We continue in our series on Hope Found Here, and this month we are considering the Hope we have in the Compassion of Father God.
When we come by faith to Jesus we enter into a covenant relationship with God. Because of His Compassion, His love, His mercy, because of the sacrifice of Jesus we are forgiven. We are called His children. We are adopted into His family.When Father God looks at you or me it is the righteousness of Jesus that God sees.
God has shown His Compassion and His love to us by giving us a way to be saved. Repenting from our sin and turning to Jesus as Lord and Saviour changes us, our old lives are gone, we are transformed from to death to life, from darkness to light, born again as Children of the living God.
To focus our thoughts listen to these words of the Apostle Paul from Romans 8:14-17, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.” For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.
Let me give you a little background to put this verse into context:
It’s the winter of A.D. 57-58, Paul is in Corinth at the close of his third missionary journey. Soon He will return to Jerusalem with an offering for the poor. A woman named Phoebe, who lives in a suburb of Corinth, is going to sail to Rome soon and Paul gives her a letter to take to the church in Rome.
The only postal service in the Roman Empire was for government business, personal letters had to be carried by friends. Paul wanted the Christians in Rome to have a written explanation of the gospel. He wrote this letter, which Phoebe delivered safely to the church.
Paul thought this letter may be his only communication with the church in Rome, so he wrote about two important truths of the Christian faith – the belief that results in salvation and the behaviour that results from salvation.
If you have read the book of Romans, you will know, The Apostle Paul, in the first seven chapters, makes it clear we are not saved by self reliance, self sufficiency, or self justification. It is the compassion of Father God and our trust in the sacrifice of Jesus that saves us.
Paul says that us “In our flesh”, that is in our old nature, “dwells no good thing”.
In fact, Paul tells us when we try to do good we do bad, and when good needs to be done, we do not do it.
Paul sums it up at the end of chapter 7 by saying in verse 24 “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” Then, he answers his own question in the same breath: verse 25 “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Our acceptance by God is not through our own efforts, not through our family line, not through our associations or deeds, we receive acceptance through Jesus Christ alone. In Christ we are rescued, cleansed, and loved then empowered and changed. That is the message of Romans chapter 8 which I want to focus on tonight.
Romans 8:1 says “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, how you’ve acted, who you are, or how much you think you have failed –
if you are in Christ, Father God has compassion on you and you are not condemned anymore. Trusting Jesus brings us freedom from condemnation.
Paul then tells us why this is a reality. Romans 8:2-4, And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
So in Christ we are not condemned, we are not punished because we have been set free – but set free from what?
Romans 8:5-8, Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
Let the Holy Spirit control your mind. Perhaps for some of us that’s easier said than done. Paul tells us that we have been empowered and set free so we can now choose which mind will control us. Jesus said “You cannot serve two masters.” Before I was a Christian my sinful nature controlled my mind. As a Christian I should allow the Holy Spirit to take control. We like to think of ourselves as really independent – but in reality we are not. We are controlled – either by our sin or by the Spirit of God.
Romans 8:9-11, But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
A life controlled by Jesus has order and purpose. This truth becomes more evident the more time we spend in Christ.
In practical ways our lives are a constant giving of control over to Jesus.
The wonderful promise is that even though we continue to live in bodies and live with a nature that is opposed to God – one day our perishable bodies will put on an imperishable nature. Like Jesus we will have a perfect, indestructible body and mind without a flesh nature – won’t that be wonderful?
Romans 8:12-14, Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
We have no obligation to sin, the word Paul uses in the original language refers to the idea of owing a debt to someone. God gave us life through the Spirit so we are in debt to Him, He owns us – it’s a spiritual reality we need to make an outward reality in our lives. The love, mercy and compassion of God is always there for us. God has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
In every man made religion man tries to reach God and never succeeds. In Christianity God, in His compassion, is the one who reaches out to us. God is the one that provides us with the way to reach Him. In His love He draws close to us. As we draw close to God we need to surrender control of our lives to our loving Father.
Romans 8:14-17, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.” For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.
There is so much truth here but the main point is this: When we come to Christ we don’t get condemned, we are welcomed into a special relationship. We are now children of God. We have a special closeness to God.
There is something to sharing in Christ’s sufferings that is a part of this process of becoming a child of God, listen to what Paul says about it: Romans 8:18-25, Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
Having this new relationship means we will be changed, right now creation itself has been waiting since the fall for the day when we receive new bodies. It hasn’t happened yet – but its coming. In the meantime, “wait patiently” Paul says.
How – when we are constantly in this battle between flesh and spirit? The answer is in Romans 8:26-27 , the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit helps our weaknesses. Don’t you love that? God’s Spirit searches your heart and then prays to the Father to bring about specific things in our lives that will align us to God’s will. Need a prayer partner? You’ve got one!
Next comes perhaps the most important and well known part of Paul’s letter: Romans 8:28-30, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And having called them, He gave them right standing with Himself. And having given them right standing, He gave them His glory.
There is a lot of theology in these verses – and many books have been written about predestination and the foreknowledge of God. What I want to focus on is verse 28. "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them."
It all starts with a real relationship with God. This is a promise for those who have turned from their sin and turned to Jesus. This promise does not extend to those outside of the relationship.
Once repentance happens ALL things work together for good. The word translated “work together” sunergeo is a good one, its where we get the word synergy from. Synergy is where more than one thing works together well – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
In your life an isolated event might seem bad, like being involved in an accident. That accident could take you to a hospital where you are able to share Christ with someone who is dying and they turn to the Lord and go to heaven.
It “worked together” for good.
The word “good” here means: “benefit.” There is an actual benefit that God works through circumstances – yes there will be suffering, but know this, part of this relationship you have means, in the end God will work even the bad to your benefit.
In His compassion we have been accepted into God’s family we are blessed when we face difficulty. Being part of God’s family means we do not face things alone. God is with us, and so are our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Someone recently said to me, “If anything ever happened to me, I know the church would be there for my family”.
Family cares for family. God cares for all of us. God loves us.
Romans 8:31-36, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
Father God is on our side, we need fear no enemy, not losing our job, or sickness, or hardship, or even death and taxes.
What a wonderful picture he is building, accepted into a new family all things work together for good and God, is now on our side, but it gets better. Romans 8:37-39, No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ. Our foes are vanquished, the enemy can not beat us, we are valiant warriors - not in our own strength but through Christ who loves us.
Sin has no mastery over us, trials hold no terror, life is not something to be dreaded because we ARE more than conquerors, overwhelming victory is ours.
It doesn’t mean we are free from suffering, but we are always connected to the One who in love, mercy and compassion works everything together for our benefit.
Paul puts the finishing touch on this wonderful chapter of promises with this: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What more could we ask for? Nothing can separate us from God’s love
Paul lists four areas here:
“death nor life” - meaning that nothing in our human existence can separate us from God’s love
“angels nor demons” - meaning nothing in the spiritual realm can separate us from God’s love –
“today or tomorrow” - our present and our future are secure in Christ Jesus
“Sky above or earth below” - neither height nor depth, we can’t go anywhere where God’s love can’t go with us.
There is such hope found here. What a great confidence we have in the compassion of God - there is no one, no thing, no event, and no time that we can ever be torn from God’s love in Jesus.
There is no reason for us to fear. No reason for us to ever say “God can’t love me anymore after what I’ve done.”
Oh yes He can and He does. Far from separating from you in His compassion He wants to forgive and cleanse you.
Here is the final thought: Paul said I am convinced – are you?
You can step out today and face all your doubts, depressions and fears with Him.
You are one of His children.
Know that in all things, God works together for good, with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose, which is to conform us to the image of His Son! TO MAKE US MORE LIKE JESUS!
Nothing can separate you from the love and compassion of God. Believe it, rejoice in it.
AMEN
