing. E.g. direct quotation, or poetry, or parable, or list. Here we have an example of a direct quote.

Psalm 44:22 ESV:2016

Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Zechariah 11:4–7 ESV:2016

Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.” So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.

Isaiah 53:7 ESV:2016

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

4. Before thinking too lowly of yourself (animals waiting for butcher), These verses do not speak of mere slaughter for meat, they are describing the sacrificial offerings that pleased God, and in the Isaiah passage it points to Christ himself!

5. Ro 8.37 goes on to expand on the idea of a sacrificial sheep who pleases God when it is used exclusively for His purpose, into a picture of overcoming Saints.

Let’s connect the prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 53 with the fulfillment in Luke 23:9 that Philip used in Acts 8:32 to help the Ethiopian eunuch understand the plan of God. It was prophecied, fulfilled, and reported that Jesus did not assert his own words to demand how He was to be treated.

If Jesus could silently commit to God’s purpose to the point that God highly exalted Him (Phil 2:9), then when we are in Christ, we humbly submit to God’s purposes trusting that He will do the same with us.

When we fully submit to what God is doing in us we become what v.37describes as more than conquerors.

TRANSITION: By about this point you should be feeling optimistic about how God treats you and how He views you! Just in case you missed the point of these 4 questions, he provides...

A Stabilizing Summary (Ro 8.38-39)

I am sure

1. Paul has enough confidence (“I”) in Ro 8.38 for all of “us” at the end of v.39.

2. I dare you to find a single entity that is not included in the 10-sided boundary described here.

3. We saw last week that the sure will of God has brought all of us through our past to the current situation where we are being loved by and conformed to Christ. Then this realm describes EVERYTHING from here forward that could EVER pose a threat to God’s love for you.

Conclusion:

God’s love for me, for the person next to you, for you yourself is so complete and boundless that it demands a response.

Besides the triune God and all the angels, the ONLY inhabitants in Heaven are sinners who are loved by God and declared just in Christ. No sinner will ever be in God’s Heaven because he is better or worse than you. Every sinner in Heaven is there because God loves him or her so much that Jesus offered His death for my sin.

But God’s unconditional love does not force you into a situation you do not chose. Christ’s death is completely satisfying, but each one of us must choose to repent and believe. To permit God’s love to do what He wants it to do. When we let Him love us, He adopts us into His eternal family and gives us what we do not deserve.

Light & Lamp Application:

Light for my Path

God’s love silences all critics, even you.

Lamps for my Steps

Head – regard yourself as a sacrificial sheep for God’s ultimate purpose.

Heart – marinate in His totally complete love for you.

Hands – model His limitless love for you by loving someone who doesn’t deserve it.