Knowing the Battle is Won
Romans 8 • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Think of a movie that you were waiting for months and months to see (Avengers: Endgame comes to mind for me). You’ve invested time and you’re about to invest some money in order to watch this movie at the movie theater. Having a wife who has worked at a movie theater for years now, I can personally attest that it is next to impossible to go to a 2+ hour long movie without getting concessions. So you spend $10 on your ticket and another 10-15 on concessions just to see this movie that you’ve been waiting so long to watch! How would you feel if as soon as you walk into the movie theater, someone told you the ending? You’ve already paid for everything, you’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks and weeks and then someone spoils the ending for you! You’d be upset at this point, right?
Let’s flip the script here for a moment, though. Do you remember when you were in high school and had to write book reports or book reviews? I remember having to do stuff like this and you’d begin to read your book and it would be next to impossible to read more than a couple dozen pages before wanting to throw the book across the room because it is so dry. You would love nothing more than to be able to know the ending of the book in order to give your report and move on with your life, right? Isn’t it interesting that we have different outlooks on books/movies based upon if we want to be doing something or if we are forced to do it?
As we continue our study through , we see that we already know the outcome of eternity. This shouldn’t be a bad thing, though, it should bring about encouragement and hope to our lives! We know that the battle is won! We know that we have victory regardless of the situation we find ourselves in. This should encourage us regardless of what we find ourselves going through. Let’s look at what the apostle Paul writes in as he finishes up this chapter with the climax of his argument, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 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, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What an awesome passage of Scripture! We see Paul ask several questions in these verses and we will spend some time this morning looking at these questions as well as the answer that Paul gives!
What then shall we say to these things?
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? The immediate answer to this question is that no one can stand against us if God is for us. What is Paul talking about when he says “these things”? Is he talking about what he talked about in ? Yes. Is he talking about as a whole? Yes. Is he talking about all the blessings ascribed to Christians in ? Yes! There are a plethora of blessings in these chapters of Romans! We see in that we have eternal life, a gift of grace, righteousness and justification because of what Christ did for us! In , we see that believers have life, freedom from sin, the hope of resurrection and eternal life. In , we see that we are set free from the law, we are freed from our bondage to sin and we have joy in Christ. Finally, in we have looked at the blessings that Paul ascribes to Christians as we are delivered from bondage! We face no condemnation! We are no longer slaves to fear but slaves of God. We are adopted into God’s family and we are promised an inheritance! Two weeks ago we saw that we have victory in Christ and we have the Holy Spirit who groans with us in our suffering. Today, we saw that there is nothing that can stand against us if God is for us!
So what shall we say about these things? We see that Christ is on our side. He is working for us. Does this mean that we will not face opposition? No! Christ faced opposition, we will certainly face opposition, however we know that nothing can stand in the way of whoever God is for. Have you ever heard of an unstoppable force and an immovable object? God is an unstoppable force AND an immovable object. If He is for you, there is nothing that can stop you or harm you (spiritually speaking). If He is not for you (if you do not have a personal relationship with Christ) then He is an immovable object and nothing you do will move Him. No amount of good works will cause God to move aside and allow you to enter heaven. No amount of tithing or Bible knowledge will get you in. What will get you in? Having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Last week we celebrated the fact that our God did not spare His own Son. He sent His Son to die the death that we should have died. He bore the wrath of God and took our place. He delivered His Son over to death so that we might have a way. Our God is a relentless God. Some will say that he is reckless (there are millions of love the song “reckless love”) however, there is nothing in God’s nature that is reckless. It might not make sense to our finite selves, but God has a plan and a purpose. He holds all things together and as we saw two weeks ago, He makes all things work together for our good (being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ).
So, if God is for us, if He gave His own Son, if He delivered Him for us all then how will He not freely give us all things? He gave us His Son, the greatest gift of all. He will give us all things along with Him. So what are these “all things”? Is it a billion dollars? That would be wonderful, right! Is it a new car? That would be fun too! Unfortunately, probably not. Most pastors and scholars note that the “all things” in verse 32 refers to the blessings of salvation and the inheritance we receive as Believers. We talked about some of these blessings from just a moment ago! We also know that we serve a God who supplies needs. We can all attest to a time in our lives where we were empty and God brought in satisfaction and fulfillment. Where we were hopeless and God ushered in hope. Where we were powerless and God brought in power by the truth found in His Word. A God who sacrificed His own Son on our behalf will certainly not withhold good things from us! By nature, God is a giving God. Praise God for His gifts in our lives today.
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
God is the one who justifies!
In the Greek language, this phrase in “bring a charge” is in the future tense. We know that there are currently people who bring charges against Christians, right? We also know that there will always be people who bring charges against Believers. We know that Satan has always done this and will continue to do this. Not only does Satan try and bring charges against us, we also guilt ourselves and remind ourselves of our inadequacies, do we not? It can be easy to buy into this lie as well! We know that we are all sinners and we know our flaws and faults more than anyone else. As the saying goes, “we are our own worst critic”. This verse is beautiful, though, because it reminds us that no one can bring a charge against us as Christians! No accusation will be effective because it is against a Child of God. God alone is the one who justifies and therefore, no one can bring a charge against the judge Himself - God.
We squirm in our seats a little bit when we hear the word elect, do we not? We saw a couple of weeks ago in that if God is in fact all knowing, perfect and before all and after all, He knows who His children are. The word elect here is referring to His people - Christians. We might feel uncomfortable with this word because we think that it restricts our “will” or “choice” in the matter. What is important to note about is that this is simply not the context. The context is that God has a chosen people. In the Old Testament we saw that people to be Israel, in the New Testament we see that includes all people groups who call upon the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The message is not limited to a few but open to all. Do not allow the word elect to automatically cause your mind to shut down and get defensive. It is in Scripture for a reason. Praise God that it is there because if God did not have an elect people then we would be without a master and without hope. Praise God that as Christians, we are the chosen people of God and there can be no accusation brought against us because the judge is in fact our master.
We see that Paul gets this idea from where Isaiah writes:
8 He who vindicates Me is near; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up to each other; Who has a case against Me? Let him draw near to Me.
God is the only one who justifies. Our culture tries and tells us that we can justify our own actions. It is permissible to steal or cheat in order to pass a class or help me pay for my rent. As Christians, we know that our logic or science can help us but it cannot justify us in the eyes of a holy and just God. The good news is that as Christians, God will surely justify us. We can worry about our good and bad balancing out all we want, but at the end of the day the only hope we truly have is that God justifies us. Because God is the one who justifies, though, we can have hope that our justification and salvation will never be overruled or “changed”.
Who is the one who condemns?
Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus.
shows us that if we are in Christ Jesus that there is no condemnation. It follows that if you are not in Christ Jesus that you are under condemnation.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
We see that Jesus Christ is the one who condemns. Our body, heart and friends might condemn us here on earth but it is only Christ that ultimately matters in this regard! One of the (if not the absolute) earliest creeds of the Church was that “Christ died, Christ rose, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Praise God that if Christ died for you, it is impossible for you to be condemned! In this verse we hear an echo of in which David writes,
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
We celebrated Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection last week at Easter and this is extremely important for us as Christians to understand and celebrate! What is also important for us to understand and celebrate is that Christ ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Last week I mentioned that I was a huge fan of the Chronicles of Narnia as a child (and have become an even bigger fan of C.S. Lewis as I have grown up!). One quote from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that sticks out to me is when Susan and Lucy ask the people of Narnia if this Aslan individual is “safe”. The beaver looks perplexed at the two naive girls and replies with one of the most memorable lines from the entire series, “Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.”
We treat Jesus Christ as our best friend all too often (for good reason, as He is our savior!) and it can be easy to lose sight of who He really is. He is the mighty lion who has been given all power in heaven and on earth. There is nothing “safe” about Jesus Christ if you are a non-Christian. He is holy and He is the God-man. He defied the laws of the natural world by defeating sin and death. He caused the blind to see and the lame to walk. He caused the dead to come back to life and the storms to cease. He is holy, big and terrifying. But He is also personal, humble, loving and as the beaver said about Aslan, He is good and He is the King.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Nothing!
If you’ve ever seen a video of a snowball bring rolled down a mountain, you know that a very small ball of snow can end up being a ginormous and devastating force by the time it reaches the bottom of the slope! We know that a tiny spark can ignite an entire forrest. We know that a simple encounter with Jesus Christ can completely transform and revolutionize someone’s life! In verse 35, we see the excitement of Paul rise sharply as he examines the indescribable love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Naturally, when we see Paul ask this question, we expect that answer to be a simply response “no one can separate us from the love of Christ!” however, what we see is a list that causes our hearts to swell with hope and anticipation.
We have hit this point home time after time it seems the last few weeks, but it was clearly on Paul’s mind as he was writing . Situations cannot separate us from the love of Christ Jesus! I want to clarify something here though. How can Paul make this statement? We know that our hearts stray and we are told not to trust our heart because it deceives us. We know that we drift and we eb and flow all too often. The remarkable truth in the first portion of this verse is that Christ’s love for us will always be there! We might ask, why is it called the “love of Christ” instead of the “love of God” in this verse? Let’s look at verse 39 to answer that question. Paul writes in that nothing will be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There is not a noteworthy difference in this statement from Paul and it makes sense in that Paul has just referred to the death of Jesus Christ for us in verse 34.
We then see Paul list a host of things that we might think would separate us from the love of God and that our society tells us proves that God does not love us. Trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and the sword are all serious foes that can wreck havoc upon our lives. Trouble represents strong pressure, hardship is a general word but some scholars note these words being next to one another might indicate outward pressure/affliction and inner distress. Persecution has always been a threat to the church (especially the early church!) and famine was certainly a threat as food seemed to always be in short supply in Paul’s day. Nakedness had a vastly different meaning in Paul’s day than it does today. Today we associate nakedness with an inappropriate action or indecency. In Paul’s day there were truly people who could not afford clothes and were “naked”. Finally, danger was a constant for early Christians who were vocal in their profession of faith in Jesus and sword meant execution. It is interesting to note that Paul had experienced all of these things (minus execution) at the time that he had wrote and would eventually face persecution. Paul faced these things time after time. He was imprisoned, beaten, mocked and stoned. He faced all of these oppositions and he stated boldly that nothing could separate him from the love of Christ.
I think there is a reminder in that verse for Christians today. It can be easy to thank God and feel His presence whenever life is favorable and going good, is it not? Whenever we face trouble or hardship we might cry out to God but we do so in order to (often times) ask Him to remove the trouble! Paul faced all of these things and He makes the claim that these things are not bad in and of themselves, in fact what they do is prove that we are in fact in Christ Jesus. Paul highlights this with verse 36 as he quotes to show that nothing can separate believers from the love of Christ. There is a risk in our culture that Christ only wants you at your best and that if you just trust Him more, you will avoid trouble altogether! This was unthinkable in Paul’s day. Scripture shows that while the love of Christ is true and unshakable, so are troubles. “Sheep to be slaughtered” shows the risk associated with being a Christian. As one scholar noted, “ Suffering and persecution are not mere evils which Christians must expect and endure as best they can; they are the scene of the overwhelming victory which Christians are winning through Christ.”
Praise God that suffering and persecution do not separate us from the love of Christ but are rather the scene of our victory as Christians!
Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 339). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
More than Conquerors
More than Conquerors
Christians are not survivors, we are conquerors who are empowered by Christ to overcome all the obstacles we face in life! Another way to translate this phrase in Greek is that we are “completely victorious”. One of the ways that the word “overcome” is used in the New Testament is in relation to believers being victorious in the face of trouble and persecution by not denying their faith in Christ even in the face of certain death. We are more than conquerors whenever we refuse to deny our faith in Christ. Our victory is through our Lord Jesus Christ as He suffered and won the victory for us! He strengthens us whenever we face persecution for His name sake.
According to an article by Christianity Today, the church in Africa is growing at a rapid rate! Nearly 33,000 people are converting to Christianity across the continent each day. The country of Sudan is predominantly a Muslim country, however it is one of the countries embracing Christianity the fastest. The church in south Sudan is among the fastest growing churches in the entire world yet they face persecution on a daily basis! In 2017 there was a report published that the government in Sudan was attempting to prevent Bibles from entering the nation. This limits the amount of Bibles that the church there can distribute to new Christians who need to be discipled. Even considering this problem from the government, the church there is exploding. They are facing hardships, trouble, persecution and the sword yet Christianity is exploding like wildfire! If we look at the early church, we see that they faced many of the same problems (illegal to be a Christian, you could be put to death for professing faith in Christ) yet the church blew up due to the power of the Holy Spirit!
We see that we are more than conquerors whenever we face persecution in the name of Jesus Christ!
Not only this, but in verses 38 and 39 we see Paul finally answer his question from verse 35. Neither supernatural and earthly powers can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
There are several pairs that Paul lists in these verses: death/life, angels/demons, present/future, height/depth, powers/anything in creation. All of these lists could potentially present a barrier between God and man. What does Paul show, though? Nothing will be able to separate us! We see him talk about the love of Christ time and time again
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Paul does not say nothing will separate, but nothing will “be able to” separate. There is nothing out there that is as powerful as the Creator! If God has defeated sin and death then what do we have to fear? Absolutely nothing. The enemy can show us the cross, but as we saw last week, the cross is no longer a tool for execution and torture but instead we see our victory!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Neither the highest mountain or lowest valley can separate us from God’s Love. Last Sunday evening I mentioned briefly about the size of stars in the universe and just how small our sun (1.3 million times bigger than the earth). We know that there are some stars out there (VY Canis Majoris and UY Scuti come to mind) that are nearly 2000 times larger than our sun! We see that there are massive things in our universe and it seems like we continue to make discovery after discovery about new things (such as black holes from a couple of weeks ago)! We see that our God is the star-maker, the wave-walker and the death-defeater. He is mighty and He is personal. Nothing can separate us from His love!
The greatest weapon that the enemy can throw at us cannot separate us from the love of God. Cling to that hope daily and know that your suffering in life is not in vain. If God could turn the cross into something good, He can surely turn your daily struggles and suffering into good as well.