Romans 8:31-34 "The Covenant Faithfulness of God"

Introduction

When we talk about God initiating His work of salvation in us, we are referring to His work of grace coming through His providential decrees.

As we saw last Sunday, those He foreknew, He predestined, and those He predestined, He called, and those He called, He justified, and those He justified He glorified.

God is the subject carrying out the action of the verbs. But this is not here to inform us regarding theological trivia. These doctrines help us make sense out of our lives and how they intersect with God in His work of redemption in us.

They actually help us to focus our faith and define the very essence of our hope and security in God. And God’s faithfulness to His covenant is reflected in the generosity of His grace to us in Christ.

Look at verses 31-32 at what I am referring to as the Generosity of God:

I. The Generosity of God (31-32).

The sovereignty of God expressed in His decrees of accomplishing our redemption brings the Apostle Paul to question the viability of any potential enemy (31).

If God rules in the affairs of men and He undergirds us in our redemption with absolute sovereignty, then how can anyone do harm to us.

This translates to life in grace where we live by faith in God’s steadfast goodness demonstrated to us in Christ (32).

You see Christian, if God didn’t spare His only begotten Son, the crown jewel of the Universe and beyond, the One of infinite beauty and value, then please tell me what is the “good” thing that God would withhold from us as His covenant people?

When in the generosity of God, Christ came into the world it was an expression of infinite glory.

God gave His Son to redeem sinners to display His infinite glory through His generosity towards us. We often refer to this as an aspect of divine grace.

But if God has done this for us, as His covenant people, what would He not give us that would be for our ultimate good? The answer that Paul’s rhetorical question demands is: nothing.

But Christian see how the theological truths of God’s sovereign decrees translate into application for our lives.

They help us understand how at the relational level, God will not withhold anything from you that would be to your spiritual benefit and good.

This principle of understanding will help you to cultivate contentment in your walk of faith.

The world will bombard you with material things and try to convince you that you will be content when you finally have a certain house or car or certain dollar amount in your portfolio or achieve a certain goal on your bucket list.

Nothing necessarily wrong with these things in and of themselves except when we are seeking them as our ultimate fulfillment and purpose.

When we do this, we are being defined in our identity and purpose by the world and not our Creator.

Christian, God is the one who defines us in our identity and purpose. And knowing that He is generous with His covenant people will free us from finding fulfillment and contentment in the things of the world.

The doctrines of His divine grace where He initiates that work in us by the Spirit tells us that He has a higher purpose for us than anything that the world can offer.

Things like identity, purpose and value in regards to our human existence are derived from our God who made us and redeemed us for His purposes.

And you may say at this point, “Pastor Brett the problem for the Christian is that in this fallen world our sin keeps getting in the way.” Well, God has taken care of that too. Look back at verses 33-34 at what I am calling “The Justification of God”:

II. The Justification of God (33-34).

Paul ask at the beginning of verse 33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?”

The elect are the same ones foreknown and predestined back up in verses 29-30.

And Paul responds by appealing to the justification of God. He had also just made reference to it back up in verse 30. And all of this is a work that is initiated by God.

Then notice at the beginning of verse 34 another question: “Who is to condemn?”

As if to argue that if God, the eternal sovereign of the Universe, who decrees our redemption, justifies us then who will condemn? Only answer that someone may attempt to give would be Jesus Christ, the Son.

But Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit doesn’t allow for this as we see in verse 34 that Jesus Christ is fully engaged in bringing the decrees of God to pass.

He is engaged in our redemption through His death, His resurrection and His intercession for us at the right hand of God.

His death was a sacrificial death in our place.

His resurrection was a glorious resurrection that demonstrated atonement for our sin and the defeat of sin and death once and for all of time.

The triumphant victory over sin and death demonstrated in the resurrection did not raise him to once again walk the dusty streets of ancient Jerusalem and to hang with His disciples.

No, the victory was much more profound and glorious than that. He was raised to the highest place at the right hand of the Father.

The place at the right hand was the place of highest prominence in ancient times. Ephesians 1:15-23 tells us that this place of prominence is the manifestation of the glory of God and the basis of the Supremacy of Christ over all authority and power.

And we are told in that passage, by the Apostle Paul, that he actually prays for the knowledge of Christ at this level to take root in the hearts of the Ephesian Christians.

And we see the death, resurrection all the way to the ascension to the right hand of the Father in Romans 8:34. But it doesn’t end there. Christ is interceding for us. You could call this all His high priestly work on our behalf.

It is as if Christ in His high priestly work in verse 34 meshes with absolute perfection right into the decrees of God of verse 29-30.

Just like those works of art that are multi-dimensional. The layers are added and contribute to the grand design of the artist.

I like to think that all of existence is displaying the glory of the eternal sovereign God in His plan of redemption in Christ.

And this translates to life in grace where we live by faith in God’s pardon extended to us in Christ.

We are justified by faith in God’s provision to us in Christ. It is true that in our battle with sin we can lose a sense of our identity and purpose but Jesus Christ has won the victory over sin and death.

As we encounter the gospel again and again in our battle with sin we are being re-calibrated to the reality of God’s grace.

Our battle with sin is temporal and God’s provision of grace is confronting sin in us in the temporal sense as we are being sanctified by grace in the Spirit.

You look at the world today and we can see our culture wrestling with their identity and subjectively assigning their own out of their internal feelings and emotions.

And most of us scratch our heads and wonder if we are missing something. This is what happens when humanity unplugs from their Creator. They assert themselves in His place. They self-determine in the place of the sovereign determination of God.

The only reason Christian that you don’t slide to that depth in your humanity is because of the sovereign grace of God that keeps you.

I applied this truth to highlight an issue in our culture but it is the same in any relationship in our human experience. Human pride and depravity corrupts all of those relationships in one way or another.

That is why we need contracts in business and why marriages sometimes need counseling and why kids need discipline.

Conclusion:

And it is why sinners need redemption. Unbeliever you need a savior. Someone who can pay your penalty and justify you before God.

Believers grace has to permeate our relationship with God and with others. If grace doesn’t our pride will only cultivate conflict and bitterness in our relationships.

Life events and relationships are usually the experiential triggers of conflict and bitterness. And this text challenges us to see our life events through the lens of divine sovereignty and our relationships through the lens of divine grace. Like a pair of binoculars that have to be adjusted to help us see God more close up and personal.

That is what these doctrines of grace do. They help us function in a spiritual healthy manner as they cultivate faith, hope and love in us for God and for others through the gospel.

Christian maybe today is the day that your perception changes. Maybe today is the day that we surrender to seeing it God’s way and living it out in our lives.

Confess and receive. Let’s pray!