Can we be sure that God loves us?

INTRO

We are at the end of our six-week series through Romans 8, which we have called No Condemnation.

We began with the words “no condemnation” and now end with “no separation.”

We have reveled in the reality of God’s work in making us His, declaring us righteous, choosing us, and keeping us through suffering, as Paul helped us set our sights on our glorious hope and rely upon the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us.

As Paul writes, he is bringing us to the crescendo of all that he has declared up to this point. Some commentators take Paul’s question “what shall we say to these things?” back not just to Romans 8, but to everything that Paul has been writing up to this point. Paul, in our text, is summarizing Romans 1-8, and just like when listening to a symphony, the climax of a song would produce in us a sense of wonder and awe. So it is with Paul here in the last section of Romans 8. May what we contemplate this morning in these verses produce in us a sense of awe and wonder.

We could summarize this crescendo of verses 31-39 as follows:

If God is for us in Christ, there is nothing that undo His love for the saints.

Do we believe that? Do we feel that? Do we have the same certainty as Paul that God loves us, that He is for us?

Can we be sure that God loves us?

Listen, I’m not standing up here as someone who doesn’t live in the fallen world with you. I know what it is to walk through seasons of life where what you know in your head and what you are experiencing in life don’t seem to align.

I am familiar with the words that, at different times in my life, have sounded like a constant whisper in my head: God doesn’t really love you.

Not only have I heard those words, but I have been tempted to believe them as I walk through hard things in life. Maybe you can relate.

At times of despair, when sorrow and grief abound, we look at our circumstances and are tempted to believe those words: God doesn’t really love you.

At times of struggle with sin. Where sin seems to have taken hold of your life and you see no hope of change, and instead you feel trapped in what seems like a never-ending cycle of sin, and you are tempted to believe those words: God doesn’t really love you. (He can’t love you the way you are).

Maybe you have been praying the same prayer for years and it seems that all you get from God is silence. You feel distant from God and unloved, and so you are tempted to believe: God doesn’t really love you.

Perhaps you are here this morning in that very situation, where you know that God is for you, but all you feel is condemnation, defeat, and unloved by God.

This type of discouragement shouldn’t surprise us when we have a spiritual enemy (Satan) who is called the “accuser of the brethren” Rev. 12:10, where we see him described as one who accuses the believers day and night before God. We have an enemy who wants us to believe that God doesn’t love us.

Paul’s words in this last section of Romans 8 are for us. They are for those of us who are discouraged or when we might be tempted to believe that God is distant or that God doesn’t love us. Paul writes in such a way that is meant to stir us up, to rally up the saints by asking four Gospel questions.

He masterfully asks these rhetorical questions so that the reader (us here at GBC) would not read the answer to these questions, but rather hear the answer in our minds and allow those answers to resonate in our minds and hearts and produce in us confidence and courage because of God’s irrevocable love for us.

What we see are four “who” questions, and so our outline today is very simple: we will consider each of the “who” questions and allow the answers to these questions resonate in our minds and hearts to orient us toward the reality that:

If God is for us in Christ, there is nothing that can undo His love for the saints.

Before we look at the text together, let us pray and ask the Lord for His direction. PRAY.

1. Who can be against us? (v. 31-32)

I hope you still have your Bibles open. If not, open them back up to Romans 8:31, and leave them open as we look at this text together. Let us read verses 31-32 again.

Romans 8:31–32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

As mentioned already, the “these things” in verse 31 probably refer to all of Romans 1-8. Paul answers his initial question with another question.

The answer to “What shall we say to these things?” according to Paul is “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

Paul has been writing in Romans about the Gospel. We said at our first session of the series that Romans 1:16-17 serve as the thesis to the book of Romans, where Paul says,

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

How does Paul summarize the Gospel he has been writing about, this Gospel that he is not ashamed of?

1. Who can be against us? (v. 31-32)

He summarizes it in saying: God is for us, and no one can stand against us. That is not to say that there aren’t people, circumstances, sin, or any other opponents of the Gospel won’t wage war against us. They do! Yet, what Paul says here is amazing. Whatever attempts to stand against us, will fail because God is for us.

What an amazing summary of the Gospel. The good news for humanity is that although we deserve condemnation, and there is nothing humanity can do to change our status of condemnation, the good news is that God is for us.

I don’t know if there is a better thought for you to contemplate today. In fact, we ought to spend the rest of our lives contemplating the reality that a Holy, Righteous, almighty God is FOR US. There may not be a better way to spend your days than to consider the depth of that statement.

But how do believers know that God is for them?

We know it because God did not spare his own Son, and instead handed him over to death for our sake.

Notice how Paul speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice from the greater to the lesser. Essentially says, since God did not spare His son, but gave him up for you and me (that’s the greater), how will he not give us all things (the lesser)?!

As a family of 5, we have to be strategic about where we eat out and when we choose to go out to eat. For instance, there are some restaurants that, before a certain time of day they offer a deal like a “early dine” discount. So, we try to take advantage of those opportunities when we can, and plan certain days to be our eating-out days. But, getting from the house to the restaurant table is no small feat when you have three kids 5 and under.

Some of you might have forgotten what it was like to herd small children, and if you’d like a refresher, just let me know and you can come with us to our next outing.

There have been times when we miss the deal by a few minutes and have to pay full price, but the fact that we have overcome the obstacle of getting to the restaurant, paying a little more than expected, just doesn’t seem that big of a deal anymore. We’ve gotten this far, what’s a little more right?

That’s kind of what Paul is saying. God has overcome the greatest obstacle for us ALREADY. He has chosen us, saved us, and redeemed us by sending His Son to overcome the impossible (for us) obstacle of sin and therefore declare us righteous in Christ. All that God has done is so that He would look at us and say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” making it so that any other obstacle that attempts to stand against us will absolutely fail before a mighty God who has already made a way for us.

Paul goes further to say that because God gave us His Son for our salvation, will he not also graciously give us all things? We understand the “all things” there at the end of verse 32 to be pertaining to our sanctification. The context of Romans 8 is not that God will give us wealth, or perfect health, or the job we want.

Rather, we know that we have all we need for our sanctification, our growing in godliness. The Apostle Peter used similar language when he writes.

2 Peter 1:3 ESV

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

The God we worship is a generous God who has provided for our most serious needs and the needs that come in our pursuit of Him in this life.

1. Who can be against us? (v. 31-32)

Therefore, the answer that should resound in our minds when Paul asks, “Who can be against us?” Is NO ONE, for God is for us.

2. Who can bring a charge against us? (v. 33)

That is the same answer to the next “who” question. Verse 33 Paul asks,

Romans 8:33 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”

Paul now switches to some judicial terms. Notice how they are not only terms that belong in a courtroom, but they are also written in the future tense (who shall), pointing us to the future, the last judgment. So, we would understand Paul’s question to be in regard to the last judgment, who will stand and bring a charge against you.

Now, before we get to the punch line, we need to sit in the scene of final judgment for a minute. Who might bring a charge against you at the final judgment? You can be sure that Satan, the “accuser,” would seek to bring charges against you as to why you don’t deserve to stand with God’s chosen people. I can assure you that if Satan is there, he would make a convincing case why you shouldn’t be part of God’s kingdom.

Even more convincing is that Satan might be our own sins that bring a charge against us as to why we don’t deserve a place in God’s kingdom.

What would you say to God? How would you plea your case? It would be hard to know what to say to God.

But more important than what you or I might say to God on judgment day is what God says to us.

You see, Satan is not the judge. Neither you nor I will stand as judge. God the Almighty, in all His splendor will stand as judge. As Paul says, “It is God who justifies.”

AND church, you can know that you are loved by God, in knowing that on that day, the Holy judge will declare us not guilty. He will look at those who belong to Him, those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, and say, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Jesus has paid the penalty with His own blood, and the God who justifies has declared us righteous in Christ.

Because we know that God has already, through Christ, declared you righteous, you ought to have no doubt that God is for you. You ought to have no doubt that God loves you, because although the evidence of your sin is overwhelming, Christ’s work to justify us through the payment of His blood, His glorious grace is greater than all our sin.

Allow the rhetorical questions to lead you to these comforting answers.

Who can be against us? - No one, for God is for us.

Who will bring a charge against us? - Anyone who does will fail, for it is God who justifies, and He is for me. He has declared me righteous.

3. Who then will condemn us? (v. 34)

Continuing with the judicial language comes the third rhetorical question. Who is to condemn?

I like how the translators of the NIV help us understand Paul’s own response to this question. Look at how the NIV puts it.

Romans 8:34 NIV

Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The “no one” is not in the Greek, but it is implied, and the translators added it in there to make clear that Jesus’ work of his death, resurrection, and ascension was not to condemn but to save, as Jesus himself stated in John 12:47

John 12:47 ESV

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

If we are found in Christ, we aren’t condemned, nor do we fear condemnation.

3. Who then will condemn us? (v. 34)

Church, this is the basis of our joy and worship. The fact that we are not condemned is what leads us to sing unto the Lord. I don’t know if maybe there is someone here who has just started coming to church, and this is your first experience with a Christian church. The act of singing to God might seem strange to you, but for those who have been saved, there is no better response than to sing the Gospel back to our Lord and Savior. To sing:

It is well with my soul

My sin O the bliss

Of this glorious tho't

My sin not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross

And I bear it no more

(Praise the Lord

Praise the Lord O my soul)

We sing:

Before the throne of God above

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin

It is true. What a thought. Jesus really did come and die the perfect death. He rose again, walked out of the tomb as the victorious Son of God over sin and death. And now he is interceding/praying for us. What a glorious thought that Jesus himself is praying for us.

Robert Murray McCheyne once said, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”

Isn’t that amazing!? To think that Jesus himself is praying for us. What confidence ought that give us to know that our Savior is praying for you and me.

3. Who then will condemn us? (v. 34)

Even more amazing is what Jesus’s work tells us about his commitment to us (you and me). LISTEN, Jesus is more committed to us than we are committed to Him.

You can rest in that. Allow yourself to revel in that. When you know and believe that God is for you. That Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is committed to us, and praying for us, it ought to empower us to take great risks for the Gospel.

Risks like going into mission work overseas.

Risks like planting a church.

Risks like pursuing the idea of being a multiethnic/bilingual church.

Our confidence in these risks is not in ourselves, but in Christ who is interceding for us and our God who is for us.

When you are tempted to believe that God doesn’t really love you, Christian, would you look upward and consider Christ on the cross who made an end to all your sin. Not in part, but the whole was nailed to the cross, and we bear it no more. God’s verdict is final, Christ’s payment for our sins was done in full.

This ought to give us confidence, not only in our identity in Christ, but also confidence to be bold for the Gospel.

Who is to condemn? - No one for our confidence is in God’s verdict of being without condemnation, found in Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. His verdict is sure.

4. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (v. 35-39)

This leads us to our last question. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

This is the only question where he explicitly answers it in verse 39 (the last verse of our paragraph), where he says, ...(nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Notice also how Paul takes double the time on this question of God’s love for us.

I think Paul is trying to press upon our hearts the irrevocable love of God for the believer. I think Paul wants us to feel the love of God.

It’s important not only to know that God loves us, but we need to experience it, and Paul is going to help us do that here.

He first gives us a list of rhetorical negatives. “Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword (weapons), separate us from God’s love?”

I don’t really need to make many comments about this list except to note that Paul has firsthand experience with all but the last one on this list. Look at 2 Cor. 11:26-27

2 Corinthians 11:26–27 ESV

on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And later in 2 Cor. 12:10

2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul is not speaking from a distant hypothetical position. No, he has experienced these calamities and has been able to prove for himself and testify to us through his writings that none of these are, in fact, able to get in the way of his enjoyment of Christ’s love for him.

4. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (v. 35-39)

Then Paul, in verse 36, makes sure we don’t miss what he is saying. Almost as if he knew that someone might read through that list too quickly, he quotes from Psalm 44:22 which is a Psalm describing the cries of God’s people who are suffering and do not see God respond. Read the Psalm with me.

Psalm 44:22–23 ESV

Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!

Here, the Psalmist is lamenting the suffering of those who are being persecuted but have not abandoned God’s name. I think Paul is using this Psalm, along with his list of calamities, to state that we can expect humiliation, suffering, persecution, and defeat.

4. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (v. 35-39)

We can look at the lament of the Psalmist and their situation, along with Paul’s personal experience, and see how a Christian could be tempted to question: Does God really love me?

I know that among us are those who are hurting. Those who are walking through what feels like the “valley of the shadow of death.” I don’t want to come across as reducing your pain and suffering. I know that it is real. But God’s word, along with the indwelling Holy Spirit helps us see our calamities in a new light.

Paul then teaches us something incredible. He gives us a different perspective on our suffering in this life. He says verse 37.

Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

“In all these things!” Paul says, these things (the “these things” being the list of suffering and the quote from Ps. 44, of God’s people suffering) are not only unable to separate us from the love of God, but instead, they are the means by which we believers become “more than conquerors!”

Just as Jesus suffered but was triumphant, so too we as followers of Christ will suffer and be triumphant, or to use Paul’s words, we are “more than conquerors.”

The Gospel life is a total change of perspective in seeing that which Satan wants to use to lead us to question God’s love; the Gospel turns those calamities to our benefit, to our gain!

“In these things,” we become “more than conquerors” THROUGH him who loved us.

The “through” tells us that we ought to attribute the becoming “more than conquerors” not to our strength or will power, but to the love of Christ.

God’s love for us is a force to be reckoned with. His love seen in Christ and in our status as redeemed ought to propel us into the battlefield of our world, our sin, into obeying the great commission with confidence because our God is for us!

And when we face trials, persecution, humiliation, suffering, or a sense of defeat, we don’t question God’s love; we rely upon the Holy Spirit and trust God’s word to learn to see it as a means of grace that God uses to make us “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

OUTRO/COMMUNION

When you search online “speeches that changed the world,” among a short list of speeches, you’ll find Winston Chruchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches” speech, which he gave during World War II to the British house of commons.

Churchill’s speech was in the context of some of the darkest moments in the war where it seemed like England stood virtually alone. Yet this speech boosted morale and stirred the hearts of the British to press onward against all odds as they had just faced a terrible defeat and faced the threat of invasion. One of the famous lines of his speech is as follows:

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills," and the powerful conclusion to his speech, "we shall never surrender". 

This speech really galvanized the British to push through and face the enemy with courage.

OUTRO/COMMUNION

With how much more confidence, when the odds are in our favor, should we face the trials of this life? Allow Paul’s words at the end of this chapter to captivate your heart.

Romans 8:38–39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING. Let it sink in. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

If God is for us in Christ, there is nothing that can undo His love for the saints.

Oh Church, when you are tempted to believe because of your circumstances that God does not really love you. Turn to Romans 8:31-39 and speak truth into your hearts. Allow that truth to ring true in your mind and heart as you press on for the Lord, knowing for certain that God loves you.

COMMUNION

One way we remember God’s love for us is by remembering and proclaiming Christ’s death for our sins the way He asked us to. By celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

At this time, I’ll invite the brothers to come up to distribute the bread.

If you are visiting and you have placed your faith in Christ for salvation, we invite you to join us in partaking in the bread and the cup. But if you are unsure of where you stand with God, we ask that you let the elements pass.

Mark Benedict will come and pray for the bread.

READ: 1 Cor 11:23-24

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 (ESV)

that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

(PAUSE)

Jim Gephart will now come up to pray for the cup.

READ: 1 Cor 11:25-26

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Amen!

Please stand as Pastor Tim comes now for the closing prayer and benediction.