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The text for today is Romans 8:31 – 39.
If you would, please turn there with me and as you are making your way to Romans 8,I would like to share with you a story about my son Caden.
You know, kids say the funniest things sometimes:
 
This past summer, my son Caden spent a few days with my parents in Ohio.
After a five hour car ride from Cary to Ohio, Caden was feeling a bit antsy and was ready to get out of his car seat and move around and so he verbalized these feelings to my parents with loud noises of anticipation, which during the last half-hour, wore a bit on his grandpa.
Upon pulling into the garage of their home, my father jumped out of the car, opened Caden’s door and unbuckled him as he exclaimed “There – you’re free!” and to which my son responded quite promptly and in an irritated voice “NO GRANDPA!  I’M NOT THREE, I’M FOUR!”
 
Please follow along as I read from Romans 8:31-39
 
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he that condemns?
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.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered 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 convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The end of chapter 8 is a final segment, a climax of the previous 7 chapters of which Paul was inspired to write down.
Chapters 1 – 3 expound on God’s holy righteousness.
Chapters 4 and 5 explains God’s demand for our holy righteousness and chapters 6 – 8   explains God’s providence and empowerment that He provides to us so that we are able to live up to His standards of righteousness.
Paul finishes this nutshell of the gospel message with none other than a series of questions and a statement, which if we didn’t have any other scripture or revelation of God, it would be enough: “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What an incredible statement.
Amen?
Let’s look at the passage again with a little more scrutiny:
 
\\ Verses 31 – 34 are a series of questions:  “What shall we say then?”
What shall we say about what?  Here’s a good Bible study tip:  If a paragraph in the Bible has the word “If” or “Then” or “Because”  or “Therefore”  or “since” then it is directly related to the passage above it.
These are “cause and effect” transitions.
You cannot understand the effect unless you understand the cause.
So I need to understand what Paul has written up to chapter eight, verse 31 and since we don’t have the whole day, I will briefly summarize chapter 8 to help give us a context to the question: “What shall we say then?”
 
Paul begins chapter 8 with this statement:  “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”  Wow – ok.
And he continues: “ 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
This is starting to help me understand verse 31 now.
He then goes on to expound on the power we have through the Holy Spirit, he proclaims that through this Spirit we have become joint heirs with Christ and then he provides us with the hope of the inheritance we have in Christ, that is heaven and eternal life.
This brings us to Paul’s question of “What shall we say then?”, of which he then goes on to tell us *what* we should say in response to God’s love and providence of His Holy Spirit.
And this is what he says:
 
*1.
**God is for us and nothing else matters.
God is for us and nothing else matters.
*
 
In saying “If God is for us, who can be against us?”, Paul does not mean that we will not face opposition.
He does not mean that we will not face persecution.
Of all people he knew this and understood this because he faced persecution daily.
If you want a resume of Paul’s suffereings, look at 2 Corinthians 11:24-27: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move.
I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.
27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”
Yet he writes this in the same letter, a few chapters earlier in chapter 4:16 – 18:  “16 Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
He does not mean we will not suffer humiliation, persecution, hardships, sickness, danger.
He does mean that NONE OF THIS MATTERS compared to the “eternal glory that far outweighs them all”.
If God is for us, then NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!  NOTHING!
*2.     *32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
*God gave us all things when He gave us Jesus.
God gave us all things when He gave us Jesus.*
There is nothing else that we need.
That’s it.
His grace is sufficient.
Only one sacrifice for all sins and it is finished.
There is a book, which has recently been made into a movie, titled “The Last Sin-Eater”.
The story is based on an old celtic practice in which a man in a village, usually a beggar, is designated “The Sin Eater”.
When a person died, the family and friends would offer bread and wine on behalf of their loved one.
This sin-eater would come and take this sacrifice, thus taking the sins of the dead upon themselves to suffer the consequences in their place.
This practice went on for hundreds of years, until one day, a Christian missionary came to the village and the missionary shared Christ with a little girl who sought redemption for her sins.
When she learned that Jesus was the ultimate “Sin-Eater”, she knew she had finally found redemption and peace with God and shared with the entire village about Jesus – The Last Sin-Eater.
The entire village accepted Christ and the most remarkable story of redemption was of that of the village’s sin-eater who felt the greatest weight of sin - the sin of everyone who had died in the village.
When he learned that Jesus could take away the sins of the “sin-eater”, that is all he needed to find peace with himself and with God.
Jesus is all we need to find peace.
He is all we need to find eternal security.
He is all we need to find empowerment from the Holy Spirit.
He is all we need to be spiritually healed as Isaiah predicted in chapter 53: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
God gave us all things when He gave us Jesus.
*3.
*Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he that condemns?
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.
*Because of Christ, we no longer suffer condemnation from God.
Because of Christ, we no longer suffer condemnation from God.*
 
Turn with me to Zechariah chapter three.
Here we see a vision of a scene in heaven before God’s throne:
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!
The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!
Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”
\\ In Christ we are justified.
In a court of law, the judge pronounces a sentence.
In the great cosmic court of law, God is the great Judge and satan the prosecuting attorney.
As he accused the high priest Joshua in the book of Zechariah, so he stands ready to accuse us.
What will be our sentence?
Spiritual death.
Death of the soul.
Eternal damnation.
But in our corner we have Jesus, the Defense Attorney.
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