Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. As we come to the crescendo of one of the greatest chapters in all of God's Word, a chapter that begins with one of the greatest declarations in all of Scripture, Romans chapter 8, verse 1: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
I want to ask you this morning, if you are a born-again Christian, do you believe that there is no condemnation? Do you believe that it is, let me put it this way, impossible for the Christian to ever be in a state of condemnation in their relationship with God? Unfortunately, when I put it that way, most Christians are either unsure, or they say they believe that they just don't feel it, or it is not consistent with their experience. Tragically, what happens is, if that's true of you, that you're not sure, if you would say, "Well, you know, for the most part, or most of the time," or you would say, "You know, I believe it, I just don't feel it." What happens is then you live with this subtle sense of condemnation that at various times things are not right with you in God. And all of that comes for one reason only, because you have failed to understand grace. You thought because you could define it, you understood it. Or because you've never really studied the Scripture in depth, or let what God's Word says penetrate your heart. Honestly, a lot of Christians have an unformed view of salvation, because if you ask them, "What does it mean to be saved?" Well, guys, forgive me of my sins, which is wonderful, because that is true as far as it goes, but is certainly incomplete, because God has done so much more than just forgive our sins. And I don't mean to minimize that, I'm just saying that is only a portion of what he has done.
This is then why a study of Romans chapters 1 through 8 is so absolutely essential. And my challenge to you is, not only have you listened to the messages, but have you let the messages get into your heart? Have you thought about them? Have you made it become a part of who you are, a part of your understanding? Because when we understand the gospel, and we correctly understand what God has done, what happens is, what he's done moves out of the realm of just good news, to the best news ever.
Now, as we come to Romans chapter 8, Paul is wrapping up this incredible presentation of the gospel, all that God has done. I'm gonna get to verses 31 through 39, and it is, as I said, essentially a crescendo. It just kind of builds. And what you have is Paul, as he is writing, he's almost like a trial attorney who now is giving his closing argument. And as he does that, he is building this case for grace. He is building this sense of this is true. And what he does, as he closes out his argument, he does it by means of six rhetorical questions, all of which prove there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So, we're going to walk through the questions. Let's begin.
Question number one. Question number one. Paul asks, "What then shall we say to these things?" Romans 8:31. There it is. "What then shall we say to these things?" What things? Well, we could say, he's talking about what we talked about last week, Romans chapter 8, and verse 28, 29, and 30, where we read this: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." So, we could say, "What should we say in, in response to the fact that God is constantly working? That God is, is working everything together for our good to those who love him?" He's doing that.
Or we could say, verse 29, we could say that, "What should we say in response to the fact that God for-NU-EST? We saw last week, he foreloved us in eternity before time." Again, God loved you. What are you going to say? I mean, that says something amazing about how God feels about you. What are we going to say about the fact that God determined, God chose you in eternity before time began? In Romans chapter 8, he adopted you. He wanted you. He said, "I'll take her. I'll take him." What are we going to say about the fact that God then, in time, to intersect at our life, and he called us? "Those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he justified." What are we going to say about that? That God justified us? That is God energized in a heart to faith to believe the good news. And in that moment, forgave us of all of our sin, past, present, future. Every sin you had committed, every sin you would commit that week, every sin you would commit ten years from the time you were saved, he forgave. And then he clothed us with righteousness. He judicially declared us righteous, so that now we relate to him on the basis of a righteousness not our own. It's the righteousness of Christ, but it's been given to us, so that now when God sees us, he sees us as righteous as Jesus. Amazing. This is part of the gospel. What are we going to say about that? We could just look at it that way.
But I want to suggest to you that Paul's thinking of all that we've learned, going all the way back to Romans chapter 1, and verse 16. Do you remember that great verse? Do you remember, "The gospel is the power of God." He says, "I'm not ashamed, for the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." That there is power in this gospel. That this gospel, when it's preached, when it's heard, it has the power to transform. It has the power to raise the spiritually dead. It has the power to make us different, not just to improve us, but to make us new. It's the power of God for the salvation, watch this, of everyone. What do you say about that? It's amazing.
And then in verse 17, oftentimes gets overlooked because of verse 16. In Romans 1:17, "For in the gospel a righteousness is revealed that comes by faith from start to finish. It's not by works, so that no one can boast." It's faith that God gives to you and I. "What shall we say to these things?" That God did that for us when we were sinners? For the Bible says in Romans 3, and verse 10, "There is no one righteous, not even one." And remember, we walked through that in chapter one. We saw the wrath of God is revealed against the wickedness of man, chapter one, and verse 18, because they chose not to honor God, they chose not to remember God, they chose not to glorify God, but pursued their own way. Or chapter two, they came in and said, "You know what? I'm gonna be a good person, and that's how I'm gonna approach God. I'm gonna be moral." Or I'm gonna be religious. But Paul says, no matter how you slice it, try to clean yourself up, try to just say there is no God and ignore God. If there's no difference between the to be the most self-righteous person in the world, or be the most wild, profligate sinner, sinner in the world. And the fact is, there is no one righteous, not even one. And the gospel comes to people like that. That's why we read in Romans chapter 3, "What shall we say to these things? But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law." Listen, it's not what you and I do, if that makes us righteous with him. It's what he's done. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Jesus Christ when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. "What shall we say to these things?"
And as a result of that, we've been made right with God. Romans chapter 5. "Since we've been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what he has done through Jesus Christ our Lord." We're at peace with him. "What shall we say to these things?" That the God of the universe took and made us right with him? That though you and I, in Romans 5, and verse 12, were united with Adam, we were in Adam when Adam sinned, we sinned. We saw that. We looked at that. But now he, through faith, has taken us out of Adam and has put us into Christ. We are in Christ. We are united with Christ. As a result, what? That means what happened to him happened to us. Just as when Adam sinned, we sinned. What happened to him happened to us. What he did, we did. Now we're in Christ. What happened to him happened to us. "I am crucified with Christ," Paul says. Nevertheless, I live. When he was crucified, I was crucified. When he died, I died. When he rose again, I rose again. I was resurrected to a newness of life. When he died to sin, I died to sin. If you're a born-again believer, when when Jesus died to sin, you, when you put your faith in Him, suddenly it was as if you died to sin. I didn't say sin is dead, I said you died to sin. That's why we read in Romans chapter 6, and verse 2, "We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?" "What shall we say to these things?"
And then we saw in verse 22 of chapter 6, "But now that you've been set free from sin, here's the benefit of that. Then now God is free to work in you. And the Holy Spirit is working in you. And he's producing a fruit in you. He's producing a Christlikeness in you. He's producing a righteousness in you. He's doing in you which you could never through your rule-keeping ever do for yourself. You could never, the flesh can never perfect the flesh. The flesh can never make the flesh look like Jesus. Only the Spirit of the Living God can. And he does. And what did he, what does he do? "The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and gentleness and meekness and self-control." "What shall we say to these things?" That God is at work? That God has done in us, we could never do in ourselves? Some of you put way too much emphasis on your own effort and not enough emphasis on the Spirit of God working in you. God, very God, making you like His Son Jesus. You have a rules-based Christianity. We talked about that. And in Romans chapter 7, we learned that when Jesus died on the cross, he died to the law. He fulfilled the law. He was punished according to the law on our behalf. And when he died, he was dead to the law, because the law has no jurisdiction over a dead person, right? And you and I died with Christ, so the law has no jurisdiction over us. It has no, it has no authority over us. It can't condemn us. And then we saw our Romans chapter 8, verse 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation." To condemn you, the law's not. And God's not. God's transformed you. God's made you like his son. The son, you, you were, you're in him. For God to condemn you is the same as condemning his son. And that's never going to happen. That's why there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
And then we saw how the Spirit of God lives in us, and gives us a new mindset, and he's praying for us, and he's empowering us, and he's causing us to cry out to God because we're the children of God. If God is doing all of that, come on, what should we say to these things? This is what Paul's saying. When you think of all that God has done, how is it possible at all that you could have the least possible condemnation as his child? Which means, if you feel condemned, you have to get a hold of yourself. You have to say to yourself, "Listen, you're not thinking right about this. That is not true. That is not of God." So it's either of the devil, or it is of my own flesh, both of which are wrong. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
Second question. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" It's a great question, isn't it? Great question. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" I mean, let me rephrase that question to you, maybe put it this way: Is there any power to create or the uncreated realm? Is there any power that can circumvent God's work in you? The answer is no. Is there any power that can stop God? If God is for us, who can be against us? The word "if" there is not saying, "Well, if God would just be for us, if God were just for us." It's not an "if" as in maybe, is maybe isn't. It's the "if" of certainty. You could change the word "if" to "since." "Since God is for us, since God is for us, who could ever stop the completion of our salvation?" That's a good way to think about it. "If since God is for us, how in the world could there be any condemnation?" Since God exercised all of his power in our salvation, in our justification, then how in the world could there be any condemnation? Is the idea.
Now, as Paul asks this question, he's certainly aware of the forces that are arrayed against us. He knows that there is a devil. He knows that Satan, like a roaring lion, is walking around, in the words of Peter, looking for a subject to devour. Paul knows that we wrestle not, Ephesians chapter 6, and verse 12, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Paul knows what we're up against. He knows our enemy is cunning. He knows our enemy is powerful. He knows that overtly and covertly, the powers of darkness are on the attack, trying to stop the plan of God, trying to stop his purpose, the saving of your soul, the glorification of your body. And he knows that our human flesh is weak. Paul knows. But the comfort for the Christian is this. Are you ready? God is for us. That's the comfort. He was for you before time began, in love, he chose you. That's God for you. He'll be with you after time is no more. You will be glorified, and his glory will be revealed in us. That's God for you. He is for you today. I don't know what you came in feeling, but as you walk into church today, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, if you're a child of God, God is for you. He is for you.
The Bible repeatedly tells us that. I realize, as I said, some of you are saying, "Well, you know, that's not really true because he's not for you if you listen." And that's exactly what the enemy wants to do. "Well, it's not for you if you, you got an argument on the way to church." Tell me, God's for you? Yes. You say, "But I've had a horrible week. I didn't pray. I didn't read my Bible. I was cussing. I was doing..." Unless I'm not giving you a pass on sin. I'm not gonna go and name every sin. I'm just telling you, God's for you if you're a child of God. He's for you. Most people struggle with that because most people don't even get an idea of grace. He's for you. He is committed to you. He's committed to the saving of your soul for eternity. I'm not suggesting those things are good, and I'm not suggesting those things are without consequence. That's not what I'm saying. I'm suggesting God is for you. He's for you wherever you've been, whatever you've done. If you're a born-again Christian, he's for you. He's for you. So I've really disappointed God. He's for you. He's for you. This is the message of grace. God for you. God is with you. God is for you. I mean, in the scriptures, hint this over and over again. I mean, you see it all over, all over the scripture. And again, I'm not suggesting that it doesn't matter how you live. That when you know, "Shall we go on sinning, that grace may increase?" Or the grace may abound? Paul says, "Heaven forbid." Of course, you wouldn't do that. I'm just simply saying that God is not nearly as surprised or disappointed by your sin as you are, because when he saved you, he knew what he was getting. He understood. This makes grace so incredible that in the midst of that, he says, "For you." And when you understand that, it changes, it changes everything about how you approach him, how you live for him, how you love him, how you serve him. Are you serious? The God of the universe for me? Scripture hints at this. Psalm 23. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." No matter what situation, no matter how dark, no matter how big the shadow. We have a tendency to think in terms of like, funeral time. But God is with you. And in the darkest times of your life, and that darkness may include darkness of your own making, you need to hear that. Because if you don't hear that, then when you go through a dark time because of decisions you've made that were wrong, then no condemnation makes no sense and brings you no joy, and you don't run to God, you run from God. And the devil loves it. So I'm just simply saying that, that, and for some people think, "Whoa." I'm simply saying that grace fully understood is the best news you've ever heard. Psalm 27. "The Lord is my light." Why do I need light when my life seems to be dark? "And he's my salvation." Why do I need salvation? I need salvation. There's times that we need to be delivered. "And the Lord is my light, my salvation." "Whom shall I fear?" The Lord is the strength of my life. "Of whom shall I be afraid?" He's there. God is for you. Psalm 46:1. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." He's there not just when somebody's troubling you. We're grateful for that, and that's true. He's there when you're in trouble, period. He's there. That's the message of grace. And I mean, what Paul is saying is, God is for us. And because he's for us, and because he's God, who could be against us? Is there any power that can stand against him? And how powerful is his power? Isaiah 42. "Whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One. What's the answer? There's nobody to compare you to. God. And there is no one who is your equal. There is no devil in hell that is your equal. There is no angel in heaven that is your equal. There's no human. There's no group of humans. There's no nation. There is nothing. Nuclear power is not your equal. Hydrological power is not your equal. Solar power is not your equal. There is no equal. There is no power equal to Him. "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name." Who can do that? "Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." "Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God'?" In other words, he's saying here, "Why would you ever say God doesn't care anymore? God doesn't see anymore? God doesn't want me anymore?" That's the question. You say, "Why? God's too busy." Are you serious? If he can count and number the stars, if he can call them by name, and every one of them does what it does at his command, empowered by him, are you telling me he doesn't know where you're at, what you're doing, when he thought of you long before time ever began? When he thinks about you so much that his thoughts about you, the psalmist says, 130, Psalm 139, are beyond numbering, they're beyond counting. He thinks about you more than you can imagine. Forget you? Impossible. "The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." You're never going to come to him and have him say, "You know what? I'm really, it's been a rough day. If you could see what's going on in the world, you'd understand." But if you come back next week, out. It's not happening. He can expend all the power we could possibly imagine and still never have lost one tiny bit of his power. He is the source of power. He is power. He exercised power and never diminishes his power. "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." Are you weak this morning? God for you gives strength to the weak. "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint." That's talking about a supernatural power. Our great and powerful God is for you. Who can be against you?
Question number three. "If God gave us Jesus, won't he give us everything else we need?" "If God gave Jesus, is there anything you could ask that he wouldn't give?" Look at what it says: "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?" At the core of this question is really, you could summarize it this way: How much does God love me? How much does God love me? Does God really love me? I mean, for, for some of you today, it really comes down to, "Yeah, I know God is love, and I know God loves me, but does he really love me?" And if he loves me, how much does he love me? Does he love me as much as my girlfriend? Or does he love me as much as that significant other in my life, or my mate? Does he love me as much as my dog? Does he love me? I mean, I know my dog loves me a lot, you know, I mean, hey, and I have a dog, and she loves me, but not as much. Not even close. Not even in the same galaxy as God's love. I mean, part of what verse 32 is telling us is that what happened to Jesus on the cross at Calvary was the result of God's love. And I say that because, and something that I'm concerned you're aware of, and especially those who are of the younger generation, though I don't think it's exclusive to the younger generation, but there's an increasingly popular theology championed by what is now known, it was originally put forth, it's been put forth by different groups through the ages, and most recently by the emergent church, who now has rebranded themselves as the Red Letter Christians, who essentially say, "You know what? We're only interested in the, you know, Paul was a tragic, a tragic person to have hijacked evangelical Christianity." And you will hear that in today's seminaries. Yeah, that's a, that's a shocking statement. Let that sink in. It is tragic what Paul did to evangelical Christianity, that they've allowed him to hijack the gospel. Are you kidding me? He wrote a third of the New Testament. Hello. But what they say is, they say essentially, they see the cross not in terms of God's punishment of sin, but they see the cross as the actions of sinful people taken out on Christ. In other words, here's the way they would teach the cross. One teacher, and I quote, "God was not making a way of forgiveness on Calvary. God was forgiving Calvary." And that's, that's a startling statement. In other words, God was doing nothing on the cross at Calvary. He was entirely passive. And now says, "Even though you've done that to me, I'm still ready to forgive you." That's how they process the cross. They do not believe in what theologians call penal substitutionary atonement. That is to say, that on the cross, our sins were placed on Jesus, and God punished him with his righteous wrath for our sins, since he had no sin in himself. They completely deny that and would categorize that as tantamount to divine child abuse. It's really shocking because this is completely foreign to Scripture. The gospel is not only that God died for us on Calvary, but that God bore the punishment for our sin, and it was our sin that put him on the cross. This is fundamental to Christianity. This is found repeatedly in the Scripture. Isaiah, "He was pierced for our transgressions." Why was he not, why was he put on the cross for our sins? "He was crushed for our iniquities, our wickedness, our evil, our rebellion." That's why he was on the cross. It wasn't bad men doing bad things to Jesus, and God just passively saying, "Wow, that, I can't believe they did that after all the good I've done, but I forgive you anyway." No, he was bearing our sin. "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him." Do you see that connection? The punishment that brought us peace was God punishing him for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." I mean, that's, that's what happened on the cross. You look at it in 1 Peter chapter 2. It says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." The cross was not an accident. It was God dealing with our sin at the cross. The Father righteously judged our sin. As God the Son took our sin on himself and bore our punishment that we might know life. This is, this is critical that we understand the cross. Romans chapter 8, verse 32. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all." He didn't spare his own Son. We have a tendency to think about this, to spare people we love, right? We want to spare them hurt. We want to spare them pain. We want to spare them sickness. We want to spare them sorrow. We want to spare them trouble. But even though God loved the Son, he did not spare him. He subjected him to everything that was necessary for our salvation. And notice, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up." God delivered him. God handed him. God determined him to down the cross. This is critical to understand. Romans chapter 4 puts it this way: "He was handed over to die." Why? Because wicked man decided to do wicked things. And God sat passively and said, "Well, I didn't know. I didn't see that coming." Which is again, part of the Red Letter teaching. The God progressively learns what men will do. No. He was handed over to die because of our sins. I mean, and our sins being placed on him were so horrific that Jesus, as he hangs on the cross, cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He didn't see it as men doing it to him. He correctly understood that God was punishing him for your sin and mine. Because there was no other way. If there's another way, God's going to give it. Because remember, just hours before, in the garden, Jesus kneels and says, "If there's any other way, let this cup pass from me." And God didn't, because there wasn't. But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. Remember, he died to the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. It was for us. Romans 8, verse 32. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for who? Us." He was handed over for us, not just for the benefit of us, he was handed over instead of us. He took our place. 1 Peter chapter 3, "For Christ also suffered once for sins—the righteous for the unrighteous." That's you and me. He was righteous, he was perfect. We weren't. "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:10 says, "While we were yet enemies." I'm gonna say verse 32, "He did not spare his own Son." I don't mean to belabor this, but this is the extent of grace. And unless you really get this in your heart, you will never come to terms with your freedom from condemnation. "He 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?" "Graciously" - charis, my Karras, the word we get grace from. One literal translation of of what it is or definition, preferential treatment. "He did not spare his own, that gave him up for us all, how will he not also, with him, preferentially give us all things?" You got preferred status. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, with him, excessively be kind to give you everything you could ever need?" This is the great love of our God. If God the Father was willing to give his Son for our sin, and have him take our place, bear our sin, and pour out eternal punishment on him, on his own Son, if God the Father would do that, do you think there's anything necessary he wouldn't do for you? If he did that, you can be sure he's gonna give you preferential treatment. He's gonna show you excessive kindness. Romans 8, verse 32. "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?" All things. Musicians, you can come. All things. We looked at that phrase last week. "God is working all things together for the good to those who love him, are called according to his purpose." All things. What are they? All things? Well, it's the big things, it's the little things, and everything in between. If God loved you so much that in eternity, before time began, he foreloved you, he loved you, he loved the idea, the plan of your creation, and he said, "I'm gonna choose him and her individually." He chose you. And then said, "You know what? They're human, and I know the way this is gonna play, and I've created humanity with the choice, and Adam's gonna sin, and all of his progeny are gonna follow in his footsteps. They're gonna be sinners, and they're gonna need a savior." And before it ever started, he looked at the Son and said, "I'm gonna make you the first, the most glorious among many glorious ones, and you're gonna complete their salvation by dying for their sin, by taking their place." And then after the Son paid for our sin and washed it away with his shed blood, if God went to such great lengths of time and effort and planning and sacrifice and love, is there anything that God wouldn't do for you? And the answer is an emphatic no. Do you think God's gonna condemn you when he saved you? Do you think God's gonna condemn you when he loved you in eternity before time again? Do you think God's gonna condemn you when he chose you? Do you think God's gonna condemn you when his Spirit lives in you? Do you think God is gonna condemn you when he's called you? Do you think God's gonna condemn you when he's justified you? Do you think God's gonna condemn you when he's done all of this for you? Impossible. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
And here's the good news. There's three more questions that Paul's gonna ask, and the answer to those questions is gonna flat out blow your mind, if his questions already haven't just caused you to say, "Oh my goodness, what a God! How wonderful! How marvelous!" And my song shall ever be, "How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me." Amen.