Title More than Conquerors
Text Rom 8:31-39
Date: 2-17-08.am
Introduction:
Paul begins verse 31 saying What shall we then say. It is a reference to all that Paul has written in the 8th chapter of Romans about the believer's assurance. Believers are those Paul described who are “in Christ.”
So far we have seen eight things we are assured of:
1. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus v. 1-11
2. We have been adopted into Gods family v. I5 - We are His children and He is our Father. Sense of belonging and permanence.
3. We are joint heirs v. I7
4. We have received the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our final and ultimate redemption V. 23.
5, The Spirit intercedes in our prayer life when we don’t know what to pray. V 26-27
6. God is always at work in the circumstances of our lives that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. 28
7. Those who believe have been justified v. 30
8. Those who have been justified are assured they we will be glorified v.30
9. God is for us v.31
Paul summing up those eight assurances from chapter eight says there is only one conclusion: Which is a 9th assurance. God is for us. God is for RD God is for You if you are a believer in Christ. And, the good news is even if you are not yet a believer God has done everything necessary so that you can become one and receive His assurances. And, because God is for you no one can prevail against you. No one, no thing, no circumstance, no situation.
Paul makes three points in support of his conclusion
1. God has withheld nothing from us v. 32. What exactly does Paul mean when he says God will give us all things? We need or at least think we need a lot of things ad we think usually in terms of material things, jobs homes, cars and such.
There are some who believe this verse is talking about material blessings and that Paul is saying that God will open up the bank so to speak and if you just believe it you can receive it. And God does bless materially, but not all believers are blessed materially. Many believers in this country live in poverty and in many 3rd world nations those of us who are considered middle class in the United States are viewed as being wealthy. But that’s not what Paul is talking about.
Paul is saying that God did not withhold the most valuable gift imaginable when He gave His son so that while we were still sinners we might obtain salvation and since He has already given the most valuable thing to us He is certainly not going to withhold anything necessary to maintain or consummate that salvation. God gave you everything necessary for salvation which was Jesus Christ. He gives you everything necessary to live that salvation in this world which is His Holy Spirit and all the ministry the Spirit does in us and for us including the inspiration of the written Word to us. And He has not withheld the glory of eternal life which will result in living in perfect harmony with Him in the future.
Peter wrote in 1 Pe 1 3-5: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Pe 1:3-5 NASB
2. God will allow nothing and no one to condemn us. In verses 33-34 he reenforces his statement in verse 1.
Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions to show the completeness of our justification. Who can bring a charge against us, he asked, and after we’ve been declared righteous who can condemn us? There are many in this world who would be willing to bring charges against us and Satan is certainly willing to do that as well. But, God who is our judge has already deemed us justified not by anything we’ve done or will do or can do, but only through Christ.
In the same way who can condemn us again there are many who would like to and sometimes we find even our own heart wants to condemn us but condemnation also fails because Jesus Christ saves us from all condemnation by his death, resurrection, exaltation and continued intercession.
The conclusion – God is for us, us being those who have received His free gift of salvation, and nothing can ultimately prevail against us. Not that there won’t be people or forces or situations that stand in opposition to us as Christians, not that we won’t struggle along life’s journey or that we won’t lose some battles along the way. But, we can overcome all things because of the cross, where God demonstrated the ultimate degree of His love by delivering Christ to face the penalty of sin for us. God declares that the righteous demands of His Law have been fulfilled in the righteousness of His Son.
The basis of that justification is the reason nothing can condemn us – it is the death of Christ, the Lamb of God, on the cross.
3. God will allow nothing to separate us from His love v.v. 35-39
He asks another rhetorical question. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Grammatically these questions can also be phrased as statements: No one can bring a charge against us; and no one can separate us from the love of Christ. No one can put a distance between Christ's love and us. No one can lead Christ to cease loving us. No one can take us out of the hand of Christ who loves us. Paul begins by asking who, but changes idea to what can separate us from Christ’s love. Those things Paul mentions in verse 35 stress completeness and indicate that not only can no one separate us from Christ’s love, but also no thing can separate us. Because nothing can separate us from Christ’s love, in all things we are victorious through Christ.
Verses 38 and 39 are very important to what Paul is telling us. These two verses must always be taken and understood together.
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, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ro 8:38-39 NASB
Together taken in context they provide a strong statement in support of the doctrine of eternal security or once saved always saved. Already in Romans we have seen several other passages that emphasize this same point. The foundation for these verses is what has written previously in chapter eight, but also on what he has written throughout the first 8 chapters of Romans so that Paul is convinced about the sure nature of our salvation.
There are those who believe there is a difference between the love of God Paul talks about here and the life of God he described in Eph 4:18.
17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; Eph 4:17-18 NASB
Accordingly they believe we are wrong to understand and include sin as part of what Paul describes in verse 38-39. The premise is that the Bible teaches our sin does separate us from God. As an example they point out that the Rich young ruler was loved by God, but was unsaved and therefore his sin did separate him from God. They often quote Isa 59:2: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden {His} face from you, so that He does not hear.” And also use 1 Cor 6:9 where Paul wrote “. . . do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? The conclusion is that those of us who believe and teach eternal security are misleading and deceiving people with the false idea they don’t have to fear hell.
Is that argument valid, is that interpretation of these verses right, is that analysis of eternal security right? My answer is obviously no, and here’s why.
Those who believe in eternal security acknowledge there is absolutely no doubt sin separates us from God. There is no doubt that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. That’s clearly the message of the Bible. God created mankind in perfection, he gave man freedom and in that freedom man choose to sin and that sin separated mankind from God. That’s exactly what Paul wrote in 3:23 and 6:23 when he wrote that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of that sin is death.
We would agree that God by definition is love (1 Jn 4:8), His love is universal. In other words He loves all of His creation including the unsaved. He loved the rich young ruler who was unsaved just as he loved me when I was unsaved and you when you were unsaved and thousands and thousands of men and women today who are unsaved are loved by God. He obviously loves those who are lost and unsaved and yet they are indeed separated from Him by sin. We describe that as God’s universal love for creation and humanity. That’s what John 3:16 is about and that’s why Paul wrote earlier in Rom 5:8 that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
But God’s universal love is not the love Paul is referring to in verses 38 and 39. The love Paul writes about here is the love God has for those who are “in Christ.” That’s what Paul has been leading us to in these first 8 chapters. That first verse of chapter 8 affirms There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NASB Chapter 8 is about those who are in Christ Jesus.
While the Bible is clear sin separates us from God, and that God loves all humanity, the other side of the biblical message of God’s love is the cross. In the Old Testament sacrifices had to be made continually, day by day, year by year for sin. It was impossible for those sacrifices to take away sin (Heb 10:4), or to actually atone for it. In the New Testament through the incarnation of Christ the spotless Lamb of God came into the world to atone for sin, all sin and to take it away that what atone means (Rom 6:10; Heb 10:10) in ultimate fulfillment of God’s love. Jesus Christ brought full and complete salvation to humanity so that it is no longer necessary for us to make continual sacrifice for sin. This ultimate fulfillment of the Love of God - the giving of His son (v.32) makes the Life of God possible. And Paul is specific in saying nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.
To understand Paul’s use of love in verses 38-39 we have to begin in Chapter one. Paul began his message to the Roman church by writing in verse 16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . ..” (NAS) The love of God demonstrated through the cross makes the life of God possible or available to all humanity, however, it only imparts the life of God to those who believe.
He made it clear in 3:23-24 that everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God, but even though we fall short we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; (NAS) Paul used two words in 3:23-24 to describe the believers position justified and redeemed , bought with a price and declared righteous. Not on the basis of anything we have done. The basis for both redemption and justification is solely the cross of Christ.
In chapter Rom 4:7-8, Paul wrote: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account." (NAS) Paul’s quoting Ps 44:22 what he is saying is when we receive His gift of salvation our unrighteousness is replaced by His righteousness which is imputed or credited to us for salvation through Christ. Paul explained that in chapter 5 beginning with verse 15
In verse 25 of chapter 4 Paul wrote: “He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (NAS) The translation seems a little odd in the NAS. But the meaning is because Jesus was delivered up given to the cross and resurrected we who believe receive justification.
In chapter 6:10 Paul wrote, “For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all;” NASB Redemption was completed on the cross. Peter wrote in 1 Pet 3:18: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God. . .”NASB
The conclusion is that in the context of Romans love moves from a general or
universal concept which God has for all humanity to a specific meaning. This
specific love is equated with salvation which God has given those who have
believed in Christ. The word "believe" carries the idea of total surrender, putting
total confidence for salvation in what Christ did for us on the cross, not trusting our
good works, our money, our position or anything else, not even church membership,
but trusting in the Person of Jesus Christ.
So, when we get to chapter 8 we find two specific promises concerning God’s love towards those who believe. First in verse ,1 because of that love, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NASB Again, those who are “in Christ” are those who have personally experienced His love by faith and have received salvation. Paul is writing to believers. Then, because those who are “in Christ” have personally experienced His love Paul wrote in verse 2: “. . . the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (NAS) That means we are pardoned, we are free from the old law of sin and death and are able, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to live the new life in Christ. Paul explained that in chapter 7 particularly verses 7-24.
In verse 15 of the 8th chapter Paul wrote we received the Spirit of Adoption. If you remember we talked about the biblical concept of adoption. It makes us part of God’s family, joint heirs with Jesus and it is permanent. God makes us His children and He makes Himself our father totally apart from anything we do other than receiving His gift of salvation by faith. We don’t make ourselves His children nor do we make Him our Father. That’s why a person who has genuinely received Christ by faith can’t give up the relationship.
Paul wrote because I have received this free gift of salvation there is no one other than God who has the authority to bring any charge against me and God has already justified me. He justified me, on the basis of Christ’s atonement and there is no one and no thing that can condemn me. Christ died for me, was raised for me and continues to intercede for me. I am justified by grace through faith.
In verse 37 it’s further understood that the love Paul talks about is specific because he declared we overwhelmingly conquer or are victorious through Him who loved us. We know, then, Paul is not talking about humanity in general but only about those who are God’s own when he brings his argument to a climax in verses 38-39, “For I am convinced” by convinced Paul means experientially, theologically and philosophically he has come to the undeniable conclusion, “ that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NAS)
It’s not necessary to attempt an explanation of each of the items in Paul’s list. Paul intention is to be as comprehensive as possible and include any thing anyone might possibly think could take us out of God’s hand, and just to make sure he closed the list by adding, “nor any other created thing.” Everything in creation is under the control of the Creator. By Him and through Him all things came into being and by His power and will all things continue to exist. And nothing that exists can separate us from Him and His love once we become His. And even though it’s not mentioned specifically in this list, we know it includes our sin, which has been taken away not by anything we have done or can do but because our sin is covered by His blood. We are eternally secure because our security is through Him by Him and in Him.
I’ve used this before, It’s not a totally scientific analogy but you might think of it like this. I carry in my body my father’s DNA, it marks me and no matter what I do I can’t get rid of it nor can I change it. I can deny it, I can change my name and run away but my father will always be my father. It’s the same spiritually. In the new birth God imparts to us His spiritual DNA, which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us, seals us and marks us as our Father’s children.
Once we have been born again and received God’s spiritual DNA, we are marked, and we can never be separated from it. No matter what we do, or don’t do; no matter how successful we are or how much we fail. That’s how great His love for us is. John said I write these things that you may know or be certain you have eternal life. That’s assurance. Paul said I am convinced in other words he said I have thought about it philosophically, theologically, practically and experientially and I know that nothing can separate us from God once we are His.
Does that mean believers don’t have to fear hell? Yes. Does that mean we can just live any way we choose once we are saved? Of course not. Paul dealt with that issue at the end chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. If once we have received His forgiveness and we ignore His moral laws and live only for ourselves, we will eventually pay a price because we take ourselves out of a position to receive and enjoy the fullness of His blessings. When we receive Christ, our desire should be to live lives that honor Him. If our lives never change, it’s probably because we have not really committed our lives to Christ and actually been born again.
Let me ask you this morning, has your life changed, are you living for Jesus? Are you striving to please Him in everything you do? If not, that may mean placing your faith in Him for the first time, or maybe recommitting yourself to Him. What ever He is calling you to do we invite you and challenge you to begin right now living everyday for Him.