ROMANS 8:28-39
Doubt has the unique ability to keep us from fully living especially when doubt produces fear. This is a truth about life in general and especially in regards to the Christian life. There have been many and will be many more, maybe some of you in this room, who will find yourself at the end of your life and you will wrestle with the regret of not living out your faith in Christ to the full. Most of the people I counsel with in this area express that the number one reason why they did not live a full out life of faith in Jesus Christ is because the enemy had succeeded in leading them into the darkness of doubt regarding God’s love for them and the security of their salvation. Their doubt regarding their salvation and God’s love for them resulted in fear that led them to living a “safe” life and if we know anything about Christ’s purposes and plans for His people it is defiantly not a call to “safe” living.
My prayer today as we hear from God’s very word is that we will LET GO OF DOUBT and live fully in the security of God’s love and care for us.
THE BASIS OF THE CHRISTIAN’S CONFIDENCE
GOD IS FOR US. What are “these things” that Paul is referring to? I believe that, at the very least, he is referring to ROMANS 8:28-29 that summarizes the wonderful grace that we have received in salvation. God knew us in advance. Chose us as His own. Justified us by His grace. Planned for our transformation to make us more like Jesus to magnify and exalt His supremacy among us. Secured our future glorification with Him in eternity. In response to all of this Paul says: IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN STAND AGAINST US?
GOD IS FOR US AND PROVIDES WHAT WE NEED.
ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR US TO BE SAVED HAS BEEN PROVIDED. The Book of Romans makes abundantly clear that salvation is impossible to receive apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. Sinful people on their best behavior could never do enough to merit a justified, right and accepted standing before our perfectly holy God. God, knowing this, did not simply “wash His hands” of the depraved human race but in love gave His very Son to us to live the life we could not live and to die the death that we deserved to make a way for sinful men, women, boys and girls to be completely forgiven and set free of their sins and now, being forgiven in and by Jesus, we have been given heaven as our eternal reward. God provided all that was necessary to save us from ourselves and eternal separation from Him in hell because of our sins.
ALL THAT IS NECESSARY TO LIVE THE LIFE WE HAVE BEEN SAVED IS PROVIDED. Being that God has provided all that was necessary to save us it should come as no surprise to understand that God has provided all that is necessary to live the life of the saved. Those who promote the prosperity gospel, which is not gospel at all, love verses like this and teach that Jesus wants to give us riches and materialistic increase and that is not the case whatsoever. What the Scriptures are teaching us is that, having been saved from a life of sin and sinfulness, the life that we have been saved to is a life of godly righteousness and everything necessary to live this life of righteousness is provided for us by God in Christ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Think about it! Jesus taught that His people will be those who love unconditionally, forgive freely, serve others tirelessly, love their enemies, pray for their persecutors, worship passionately, give generously, share the Gospel intentionally, live purposefully, take radical steps to remove sin from their own lives, and we could go on and on. Jesus has defined and demonstrated the righteousness that would define His people and calls us likewise. When we think about the high calling we have received in Christ to practically pursue and live out on earth the righteousness we have received in Christ we see this as a human impossibility. How in the world can we live this way? The answer is found in our passage and reveals that everything we will, have or will ever need to live out the high and righteous calling we have received in Christ Jesus is given to us by God Himself. He knew that we would never, in our own strength, be able to live out this new life in Christ so He gives us Himself by way of the Holy Spirit to live within us and change us from the inside out. God has given all that was necessary to secure our salvation when He gave His One and Only Son and graciously gives us everything necessary to live out the life that we have been saved to. HOW CAN I UNCONDITIONALLY LOVE SOMEBODY WHO IS CONDITIONALLY UNLOVEABLE? HOW CAN I FORGIVE SOMEBODY FOR DOING THE UNFORGIVEABLE TO ME? HOW CAN I SACRIFICIALLY SERVE OTHERS AT MY OWN EXPENSE? HOW CAN I BE SO GENEROUS WITH MY RESOURCES THAT OTHERS ARE SHOCKED? The answer is in, through and by the power of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us! If we find obedience difficult to come by it is likely due to the fact that we are striving for obedience in our own power rather than in Jesus’ strength. He has not saved us to a life that we cannot live. He has saved us to a life that we cannot live on our own. Therefore, we must depend on Him and cry out to Him to put in us what He calls from us. This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote PHILIPPIANS 1:6. When obedience in a particular area seems hard do not doubt His provision to provide all that is necessary for righteousness.
GOD IS FOR US AND PROTECTS OUR STANDING IN HIM
WHAT ABOUT WHEN WE DO NOT GET IT RIGHT? We all know what it is like to falter in our walk with Christ. We desire sinlessness. We desire righteousness. We want to be obedient so that Christ may be honored and glorified in us but, because of the remnant of the sinful nature remaining in us, we sometime revert to old sinful ways and patterns. Does our failure nullify our salvation? Many believe so and because they do they find their journey of faith to be at a stand still because they are living under the burdens and shadows of past failures. The enemy succeeds in putting us in the straightjacket of past sins and failures when we allow them to define us. Jesus has provided everything that is necessary to live the life we have been saved to but reality is that there are times when we mess up. There are times when we try to do things our way instead of Jesus’ way. There are times when we try to live in our own strength rather than Jesus’ strength. When we find ourselves living life our way and in our strength we will certainly find disobedience the natural outcome. Does this mean that we have somehow lost our salvation? When we mess up does that nullify our justified standing before God? The enemy would like us to think so because he knows that if he can get us to think that way then there is no concern about us being effective witnesses and servants of Jesus’ kingdom on earth.
GOD PROTECTS. Not only does God provide everything we need to live out this life of righteousness that we have been saved to but protects us from the accusatory attack of Satan when we do not live righteously. One of the names of Satan found in the Scripture is accuser. We get this picture in our minds that Satan accuses us before God when we sin in our walk with Him. The beauty of it all is that when we do sin as Christians and are accused by Satan that Jesus is in the presence of the Father, at His right hand, continually interceding for us. We get the picture that Jesus is in continual ministry on our behalf even while at the Father’s side and when the enemy brings his accusations against us when we sin as a Christian that Jesus reminds the enemy that He has paid it all! Therefore, whether it be accusations made against us in heaven by Satan or on earth by man they are powerless to effect change on our standing before God because He has completely, totally and irreversibly justified us in Jesus Christ. Jesus sacrifice is sufficient to secure our complete justification. While we are called to the discipline of confession and repentance of active sin in our lives we do so on the basis of knowing that we are not rejected when we sin but are justified and will be cleansed of our failures and restored to the paths of righteousness. Therefore, if you are living under the shadow, guilt and burdens of past sins as a Christian you do so only because you doubt the extent of God’s
GOD IS FOR US AND NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US!
In sort of a “therefore” or “summary” type of way, Paul concludes this great passage of Scripture by encouraging believers in this thought—NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. We are safe and secure in the love of Christ and there is nothing that can separate us from the great love He has for us.
SUFFERINGS AND GOD’S LOVE. Many today, like many in Paul’s day, had a misunderstanding about suffering as a Christian. Many think that when they go through times of hardship/suffering that it is because God’s love for them has somehow lessened or disappeared altogether. They have been deceived by either their own foolish thinking or led astray by false teachers because, as Paul points out in his quoting of Psalm 44, suffering has been a characteristic that has marked the children of God throughout human history. When God’s people experience suffering and hardships it is not a sign that God’s love for them has stopped. On the contrary, God often uses sufferings and hardships to show His love for us all the more as He carries us through those seasons of life. Therefore, sufferings and hardships do not separate us from God’s love. Paul had experienced the full scope of all that he lists in this passage and knows first hand how God’s love does not change when life’s circumstances do.
Paul further emphasizes the point that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing about death or nothing about life can separate us from God’s love. Neither good angels or demonic forces can separate us from God’s love. Neither things going on now or things that will come in the days ahead can separate us from God’s love. Neither height or depth or anything else in the created universe can separate us from God’s love. GOD HAS SOVEREIGNLY MADE US THE OBJECTS AND RECIPIENTS OF HIS LOVE AND AFFETION IN CHRIST JESUS AND NOTHING CAN, COULD OR EVER WILL CHANGE THAT.
SURE, PERSUADED OR DOUBTFUL.
Some of your translations use the word “sure” in Paul’s testimony. Some of your translations use the word “persuaded” in Paul’s testimony. The Greek word used here is a complex word that speaks not only to the surety that comes from knowing something but the persuasion that comes from experiencing something. We can be sure of something intellectually but persuasion comes when what we know in our minds proves itself true in real life.
Paul’s testimony is this…”I knew that God would provide all that I needed and am persuaded in this because God did indeed provide. I knew that nobody could condemn those whom God has justified in Jesus Christ and am persuaded of this because when the accusations came so did the hope of Christ and the security of salvation. I knew that nothing can separate me from God’s love for me in Christ Jesus and am persuaded of this because of the sufferings and hardships I have experienced.”
If there were one thing that we can say about Paul’s life it would be this. Paul was a man who passionately loved Jesus and lived life full throttle in obedient faithfulness to Him even when it did not make sense. Paul was definitely not in the business of living some comfortable and safe life at the expense of radical faith in and obedience to Jesus.
What about you? As I stated in the opening when doubt clouds our hearts and minds regarding our salvation and Jesus’ faithfulness to us then we will live timidly rather than faithfully. When doubt clouds our hearts and minds regarding salvation and Jesus’ faithfulness to us then we will be more concerned about the pursuit of the American Dream than the pursuit of the Kingdom of God. When doubt clouds our hearts and minds about our salvation and Jesus’ faithfulness to us then we will more concerned about safe and comfortable living rather than radical obedience to and faith in Jesus Christ. What about you?
When we let go of doubt we are freed up to live a life of radical faith and obedience and then, as we experience Jesus’ faithfulness to His faithful ones, we will become persuaded because we have experienced it not just sure because we intellectually know it.
