Transcription
[Music] We come today to the end of Romans chapter eight, one of the greatest, one of the most majestic portions of Scripture in all of God's Word. It begins with the declaration that I keep mentioning because God wants this truth to not only be in our head, he wants it to be in our heart. Romans chapter 8, verse 1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
My experience as a pastor is simply this: that while most Christians have heard that statement, it brings them a passing joy at best because most Christians don't understand grace. They can define it, they just don't understand it. They don't understand God's commitment to their salvation either in eternity before time began, or in eternity when time is no more, and indeed, even the day right now in this place. God is committed to your salvation. God is committed to your growth in Christ, your development, your conformity to the image of his son.
Most Christians don't understand the lengths to which God went to save them, to adopt them. They don't understand that salvation is more than the forgiveness of sin. And I don't in any way mean to minimize forgiveness of sin, it's just that salvation is so much more than that. They don't understand that they have been permanently declared righteous in God's sight. They don't understand the devastating power of sin or the dominating, pervasive, permeating power of grace. They don't understand the Spirit of God and how he works in them to make them like Jesus. And because God's people don't understand those things, here's what happens: they feel condemned, either by God. They feel like God is unhappy with them. They feel like there are many Christians who feel that their performance is less than God desired, therefore God's disappointed. Or they look at themselves and their own performance is less than they would have desired, and they feel they are a disappointment to God. They are disappointed in themselves.
And the tragedy is that that leads to Christians wasting their time, feeling alienated from God, trying to do better in keeping rules to please God, or continually starting over in their walk with God. They spend their time in a worship service instead of glorifying and praising God for all that he's done, celebrating the fact that there's no condemnation. They spend their time feeling like a hypocrite, feeling like they shouldn't raise their hands, wondering if God will hear their prayer because they don't understand grace. Not to mention the fact that believers forfeit incredible joy and strength that comes from not only hearing but actually experiencing the good news of the gospel.
Now, as we come to Romans chapter 8, in verses 31 through 39, Paul is wrapping up this teaching on grace, and we've spent a great deal of time on it. If you're new today, I would encourage you to go back through the podcast and listen to the work of grace. If you've heard it before, go back and make sure that that information has made the journey from your head to your heart, that it's become a part of how you walk with God. Paul, what he is doing is he is celebrating God's work of grace, but he also is building a case for grace. And like an attorney who's making a closing argument at trial, Paul hammers home the truth of God's amazing grace with six rhetorical questions, all of which are designed to prove there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Last time, we looked at the first three. I'll just bring them up here on the screen for you. First question: "What then shall we say to these things?" What are we talking about? What things? All of the things beginning all the way back to Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, where Paul says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." All the way from Romans 8:16 all the way through to Romans 8:30. What should we say to all the things that we've learned? In other words, it's a recital, it's a call to remember all that grace is meant, all grace has done. And when you see it, when you understand it, when you know it, you you readily come to the conclusion: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
Question number two: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" If the great God of the universe, the God whose wisdom is beyond our understanding, the God who is unlike anyone or anything in all creation, if that God, the God who speaks and the universe is formed, if that God who holds all things together and sustains all things by his power, if that God is for us, then who can be against us? If that God is committed not only to your creation, but to your salvation and your glorification, then who can be against you? If he is for you, then how can anyone condemn you? Is the idea. There's no condemnation.
Question number three: "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?" If God the Father, in love, did all that he did, and he didn't, he did not do one thing that was unnecessary, and indeed did everything that was absolutely essential down to the smallest detail for our salvation. If God, in love, if the Father sent his only begotten Son, whom he dearly loved, and subjected him to the bearing of our sin and the punishment for our sin, and the Son did it because he loved us. If God did all that, then are you telling me, if he'd give Jesus, if he would hand him over to be crucified to bear our sin, to be condemned for us, that we might not be condemned? Are you telling me if God would do that, there's not anything else he wouldn't do for you? Again, that's how we know there is therefore now no condemnation, because the God who spared no expense in our salvation is committed to the completion of our salvation. That's why Paul will write in Philippians 1 and verse 6, that he is faithful. Paul says, "I know that he's faithful to complete that what she began, the good work in us, he will complete it." Well.
Question number four, we pick up where we left off: "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" That question is found in Romans 8:33. "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" Notice how the Christian is described there. Who will bring a charge against Christians? Who will bring a charge against those who have been saved? Here Paul says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" They just say this: You, as Christians, we should always think of ourselves in that way. We should always think of ourselves as chosen. As God chose us. Remember back in Romans chapter 8, in verse 29, "For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined." He predetermined, he chose. He chose us. And those whom he predestined, he also called. He chose us in eternity past. God chose you. And I hope that that you think about that. The issue, as we said a few weeks ago, is not, "Why, you know, people want to apply that election negatively." But the Bible applies it positively. So we can't get caught up in saying, "Well, did he not choose others?" That's not the issue. He chose you. Maybe in grade school, you were never the one chosen. You weren't chosen at recess, you weren't chosen in PE, you weren't chosen for the glee club, you weren't chosen for which for the the squad for the basketball team. You weren't chosen. But here's the good news: the God of the universe chose you before time began. He said, "I want him. I want her. I want them. I want them to be my child." He chose you. You see, a Christian is not just a person trying to live a good life to please God. A Christian is a person who, in eternity before time began, God chose them. God elected them. And who's going to bring a charge against the person God has chosen? That's the question. If God chose, who's going to bring a charge against you? Paul is framing this in legal terms. What he's saying is, who's going to bring a legal charge against you? I mean, certainly they can't charge you with breaking the law, because you died to the law. But who's going to bring a charge against you? The court is open. Well, we know somebody who's constantly accusing us. His name is Satan, the devil. The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren. Look at it in Revelation chapter 12: "The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil..." This is the end of time. This is a day that's coming very, very soon. A part of what will make the tribulation so absolutely horrific is Satan, who now spends most of his time accusing you before God, will be confined to the earth with his demonic hordes. Imagine when he is confined against his will to this earth, along with all of his evil demons, and it will be horrific. "That ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." And then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, for watch this: the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down." Satan's constantly accusing you, constantly saying, "Look what they did. Look what she did. Can you believe she said that? Can you believe he did that? Can you believe that?" He is constantly evaluating, looking, accusing. Romans chapter 8: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" The issue is not who brings the charge or what charges they bring. The issue is: it is God who justifies. That's the issue. That's the answer.
Do you know what that tells us? That as a Christian, our relationship with God is based on a covenant. We have a legally binding contract. This is legal terminology. At the cross, God placed all of our sin on Jesus and punished him for our sin. And because he punished him, he does not punish me or you. The penalty for our sin has been paid. But in order to stand before God, as we talked about several chapters ago, I not only need forgiveness of my sin, I've got to be righteous. And so God placed the righteousness of Christ on me. Second Corinthians chapter 5: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that, watch this, in him we might become the righteousness of God." Do you realize you're the righteousness of God? Do you realize that? You say, "But I don't feel very righteous." It's not a matter of how you feel. It's a matter of what he did. It's a matter of what happened on the cross. It's a matter of what happened the moment you gave your heart to Christ. Your sins were forgiven. You were clothed with righteousness. And when God justified us, he made a judicial declaration that forgave all of our sins and permanently clothed us with the righteousness of Jesus. Listen, let me put it to you this way: the Supreme Court of heaven has rendered a judgment, and that there is no one and there is nothing that can change it. The Christian is forever righteous in the sight of God. And that is why there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This is thrilling. We have to rest in it. We have to settle it in our heart that God judicially declared us righteous and forgiven. Therefore, it is true. And if he's declared you righteous and forgiving, how could you ever be condemned?
Fifth question: "Who is to condemn?" Who is to condemn? Now, there are many who may want to condemn. Satan certainly wants to condemn you. Demons want to condemn you. Demons are working all the time. For example, you know, demons, you walk into church, and they begin to accuse you. "You can't lift your hand on that. You you did X and X this week. You can't sing. Your voice is actually pretty terrible, and I mean, you don't want to mess everybody up around you." And the demons are constantly accusing you, accusing you on everything from the quality of your service to Christ, to the quality of Christ's creation in you, saying things like, "You call yourself a Christian? God can't love a person like you. Look at you. You come to church, you act so holier-than-thou. You big hypocrite." Who is it? Or who is to condemn? Sometimes, as well, some of the greatest condemnation doesn't come from without, it comes from within. Honestly, some of the greatest condemnation can come as our own heart accuses us. Paul gives us a solution. But before we look at what Paul writes, I want to just reference something in first John chapter 3. I think you'll find it helpful: "This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us." Such an interesting scripture. John is John is bringing up the fact that within humanity, redeemed humanity, is is this battle to feel at peace with God. And he says, "This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything." You say, "What's that saying?" Well, we come into the presence of the Lord, and what can happen is our hearts can judge us, and they can do it readily because our hearts know things about us no one else knows. Our hearts know what has gone on in our mind. Our hearts know everything. Things other people don't know. And John doesn't encourage us to ignore those thoughts generated in our hearts, that would be spiritually dangerous. What he does is he encourages us to meet the challenge of those things in our heart by realizing God knows more. Look at it in verse 20: "God is greater than our hearts." He's a greater judge. He has greater knowledge. The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Jeremiah 17:9: "Who can know it?" And then verse 10 says, Jeremiah 17:10: "I the Lord search the heart." So God's greater than our hearts. He knows more. And he knows everything. That's not to say God minimizes or disregards our failures. He knows them better than we do. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows exactly where we're at on that spiritual continuum to Christlikeness. He knows. He knows where we're at spiritually. He knows today if you're strong in the Lord or if you're weak in the Lord. He knows. But God also knows that Jesus died for our sins. God also knows that he declared our sins forgiven. God also knows that we are righteous in Christ. God also knows that his Spirit is living in us and making us like Jesus. He also knows how much he loves us, not only today, but how much he loved us in eternity before time began. He also knows that he has plans for us in eternity when time is no more. He knows he loves us. He has a plan for us that he created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, in which he prepared in advance for us to do. He knows. So we can rest in his mercy. And when we do, our hearts don't condemn us. We have confidence. Watch this, dear friends, "If our hearts do not condemn us..." Listen, here's the thing: obviously, we died to sin, but sin hasn't died to us. And there still is that battle in our body. We talked about that in Romans chapter 6. We talked about it in Romans chapter 7. The gospel doesn't mean you will not have a battle. The gospel gives you information to win the battle. And the issue here is this: that once we know what God has done for us, once we understand grace, the thing that causes most Christians to struggle with condemnation is they don't understand grace. Once you understand grace, what happens is you rest in God's amazing love. You rest in his powerful work. You rest in the fact that he is conforming you to the image of his son. You rest. You rest in the fact that you're loved by God, incredibly loved by God, more than you can imagine. And when that happens, your heart doesn't condemn you. And here's the upshot. Here's why grace is so, so critical. Because most people, I'm just telling you, the longer I pastor, the more people I talk to, the more I know people don't understand this. And so consequently, what happens is they live life, a life far below what God wants to do and wants them to experience in their life. Watches, if my heart doesn't condemn us, if I've really tapped into the message of grace, what's the upshot? "We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what he pleases." Here's what happens: once I know that he's at work, now, instead of wasting my time doing a spiritual autopsy every time I go to my prayer closet, every time I come into church, instead of wasting my time, did you get that? Wasting your time. Instead of starting over again, did you get that? Starting over again. Instead of doing that, what happens? I have confidence before God and I receive from him. So I'm boldly approaching the throne of grace. I'm coming to him. I'm realizing, "Hey, it's a settled thing that I am a sinner." I'm not, I'm not excusing sin. I'm just resting in the fact God has forgiven my sin. God is working in me, and I'm drawing close to him in prayer. Instead of rehearsing and looking at myself, or in myself lies no good thing. Suddenly, instead of just taking like a thousand looks at me, I take one look at me and I take a thousand of him. And when I take a thousand looks at him, it changes how I view him. It changes how I approach his throne. It changes my faith and what I believe he will do. Are you with me? Romans 8:34: "Who is to condemn?" Satan? Demons? Other people? We ourselves? They all try to condemn, but that condemnation will fail. Why? Because of Christ Jesus. He rescued us from all condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Jesus rescued us. Look how he answers this: Romans 8, verse 34: "Who is to condemn?" So the issue again is, did you really understand what happened on the cross? And did you really understand what the upshot is to you? Did you really understand God's commitment to you? God's care for you? God's love for you? God's compassion for you? Did you really understand what God did for you? Because if you did, you'd understand there's no one around to condemn, because anything they would say cannot stand up to the amazing work of Christ on the cross. Are you with me? And what, what we have then in this verse are four things Christ did when he died. Four things he did. Who has to condemn? Number one: Jesus Christ died. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. I mean, what more do you want? He bore our sin on the cross. We looked at that last week. "He himself, first Peter chapter 2, bore our sins on the tree." He didn't have any sins. It was our sins. He bore them. He was punished for them. God poured out his eternal wrath and furious righteous wrath on sin, on Christ, on our sin, as he bore our sin. Christ died for our sin, so it's forgiven. It's gone. He was clothed. He took our unrighteousness that you and I might be clothed in his righteousness. That's what it means that he died. Instead of condemning us, God condemned our sin by placing our sin on Jesus and judging him instead of us. I mean, once you understand that, you say, "Well, how could God be condemning me? He already condemned my sin on the cross. For him to come back and judge me again would be double jeopardy." I mean, you, the sentence has been carried out.
Number two: Christ died. Christ was raised. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. Man, was the Son of God died for me. He took my place. He was perfect. He was the perfect sacrifice. Look at this: "More than that, and even more than the fact he died, it says this: Who was raised?" He was raised from the dead by the Father, which demonstrated the Father accepted his sacrifice. That's why in Romans chapter 4 and verse 25, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." In other words, it proved that God accepted the sacrifice. He died for our sins. He was raised to prove the sacrifice was accepted.
Number three: Jesus Christ. Jesus is at the right hand of God. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. He's at the right hand of God now. Let me just take you to the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 7, Hebrews chapter 10, really gives us insight into what Jesus, the significance of him being at the right hand of God, what that means to us. Look at it: "We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Honestly, if I come to you and you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I say, "You're holy." Don't ever tell me, "No, I'm not. I don't feel holy." Yeah, it doesn't matter how you feel. You're holy. You've been set apart. You've been, you've been eternally loved, eternally chosen, eternally called, eternally justified. He has set you apart. You are holy. "So through the blood body of Jesus Christ once and for all." Day after day, every priest, know this is in the Old Testament, they stood and performed their religious duties again and again. He offers the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, one sacrifice for sins, all of your sins, one sacrifice. That sacrifice was sufficient for every single sin you would ever commit. This is amazing. "He sat down at the right hand of God." No priest ever sat down in the temple, why? Because they were never done offering sacrifices for sins. Because of why? The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But Jesus, through the sacrifice of his life on the cross, the shedding of his blood, in one act, took care of all of the sins of everyone who would ever believe, once and for all. And he sits down as if to say, "He, the work is complete." Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. "Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever." There it is again. You're righteous. How does God view you? Perfect forever. All that's left is this body. We got to get the new body, and then it's finished. It's done. Yeah, but in terms of God's view of you, he is judicially, eternally declared you perfect forever. And for those who are being made holy, he's continuing to make you like Jesus. But from his standpoint, you're perfect forever. This is why, are you ready for this? Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Why? Because you're perfect. You are made perfect forever. This is amazing. We need to learn to think this way, not only in our head, but have it resonate in our heart.
Number four: Here's the, here's the fourth thing Jesus did. He's interceding for us. "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's indeed interceding for us. Now, this is a, this is a verse that preachers, and I've have to plead guilty as charged, have have waxed elephants on this by by picturing this big court scene and Satan is accusing and Jesus gets up and says, "Wait, God, you know what I did?" And in dramatic fashion, tells what he did, and God's like, "Oh, I'd forgotten. Yes." Well, Satan, I'm not listening to you. That's not what this is saying. This is picturing something totally different. He's at the right hand, interceding for us. Hebrews chapter 7, let's, let's go there for a moment. "Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he's able to save completely those who come to God through him." She catch it? He saves you completely because he always lives to intercede for them. Now, that's, that's not saying that he's begging the Father, saying, "Father, remember I died? Oh, let me tell you, I bore their sin, and it was a lot. Oh, I did it, and they put their faith in me, and Father, just remember." Listen, that's ridiculous. That goes against everything that we've learned in Scripture. God judicially declared you forgiving and righteous. So whatever interceding has to do with it, it doesn't have to do with that. Are you with me on that? So he is there. What's he doing? Hebrews chapter 2: "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, you see, we have in Jesus a high priest who knows what it's like to be human." He came to this earth and lived as a man, tempted in every way, as we are, yet without sin. He knows what it's like. He suffered when he was tempted. He's able to help those who are being tempted. Do you know what? He knows what it's like. He understands what it's like to live on this earth. Roll a Hebrews chapter 4: "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Why? For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses." Listen again. This is why there's no condemnation. He knows what it's like to live in a sin-cursed world. He knows what it's like to be attacked by the enemy. He knows what it's like to have weakness in the flesh. The weakness of human flesh. His was not sinful like ours, but he understands that human flesh can be tempted. He knows. He knows what it's like to try to serve God when you're tired, when you're exhausted. He knows what it's like to feel the rejection of people not wanting anything to do with you, or people saying unkind, malicious things. That he knows. He knows all about that. He's able to sympathize. We have one who's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Now watch this. He's not going to condemn you because he knows living life on planet Earth is no cakewalk. It's not easy. It's hard. He knows. But because we have an advocate, because we have a high priest, if you will, because we have a God who knows exactly what it's like, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. Why? My heart's not condemning me. Remember we talked about that in first John chapter 3? My heart's not condemning me because God knows everything. And I know that God knows about not only my sin and my failure, but he knows about what he did about it on the cross. He knows what he did judicially when he declared me forgiven and declared me righteous. He knows what he's done to create peace between me and him. He knows. He knows about me. Knows where I'm at. He knows what's going on. And because he knows, my heart isn't condemning me. I am looking to him. I am boldly, I with confidence, because I know he knows, I can boldly with confidence approach the throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in my time of need. What does it mean that he's interceding? He's very sympathetic. He's right there. When you come to him, you come to a God of mercy. You're not coming to a throne of condemnation. You're coming to a place of mercy where you will find mercy and you will find grace to help you in time of need because he's interceding for you. He's there helping you. He's there saying, "Listen, I'm gonna help you." Because how do we come to the Father? "Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I'm coming because I believe this is what Jesus would want." And Jesus is saying, "Yes, that's exactly what I want." And the Father is already saying, "Oh, I love it when my kids come to me. I love it when your brothers and sisters come to me." What is it? And Jesus says, "That's right. Let's help them." That's how it is when you approach God. Not God going through the list of how many times you've failed this past week. Oh, if you can get that in your heart, it would change the way you serve the Lord. And that is why there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Who is to condemn? Are you kidding me? After all Jesus has done, who could ever condemn at all?
Well, number six, sixth question: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress, persecution, famine, nakedness?" That's to say, you lose absolutely everything, right down to the clothes on your back, or danger, or sword. Here's the question. The question, having answered God's commitment to you and to me, the question now becomes, "What if I fail? What if I just can't do it?" You know, as a pastor, I talk to people and they say, "You know what, I try, I just can't do it anymore. It's hard. It's hard to feel like a failure. It's very, very difficult." Some of you went through a season in life where there was tremendous difficulty attached to them, shook you to your core. This, that's the idea here. What if, as a result of trials? What if, as a result of persecution? What if, what if, as a result of being sure? What if, as a result of the threat of martyrdom, my faith folds? What if someone comes and holds a knife to my throat and says, "Renounce Christ or I'll cut off your head," like ISIS did to so many? I mean, what Paul is saying is, let's say the person says, "I know God will do his part, but what if I don't do my part?" That's the issue. Verse 36: "As it is written: 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'" In other words, can I just say, martyrdom has always been a part of the history of the church. So he's been a threat. You could die for your faith. There's always been a threat of persecution. And indeed, not just that threat of persecution, Jesus gave us the promise of persecution. This simply reminds us that it's always been that way. That followers of God have always been hated by the world. Followers of God have always been persecuted. That when you choose to follow Christ, yes, it is possible, and indeed probable, that there will be people who will persecute you for your faith because God's people have always been maligned, they've always been mistreated, and they've always been killed for being faithful to him. So what if, in the midst of that kind of treatment, you fail? Some of you have asked that question. It's not a bad question to ask. "Am I willing to lay down my life for Christ? What I have the nerve? Could I do it?" That's the question. Here's the answer: Verse 37: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Watch this. "Loved us." Past tense. Long ago, God set his heart on you long ago. God said, "I love him. I love her." And he is on the basis of that love committed to you and to me. And if he loved us in the past, while we were enemies, while we were sinners, while we were away from God, how much more will he now strengthen and help us? But look at the phrase "more than conquerors." I love this. "In the power of Christ." You and I will meet every trial head-on, and we won't merely conquer those battles, we will more than conquer. He'll give a special grace. He'll give a special strength. He'll give a special help in every situation, not just to win, but to overwhelmingly win. Not just to win like Texas barely beat Oklahoma, but to overwhelmingly win like Alabama beat Arkansas. I mean, that's a more than conquer type of victory. That's what I'm talking about. Some of you're like, "Man, you've ruined that whole thing with your big football illustration." More than conquer. Not a barely get by. More than conquer. Not just kind of struggling, gasping, and suddenly fall over the finish line like you just, you barely made it. No, it's you running that 26-mile marathon, and when you cross the finish line, you are sprinting it. You're doing like a 4.040 in speed and strength and agility. You are booking it across the because you are not just a conqueror, you are more than a conqueror through Christ. We're more than conquerors. And then Paul says this: "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." "For I am sure." The King James says, "I'm persuaded." Here's what's interesting: it's in the passive tense. In other words, he didn't persuade himself. Something outside of him persuaded him. As he began to look at the evidence in the case for grace, as it began to think about all of the things that we've talked about, as it began to get in his heart, as it began to see its reality in his life, as it began to consider the amazing love of a God that for knew him, for loved him in eternity before time began, as it began to think about that amazing thought that in love he chose us to be adopted as his children, when it begins to look at how God planned for his creation in his salvation, how God intersected it in time that he might hear the gospel, when he began to learn about all that Jesus had done for him on the cross and all that had happened through God's judicial declaration, when it begins to see how the Spirit of God is at work in him, and how the reign of grace has impacted him, as he begins to realize that he is is dead to the law, he is no longer alive to the law, no longer judged by the law, no longer beholden to the law, but now, no, he isn't dropped by the living Spirit of God who is working to make him like this Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God has a plan for him. When he begins to think about all this and he feels the weight of God's presence in his heart, suddenly he says, "I am persuaded. I've come to the conclusion. The weight of evidence is overwhelming. The sense of God's presence is greater than I can imagine." I want to ask you, are you persuaded? Are you convinced? If you aren't, you don't know grace. I don't mean that in an accusatory way. I'm just saying, for the fact, you thought you knew it, but you didn't. You thought it had made its way into your heart, but it hasn't. You're still just beginning the journey. This is what I'm saying: go back, learn it, live it, embrace it, get it into your heart until it is such a great reality in your soul that you can say with the Apostle Paul, "I am persuaded." "For I am sure that neither death..." Paul says, "Kill me, and I'm still going to be close to Christ, because to be absent from the body is present with the Lord." "...nor life." Let me live, and I will live my life for Jesus, for to live is Christ. "...nor angels." The angels will not keep me from the love of Christ. They are ministering servants sent to help those who belong to Christ. "...nor demons." They must flee at the name of Jesus. "...nor things present." I don't have to fear anything that's here today, because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. "...nor things to come." I don't know the future, but I know who holds my hand. "...nor powers." What power is greater than the power of God? Jesus is the power behind all powers, for all things were created by him and for him, and in him all things hold together. "...nor height." What is higher than him? Ephesians 1:21: "Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion." "...nor depth." On that first Easter, he descended into the depth, into the very depth of hell, and he preached freedom to the captives. And the Bible says he took captivity captive. He took the righteous dead out of Sheol and delivered them into heaven. And then he says this: "...nor anything else in all creation." It's like Paul is saying, "Okay, have I covered everything?" Just in case, I've really pretty much run out of words, but anything else? I mean, anything else. In other words, nothing else will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. And that is why there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.