God Is For Us
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning, church!
Announcements about
Member Interest Class - Apr. 12
Guide to Global Mission Focus (with graphic)
Taste of the Nations
Serve Tour
First Time Guests
If this is your first time visiting RND, we are so glad you are here.
What you’ll find here is an imperfect people, worshipping a perfect Savior.
After our time together, I’ll be standing at the front door—we would love to give you a gift, mug and free movie tickets, and have the opportunity introduce myself!
Intro to Text
Intro to Text
Would you turn with me to Romans 8:31–39
If you’re new with us, we have been slowly making our way through the book of Romans
“Romans: Doctrine for Life”
And we are continuing that today on Easter Sunday
With the most fitting text that lays out the benefits of Christ’s resurrection
to those who have put their faith in Him alone.
For the past couple of weeks,
we have been looking at what has been deemed by many as the greatest chapter in the Bible
The GOAT chapter, if you will
Romans 8
Because it gives us a beautiful and near complete picture of what it means to be a Christian
It starts off in verse 1 saying “No Condemnation”
and ends here in our text today with the words, “No Separation”
What we find in between are
the glorious privileges believers enjoy through our union with Christ
As we just celebrated Good Friday, remembering Christ’s death on our behalf
And here now today celebrate the resurrection of Christ
—which we do every Sunday and every other day, I might add—
we come to the glorious climax of what is already a climactic, triumphant chapter
where we learn that Christ has conquered the grave
so that through Him we might become more than conquerers!
Main Scripture
Main Scripture
Would you follow along as we read our text, starting in Romans 8:31–39
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?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised [that’s what we celebrate today!]—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.
Pray
Intro Illustration: Mountaintops
Intro Illustration: Mountaintops
Well, hopefully I’m not telling you anything new
when I point out that Utah has some beautiful mountains
Which becomes a playground for those who love to hike, bike, ski, snowboard
And arguably the most rewarding part about hiking particularly
Is when you finally get to the top of the mountain
and you’re able to look out to a view that is unobstructed by trees or anything
and take it all in
It’s also rewarding to look back on all the ground you covered to get to that point
remembering the more difficult climbs
or some of the more scenic parts along the path
And one of the earliest memories I have after moving here
3 years ago to be a part of helping in the early days of this church plant
was being invited to go hike Adam’s Canyon east of here
If you haven’t been on the hike before,
it’s a beautiful hike with a waterfall at the top
and a creek running down the mountain
about 4 miles and 1500 ft elevation
All that’s great
But here’s the thing
I’m just a few days into living in Utah, having moved from NC
I’m not adjusted to the over 4000 ft elevation gain
And the hiking that I’ve been accustomed to in NC
are like hiking ant hills compared to the hikes here in UT
Not only that but on this hike was me, Nathan, Casey, and Oba
If you know those guys, one of these (me) is not like the other
These 3 guys are machines
They’re made for the mountains of Utah
I mean I’m the only guy who brought a water bottle if that tells you anything.
Anyway, they suggested we go after they got off work
and go up and back in half the time it takes the average person
in order to get back for our kids’ bed times
Of course, I have no frame of reference for what that would require physically,
but, I quickly realized that I did not possess the tools required to go at their pace
And made them quickly realize inviting me was a mistake!
Nonetheless, as with any hike, it is most rewarding when you get to the top
And while you enjoy the waterfall,
even if for just 2 or 3 minutes because you need to get back for kids’ bedtimes
you’re able to look back at the path that got you there
You remember the steeper and more treacherous parts
the 10 sandy switchbacks you had to climb at the beginning
You remember enjoying the creek running down the mountain
and the rocky climb at the end
Everything becomes clear at the top as you look out and look back.
Tie in:
I mentioned this a couple weeks ago when we started this chapter,
but Martin Lloyd Jones called Romans 8
“the highest peak in the entire mountain range of Scripture.
It is the Himalayas of the New Testament.”
Well, if Romans 8 is the mountains of the NT
Rm. 8:31–39 is the top of the tallest mountain of Rm. 8,
indeed of all of Romans
It is the climax of what has already been a triumphant chapter for the believer
And it is from this peak, this mountain top,
that Paul looks back at all that has been said in Romans up to this point
And asks v. 31 What shall we say to these things?
Most commentators agree that when Paul says “these things”
he’s not just referring to what immediately precedes this verse in Rm. 8
Though it is certainly included
But Paul is looking back on it all
He’s looking at the brutal sandy switchbacks of Rm. 1–3
Where we he laid out for us Mankind’s Greatest Problem
That no one, not the Jew nor the non-Jew, is righteous.
That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
That we deserve His just judgment against us
He’s remembering the turning point of Romans 3 and 4
Where we learned that Mankind’s Greatest Problem was solved through God’s Gracious Provision in the gospel
How though we cannot be made right with God by what we do
He has provided for us the perfect substitute of Jesus
who died in our place and rose again
such that we can be made right with God by faith in Him
And he’s remembering the scenic creek running through the rest of Romans 5–7
Where we looked at the many blessings that the believer in Christ now enjoy
Blessings like justification,
adoption
freedom from the penalty and power of sin
the indwelling Holy Spirit who intercedes for us
And the assurance that God works all things for the good of those He has called to Himself.
What shall we say to these things?!
And the answer is found in the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
How do you summarize the good news of Romans all the way up to now?
That for those who saved by grace through faith in Christ: God is For YOU!
Believer, I want you to just dwell in that truth for just a moment
The Almighty God of the Universe
is For You
He is not against you
If you are in Christ,
It doesn’t matter if you feel that He is for you or not
Indeed, If you believe it or not in any given moment
This is Him telling you through His word (objectively)
Regardless of how you feel
Doesn’t matter if you messed up today, or yesterday, or the whole week
If you didn’t share the gospel today, if you didn’t read your bible, if you missed church on Sunday
Turn to Him again, run to Him again
because God is for you and nothing can separate you from His love for you in Christ.
Remind yourself of this truth every day
Romans 8 is a sweet assurance for the believer
Main Idea
Main Idea
With that being said, if there’s one takeaway point I want us to leave here today from our time in God’s Word today it’s this:
If you are in Christ Jesus, be assured that God is for you and that nothing can separate you from His love.
Paul shows us in this passage what it means for God to be FOR US through five rhetorical questions.
It’s as if he’s giving us a midterm exam now that we are halfway through the 16 chapters of Romans
Making sure we are following along
We will divide our text up this morning using these questions
which will be in your bulletin
Paul doesn’t give the answers to these questions, but rather implies the answer
So, here’s what we are going to do this morning. . .
When I get to the question, I want you—church—to give the implied answer
Starting with the first one in v. 31,
. . .If God is for us, who can be against us?
What’s the answer church?
NO ONE!
Body
Body
1. Who Can Be Against Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:31)
1. Who Can Be Against Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:31)
Now, Paul’s not suggesting that no one will ever be against us.
There are many who are against us.
The indwelling sin that remains in the flesh is working against us
The Enemy—the devil and his angels—are working against us
1 Pt. 5:8 warns us that
. . .the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
And the Bible time and time again tells us that
we will surely be persecuted by others for our faith
Jesus said in Jn. 15:19–20 that
because you are not of the world but are chosen to be His
therefore
. . .the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. . .
Our opponents are numerous. . .
What Paul is communicating here is that, if God is for us,
then no opponent—no enemy
Will be successful in waging war against us.
No one will defeat us
Why?
Because we have God on our side
and as Rom. 8:28 reminded us last week
He is working all things—including suffering, even persecution—
for our good and for His glory.
The young adults here in the church get together to play basketball every now and then
And I know if I joined, I would get cooked
But, what if I brought with me prime Michael Jordan?
I’d feel pretty invincible
He already showed what he could do in Utah in 1998
when he hit a game winner here in what is now the Delta Center
and won his sixth championship
I’d feel pretty good about my odds of winning being on his team at Barnes Park.
How much more assurance do we have that
Though some may be against us. . .
With God on our side,
None of them stands a chance.
This verse has given much comfort to Christians throughout the years
and Philip Malanchthon was one of them
Malanchthon served with Martin Luther during the Reformation
and was a gifted preacher
And Romans 8:31 was a verse he quoted more than any other text
as it personally gave him the most comfort and encouragement to continue the good fight
One of the accounts we have of his last days tells of how
he asked to be placed on a bed in his study
And had someone read him the Bible
When the person read Romans 8:31,
Melanchthon exclaimed, “Read those words again!”
And the person read, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Melanchthon murmured in a kind of ecstasy, “That’s it! That’s it!”
As many have said, Romans 8:31 is a great verse to live on.
And it is a great verse to die on
That God is for you and, therefore, no one can stand against you.
(PAUSE)
Transition:
How do we know that God is for us?
v. 32 gives us the proof
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?
What’s the implied answer, church?
He surely will!
2. How Will He Not Also With Him Graciously Give Us All Things? HE SURELY WILL! (Rm. 8:32)
2. How Will He Not Also With Him Graciously Give Us All Things? HE SURELY WILL! (Rm. 8:32)
v. 32 points us to the greatest demonstration—the greatest proof—that God is for us
That proof is what we just remembered two days ago on Good Friday
The proof that God gave us is in the fact that
He did spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all!
This reminds us of that beautiful verse back in Romans 5:8 that
. . .God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As we mentioned back in that chapter,
We who are in Christ don’t ever have to wonder
Does God love me?
or in the words of v. 31
Is God for me?
And if we ever do wonder these things
Rather than saying, “God, if you love me,
Please give me a sign
or help me get through this situation
or have this person reach out to me”
God tells us to LOOK TO THE CROSS!
For there is the ultimate proof that I love you
That I am FOR you
For I did not spare my own Son, but I gave Him up for YOU
The language in this verse is possibly an allusion to Genesis 22
When, in obedience to the Lord’s command, Abraham led his son Isaac up on the mountain
to offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord
And when he drew the knife to follow through with it
The angel of the Lord stopped him saying
“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld [Gk. LXX “Spare”] your son, your only son, from me.”
And the Lord provided a ram in the thicket who would take Isaac’s place as the sacrifice to be given
Foreshadowing the sacrifice of Jesus who would be offered in our place
Whereas Abraham’s son was spared by God,
God did not spare His own son
But gave Him up for us on the cross
taking our place
and dying the death we deserved to die
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Paul uses this ultimate act of sacrifice to argue from the greater to the lesser
If God has done the far greater thing of giving up His own Son for us
How will He not give us all things?
Think about it this way:
Say a wealthy father owns a ton of farmland
and he tells his son
All my land and everything in it is yours
The land, the animals, the house
And his son comes to him and asks,
“Dad, can I have $5 to buy a welcome mat for the front door?”
What will his dad say to that?
No, you’ve crossed the line on that one
You’ve asked too much?
No, he’ll say, “Yes, of course!
$5 is chump change compared to what I’ve given you
That’s what our Father did for us
He already did the greatest thing
by giving us His Son
paying our debt,
securing our justification,
giving us eternal life
He will surely with Him “graciously give us all things”
Which is not to say that He will give us anything we want
2 Ferrari’s and $10 Millis, please
No, the phrase “all things” here shouldn’t be separated from the
“all things” of Romans 8:28 when Paul said
. .all things work together for good
As we learned last week when Bobby led us through Rm. 8:28,
The “good” that Paul’s talking about is the
believer’s conformity to the image of Jesus
And here Paul’s saying that if God did all the work necessary
to purchase your salvation and eternal security
He will give you everything you need on your way to your eternal home!
Application:
Believer, God will not leave you hanging.
He’s given everything for you.
Ultimately, His Son.
So, we can take our needs to Him.
We can ask Him for wisdom, peace, healing, endurance, comfort.
And He will give graciously according to His will
Because He is a good Father who is for you and
who desires to give good gifts to His children.
PAUSE
Transition:
Paul continues to show how God is for us
by bringing up a third question:
Who can bring any charge against us?
And the answer, church?
No one!
3. Who Can Bring Any Charge Against Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:33)
3. Who Can Bring Any Charge Against Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:33)
Again, as with the first question
Paul’s not saying no one will bring a charge against us.
Many may bring charges against us
But the reality is, none of those charges will stick.
Why?
Because it is God who justifies.
Paul’s using judicial language in this verse and the next
to assure the believer that they are 100% covered on the Day of Judgment
We rest in the promise of Rm. 5:1 that
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are no longer at war with Him
We are at peace with Him from now into eternity
As His chosen people
Which he refers to here as “God’s elect”
which just means “God’s chosen”
Every four years, we “elect” a president
we choose who will serve in that office
And God did His choosing before the foundation of the world as Ephesians 1:4–6 declares that God
. . .chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. . .
These are who Paul referred to last week in v. 29–30
as those whom God has foreknown,
those whom he predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
those whom he called, whom He justified
And who will certainly be glorified.
To be sure, we have an Accuser
the Devil
Who Rev. 12:10 calls
the accuser of our brothers. . .who accuses them day and night before our God.
We see his playbook in the book of Job when he
accuses Job of only being righteous because of his health and his wealth
And perhaps for us, he’s going up to the Father, saying
Do you know what he did last night?
Do you know what she said yesterday?
How could you accept her?
He is a wretched person.
There’s a famous story told of the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther
When he had a dream in which he found himself being attacked by Satan.
The devil unrolled a long scroll containing a list of Luther’s sins,
and held it before him.
On reaching the end of the scroll Luther asked the devil, “Is that all?”
“No,” came the reply, and a second scroll was thrust in front of him.
Then, after a second came a third.
But now the devil had no more.
“You’ve forgotten something,” Luther exclaimed triumphantly. “Quickly write on each of them, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ God’s son cleanses us from all sins.’“
Believer, there may be charges brought against us by Satan or by others
And most, if not all, of them may even be true
Which means in those times, we can say,
yes I am that, and worse.
And that is why I rest not in who I am or what I’ve done
but in who Christ is and what He has done on my behalf!
The Almighty God has already dealt with our sins
through the blood of His own Son on Good Friday
And He has justified us
He has declared us righteous
through faith in Him.
And thankfully, you cannot go higher in the
heavenly courts than Almighty God.
When the omnipotent, righteous Judge of all the earth says,
“Not guilty,” then you are not guilty
Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?
Application:
Believer, how do you know God is for us?
Because He has declared us righteous before Him
not because of any righteousness of our own
but because Christ, His Son, lived that life we could never live
and through faith in Him
We have been justified before Him
Meaning we can face the day of judgment with confidence
Knowing He has dropped all charges against us
and not only that
But has given us the righteousness of Jesus
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Transition:
Continuing with the judicial language, then, Paul asks question #4 in similar fashion:
Who is to condemn?
What’s the answer church?
NO ONE!
4. Who Can Condemn Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:34)
4. Who Can Condemn Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:34)
This brings us back to the first verse in this chapter:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why is there no condemnation?
Paul says it’s because of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday
. . .v. 34
. . .Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
It was on Good Friday that Jesus,
the perfect spotless lamb of God
the one who fulfilled all righteousness
the only innocent person to have ever lived
laid down His life for you and for me
Our sins against a holy God had to be paid.
And He paid for them in full
saying in His last words
“IT IS FINISHED!”
Who then is to condemn? NO ONE!
Because the only one who could condemn us—God Himself—
Stood condemned in our place!
In my place, condemned He stood!
sealed my pardon with his blood!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
But Paul keeps going!
Paul says, hey, we celebrated Good Friday this past Friday
but we stand here on Easter, celebrating this fact:
that Christ did not stay in that grave!
I haven’t looked at social media yet this morning,
but as faithful as the rising of the sun
I know that if I logged in, that my feed would be filled
with folks posting three words:
HE IS RISEN!
And for good reason!
Paul says—MORE THAN THAT
Christ was raised!
Paul singing that Phil Wickham song
Friday’s Good cuz Sunday is Coming!
On the cross, Christ satisfied the wrath of God
by taking our punishment—our condemnation—for us
And His resurrection three days later proved that Christ was who He said He was
The Lamb of God,
the awaited Messiah
God who took on flesh and
conquered sin, death, and the grave
Satan thought he won, but the jokes on Him
Because all of this was according to the plan of the Father shown to us back in Gen. 3:15
where the promised seed of the woman would come to crush the head of the serpent
As Alistair Begg put it:
“The resurrection means that the craftiest scheme Satan ever devised has been defeated, which means that I need never fear any enemy of the cross.”
Further, Paul says, when Christ conquered through His resurrection
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God
That He is at God’s right hand is meaning to communicate that He
occupies the highest place of authority and honor
This is in fulfilment of the messianic Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
This is where Stephen sees Him before he was martyred by stoning in Acts 7.
Although the work of our salvation has been finished,
Christ doesn’t now sit idly by until the consummation of all things
What is Christ doing with that kind of authority
With that exalted position?
He’s interceding for us
Last week, we learned that the Spirit intercedes for us
Here it is said that Jesus is interceding for us
That’s pretty good evidence that God is for us!
But what is the subject of His prayers?
What does it mean for Christ to intercede for us?
John Stott puts it simply saying:
“[Christ’s] very presence at the Father’s right hand is evidence of his completed work of atonement, and his intercession means that he ‘continues to secure for his people the benefits of his death”
Christ is our High Priest before the Father
who defends us from every charge brought against us
and who ensures that His justifying work on our behalf is applied to us in the Final Judgment.
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea:
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me!
Believer, be assured that you are covered!
Christ’s got you!
He is FOR you!
You have no need to fear condemnation
from outside or from within
because He has pronounced
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Think about how comforting it is for a brother or sister in Christ to come up to you and say
I’ve been praying for you.
Now consider, that without fail,
24 hours, 7 days a week
Christ is at the right hand of the Father praying for you
Robert Murray M’Cheyne: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
Believer, may this bring you great assurance today,
that Christ is and always will be FOR you
He loves you and
nothing will ever separate you from His love
Transition:
Which leads us to the last question Paul gives on his midterm exam
v. 35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And what is the answer, church?
No One!
5. Who Can Separate Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:35–39)
5. Who Can Separate Us? NO ONE! (Rm. 8:35–39)
Paul leaves behind the judicial language and gets personal here.
God is FOR us, because He LOVES us.
Do you believe that this morning?
That God loves you?
Because He does.
To be sure, there are many things that will try to separate us from His love
things that we will go through and experience that will make us doubt His love for us.
And Paul lists seven of them:
Tribulation — that is,
trouble or pressure
Does anyone feel that this morning?
Can trouble separate you?
Nah
What about Distress?
Inner turmoil
no
Persecution?
Many of you are on our RND Slack
and if you’re not and consider RND your church family,
I encourage you to join our Slack, a messaging platform
in which we stay connected with each other from Sunday to Sunday
Well, I was encouraged by a sister in our church who posted in our prayer request channel
to pray for the persecuted Christians in Nigeria and around the world
and her burden for them reminded me of
If one member suffers, all suffer together
Members of Christ’s body all around the world are being persecuted for their faith
Suffering and losing their lives because they have chosen to follow Christ
May we be a church that prays for them—that the Lord would comfort them in their persecution
assuring them that He is for them and that even this persecution will not separate them from His love.
4–6. What about famine or nakedness or danger?
When we are uncomfortable, desperate, or in need,
We may be tempted to ask—
Is God putting me through this because He no longer loves me?
The answers no, He does love you
And He’s working through these things for your good and His glory
All of these things, Paul is speaking from experience.
The only one of them that he had not experienced yet
was the Sword—which is referring to death.
And that was to come not long after he’d finish writing this book.
And he rested in the truth that not even death itself could separate him from God’s love
for he’d proclaim in Php. 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
At this point, Paul cites Ps. 44:22
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Though it may seem like an odd psalm to quote here
Paul’s basically communicating this:
That suffering is a normal part of the Christian life.
Suffering should not surprise any of God’s people
and, therefore, it should never make us think that God no longer loves us.
For nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
Which leads Paul to conclude in v. 37
That rather than separate us from God’s love
It is actually IN ALL THESE THINGS—
that is, it is IN these sufferings that
. . .we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Okay, make it make sense, Paul:
What does it mean to be “more than a conqueror”?
Here’s a fun fact:
The word, Nike (as in the sports brand)
Gets their name off the Ancient Greek word “Neekay” which means “Victory”
We see throughout the Bible forms of that same word—
Nikao which means “to conquer”
But Paul here uses the word “huper. . .nikao”
Which means something like “Super-Conquerer”
Here’s a way to understand this:
A conquerer means your enemies are dead at your feet
You conquered them—you have the victory.
Paul uses the word “Super-Conquerer” to basically say
Not only have you conquered those enemies
But those enemies actually get up and serve you!
NT Scholar, Thomas Schreiner puts it this way:
“To be more than a conqueror over affliction, distress, persecution, and so on indicates that these enemies are actually turned to the good of believers through the power of God”
This reminds us Paul’s words in Rm. 8:28 when he talked about the sufferings of the believer
and how rather than taking the sufferings away, God actually uses all those sufferings
for the good of the believer
to help him or her look more like Jesus
He’s saying something similar here:
That, listen,
You may go hungry
you will be afflicted,
You will be experience persecution and death itself
But you know what?
These things actually serve you
They actually turn for your good
Therefore, not only can we endure these sufferings
AND be assured of Christ’s love in the midst of them,
but we can also know that God is using them for our good and his glory.
Does that give anyone assurance this morning?!
Now to be clear, it is not because of any authority or power in our own selves
Paul says it is “through him who loved us”
Apart from Him, we are not conquerers
Rather, as we saw in the first handful of chapters in Romans,
WE were the ones conquered by sin and death
when we were apart from Christ.
But, on this Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate that Christ has conquered the grave
so that through being united with Him—in His death, burial, and resurrection—
we might become more than conquerers!
The empty tomb shows that He WON the victory
and as adopted children of God,
we now LIVE in that victory!
AMEN?!
IF THAT DOESN’T MAKE YOU WANNA SING AND SHOUT,
I DON’T KNOW WHAT WILL!
Well, that truth does lead Paul to sing
And that song sounds a lot like:
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough
Ain’t no river wide enough
To keep us from the love of God, baby
Paul says in v. 38,
I AM SURE!
I am persuaded
and I believe he wants the Roman Christians
and you and me
to be persuaded today. . .
That there is NOTHING that could separate us from His love.
As before he lists pairs of potential “separators”
The first is in the physical realm of human existence
Can either death or life separate us?
No!
As mentioned before, to die is gain!
The second is the spiritual realm
Can angels or rulers
that is, can the demons separate us?
No, Col. 2:15 says that by the cross, Christ
. . .disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
What about things in history?
My past
Or the events of today
or the circumstances in the future
Nope
What about powers, or height, or depth?
Nope
Or, as Paul could’ve included in here,
What about the Christian him or herself?
Is there something they can do or not do
that would cause God to no longer love them?
Nope, not even that, for last week in v. 29–30,
We saw that all who were justified are glorified
As certain as you’ve been declared righteous through faith in Christ,
It’s that certain that He’ll keep you to the end,
no matter what you do or don’t do on any given day.
Paul says, let’s just go all the way and
say what about literally anything else in all creation?
God’s Word says NO!
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand!
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand!
[Absolutely] nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How can we have such assurance?
Why are the glorious promises of Romans 8 true for every believer?
Just as this chapter started in verse 1, saying
There is. . .no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So, Paul’s last words in the chapter say,
there is no separation for those “in Christ Jesus”!
We know that God is for us who are “in Christ Jesus”
And there is nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Unbeliever
Unbeliever
That being said, as we close our time in Romans 8 this morning,
I want to speak to those in the room who are not “in Christ Jesus”
If you are here today and you have not trusted in Christ alone for your salvation
Again we want to say thank you for joining us today
You may have been invited here this morning by a friend
You may have received one our invite cards from a coworker
or on your doorstep.
Whatever brought you here, know that it was not by accident
For God Himself brought you here to hear this word today
That the reality is that apart from being “in Christ” through faith in Him,
Every one of these questions on Paul’s midterm exam are answered differently
If we are apart from Christ,
God Himself is against us.
For we have all sinned against Him
And the Bible says that the wages of that sin is death
both in this life and through eternal separation
from His love, goodness, and mercy.
But the good news is found back in v. 32
That God did not spare His own Son,
but He gave Him up for you and for me.
Jesus lived a life you and I couldn’t live
He died a death on Good Friday 1993 years ago
A death that you and I both deserved
And, as we celebrate here today on Resurrection Sunday
He rose again, showing that He conquered sin, death, and the grave
Once and for all.
And the Bible says that anyone who confess that Jesus is Lord and
believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead
They will be saved!
We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
and if you trust in Him today
just right there in your seat
You can leave this place assured that God is no longer against you
But for you.
Would you trust in Christ this morning?
Believer
Believer
For those who are “in Christ Jesus”
Who have been united with Him
Hold Romans 8 dear to your heart
Dwell in and even Memorize Romans 8
for it is a bedrock for our assurance
our eternal security
We don’t have to pick up a daisy and
pluck the pedals saying
he loves me
he loves me not
No, He declares in Romans 8 there is NO condemnation and
there is NO separation for those in Christ Jesus
He’s got you. . .to the end
He is FOR you
As we especially remember on this day
He has conquered the grave so that
you can live as more than a conquerer through Him who loves you
If you are in Christ Jesus, be assured that God is for you and that nothing can separate you from His love.
Pray
