“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?” NASB
“He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?” HCSB
In all the Scriptures, whenever we read anything pertaining to redemption and man’s relationship with God, we find that it is always God doing the doing. People talk about and write articles and even books about man searching for God; seeking God; embarking on personal pilgrimages, as it were, to find God.
But that is not what the Bible says about man or about God. Any claim men make to searching for God is a false claim. Oh, they may be searching for something to fulfill them and to help to order their lives, but they are not really searching for the One true God who reveals Himself.
And that is just the point. It is always God, revealing Himself. When men ‘find’ God, it is because God has made the move. God has been the One who acted; who revealed something to them. Even as you read the Old Testament prophets you will see time and again, “The word of the Lord came” to the prophet. The prophet himself did not go out in search of it – the word of the Lord came to him and then he preached it.
Then we come to the New Testament and what is the first thing we see? Why, we see the angel coming from God to announce the birth of the long-awaited Messiah. We see the angel coming from God to the parents of John the Baptist, who will be the forerunner, then we see the Messiah coming to the Bethlehem manger – then to the Jordan to be baptized and begin His earthly ministry. It is always God doing the doing.
Men do not seek Him and if they get it in their head to look for a god to serve, or to serve them, they don’t even know where to begin, which is why they only find false gods.
Therefore it should come as no surprise to us when we read this great eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, that the flesh is declared ‘weak’ that the Law is depicted as ineffective, and throughout all the rest all we find is God doing everything to save us, to justify us, to provide all our eternal need in Christ, and to preserve us to Himself forever.
So as we come to look at our text verse for today, let’s keep these thoughts before us and pay particular attention to the activity of God that benefits us beyond all measure and for eternity.
WHAT HE DID NOT DO
Now I’ve spent all this time telling you that it is always God taking the action; God making the move; God doing the work, but the first thing I have to do now is tell you about something God did not do.
I want you to notice what has come before our text verse. Paul teaches that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him, for those who are called according to His purpose. In fact, Paul says we know that. Do you?
If you are a Christian you are supposed to know that all that comes in or goes out of your life is God-caused and it is for your good and His glory. I can say with confidence that you’re supposed to know, because Paul says “And we know…” He says, ‘all things’, and that means we must not bemoan our lot as though we are subject to chance and the whims of fate. God causes all things to work together to accomplish His purpose in us, and according to verse 29 that purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. Paul says we know that. So if you didn’t, now you do.
Then Paul gives us this brief teaching on predestination when he touches on the eternality of God and His purpose by saying that the work is all past tense in God’s economy because He who is in all of eternity at once sees us not only as justified but also glorified.
And if it is such a finished work that God sees us already as such, says Paul, then He is not only all powerful, He is all for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us? It’s one of his rhetorical questions. There is none who can be against us and conquer, for He who is with us is above all and greater than all.
Now here is where we find God not doing something, and it is an incredibly amazing thing to contemplate.
Paul says, “He who did not spare His own Son” He did not spare His Son! Think no farther than that for now. Don’t finish the sentence. Just pause and let it simmer. God did not spare His own Son.
Let’s think through what this means.
First, let me tell you that the language guys say that there is a little Greek particle of speech ignored by most of the translations that gives this passage a peculiar emphasis.
Out of the translations I had available to me, only the new Holman Christian Standard Bible used it, and it causes the verse to read this way: “He did not even spare His own Son” He did not even spare His own Son.
Here is why that little word is so significant. Paul says, ‘If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son’!
Now the wording is not, He didn’t rescue His own Son. The wording is that He did not spare His own Son. Do you hear what it is saying? If the hangman is about to hang you, some champion may come to your rescue and take you away from the hangman. That’s rescue.
But short of any heroic figure coming to your aid, only the hangman himself or someone in authority over the hangman can spare you, because the higher authority has condemned you and the hangman is the one carrying out your sentence.
God, we are told in the early verses of this chapter, did what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. He condemned sin in the flesh. He decreed the penalty for sin and He judged it forever in the body of His Son on the cross. He, being the higher and ultimate authority, was Judge, Jury and Executioner. He did not spare His own Son. And who then can be against us, when God who is for us did not even spare His own Son?
He spared Abraham’s only son, providing His own ram for the sacrifice. But He did not spare His own only Son.
This was no accident! This was no miscarriage of justice. Oh, the men who put Him there were accountable for their actions, of course. But at the end of the day, folks, the cowardly Roman governor and the jealous Jews and the mean soldiers were no more responsible for Christ on the cross than any of us. We put Him there with our sin.
On the other hand, we could not have put Him there except that God spared not His own Son.
He could not show us mercy without satisfying the demands of His justice and honoring the perfections of His character. He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim 2:13) but so much was He for us that He did not even spare His own Son.
HE DELIVERED HIM UP
Alright, we’ve dealt with the negative – the thing God did not do. Now we can go back to talking about what God did.
He delivered Him up. He carried out the sentence.
The Jews tried time and again to take Him, but they were not the ones in control. It took place when His appointed hour had come and according to God’s schedule, not man’s.
Paul has already said it in the 25th verse of chapter 4. “He who was delivered up because of our transgressions”. Who delivered Him up? God! Why? Because of our transgressions.
Peter said to the ‘devout men’ who were gathered in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven (Acts 2:4) that ‘this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death’. (Acts 2:23)
Men’s hands were used. They cut the timbers. They dug the hole in which to drop the raised cross. They tortured their prisoner. They fashioned the crown of thorns that they then pushed down on His brow.
Human hands held the whip that ripped His flesh. Human hands signed and issued the order for crucifixion. Human hands held the swords and spears that escorted the condemned through the streets of Jerusalem and up the hill of death. Men’s hands hammered the spikes through hands and feet.
But God pierced Him through with His holy condemnation against sin and God poured out the whole cup of the fire of His wrath on that body He had prepared and not a drop, not a cinder did He hold back.
But please don’t think of this as defeat. God delivered Him up, but Christ went willingly as did Isaac, son of Abraham, when he too carried the wood for his own sacrifice up the hill. In both cases the son carried the wood while the father carried the fire – and in both cases, father and son walked on together. (Gen 22:8)
No, this was victory. The battle was planned, the players were chosen; those who thought they were in command were pawns whose every move was subject to the moving of God’s finger. Here was victory.
“Here where the very greatness of the apparent triumph of iniquity was its own irrevocable defeat; here where evil once for all has shot its bolt, and its deadly weapon is turned against itself; here where eternal love is seen asserting its sovereignty…here is the ground of all our hope” James S. Stewart, “Heralds of God”, Regent College Pub. 1946
‘He who did not even spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all’!
WITH HIM FREELY GIVE
Now the Apostle asks another of his questions that are in and of themselves the answer. “How will he not also with Him freely give us all things?”
That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Let’s break this down in sections for the sake of clarity.
“How will He not also”
Paul has worded this in the negative to link it to what has been said. God is so much for us that none can ever be against us. A word of explanation is in order here before we move on.
This is not a Biblical promise that no one can ever hurt us or oppose us in this world. That is not true and common sense itself should tell us that.
Just remember the things we’ve already looked at in the previous verses. Paul is talking about what God has done to bring us into right relationship with Himself. By Calvary’s work He has justified us and declared us holy because we stand now in Christ’s own righteousness. He took all of our sin, all of our iniquity, and by His calling and saving we now stand in all of His righteousness. Not just some of His righteousness, but all of His righteousness. That means there is no longer any guilt, no longer any penalty to pay, no longer anything we can do or say to be made more right with God than we now are.
And we have already noted that in God’s economy even though we are still in a progressive work of sanctification in our daily life, He sees us as a finished product. He calls us glorified even though in the flesh that is something to which we still look forward.
And so much is He for us, that He did not even spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
So when he asks ‘who is against us’, he isn’t saying no one can stand against us in any way; what he is saying is that no one can bring any charge that will lower us in God’s estimation – no one can do or say anything to make Him turn His back on us.
That’s why Paul asks the question in verse 31 and then answers with the empirical evidence that He didn’t even spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Therefore, if He did that, - and let’s put it in the positive now – ‘He will certainly with Him freely give us all things’.
How will He not also do this, having done all the rest?
Let’s go on. ‘…with Him’. Well, the message being conveyed by the insertion of those two words can be aptly applied in two ways. One is that all things that come to us are from and through Christ. We’ll see more clearly why when we look at what the ‘all things’ are.
We can also read this to say, since God has given us His Son, why would He hold back anything else? If He has given us the greatest gift He will not refuse the lesser!
ALL THINGS
He will, with Him, freely give us all things. So what are the all things?
I have to tell you, just in case you’re starting to make a list, that it is not money and castles and jet planes and automobiles and a mansion on the Riviera and world wide fame.
Paul is referring to all things pertaining to life and godliness. That’s how Peter put it.
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” 2 Pet 1:2-3
He has given us His Spirit and eternal life.
James said, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” James 1:17
However you can think to phrase it, the ‘all things’ that the Father gives freely with His Son are of an eternal value and pertain to eternal life.
So when you turn on the television and someone with big hair and alligator hide boots is telling you that you can have health and wealth and the good things of this world if you pray just like some obscure Bible character, or if you send ten dollars to their ministry, or if you read their book and copy their formula, you should run as fast as you can to your remote or to the front of the TV, whichever is closest, and turn it off.
All that you will ever need for eternity has been fully supplied to you in the person of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection for you. All things are freely given, because God has given His best, His all, His dear Son, even Christ! How will He then hold back any good thing? We can never think of anything of more worth and value to ask for than what we have already received in Him.
HOW MUCH HE IS FOR US.
Well, we saw that Paul came into this verse on the tail of the question, If God is for us, who is against us?
Now following it, he asks another question. “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?”
Here is where we have to back up just a step and remember who Paul is talking about and who he is talking to. When he says that God will, with Christ, freely give us all things, the ‘us’ consists of all those who are referred to in verse 28 and in verse 29 and in verse 30 and in verse 31. They are God’s elect and no one else – all and only.
Those still both in and of this passing world cannot lay claim to any of the promises or provision of God. That is why He gives all things ‘with Him’. Apart from Jesus Christ there is no access whatsoever to God the Father, to Heaven, to His Spirit, to eternal life, to any thing James referred to when he said ‘every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift’.
Now if anyone is wondering how that can be fair I have to tell you that fairness has nothing to do with anything.
God is God. He gives life, He takes it away. He chooses, He passes over. He is just and He is merciful and He is full of compassion and lovingkindness, and He is also Sovereign and perfect in all His ways.
In his psalm of confession, David said,
“Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.”
“The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” Deut 32:4
“The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” Ps 145:17
The Lord cannot be faulted. Who is man, to question the ways of God or His judgments or His mighty works?
God elects, God justifies, God intercedes, God preserves His saints forever.
If there is someone, anyone, coming to mind that you wonder how you can know if they are one of the elect, the thing to do – the only thing you can do – is go to them with the Gospel and urge them to change their minds about things and believe. That is the task set before us, and it is all we are given to do.
So, according to the Bible – more specifically, Romans 8:33, Paul’s teaching is to the elect of God, and he says that there is none who can bring a charge against God’s elect. Why? Because God is the one who justifies. Now we all know by now what that term means don’t we?
Only God can declare anyone to be right with Him, and it is only by his grace through the finished work of Christ that He can and does do that.
And friend, if God, in the righteousness of Christ, has declared you to be right with Him, there is no person and no power, no circumstance of life or physical death that can ever remove you from His keeping.
That is what Paul goes on to declare in the last five verses of this chapter. We won’t go there today but I would encourage you while this sermon is still fresh in your thinking, to go later today and sit down and read Romans chapter 8 in its entirety, and meditate with thankfulness on all that it is saying about what God has done and what He has provided for you in His Son, whom He did not even spare, but delivered up for you, and with Him freely gives you all things.
Paul went into it asking who can be our adversary, and follows it declaring that none can be our adversary, because of what God didn’t do, and because of what God did.
He didn’t spare His own Son. He did deliver Him up for us all. This is how much He is for us. This is how much He is for you!
