“Between the Lines: V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!”
Romans 8:28-39
“V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Victory – Victory – Victory!” I imagine many of you remember that ancient, once traditional cheer. I thought about having our staff members don cheerleading outfits and recreate the cheer for us this morning – but I had hunch I wouldn‘t be persuasive enough! And knowing what I would look like trying to do the cheer – well, you understand why I settled for just saying it! But because of what Paul shared in Romans 8, I had to say it! “Victory” best reflects his attitude about the Christian life. In light of all the deep theological discussions and truths Paul had espoused in the first 7½ chapters, he needed to explain their significance for us. So he raised 5 basic issues that provide us with the foundation for victorious living. It’s the same foundation any team needs to be a consistent winner.
First, to be victorious we need a SOUND GAME PLAN. No team wins consistently without a sound game plan. Freewheeling just doesn’t produce many victories. But our lives are not freewheeling: As we saw last week in verses 28-29: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” GOD HAS A GOAL IN MIND – WE WILL BE LIKE JESUS. God works out everything in our lives to that end. Paul states that God takes all of our decisions, all of our choices, all of our circumstances, everything that happens to us and around us, and works them into the mix of our lives in such a way that it will help transform us into being like Jesus.
That means that NOT EVERYTHING IS WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE. Just as icebergs show only a fraction of themselves above the surface, so events are more than what they appear to be at first glance. More is going on in every moment than meets the eye. It was this game plan that enabled Paul to be victorious. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Life will have its share of suffering; it can end in glory. Life will have it hurts; it can end with “Hallelujahs!” We are to look at suffering only in the light of the glory to come – and that glory will come in us! (2 Cor. 4:16-18) “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all. 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.” No matter how things appear to you now, God is at work for good – if you love Him – transforming your situation and your very life. Never forget that God alone can bring victory from defeat, triumph from tragedy, crowns from crosses, light from darkness, and life from death. It’s His game plan.
The second piece of the foundation for victorious living is to have a SOLID DEFENSE (31): “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” We certainly know who and what can be against us – employers, bosses, competitors, children, spouses, in-laws, co-workers, peers, enemies, and all types of spiritual forces. But, “If God is for us” who can be against us? Do you believe that God is for you? Say with me, GOD IS FOR ME…Look at your neighbor and say, “God is for me!” Four small, but powerful, words. God is for me: the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe – the God above all gods – is for me. God is for me: not may be if the conditions are right – not was – not would be, if – God is, now, today, forever for me. God is for me: on the sidelines shouting my name, in the stands applauding my efforts, at the gate to greet me with a “Well done,” encouraging me when I fail, pulling me up when I fall. God is for me: as Max Lucado points out, if God drove a car, my name would be on His bumper sticker! If God had a wallet, my picture would be in it. In fact, GOD ALREADY HAS MY NAME WRITTEN ON HIS HAND (Is. 49:15-16): “Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on my hand.” What greater defense can there be? Begin each day by saying and claiming that God is for you and therefore it will be a victorious day!
Winning teams also have SATISFACTORY EQUIPMENT. Paul points out that Christians are no different (verse 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?” WHATEVER WE NEED, GOD CAN AND WILL PROVIDE. Remember Abraham. God told him to sacrifice his only son, his promised seed and heir, the progenitor of all God’s future generations. Obediently Abraham prepared an altar, bound Isaac to it, and raised his arm to lower the knife – then God stepped in a provided a lamb. With that scene etched in his mind Paul turns to Jesus on the cross. God did what he would not allow Abraham to do – sacrifice His only Son and heir, the spiritual progenitor of all God’s future generations. If God gave us His Son, said Paul, surely whatever we need, God can and will provide.
God did not sacrifice Jesus so we would be inadequate; He did not save us so we could worry. Jesus did not die so we could fend for ourselves; He wasn’t nailed to the cross so He could ignore us and leave us helpless. WHATEVER WE NEED IS OURS FOR THE ASKING. That’s why Jesus exhorted us (John 15:7&16): “But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! …You didn’t choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” We are adequately equipped for victorious living.
According to Paul, a fourth foundation piece of victory is a SECURE OFFENSE. Teams that are victorious know how to outscore their opponents. Christians, in the face of evil opposition, can be very offensive! Listen to verses 33-34: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 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.” No accusation against us can stick! We can say, “GOODBYE GUILT!” Say that with me – goodbye guilt!
Father Greg Boyle is in the business of erasing the past. A Jesuit priest, he is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries in East Los Angeles. Father Boyle put together a team of physicians trained in the laser technology of tattoo removal. The team is part of a program that takes the tattoos of ex-gang members and wipes the slate clean. For many, it is as crucial a service as it is merciful. Gang-related tattoos prevent many former gang members from getting jobs or advancing in work. For others, the markings critically impinge on mental health or put them in serious danger on the streets. There is no fee or community service required to receive the tattoo removal offered by Homeboy Industries. It is strictly a gift—perhaps a modern look at Christ washing the feet of his friends. At one time, there was a waiting list of over a thousand names. For those involved, the spiritual imagery is often compelling. The seeming permanence of a gang tattoo fosters the attitude that the gang's claim is also permanent. It is a mark of ownership as much as identity. The emotional consequence is that it seems a part of you that can never be shaken. Like former gang members who have had the marks of a former life removed, so our sins are blotted out by the blood of Christ. They are remembered no longer.
Friends, FORGET THE TATTOO. Satan may accuse us before Almighty God – and He may sear our conscience with tattoos of dishonesty, immorality, disobedience, greed, anger, selfishness, arrogance, or pride. And he may well be right. As he does so he looks at God the Judge and reminds God that, “The wages of sin are death.” And God will agree – and then turn to His Son, Jesus Christ, who is busy interceding on our behalf, and say to Satan the accuser, “And Jesus already died. The price has been paid. The tattoos are gone! He is not guilty! He is not yours. He belongs to me!” When your sin stares you in the face, go on the offense; look to Jesus, forget the tattoo, and experience the victory.
The fifth piece of the foundation of a winning team by Paul’s account is a SUPER-ABUNDANT CONFIDENCE. Some of the greatest athletes appear to be the cockiest people around. And some of them are. But many of them simply have a victorious attitude – they know they can win; they believe no one is better. It’s the same attitude Paul had in life. Listen (8:35-39): “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.” NOTHING CAN BREAK, END, OR STOP GOD’S LOVE for us.
As I look back upon my life, this truth is one that, time and again, has carried me through and has given hope and strength to so many of those to whom I’ve ministered. Whether it was when my older sister was hit by a car and killed on her way to school; or when I graduated from high school having had a miserable senior year that left me uncertain where I was headed; or when our son, in 5th & sixth grade, had headaches for an entire year, for which they could not find a cause; or when standing in a hospital room holding hands with young parents staring at the lifeless body of their stillborn baby; or standing at the grave side with the parents of a young man who committed suicide; or presiding at the funeral of a teenager killed in an auto accident; or comforting one whose spouse died way too soon; or listening to someone pour out her heart in confession that she had made a heap of mistakes and was sure no one, especially God, could still love her. At these, and so many other times, the assurance that nothing can break, end, or stop God’s love was the hope to which we clung.
Ruth Calkin has put it beautifully: “God, I may fall flat on my face; I may fail until I feel old and beaten and done in. Yet your love for me is changeless. All the music may go out of my life, my private world may shatter to dust. Even so, You will hold me in the palm of Your steady hand. No turn in the affairs of my fractured life can baffle You. Satan with all his braggadocio cannot distract You. Nothing can separate me from Your measureless love – pain can’t, disappointment can’t, anguish can’t. Yesterday, today, tomorrow can’t. The loss of my dearest love can’t. Death can’t. Life can’t. ...none of these things nor all of them heaped together can budge the fact that I am dearly loved, completely forgiven, and forever free through Jesus Christ Your beloved Son. That’s confidence; that’s a victorious attitude!
Sound impossible? CONSIDER PAUL. He did not write these words from an ivory tower; in fact, if anyone could have questioned the love of God, it was Paul. “I have been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled many weary miles. I have faced dangers from flooded rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, and on stormy seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be Christians but are not. I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” Yet Paul wrote, “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.” I challenge you to name any sickness, any suffering, any tragedy, any disaster, any demonic force or power, or any sin that is stronger the love of God in Jesus Christ. Name one.
I mean, just CONSIDER JESUS. He came down from His glory in Heaven, clothed Himself in human skin, lived in the flesh, suffered our pains, and endured our cross. Look at the cross – see Jesus naked, beaten, mocked, spit upon, speared, bleeding, dieing, loaded with the sin of the whole world. Hear Him cry out with the agony of separation from His Father: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Watch Him breathe His last. Think of Him descended into hell… then remember “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes! He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign!” “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y; Victory – Victory – Victory!”
So WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS. Whatever the sickness, suffering, tragedy, disaster, demonic force or power, or sin that weighs you down – let it go. For “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Say with me, “I am more than a conqueror!” Let’s give thanks to God.
