Alba 2-27-2022
BECAUSE OF GOD'S LOVE
Romans 8:31-39
Dr. David Ferguson, the founder of Intimate Life Ministries, and his wife, Teresa, were brand new grandparents. . . anyone here know what that’s like?
Well, he told something about Teresa. He said when she is taking care of her little grandson, and she lays him down for a nap, you know what happens when that baby first starts to stir from his nap?
At the first sign that he might be waking up, he said, Teresa runs—RUNS!— to the side of his crib, so she can be there when his eyes open. Every time that little child wakes up is as thrilling as Christmas morning for her.
Do you know that’s the kind of God you have? One who loves you so much that He is aware of when you sleep and when you wake. He notices the trials and troubles you have, and He is available to give you the care you need, right when you need it.
All of this is because of God's love. Romans 8:31-39 tells us of the extent and power that God's love for us has. Turn there and lets read:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 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.
These verses describe the height, depth and breadth of God's love for us. It is worth our time to look deeper into these verses to focus on the amazing love the Heavenly Father has for His children.
First, because of God's love:
1. God is For Us (If God is for us, who can be against us?)
And who is this God? He is the God of the Bible, the Creator of everything, the controller and sustainer of everything, the Only Wise God, Holy, Perfect in Love, Joy, and Peace! And this one and only God is for us who come under the banner of Christ.
Throughout the Bible, God expresses His love for His children in a million different ways. He created a luscious garden to live in, and He provided manna and quail in the wilderness.
He gave a land to live in, and He provided crops to sustain His people. And in an act that defies the comprehension of our feeble little minds, He sent His Son to the world.
A baby in a manger, and a man on a cross, are two things that can’t help but make us wonder at the amazing kind of love that God has for us. He loved us so much that He did not spare His own Son in providing a way for our sins' penalty to be paid.
Even in the Old Testament God is described as a God of love. For example: Psalm 36:7 says, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.”
But the most dramatic demonstration of God's love is seen in verse thirty-two of our text, “God did not spare His son but delivered Him up for us.”
Ephesians 2:4-5 echoes these words telling us that, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
When a world of lost mankind needed to be saved by a sinless substitute, the great God of the universe did not hold back His heart’s best Treasure, but was pleased to give Him over to a death of shame and loss on our behalf.
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? Because verse 32 also says that if God has given us salvation in Jesus, “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
If God did not hesitate to put everything on the line for us, exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son for us, is there anything else He wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?
The answer is, No. If God was willing to do that, anything more would be easy for Him to do. And would God go to all the pain and trouble to send His Son to die for us, and then just forget about us in our hour of need? No way!
These verses remind us that God has way too much invested in us to forget about us now. What kind of father would forget about His child? Certainly not the perfect one who created us!
Because of God's great love, God is for us! When there is no one else to trust, God keeps His promises. When we can't make it on our own, God reminds us that others are making the journey with us.
When all we can see is unhappiness, joy comes from the giver of all good things. When confusion crowds into our lives, a focus on Jesus clears the way.
Now we can't expect to be spared the trials of life. Jesus told us that His followers would have to carry crosses, that those who are His would suffer for His name.
So will there be opposition? Yes, and if we didn’t know any better we would have to admit that at times it seem like we’re losing the battle rather than gaining the victory! But thanks be to God, we know better.
What does verse 34 tell us?
That Jesus Christ died for our sins, but rose from the dead, is alive, and is at this moment at the right hand of God interceding for us before our Father in heaven!
The Lord Jesus Christ is constantly speaking to God on our behalf. Therefore, a Christian life should be a victorious life! Because “if God is for us, who can be against us?”
Lets continue to look into these verses in Romans 8:31-39 to focus on the amazing love the Heavenly Father has for His children.
The second thing we see is, because of God's love:
2. All Charges Against Us Have Been Dropped
Verse 33 asks,“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” and then answers, “It is God who justifies.” We are told over and over again that God justifies His people. He declares them innocent.
People can accuse you all they want, but if you are faithful to God, based on the work of Christ on the cross, He is pronouncing you innocent.
But the devil doesn’t give up. He doesn’t quit fighting. He just gets dirtier. He will use lies, cheap shots, anything he can do to get us to fall. And our archenemy Satan accuses us before God day and night.
But we don’t need to fear Satan. We need to fear God because God in Christ defeated Satan, and conquered everything Satan hurled at Him. God knows all the tricks of the devil. Therefore, that old devil is unable to bring anything new against us.
And still the accuser says, “Do you know what they did?” And God says “No! I'm sorry I don't recall...I seem to have forgotten! Are you sure you're talking about one of my children?”
It is God who justifies us when we are in Christ Jesus. So God's response is, “I Don't recall what they've done. But I will do what My Word says I will do. By the blood of Jesus, all charges against them have been dropped!”
So tell me, with that in mind, who can be against you? When things pile up against you, how do they stack up? Not how do they stack up to you. How do they stack up to God?
We do not have to be afraid that God can’t handle the difficulties in our life. If we are, then we are not understanding God. From beginning to end, the Bible tells us of God's love and care.
The question, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” is issuing a challenge to the universe that if there is any man, any angel, any demon, anyone who can bring a charge and lay it at the doorstep of God’s elect, let him do so now.
But there is none! How could there be? If God has already justified His people, who can bring a charge? People may be able to make your life difficult, they may be able to take your very life, but they cannot take away your gift of salvation or God's love.
Even if persecution comes upon the children of God, when they are “accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” historically, such persecutions have served to only deepen love for God and the things of Christ.
And remember, in times of trouble, our deliverer Jesus Christ of Nazareth is always making intersession for us. And He is always available and ready to help us.
Yes, because of God's love, He promises that no one can charge us with any sin covered by the blood of Jesus, because we have been justified by Him.
As we continue to look into these verses in Romans 8:31-39 we are focusing on the amazing love the Heavenly Father has for us.
And the third thing we see is; because of God's love:
3. In Christ We are More Than Conquerors
So what about trouble and hardship? Can those things separate us from Christ’s love? Can we still claim to be more than conquerors?
What about when terrorists attack our country? Or when we’re faced with other challenges? Are these proofs that the Lord has stopped loving us?
It makes us wonder how the apostle Paul could write these words, “we are more than conquerors”. After all, he had faced a lot of hard times for his faith in Jesus and his service to the Lord. Look what the apostle Paul went through.
He tells us about it in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27: “24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Yet in spite of all of this, Paul did not question God’s love, he lived a life without fear! He writes this in the same letter, a few chapters earlier in chapter 4:16 – 18: “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
“17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
So here in chapter eight, Paul is able to say that we are more than conquerors no matter what we may have to face in this life, and that nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord.
In fact, Paul searches the entire universe to see if there is anything that can possibly separate us from the love of God. He goes first to the realm of death and finds nothing there.
Then he turns to the realm of life and again finds nothing. He looks to the angels and they have no power to separate us.
He turns to principalities, which, in this case, may refer to the angelic hosts representing Satan. There is nothing there.
He proceeds to examine things present and finds nothing. He explores the future, and in the things to come nothing can happen now nor in the future, which can remove God's love.
And just in case he’s missed something, Paul asks if there is anything in all creation that can keep God’s love away from us.
The answer is that there is no other creature or creation of God that is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
There is no promise that we will not suffer humiliation, persecution, hardships, sickness, or danger. But if we are in Christ, it does mean that none of it matters compared to the “eternal glory that far outweighs them all”.
And remember, in Christ we aren’t just conquerors, we are more than conquerors! We don’t just have a victory, we have an overwhelming victory. We don’t just squeak by, we ace it.
Because of God's love, He is for us, no charge can be made against us, we are more than conquerors and nothing can separate us from His love.
As hymn writer Charles Wesley wrote:
“Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all.”
CONCLUSION:
The current events happening in the world today make us aware that trouble is always present. Russian President Putin is taking advantage of perceived weakness of any who would oppose Him.
We need to pray for people in Ukraine who do not deserve what is happening there. Sometimes knowing that others care makes a big difference even in difficult times.
For example, after the Iranian Hostage Crisis from late 1979 to 1981 when 52 U.S. Diplomats were held for 444 days after a group of militants took over the American Embassy, one of the hostages gave an interview and said...
“We had no idea the amount of publicity our situation received back home in America. The captors kept us from knowing how our nation felt about it, and what was being done to free us. Had we known, the captivity would have been more bearable. We were made to think our country had forgotten and written us off.”
As Christians we have an enemy who wants us to think we are defeated and abandoned. But God loves us. He loved us when Jesus went to the cross for us, and He still loves us!
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and His love for us? There is no way!
That is the reason we can know that whatever happens, because of God's love, when we are in Christ we truly are “more than conquerors.”
