Therefore Part Nine

Introduction

Therefore Series: Audacious truths about what it means to be a Christian. 

Justified, set free, a new life (out of autonomy and self-sufficiency, adopted, heirs, given hope, help, and purpose in our suffering.

These truths build and build until you get an explosion, a crescendo of glory.

And the hight of this crescendo, Paul asks a question. It’s a question that draws back to all of these truths and wants a response.

Romans 8:31a— “What shall we say to these things?” What should our conclusion be?

Romans 8:31a ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Main Idea: Paul declares to us that God is astoundingly for us, irrevocably loves us, and has resoundingly proven that to us.

God is Astoundingly For Us

There is something deep in each one of us. A desire for others to be “for” us = On our side. Rooting for us. Cheering us on.

This is the brilliance and power of Facebook. People giving us “likes” or little positive emojis. This is a powerful force in marriage. A marriage struggles when one or both spouses stop believing that the other is “for” them. Ill. Weekend to Remember Conference. 

Paul asks the first of a series of rhetorical questions: “If God is for us, who could be against us?”

We could answer, “There’s a lot of people who are against me!”

Paul is not denying that people would be against us.

Jesus made this clear: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19

John 15:18–19 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Paul is making a comparison. He is saying that if God is for you then it doesn’t matter if anyone is against you.

Your team is stacked!!

Illustration: In the movie, The Lion King, the young cub Simba is being surrounded by hyenas, and he gets ready to defend himself, when his father jumps up behind Simba and roars. At that great roar, the hyenas scatter.

Illustration: My friend Bull

But here’s the problem: do we really believe that God is really for us?

The word if translates the Greek first class conditional particle ei, signifying a fulfilled condition, not a mere possibility. The meaning of the first clause then is not really a question but an unchanging maxim we can live on

“Your family may have turned their backs on you, your child may have disappointed you, your job may have disappeared into the thin air of layoffs and cutbacks ... but the maker of the mountains is for you. The One who laid the floor of the oceans is for you. The one who scattered the more than 100 billion stars over 100 billion galaxies, in what scientists say is a length of more than 30 million light years with a playful toss of his hand, is for you!” (Andy Cook)

God Irrevocably Loves Us

Paul asks another question: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Paul in verses 38-39, lists what might separate us from God’s love:

Death / Life - Death can't sever our relationship with Christ. In fact, it can only enhance it (Phil. 1:21-23). Nor can anything life throws at us sever us from his affection.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Angels / Principalities - Most likely this refers to both good and evil angels. The point is that nothing whatever in the spiritual realm, no cosmic power, whether benevolent or malevolent, can separate us from God.

Things present / Things to come - Neither present circumstances nor any future events have the power to sever us from God's love.

Powers - This is the only item in the list that appears alone. It refers either to miraculous or supernatural phenomena, perhaps that come from Satan, or is another reference to demons (cf. 1 Cor. 15:24; Eph. 1:21).

Height / Depth - This pair encompasses anything and everything above and below, i.e., nothing above the heavens or beneath the earth or anything in between can sever us from Christ. Cf. Ps. 139:7-12.

But what if God himself should choose to separate me from his love?

We see this question in Romans 8:33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?”

Romans 8:33 ESV

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

And he answers it: “It is God who justifies”.

On what grounds or for what cause would God reject you or separate himself from you? "Well, my sins," you might say.

But Paul's argument is that Christ died for those very sins (vv. 33-34). Those sins which you fear might separate you from God were the sins for which Christ paid the penalty.

This is why no one can bring a successful accusation against you (v. 33). What sin can you possibly commit that might separate you from God's love for which Christ did not already pay the penalty?  

The whole point of Paul's argument in vv. 31-34 was to prove precisely the opposite. God has taken the most elaborate, sacrificial, personally painful and costly steps possible to embrace us in his love. (Sam Storms)

Paul's argument is that rather than being against us, God is "for" us (v. 31), rather than taking from us, he "gives" all to us (v. 32), and rather than condemning us, he justifies us (v. 33).

God Resoundingly Proved to To Us

We might then ask: “OK that sounds great but how do we know it’s true? How do I know it’s true of me?”

Answer: God has resoundingly proven it to you.

Notice Romans 8:32: He who did not spare is own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Romans 8:32 ESV

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?

This is an argument from the greater to the lesser.

Who gave up Jesus to death? "Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy -- but the Father, for love!" (Octavius Winslow) 

If God was willing to offer up his own Son, the second Person of the Trinity to be tortured and killing on our behalf, how much easier would it be to give us anything else?

"The reason [God's sparing not his own Son is] the greater thing is that God loved his Son infinitely. His Son did not deserve to be killed. His Son was worthy of worship by every creature, not spitting and whipping and scorn and torture. To hand over his beloved son (Colossians 1:13) was the incomparably great thing. The reason for this is the immensity of God's love for his Son. This is what made it so unlikely that God would hand him over. Yet God did it. And in doing it he showed that he most certainly would do all other things --- all of which would be easy by comparison --- to give all things to the people for whom he gave his Son" (John Piper). 

"Since God has done the unspeakably great and costly thing, we may be fully confident that He will do what is by comparison far less.” (Charles Cranfield)

Paul's assertion is designed to drive home the unshakeable assurance that God is astoundingly for us and that he irrevocably loves us!

Conclusion

Application: There’s a voice that in all of our lives. It’s the voice we listen to more than any other voice.

It influences our relationships and drives our decisions.

We listen to it all the time, but it is not the voice of God.

It’s the voice that says we’re not good enough, attractive enough, spiritual enough .

What lie of shame do you tell yourself that makes you cover up, that makes you hide that makes you act out of fear?

Write down that thought that seems to always come.

Then find someone who you can share that with and will be for you the voice of God. “God is astoundingly for you. God irrevocably loves you. God has resoundingly proven it to you."