As most of you know I have 2 children; Hannah is in the sixth grade now. Trent is almost 6 years old. As they grow older, I catch myself doing something that my dad used to do. I gush. Have you ever just looked at someone you love and felt the emotion swell up inside you? You wanted in some way to let them know how you felt, but when you did it just seemed too mushy for words. It happens to me with my kids, and when I try to tell them they just wind up thinking I’m weird. Some time back Trent was busy playing an electronic game and I felt a little mushy. I called him over and he refused to come. After coaxing, pleading, and finally demanding he walked over to me and I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him. He rolled his eyes and said, "Oh Dad!" like, "Why in the world did you disturb me just for that?" I remember being the same way with my dad.
So how do you convey the depths of parental love to a 6 year old who hasn’t learned to tell the difference between love for family and love for a Nintendo game? Is it possible for a child to comprehend the depth and breadth of her parent’s love? And even if she can’t understand it, should that stop us from expressing that love? Is our love any less just because they don’t get it?
Throughout the Bible, God expressed 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 them. 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 images that can’t help but make us wonder. "What kind of love is this that God has for us?" I have to stand up weekly and try to explain the depths of God’s love, and often I feel like I did when I was a child hearing my parents tell me they love me. It’s bigger than I can comprehend.
That’s why Paul asked the questions that close the eighth chapter of Romans. Because when we hear about God’s love, there really are some questions that come to our minds. With a series of five questions, Paul challenges anybody and everybody, in heaven, on earth, or even in hell itself to deny the depths of God’s love.
(Read Romans 8:31-39)
Did you notice the questions? My guess is that you’ve probably asked them a time or two yourself. You see, Paul could have made bold, far reaching statements about the incredible commitment of God to His children. Instead, he wants the answers to these questions on our lips.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" Now understand, Paul could have asked the question "Who can be against us?" and the answers would have been numerous. Every person who lives faces opposition. There is disease, disappointment, and difficult circumstances which all serve as opponents to our good pleasure. But the truth of the matter is, that is not the question Paul asked. His statement is "If God is For us, who can be against us?" And that is a different question entirely.
Now Paul has spent a long time explaining one fact, and by now he expects you to realize it. God is for us. If you have gotten to this point in Romans, he expects you to realize that. Just in this 8th chapter he has shown you how much God is for you. He has told you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He has pointed out that God has given you a part of Himself to walk with you every step of the way. He has highlighted the fact that for Christians there is an overflowing abundance of hope. If we haven’t caught onto God’s love by now, it’s not because Paul hasn’t explained it. God is for you!
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? Are you afraid that God can’t handle the difficulties in your life? If you are, then you don’t understand God. He is the one who called the universe into being. He created every star in the sky, and every speck of dust that inhabits the space around those stars. He created the whale and the elephant, and He created the amoebae and the smallest gnat. He engineered the universe to operate in perfect synchronization. Are you afraid that He can’t handle your problems? Surely not when you really think about it. I suspect there might be another fear.
You see, maybe it’s not that we are afraid God can’t handle the difficulties of our life. It’s just that sometimes we wonder if God will handle them. I mean you have to wonder if He’s got the time to deal with my little old problems. That’s why Paul asks the next question. "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?"
Suppose a man comes upon a child being beaten up by thugs. He jumps into the middle of the bunch, rescues the boy and takes him to the hospital. The young boy is nursed back to health and the man pays the bill. He learns that the child is an orphan, so he adopts him as his own and gives the boy his name. And then, one night, months later, the father hears the son sobbing into his pillow. He goes to him and asks what is wrong. Through his tears the boy says "I’m worried, daddy. I’m worried about tomorrow. Where will I get food to eat? How will I get cloths to stay warm? Where will I sleep?"
As you can imagine, the father is disturbed. "Haven’t I shown you? Don’t you understand? I risked my life to save you. I gave my money to treat you. I gave you my name and called you my son. Would I do all that and not meet all your needs?
That is exactly Paul’s question. Would God go to all the pain and trouble to send His Son to die for you and then just forget about you in your hour of need? No way! Paul reminds 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!
But even if we realize that God’s love is such for us that He won’t forget about us, then we are confronted with another thought. If God never forgets about us, then He also doesn’t miss what we do. And we realize that we have done some things that must not have made God very happy. So Paul brings up the next two questions.
"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?" You’ve heard those words of condemnation just like I have. "There’s no way God could love you, you are too dirty!" "There is too much sin in your life for God to ever love you." And the guilt that should drive us back into the arms of our loving father, sometimes keeps us pushing away. Where do those words of condemnation come from?
They cannot come from God. God says "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Those words come from one who doesn’t want us in the arms of our father. Revelation 12:10 tells us that there is one who stands before God day and night accusing Christians of sin. He is the one whose name means "accuser." We call him Satan.
Some time back I heard a story about a little boy who got a new slingshot and went out to try it out. While he was trying it out, he took aim on grandma’s pet duck, and to his surprise he hit it and killed it. As you can imagine, the boy was horrified, so he took the duck and hid it in the woodpile. Just as he finished covering it up, he noticed that his sister Sally was watching.
After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?" She leaned over and whispered "Remember the duck." So Johnny did the dishes.
The next several weeks were Johnny’s worst nightmare. It seemed like he was always at the sink, sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. Whenever he would almost get completely fed up with it, Sally would remind him "Remember the duck."
Finally, Johnny decided no punishment could be worse than a lifetime of washing dishes, so he confessed to killing the duck.
Grandma was understanding. "I know you killed the duck. I was standing at the window watching the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I just wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you." Johnny had been pardoned, but he continued to feel guilty because he listened to the words of his accuser.
How many times have we listened to Satan’s accusations, all the while forgetting that God knows our sin, and has pardoned us anyway. (Read 33-34) In I John 2:1 and in Hebrews 4 and here in Romans 8, the same image is pointed out. Jesus is sitting at God’s right hand right now, and He is standing up for us. He is asking God to forgive us for our sin. And as the accusations fly, God looks to His Son, and Jesus says, "I will take the penalty for that sin." And the blood of Christ covers over your guilt if you are a member of His family.
I want you to take a look at the last question. There is one more question, but it is in response to this one. And believe me, this is the big one. Anyone who has been a Christian for very long has asked this one. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" As a sort of answer to that question, Jesus told a story in Luke 15 about a father who had 2 sons.
One asked his father for his inheritance and headed off to live it up. But the boy found out that life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It wasn’t long until he was living off pig chow, and he realized he could live better as his father’s slave than on his own. What questions do you think were on his mind as he decided to go back to his father? I’ll bet this one was at the top of the list. He must have asked himself "What could separate me from the love of my father?" But he wasn’t sure when he returned. He spent the entire return trip trying to figure out what to say to convince His father to let him return home, even as a slave.
An amazing thing happened. Jesus says that while the son was a long way off, the father saw him coming down the road. Dad was watching for his lost son. And instead of waiting on the porch, Dad hiked up his robe and ran to meet and greet his boy. He threw a party and he wouldn’t even let the boy finish the apology he had worked so long on. You see, what the son failed to realize was that the only thing that could separate him from his father’s love was his own choice to ignore it. The same is true for you and me. It is not any circumstances, or difficulty. No painful trial or sin will ever keep us from experiencing the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father. The only thing that can keep us out of His waiting arms is if we push away.
I want you to listen to a song by Rich Mullins, Growing Young. The words are on the back of your insert. (Play song from The World As Best As I Remember It Vol 2)
(Read vv. 35-39) For the past five weeks we have focused on the good news about being a Christian. The love of God says that you can live without condemnation. The love of God provides you with a companion to be with you in the worst of times and the best of times. The love of God gives you hope. The love of God makes sure that you are plugged into His purpose for your life. And the love of God means that you can live without fear of ever being separated from His love. But in the end you must choose. Will you be the prodigal? Will you swallow your pride and come to your loving father who is watching for your return? You see, the only thing that can keep you from experiencing the love of God is you!
