Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 4
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 4 (2023 Re-Record & Update) - Daniel Litton
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Today’s message will be our final in going through Romans chapter 8. Breaking this chapter down into four messages has been beneficial for us, so that we can more carefully ponder these writings from the Apostle Paul and all that God has to say to us. Undoubtedly, this is the most famous chapter in the Bible, let alone New Testament. Today again we will be covering another famous text, and one of which that deals with God’s love for us, as Christians. Nevertheless, the time we have spent here in this chapter has been enjoyable, and it will be from this point that we spring forward into the rest of Romans.
Breaking down what has happened in Romans chapter 8 thus far, we recall that in the first part of the chapter we learned that for those of us who know Christ as Lord and Savior, those of us who know him have no more condemnation for our sin. It’s a great truth for us. We spent some time talking about how we act as Christians, and particularly what we think about. We considered the mind. Yes, as believers we have a new mind in Christ, and we are able to work toward controlling our thoughts. It’s an incredible thing for us, and it’s one thing that distinguishes us from unbelievers. We can actually gain better control of our thoughts, so that we are not bound by things running rampant and careless through our heads. We learn to live less and less by fear. It’s a reconditioning of the mind we work through. God has adopted us as his children, and we have close, intimate, personal relationships with him. We may face suffering in this life, but God is always right beside us.
In the third message we fixed our gaze toward Heaven, and thought about our longing and desire to be in Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what we ultimately long for. This life may be good for us, and certainly it is in many ways, but it really doesn’t even compare to what we have coming for us in the next life. It’s like night versus day. Nighttime can be fun and great, the stars look cool, street lights look good, the crickets sound interesting. As we are all aware, daytime with the sun shining bright, with the perfect temperature, in the summertime, with the green foliage everywhere, that is far, far greater than nighttime. This gives us a shadow, a picture of what Heaven is going to be like versus what we are experiencing right now. We also touched on the fact that we have weaknesses, as Christians, and that God helps us with our weaknesses. And we ended last week with the glorious truth that God works all things together for good for us who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
So, picking up where we left off the last time, and we didn’t get to it last week, but we are at verse 30. This is a big verse. Romans chapter 8, verse 30: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
In the past it has been taught, and the traditional understanding of this verse is, that we have four happenings going on here, three of which have already happened for us, and one of which is still yet to happen in the future. Traditionally speaking, Paul talks about the fourth thing here, that of being glorified, in the past tense, as if he’s so confident that it is going to happen that he speaks of it in the past tense. Let’s go ahead for now and run with this understanding, and discuss it this way, though, there is another understanding to consider relating to this verse.
We discussed the concept of predestination last week, and let’s remind ourselves of what we understand predestined to mean. Simply put, it means that God has chosen beforehand a people to be his sons and daughters. It is as Paul told the Ephesian believers, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4, ESV). Before the world began, God had a plan in place that took into account the possibility of the Fall. He was ready for it. Obviously, we are aware that plan has been utilized. Thus, we now, due to God’s mercy, have the ability to choose to come into relationship with him. He has provided a way for us despite our rebelliousness. He cares that much about us.
The next thing Paul tells us is that God called those whom he predestined. This is the second part of the process. It means that since God had already decided before the foundation of the world that he wanted individuals to be his, that he also called people. He extends the invitation for us to come into personal relationship with him, to be on good terms with him. Now, it should be stated that there are varying perspectives when it comes to God’s sovereignty in conjunction with free-will. It’s seems best, and most likely at the end of the day, to conclude that it is a cooperative effort, wherein God extends the call to us first, drawing us to himself through the Holy Spirit, and then we choose to come into personal relationship with him. Stop and think about it. God doesn’t want persons who ‘have to’ come into relationship with him, who have to choose him because he has irresistibly drawn them to himself. That’s not love. Thus, we freely choose to come into relationship with him when it is offered to us.
Grasping this, how does God call individuals into personal relationship with himself? We are aware that circumstances are such that people who have already decided to be in relationship with him go around and share their faith with others. That’s the way the world works—the way his love is presented before people. There is a great sense where the responsibility lies with us to go and share the Good News, there is also a responsibility God has in drawing people into relationship with himself. We are certainly responsible to share the message. God is preparing individual’s hearts. We cannot do that part as message bearers.
Now, it is fair to say that the Gospel is not supposed to shared in a machine-like fashion, in an assembly-line type of way. We are not the Ford Motor Company out-puting new cars on an assembly line. We are to follow the leading of the Spirit. He may lead us to share the Gospel with a person, and at another time, guess what? He may not lead us to do that. We cannot be held responsible for people’s personal response to the Gospel. God doesn’t operate in this manner.
Thus, God calls individuals to himself in different ways. God uses indirect methods for reaching people and he uses direct, one-on-one interactions for reaching people. He calls people as they are listening to preachers and teachers of God’s Word. Sometimes they extend an invitation at the end of the message, and people respond. This is an indirect method from the sharers. The Spirit draws those persons to God and they freely choose him. And, at times individuals respond to God through a one-on-one relationship they have with another. A person, who is a believer, encourages that person to come into relationship with God. This is a direct method. Still yet, sometimes people find themselves reading the Bible or a Christian book, and they decide by their own will that they want to have a relationship with God. That’s another indirect method. Yes, there are different ways that God draws people to himself. It’s not always through one-on-one contact, through personal relationships. It wasn’t that way with in the personal experience, and it wasn’t that way for many of you.
Paul says that God justified those whom he called. Unfortunately, as we know, or should know by now, is that not everyone whom God calls chooses to come into relationship with him. We would say these persons are resisting the Spirit of God, as Stephen pointed out with the Jewish leaders in Acts 7. But John points out so clearly for us, at the beginning of his Gospel, that “He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12, ESV). We know that most the Jews have freely chosen to reject Jesus as the Messiah, and yet many, many Gentiles have freely chosen otherwise. All one has to do is receive him, to believe in him. That’s how one becomes saved. It is as Jesus will say later, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, 21 (ESV).
Let us hit the rewind button back to Romans chapter 5, and re-read verse 1. It says, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When Paul says that God justifies us, remember, he counts our justification by the faith that we have placed in him. We choose to believe in God, we placed our faith in God, and then he justified us and gave us peace with him. We have chosen God by our freedom through faith, and by his Spirit he has drawn us. One way to look at it is that we have to receive a word from God in order to believe in him, right? That’s how God draws us to himself. That’s what people do who bring the message of God’s salvation—they bring a word. In other words, then (no pun intended), God brought a word to us and we trusted in him. Even if, say, an unbeliever walks into the library and get’s a Christian book, and then believes in God as a result of that book, that person still had to receive a word in order to believe. Without the message from God, the person could not have come into relationship with him. It seems this better helps us understand how it is that God has actually chosen us.
Finally, Paul informs us that the persons God has justified, made right with him, he has also glorified. Our salvation is guaranteed for sure. Just as God raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, he is also going to raise us up after we die. Moreover, Paul told the Corinthians, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5, ESV). We understand that this is going to happen at The Rapture of the Church, as Paul had already told the Corinthians in his first letter to them (see 1 Corinthians 15).
The other part of our glorification is the concept that in fact we have already been glorified, so to speak. Paul told the Ephesians, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:2-6, ESV). One could say that this passage is also referring to the future, and Paul again is using the past tense, but it seems that Paul is saying that this is something that is current for us, something that has already happened. He have already been seated with Jesus in heaven. And this only makes sense because we are in right relationship with God and there is nothing between God and us. Every one of our sins have been forgiven. Something that is personally practiced at least two or three times a week is, in the imagination, the throne room of Heaven in envisioned, with the body being present at the throne of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one way to spend time with God. It works. It feels right, and takes the mind out of this world for a brief moment of time.
Verse 31: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
God is on our side. It’s something frequently said in the past—it’s something that’s always been tried to be conveyed. One thing that has been noticed over the years from church-goers is an underlying perception of God that he is not really on their side. There seems to be this pervasive belief that, “God is not for us. He may be on our side at times, but more often than not he’s not on our side. And that’s because we’re sinful, and our ideas just aren’t God’s ideas. God knows best.” Truly, this is most unfortunate. It’s full of unbelief. It ignores the truth that God’s Spirit dwells within us, and does at times direct our thoughts in God’s direction. It is expecting the worst to happen, not the best. It’s only looking at what is wrong with people, instead of what is right with them. The reality is, is that God is actually for us.
We can feel in our hearts that God is not for us, that he really doesn’t care about us. We have to learn to reject feelings and thoughts that come to us like that since the Bible says, “God is for us.” If we are against ourselves, it can make it more difficult for us to realize God is our on side since we aren’t on our own side. It’s such an unfortunate thing, and yet many of us fall into the trap of rejecting ourselves. Rejecting ourselves not only hurts our relationship with God and how we view God, but it also hurts our relationships with other individuals, but this is a whole other topic altogether. Anyway, we have to come to a place where we see ourselves as good since we are righteous through Christ, not because we perform perfectly. It seems that is a real problem for people, again, whose performance is polished. If individuals take great pride in how they look before others, then they are depending on that image for how they feel as pertains to themselves, and even how they feel they are doing before God. But, God can only be for us if we are trusting in what is reality, and that is Christ’s righteousness, not on own.
Since God really is for us, no one can really stand against us. That’s true whether it be an unbeliever, or even another believer who has come against us. We need to have faith that God is on our side. If we don’t believe he’s on our side, it can make it more difficult or even impossible for him to help us. It can tie God’s hands. And this may be the main reason why negative minded Christians often fail to see God’s help in their lives. They don’t receive since they don’t believe. Nonetheless, it is amazing how God protects us. Some of the things we get to see first hand, and probably most of them we aren’t even aware of. God has protected us from evil plots against us that we weren’t aware of. This is yet another reason why it is foolish to love to try to control every aspect of our lives. No matter how much we imagine ourselves being in control, we aren’t actually in control. Rather, we can choose to trust in God and forfeit a false sense of control.
The ultimate example of God being on our side was demonstrated in that he sent his own Son to die on the cross for our sins. It doesn’t seem there is any other way in which God could have perfectly demonstrated his love for us. It is the ultimate demonstration that God is for us. Paul says that if God was willing to do that—if he was willing to give up is own Son for us—”how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If God was willing to do that, he would be will to give us anything. Notice the word “graciously.” Don’t pass over that word. It says that God will “graciously give us all things.” That means he wants to give us good things. Certainly, God is going to give us a tremendous amount of things in the future after this life—there’s no doubt about that. But Paul’s context seems to be referring to the here and now, what is going on in our lives. What an encouragement for us. God is going to give us good things from day to day, big and small. He’ll help us get a good job, find a marriage partner, give us things we need and want. He’ll help us have the money to pay our bills, give us favor in that presentation at work, and even aid the parent helping her child with her homework. God helps both big and small. Nothing is too big or too small for his help.
Verse 33: “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
Paul takes this verse a step further from the moment he asked who could be against us to now, “Who shall bring any charge against” us? In a way, this may be a reference to Satan, who we recall stands in front of God’s throne to accuse us of this and that sin. In other words, due to the fact we are trusting in Christ’s provision, his sacrifice on the cross for us and resurrection from the dead, we recognize that we are guiltless before God. So, not Satan nor any demons can bring a charge against us. Even on the earth, ultimately we are guilt-free at the end of the day. This doesn’t mean we aren’t responsible if we do wrong, or that we don’t need to repent of sin or actually ask for people’s forgiveness. There are other places in the New Testament that clearly speak to those matters. When the dust has settled, no matter what the circumstance, no one can truly bring a charge against us. That is because Christ has made us not guilty for all accounts of sin.
Now let us think about the glorious fact that our Lord actually intercedes in prayer for us, as believers. It is difficult to comprehend the tremendous amount of help this has had to bring to us over time, throughout different life situations we have been through. It has been noticed that sometimes at the moment there is an issue and prayer is lifted to God for it, it’s maybe a half hour later that the inner-self starts to feel better toward whatever it is, and it is assumed that’s because the Lord Jesus Christ has interceded based on the prayer brought to God. Christ’s intercession is a strong encouragement for us since we know that we always have someone praying for us, especially when we ask. We cannot always control what happens in our lives, but we get to decide how we respond in those situations, and Christ’s intercession no doubt will help us to be more pleasing to God.
By lifting our prayers to God, this allows the Lord Jesus Christ to actually to be informed as what we would like him to specifically pray for. God wants us to tell him what our needs are. Philippians 4:6 states, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (ESV). This is a part that we have to play. Nevertheless, once we do let God know what our needs and desires are, Jesus will intercede to the Father on behalf of those things. It’s not that Jesus just intercedes for us at the time we have an emergency or something like that. It seems reasonable to say he prays for us no matter what our concern, need, or desire is. Regardless of how long we wait for a favorable response, we can keep a thankful attitude in the waiting time. Keeping the right attitude increases the odds that what we want will manifest, or come to pass. Being unthankful and ungrateful, and complaining as we don’t yet have what we feel we should have, isn’t going to bring any progress toward our goal.
Verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
No matter what, nothing can separate us from Christ’s love toward us. Once we become a Christian, we are home free. Nothing we can do, nothing anyone else can do, nothing that can happen, anything you can think of, in all of that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is good for us to break down what Paul is saying in these verses by defining what the specific life problems could be. The first thing Paul mentions is tribulation. This word isn’t only referring to the electric going out or our car breaking down. No, this is in respect to any type of significant or great problem that we face in life. Next, we see the word distress. The idea appears to be that we have been trapped by a circumstance and are in need of help. Persecution obviously is brought on by unbelievers typically. It is when individuals come against us for our faith in Christ, our been faithful in following him. People can speak things against us, tell lies about us, or physically come against us.
It’s also true that even if we were to face famine, nakedness, danger, or physical violence against us, that this doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us. This can be a temptation for us, to think that when troubling times come, or a troubling event, that we believe God is upset with us about something or has turned against us. Most of the time those thoughts are unfounded. Unless we are deliberately sinning, we realize that we will have trouble in the world, as Jesus told us, but that doesn’t mean that God is against us or doesn’t love us. In fact, sometimes people find themselves facing a more intense suffering, which will include these things. The Apostle Paul could definitely testify to that fact. There are missionaries, for instance, in our day and age who have faced these kinds of sufferings. In Paul’s case, he said probably referring to himself and his companions (quoting Scripture), “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Specific types of ministries can lead individuals into this kind of suffering.
Next, Paul says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” You see, no matter what we face in life, even if it is suffering for the kingdom of God’s sake, in comparison with the world is only a brief moment in the grand scope of things. Any suffering on this earth is temporary. Christians will ultimately conquer, even if they find themselves physically suffering here, or all the way to giving up their lives. A good chapter in the New Testament to read on these matters is Hebrews chapter 11. There we can see examples of past sufferings of the saints of God. Another important thing to note is that as God doesn’t delight in seeing us suffer in any way, he does delight in seeing us have and maintain a good attitude during any suffering we face. The Apostle Peter has told us, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:19-22, ESV). So, there demonstrates the attitude we are to have.
Verse 38: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What a great verse from the Apostle Paul. The point is definitely clear for us that nothing in any respect can separate us from God’s love, nothing in this world. Paul pretty much covers all the bases here. If we die, we believe that we will immediately be with Christ, in the twinkling of an eye. If we live, Jesus has already told us that he is always with us. So, that’s covered. Neither good angels nor bad angels can affect God’s love for us. Satan and his demons have no ability to take us out of God’s love. They cannot tempt us for an unpardonable sin. No human power or authority can take us out of God’s love. No matter where we are on the planet, God is with us. If we are in an airplane riding high in the sky, closer to space, God is there. If we were one of the few who actually went into space, God is there too. If we were deep-sea diving or in a small submarine looking at the Titanic, two-and-a-half miles down in the ocean, where there’s not even light, God is still there. And God would still love us. No, none of this has any factor, and neither does anything else we can think of or conjure up in our minds. God loves us completely, and his love is always with us; it is inescapable.
Now, if you don’t know God today then you are not his child. You can’t expect him to help you. But, you can change that fact right now. Anyone who feels they would like to have a personal relationship with God, that they would like to be surrounded by his love now and always, anyone today can come into intimate, personal relationship with him through trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ. Anyone out there who believes that Christ died for his or her sins, and that he rose from the dead, paying the debt for our sins, that which separates us from God, can have new life today with God. Recognize your sin, turn from it, and trust in Christ, and be surrounded in God’s love.
-Daniel Litton
Today’s message will be our final in going through Romans chapter 8. Breaking this chapter down into four messages has been beneficial for us, so that we can more carefully ponder these writings from the Apostle Paul and all that God has to say to us. Undoubtedly, this is the most famous chapter in the Bible, let alone New Testament. Today again we will be covering another famous text, and one of which that deals with God’s love for us, as Christians. Nevertheless, the time we have spent here in this chapter has been enjoyable, and it will be from this point that we spring forward into the rest of Romans.
Breaking down what has happened in Romans chapter 8 thus far, we recall that in the first part of the chapter we learned that for those of us who know Christ as Lord and Savior, those of us who know him have no more condemnation for our sin. It’s a great truth for us. We spent some time talking about how we act as Christians, and particularly what we think about. We considered the mind. Yes, as believers we have a new mind in Christ, and we are able to work toward controlling our thoughts. It’s an incredible thing for us, and it’s one thing that distinguishes us from unbelievers. We can actually gain better control of our thoughts, so that we are not bound by things running rampant and careless through our heads. We learn to live less and less by fear. It’s a reconditioning of the mind we work through. God has adopted us as his children, and we have close, intimate, personal relationships with him. We may face suffering in this life, but God is always right beside us.
In the third message we fixed our gaze toward Heaven, and thought about our longing and desire to be in Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what we ultimately long for. This life may be good for us, and certainly it is in many ways, but it really doesn’t even compare to what we have coming for us in the next life. It’s like night versus day. Nighttime can be fun and great, the stars look cool, street lights look good, the crickets sound interesting. As we are all aware, daytime with the sun shining bright, with the perfect temperature, in the summertime, with the green foliage everywhere, that is far, far greater than nighttime. This gives us a shadow, a picture of what Heaven is going to be like versus what we are experiencing right now. We also touched on the fact that we have weaknesses, as Christians, and that God helps us with our weaknesses. And we ended last week with the glorious truth that God works all things together for good for us who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
So, picking up where we left off the last time, and we didn’t get to it last week, but we are at verse 30. This is a big verse. Romans chapter 8, verse 30: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
In the past it has been taught, and the traditional understanding of this verse is, that we have four happenings going on here, three of which have already happened for us, and one of which is still yet to happen in the future. Traditionally speaking, Paul talks about the fourth thing here, that of being glorified, in the past tense, as if he’s so confident that it is going to happen that he speaks of it in the past tense. Let’s go ahead for now and run with this understanding, and discuss it this way, though, there is another understanding to consider relating to this verse.
We discussed the concept of predestination last week, and let’s remind ourselves of what we understand predestined to mean. Simply put, it means that God has chosen beforehand a people to be his sons and daughters. It is as Paul told the Ephesian believers, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4, ESV). Before the world began, God had a plan in place that took into account the possibility of the Fall. He was ready for it. Obviously, we are aware that plan has been utilized. Thus, we now, due to God’s mercy, have the ability to choose to come into relationship with him. He has provided a way for us despite our rebelliousness. He cares that much about us.
The next thing Paul tells us is that God called those whom he predestined. This is the second part of the process. It means that since God had already decided before the foundation of the world that he wanted individuals to be his, that he also called people. He extends the invitation for us to come into personal relationship with him, to be on good terms with him. Now, it should be stated that there are varying perspectives when it comes to God’s sovereignty in conjunction with free-will. It’s seems best, and most likely at the end of the day, to conclude that it is a cooperative effort, wherein God extends the call to us first, drawing us to himself through the Holy Spirit, and then we choose to come into personal relationship with him. Stop and think about it. God doesn’t want persons who ‘have to’ come into relationship with him, who have to choose him because he has irresistibly drawn them to himself. That’s not love. Thus, we freely choose to come into relationship with him when it is offered to us.
Grasping this, how does God call individuals into personal relationship with himself? We are aware that circumstances are such that people who have already decided to be in relationship with him go around and share their faith with others. That’s the way the world works—the way his love is presented before people. There is a great sense where the responsibility lies with us to go and share the Good News, there is also a responsibility God has in drawing people into relationship with himself. We are certainly responsible to share the message. God is preparing individual’s hearts. We cannot do that part as message bearers.
Now, it is fair to say that the Gospel is not supposed to shared in a machine-like fashion, in an assembly-line type of way. We are not the Ford Motor Company out-puting new cars on an assembly line. We are to follow the leading of the Spirit. He may lead us to share the Gospel with a person, and at another time, guess what? He may not lead us to do that. We cannot be held responsible for people’s personal response to the Gospel. God doesn’t operate in this manner.
Thus, God calls individuals to himself in different ways. God uses indirect methods for reaching people and he uses direct, one-on-one interactions for reaching people. He calls people as they are listening to preachers and teachers of God’s Word. Sometimes they extend an invitation at the end of the message, and people respond. This is an indirect method from the sharers. The Spirit draws those persons to God and they freely choose him. And, at times individuals respond to God through a one-on-one relationship they have with another. A person, who is a believer, encourages that person to come into relationship with God. This is a direct method. Still yet, sometimes people find themselves reading the Bible or a Christian book, and they decide by their own will that they want to have a relationship with God. That’s another indirect method. Yes, there are different ways that God draws people to himself. It’s not always through one-on-one contact, through personal relationships. It wasn’t that way with in the personal experience, and it wasn’t that way for many of you.
Paul says that God justified those whom he called. Unfortunately, as we know, or should know by now, is that not everyone whom God calls chooses to come into relationship with him. We would say these persons are resisting the Spirit of God, as Stephen pointed out with the Jewish leaders in Acts 7. But John points out so clearly for us, at the beginning of his Gospel, that “He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12, ESV). We know that most the Jews have freely chosen to reject Jesus as the Messiah, and yet many, many Gentiles have freely chosen otherwise. All one has to do is receive him, to believe in him. That’s how one becomes saved. It is as Jesus will say later, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, 21 (ESV).
Let us hit the rewind button back to Romans chapter 5, and re-read verse 1. It says, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When Paul says that God justifies us, remember, he counts our justification by the faith that we have placed in him. We choose to believe in God, we placed our faith in God, and then he justified us and gave us peace with him. We have chosen God by our freedom through faith, and by his Spirit he has drawn us. One way to look at it is that we have to receive a word from God in order to believe in him, right? That’s how God draws us to himself. That’s what people do who bring the message of God’s salvation—they bring a word. In other words, then (no pun intended), God brought a word to us and we trusted in him. Even if, say, an unbeliever walks into the library and get’s a Christian book, and then believes in God as a result of that book, that person still had to receive a word in order to believe. Without the message from God, the person could not have come into relationship with him. It seems this better helps us understand how it is that God has actually chosen us.
Finally, Paul informs us that the persons God has justified, made right with him, he has also glorified. Our salvation is guaranteed for sure. Just as God raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, he is also going to raise us up after we die. Moreover, Paul told the Corinthians, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5, ESV). We understand that this is going to happen at The Rapture of the Church, as Paul had already told the Corinthians in his first letter to them (see 1 Corinthians 15).
The other part of our glorification is the concept that in fact we have already been glorified, so to speak. Paul told the Ephesians, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:2-6, ESV). One could say that this passage is also referring to the future, and Paul again is using the past tense, but it seems that Paul is saying that this is something that is current for us, something that has already happened. He have already been seated with Jesus in heaven. And this only makes sense because we are in right relationship with God and there is nothing between God and us. Every one of our sins have been forgiven. Something that is personally practiced at least two or three times a week is, in the imagination, the throne room of Heaven in envisioned, with the body being present at the throne of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one way to spend time with God. It works. It feels right, and takes the mind out of this world for a brief moment of time.
Verse 31: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
God is on our side. It’s something frequently said in the past—it’s something that’s always been tried to be conveyed. One thing that has been noticed over the years from church-goers is an underlying perception of God that he is not really on their side. There seems to be this pervasive belief that, “God is not for us. He may be on our side at times, but more often than not he’s not on our side. And that’s because we’re sinful, and our ideas just aren’t God’s ideas. God knows best.” Truly, this is most unfortunate. It’s full of unbelief. It ignores the truth that God’s Spirit dwells within us, and does at times direct our thoughts in God’s direction. It is expecting the worst to happen, not the best. It’s only looking at what is wrong with people, instead of what is right with them. The reality is, is that God is actually for us.
We can feel in our hearts that God is not for us, that he really doesn’t care about us. We have to learn to reject feelings and thoughts that come to us like that since the Bible says, “God is for us.” If we are against ourselves, it can make it more difficult for us to realize God is our on side since we aren’t on our own side. It’s such an unfortunate thing, and yet many of us fall into the trap of rejecting ourselves. Rejecting ourselves not only hurts our relationship with God and how we view God, but it also hurts our relationships with other individuals, but this is a whole other topic altogether. Anyway, we have to come to a place where we see ourselves as good since we are righteous through Christ, not because we perform perfectly. It seems that is a real problem for people, again, whose performance is polished. If individuals take great pride in how they look before others, then they are depending on that image for how they feel as pertains to themselves, and even how they feel they are doing before God. But, God can only be for us if we are trusting in what is reality, and that is Christ’s righteousness, not on own.
Since God really is for us, no one can really stand against us. That’s true whether it be an unbeliever, or even another believer who has come against us. We need to have faith that God is on our side. If we don’t believe he’s on our side, it can make it more difficult or even impossible for him to help us. It can tie God’s hands. And this may be the main reason why negative minded Christians often fail to see God’s help in their lives. They don’t receive since they don’t believe. Nonetheless, it is amazing how God protects us. Some of the things we get to see first hand, and probably most of them we aren’t even aware of. God has protected us from evil plots against us that we weren’t aware of. This is yet another reason why it is foolish to love to try to control every aspect of our lives. No matter how much we imagine ourselves being in control, we aren’t actually in control. Rather, we can choose to trust in God and forfeit a false sense of control.
The ultimate example of God being on our side was demonstrated in that he sent his own Son to die on the cross for our sins. It doesn’t seem there is any other way in which God could have perfectly demonstrated his love for us. It is the ultimate demonstration that God is for us. Paul says that if God was willing to do that—if he was willing to give up is own Son for us—”how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If God was willing to do that, he would be will to give us anything. Notice the word “graciously.” Don’t pass over that word. It says that God will “graciously give us all things.” That means he wants to give us good things. Certainly, God is going to give us a tremendous amount of things in the future after this life—there’s no doubt about that. But Paul’s context seems to be referring to the here and now, what is going on in our lives. What an encouragement for us. God is going to give us good things from day to day, big and small. He’ll help us get a good job, find a marriage partner, give us things we need and want. He’ll help us have the money to pay our bills, give us favor in that presentation at work, and even aid the parent helping her child with her homework. God helps both big and small. Nothing is too big or too small for his help.
Verse 33: “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
Paul takes this verse a step further from the moment he asked who could be against us to now, “Who shall bring any charge against” us? In a way, this may be a reference to Satan, who we recall stands in front of God’s throne to accuse us of this and that sin. In other words, due to the fact we are trusting in Christ’s provision, his sacrifice on the cross for us and resurrection from the dead, we recognize that we are guiltless before God. So, not Satan nor any demons can bring a charge against us. Even on the earth, ultimately we are guilt-free at the end of the day. This doesn’t mean we aren’t responsible if we do wrong, or that we don’t need to repent of sin or actually ask for people’s forgiveness. There are other places in the New Testament that clearly speak to those matters. When the dust has settled, no matter what the circumstance, no one can truly bring a charge against us. That is because Christ has made us not guilty for all accounts of sin.
Now let us think about the glorious fact that our Lord actually intercedes in prayer for us, as believers. It is difficult to comprehend the tremendous amount of help this has had to bring to us over time, throughout different life situations we have been through. It has been noticed that sometimes at the moment there is an issue and prayer is lifted to God for it, it’s maybe a half hour later that the inner-self starts to feel better toward whatever it is, and it is assumed that’s because the Lord Jesus Christ has interceded based on the prayer brought to God. Christ’s intercession is a strong encouragement for us since we know that we always have someone praying for us, especially when we ask. We cannot always control what happens in our lives, but we get to decide how we respond in those situations, and Christ’s intercession no doubt will help us to be more pleasing to God.
By lifting our prayers to God, this allows the Lord Jesus Christ to actually to be informed as what we would like him to specifically pray for. God wants us to tell him what our needs are. Philippians 4:6 states, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (ESV). This is a part that we have to play. Nevertheless, once we do let God know what our needs and desires are, Jesus will intercede to the Father on behalf of those things. It’s not that Jesus just intercedes for us at the time we have an emergency or something like that. It seems reasonable to say he prays for us no matter what our concern, need, or desire is. Regardless of how long we wait for a favorable response, we can keep a thankful attitude in the waiting time. Keeping the right attitude increases the odds that what we want will manifest, or come to pass. Being unthankful and ungrateful, and complaining as we don’t yet have what we feel we should have, isn’t going to bring any progress toward our goal.
Verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
No matter what, nothing can separate us from Christ’s love toward us. Once we become a Christian, we are home free. Nothing we can do, nothing anyone else can do, nothing that can happen, anything you can think of, in all of that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is good for us to break down what Paul is saying in these verses by defining what the specific life problems could be. The first thing Paul mentions is tribulation. This word isn’t only referring to the electric going out or our car breaking down. No, this is in respect to any type of significant or great problem that we face in life. Next, we see the word distress. The idea appears to be that we have been trapped by a circumstance and are in need of help. Persecution obviously is brought on by unbelievers typically. It is when individuals come against us for our faith in Christ, our been faithful in following him. People can speak things against us, tell lies about us, or physically come against us.
It’s also true that even if we were to face famine, nakedness, danger, or physical violence against us, that this doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us. This can be a temptation for us, to think that when troubling times come, or a troubling event, that we believe God is upset with us about something or has turned against us. Most of the time those thoughts are unfounded. Unless we are deliberately sinning, we realize that we will have trouble in the world, as Jesus told us, but that doesn’t mean that God is against us or doesn’t love us. In fact, sometimes people find themselves facing a more intense suffering, which will include these things. The Apostle Paul could definitely testify to that fact. There are missionaries, for instance, in our day and age who have faced these kinds of sufferings. In Paul’s case, he said probably referring to himself and his companions (quoting Scripture), “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Specific types of ministries can lead individuals into this kind of suffering.
Next, Paul says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” You see, no matter what we face in life, even if it is suffering for the kingdom of God’s sake, in comparison with the world is only a brief moment in the grand scope of things. Any suffering on this earth is temporary. Christians will ultimately conquer, even if they find themselves physically suffering here, or all the way to giving up their lives. A good chapter in the New Testament to read on these matters is Hebrews chapter 11. There we can see examples of past sufferings of the saints of God. Another important thing to note is that as God doesn’t delight in seeing us suffer in any way, he does delight in seeing us have and maintain a good attitude during any suffering we face. The Apostle Peter has told us, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:19-22, ESV). So, there demonstrates the attitude we are to have.
Verse 38: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What a great verse from the Apostle Paul. The point is definitely clear for us that nothing in any respect can separate us from God’s love, nothing in this world. Paul pretty much covers all the bases here. If we die, we believe that we will immediately be with Christ, in the twinkling of an eye. If we live, Jesus has already told us that he is always with us. So, that’s covered. Neither good angels nor bad angels can affect God’s love for us. Satan and his demons have no ability to take us out of God’s love. They cannot tempt us for an unpardonable sin. No human power or authority can take us out of God’s love. No matter where we are on the planet, God is with us. If we are in an airplane riding high in the sky, closer to space, God is there. If we were one of the few who actually went into space, God is there too. If we were deep-sea diving or in a small submarine looking at the Titanic, two-and-a-half miles down in the ocean, where there’s not even light, God is still there. And God would still love us. No, none of this has any factor, and neither does anything else we can think of or conjure up in our minds. God loves us completely, and his love is always with us; it is inescapable.
Now, if you don’t know God today then you are not his child. You can’t expect him to help you. But, you can change that fact right now. Anyone who feels they would like to have a personal relationship with God, that they would like to be surrounded by his love now and always, anyone today can come into intimate, personal relationship with him through trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ. Anyone out there who believes that Christ died for his or her sins, and that he rose from the dead, paying the debt for our sins, that which separates us from God, can have new life today with God. Recognize your sin, turn from it, and trust in Christ, and be surrounded in God’s love.
-Daniel Litton