GOD IS FOR US
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastoral Reminder: Head Heart Hands
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
This morning we turn to the concluding remarks of Romans chapter 8. So please turn with me this morning to our as we will read verses 31 to 39.
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, 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 rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What, then, are we to say about these things? What is our response to the truth previously revealed? How are we to think about all of this. Unlike today where we have the scriptures readily available to pick at and peruse, where we have 2000 years of interpretation, the readers here would be seeing these things written down for the first time in this manner.
For the readers, these would be challenging ideas, conflicting teachings to what they already know. They are likely filled with questions so Paul starts to help them put it all together.
What things is he talking about here?
Paul Has layered his arguments in 4 layers. The first layer is his exposition of the gospel starting in Chapter 1 that the Gospel is the power of salvation for those that believe.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
From chapter 1 through chapter 4 he develops fallen humanities need of a savior. And in Chapter 5 starts a sum layer of his presentation of the Gospel. The results of being justified by faith.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
In Chapter 8 he starts another layer that revealers the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of those that have been justified by faith. He wrote this great passage that seems to be a final statement on the subjects in hand.
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
In response to the assurance that God’s purpose and plan will never come up short he asks them this question:
What do we say about these things? Can we trust in them? Will they come to pass? Can this be true?
Paul’s answer:
If God is for us who, is against us?
What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
If God is for us is not a question that has any uncertainty. It could be read because or since God if for us.
It would be like me starting a statement. If I am Thatcher’s father … No one is under the impression that it is in question that he is my son and I am his father. The point is that there are truths to follow because I am his father.
Here Paul says that since God is for us … who is against us? It is a fact that God is for his adopted children. If God is behind us, then is there any real opposition? Is there anything to fear. Can what has been given be taken away? Can what has been found be lost? Can those that have been adopted be set back out to the street?
The rhetorical answer is obviously no and he points out three acts of God that assures the believer that God is for them.
The first is that
GOD GAVE HIS OWN SON
GOD GAVE HIS OWN SON
He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
How can a child of God, how can we know that God is for us? By looking at the value of that which was given in exchange for that which had no value at all.
Men like to believe they have great value. We pride ourselves on what we can accomplish, who we are and what we have earned. Like roosters strutting around the chicken coop we like to think of ourselves of great value.
We demand that the world give us our due. We demand to be paid what we are worth. We demand that people listen to our wisdom. We demand the attention of others. We demand our way because we deserve to be treated in a way that honors what we are worth.
But in the eyes of a holy, righteous, and good God no one has anything of value.
9 What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
Before the almighty God who sees the true nature of man’s flesh, he is not fooled by outward appearances but examines the heart and what does he find, but decay, corruption, and sin. What looks righteousness in the world is worthless before God.
Kayson’s Truck
Like the truck it cannot be what it was created to be. No amount of work can make this truck renewed. No amount of effort can a man earn his way to God. For in his fallen state he is not just without worth he is incapable of changing that position. Our truck has a better chance of being new on it own then man has to save himself.
God did what man could not do and gave his Son to do it.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Yet while we were helpless, guilty, evil, sinners. Enemies of God, rebels, God haters, hostile in our minds, ignorant, with hearts of stone. Living for our own glory. To live for the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. While we were all of this God sent his son to die for us.
4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
God did not spare his own Son to bring son’s and daughters to glory. What higher price could be paid to reconcile the enemies to God? And what greater love then for Christ to die so that we may go from enemies to son’s and daughters.
We know that God is for us, for
If while we were enemies of God, he died so that we may be reconciled to God, then we can trust that he will not never leave us or forsake us.
If he gave everything to bring us home when we are nothing but wicked and saturated in sin, then we can be assured that nothing in the redeemed life could cause God to put us back out of the family.
There is no sin that can be committed after salvation that is greater than any sin committed before salvation. The sins of the saints are either paid for once and for all or they are not. Atonement has been completely made or it has not. Forgiveness has been fully given or it has not. Grace has been recieved or it has not. If salvation can be lost by works them salvation is not by grace if it can be taken back based on behavior then it is no longer grace.
Is this hymn the truth?
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow
If by his blood we are made clean, washed white, never to be stained again. If he paid it all then we know he will everything?
32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
God gave the best to save the worst of us so we can be assured that he will graciously and abundantly give us every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
The child of God knows that God is for him because he believes that God did not spare his own son to save him. We do not have to fear that God could change his mind, retract his gift of salvation or fail to keep his promises. He is a good and faithful Father who cannot lie and is unchanging. So we know that God is for us.
For we know
25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Which leads to the second way that we know God is for us is that God Justifies his Children.
GOD JUSTIFIES HIS CHILDREN
GOD JUSTIFIES HIS CHILDREN
33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
Paul asks who can make an accusation against God chosen children. Who can charge them or call them to question? Since his answer is that it is God who justifies this is an accusation of breaking God’s law.
I imagine that every person here has been falsely accused of breaking God’s commands or laws. There have been times where people have made accusations about me and my wife or our kids and they were proven to be false accusations. The world will create all sorts of narratives to justify how they want to live.
We see in the Gospels the many false accusations that were thrown at Jesus in his earthly ministry.
He was accused of breaking the Sabbath, blasphemy, being demon possessed, being a glutton and a drunkard. During his trials, false witnesses twisted his words and lied about what they had seen and heard.
Jesus trusted in the Father for he knows that God knows all, sees all, and always judges justly.
21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; 23 when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
As Jesus is the example when we are falsely accused. We trust that no amount of deceit can persuaded God to be unjust and to condemn an innocent man.
But unlike Jesus we are not without sin. We still carry the body of flesh and in the flesh the desire to sin. The desires to be lawbreakers. We continue to mature, and grow but we still find at times the flesh is weak. Or we put to death the deeds of the flesh in one area of our life and find another area that is against God’s moral commands.
10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
The accuser brings a charge against you: You are committing a sin and if you claim that God is just and righteous and must punish sin, then you are a hypocrite and a lier. They may point out verses like
13 For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.
This is true of any man or woman. That on our own we can look at the laws of God and like Israel no matter how great the promised reward for obeying the law or how dire the curse for disobeying the law, that we will find the universal reality that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
No one is justified by his own effort, so God did what man could not do, fulfill the law.
3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The son is sent to be a sin offering for the children of God. He lived a perfect life and paid the penalty by taking on the wrath of God that was earned by those that break the law. Cancelling the certificate of debt.
10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. 11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.
God’s plan from the beginning was to send the Son to be a guilt offering so that by his sacrifice many will be justified as he carries their iniquities and sins. Looking back to chapter three Paul revealed that the to be justified, to be found right before the judgment of God, one must receive the righteousness of God himself through faith in Jesus Christ.
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Who can make an accusation against one of God’s children? Many will point out the sins of the church and God’s people. Many will point out how Christians, who claim to follow God fail to do so. Many will look at our iniquities, moral failures, lies, and ungodliness and yell “See, See, Look, Look, you are just like us. You cannot even follow what you preach” By your own rules you will perish. Like these people the great accuser the devil will continue to point out each and every sin possible. And these accusations are true. We still sin and have sinned.
But God, already knows that. God was not unaware of the grossness of our sins when he choose to save us. Our Lord knew in the the garden what was going to come upon him and the cross as he prays to the Father, not my will but your will be done. He recieved each and every ounce of God’s wrath on the cross, making the payment for the debt earned by sinful men and women.
It is not our righteousness that justifies us before God but God’s own righteousness.
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And so we come to the same conclusion as Paul
28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
How do we know that God is for us? He sent his son to make a way for the requirement of the law to be fulfilled in us. You cannot stand before the justice of God in your flesh and be found righteousness. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ, that his death, burial, and resurrection have made you right before the just Judge by clothing you in his righteousness. You know that each accusation has been covered. Each charge has been paid for and that you will be found righteous, not because of what you have done but what God has done for us.
We come to the third way in which we may know that God is for us.
GOD FORGIVES HIS CHILDREN
GOD FORGIVES HIS CHILDREN
34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Who is the one who condemns? It is the one who declares someone guilty before a law. One of the great truths that is neglected today is the fact that there is a judgement coming and each and every person will have to give and account of their lives.
For those that have not been made right before the law will remain condemned. But for those that have the Spirit of life dwelling in them they will be free from condemnation.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
The world does not realize that it has been condemned since the fall. Ignorant that all paths lead to destruction but one. And that one has a name and his name is Jesus.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
A person must believe in the name of the one who will pass judgment on them. It is the Lord Jesus who will be the Judge.
22 The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
When this day comes we will stand before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord and all will call him Lord but not all will be saved. All the evidence has been given that this day will come and Jesus will be the one who declared people guilty or righteous.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Jesus was the one who was sent to die, to be the guilt offering so that those who believe may find their condemnation removed. He has also been raised and exalted to the highest court as King and Judge and at the same time he intercedes for those who believe in his name. And he has the power and the authority to save us completely.
25 Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.
Conclusions
Conclusions
What, then are we to say about these things?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you that you are for us for who could be against us.
Thank You God, while we were you enemies, ungodly and hateful, you sent your only son die in our place, to receive our due penalty. To reconcile us back to you. You sent your Spirit so that we may be your children.
Thank you God, that even though you know every transgression and sin that we will ever commit that you have sent you son to to die so that we may me made the righteousness of God.
Thank you Jesus, that you willingly laid down your life for the sheep. That you loved the unlovely. That you left the 99 to save the one. That you lived and died so that we may be justified as you are the just and the justifier.
Thank you God, that there is no condemnation in your son that you have given eternal life that will never be taken away, never lost. That our in heritance is assured and that we can never be cast out of your home.
Thank you Jesus, that you intercede for us for ever and ever. Even when we stumble and sin in our weaknesses. But you will never leave us or forsake us.
Thank you Holy Spirit, for sealing us to receive the imperishable and perfect inheritance to come.
Thank you Holy Spirit, for dwelling in us and guiding us in this life, giving us new desires, and giving us the strength to live in this life, to understand your truth.
Thank you God, for your sacrificial gift of the Son, no one can give more for less. No one can love in a greater way those that don’t deserve your love.
Thank you God, for our assurance that If you are for us no one can be against us.
For you will never cast us out.
37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.
and no one can snatch us away.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles—27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to him be the glory forever! Amen.
