SERIES: The Book of Romans
Secure in God’s Love
Introduction: I love the mountains. To me there’s nothing more exhilarating than climbing one of the 14,000-foot mountain peaks in Colorado and feasting on the 360-degree view from the top. There’s a perspective one gets from the top that is unavailable anywhere else. It’s even better than the view from an airplane because you’re so much closer to it. Well, Romans is the Himalayan mountain range of the Bible, and chapter 8 is Mount Everest. It begins with “no condemnation” and ends with “no separation.” I suggest to you that this final paragraph of chapter 8 is the highest peak of Everest. It just doesn’t get any better than this. I honestly feel totally inadequate to preach on this text, but I will do my best. Its theme is, very simply, the believer’s security in the immeasurable love of God.
Listen with awe to the Word of God as recorded in Romans 8:31-39:
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? {32} He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? {33} Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. {34} Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. {35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? {36} As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
{37} No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. {38} For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, {39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I’m sure you noticed that the Apostle Paul employs a number of times in this passage a literary device known as a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is one asked for effect rather than for information. No answer is expected because the answer is obvious. These rhetorical questions offer a series of challenges, four in number, to the doctrine of the security of the believer. By answering each challenge, Paul forces us to conclude that there is absolutely nothing that can interfere with the security of the believer in the love of God.
However, the section opens with another question, an introductory question: “What, then, shall we say in response to this?” In response to what? In response to all we have been taught in the first eight chapters of Romans, more particularly here in chapter 8, and especially in verses 29-30, which Pastor Paul Stolwyk so ably shared with us last Sunday. He pointed out that five key doctrines related to salvation are broached here: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification
There is undoubtedly a chronological progression intended in these terms. The process of salvation begins with God’s foreknowledge and proceeds clear through to glorification. And the key point is that there is no leakage along the way; no one slips through the cracks. Those who start out in the very first category (i.e., foreknown and fore-loved by God) will all end up in the last category (the company of the glorified). What shall we say then to this amazing fact that all who enter the salvation train wind up at the station marked, “Glory”?
Well, there are a lot of people saying a lot of different things about the security of the believer. Some simply deny it. Others fudge on it, suggesting that the believer is secure so long as he doesn’t sin too grievously. But what does Paul say to these things? In essence he says, “The true believer is secure and I’m going to prove it to you by answering every objection or challenge you can possibly offer.” The first challenge, then, is this:
Is there no conceivable opposition which can hinder the believer’s ultimate glorification? (31)
Verse 31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” I remind you that the one who wrote these words knew very well who was against him. The Jews were against him. The Romans were against him. The false teachers were against him. The magicians in Ephesus were against him. The Devil and all his forces were against him, for he was the one who wrote elsewhere, “For 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.”
Those are the facts. But what matters to Paul is not just the facts, but also the correct interpretation of those facts. And Paul’s interpretation is that all the opposition against him is piddly and insignificant and inconsequential when set against the fact that God is for him. It’s all in one’s perspective. Twelve men went to spy out the land of Canaan. All twelve saw the same facts. Ten came back with a report about giants and grasshoppers: the people of the land were giants and they themselves seemed like grasshoppers. Two brought a minority report that basically said, “No problem. God is for us.”
Certainly, we, too, face great opposition from many sources. We experience opposition from circumstances, from people, from Satan, from ourselves, from the world. No way would I tell you that such opposition is insignificant were it not for the fact that the object of comparison is God’s favor toward us. But the fact is that …
God’s favor upon us causes all opposition to fade into insignificance. James Boice writes,
It is as if Paul is challenging us to place all the possible enemies we can think of on one-half of an old-fashioned balance scale, as if we were weighing peanuts. Then, when we have all the peanuts assembled on the scale, he throws an anvil onto the other side of the balance. That side comes crashing down, and the peanuts are scattered. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Who can stand against God? The answer is “nobody.” [i]
The issue is, do we believe this morning that God is really for us, that He is on our side, that in all things He works for the good of those who love Him? Do we really believe that? If so, then what can the opposition amount to? Who can be against us who could possibly threaten our security? Challenge #1 defeated.
The second challenge is found in verse 32 and is basically this:
Is there no danger that God’s grace toward us might diminish or cease? (32)
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” The argument form in this verse is one of Paul’s favorites. It’s an argument from the greater to the lesser. It’s like saying, “If a rich benefactor has given you a million dollars, he will certainly not withhold a quarter if you need it for a parking meter.” The point is this: there is a “greater thing” God has done, and from that fact we can conclude that surely he will do a “lesser thing.” The “greater thing” is that
God has already given us the greatest possible gift. “He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.” We normally spare people whom we love. We try to protect them from bad news or hurtful situations. If we can spare them any suffering, we will do so. It must have, then, been some extraordinary motivation that caused God not to spare His most precious possession but to give Him up. He gave Him up to the “power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). He gave Him up to be a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). He gave Him up to shame (Heb. 12:2). And He gave Him up to bear the full wrath of God Himself against sin (Ps. 22).
What motivated all this was God’s incredible love for us. He gave His Son up “for us all, i.e., in our behalf, in our place.” Who is this “all?” Is it every human being? Yes, in the sense that the death of Christ was sufficient to save everyone. But on closer examination the death of Christ was efficient to save only those who believe—only those who are willing to acknowledge their sin and turn in faith to Christ. Earlier in Romans Paul made it quite clear that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” and that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” He didn’t come to die for the pious, the religious, and the proud. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor,” Jesus said, “but the sick.” Jesus died for the spiritually sick, i.e., those who are willing to acknowledge their sin and accept His healing.
Now here’s the point! If God’s love and grace were so great that He was willing to give His one and only Son over to the powers of darkness for death on a cruel and cursed cross for the benefit of those of us who were ungodly and His enemies, how can we even think that He will not also graciously give us all things?
We can, therefore, count on Him to give us whatever else we need to complete our spiritual journey. Is this a promise of health and wealth and luxury? I think not. I think what Paul is saying is that whatever my circumstances may be, God will graciously give me all that is necessary to keep me, to hold me, to guide me, to mold me, until at last I shall see Him as He is and be glorified with Him for all eternity.
If I need strength to overcome temptation, I’ve got it.
If I need a friend to be with me through life’s dark hours, I’ve got it.
If I need direction for how to live, I’ve got it.
If I need comfort when I’ve lost a loved one, I’ve got it.
There’s no possibility that the grace of God will diminish or cease because He has already given us the greatest possible gift. All others are just frosting on the cake. Challenge #2 defeated.
The third challenge to the security of the believer which the Apostle lays before us is the possibility of our finding ourselves ultimately in a state of condemnation before God.
Is there no one who might bring a charge against us that results in our condemnation? (33)
There are really two questions here in verses 33 and 34, but they are so closely related that we will treat them as one challenge: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” The answer to the first question is something the Father has done, while the answer to the second is something Christ has done and is doing.
First, “Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen?” By the way, I love that term for Christians—“God’s chosen ones,” or “God’s elect,” as some of our versions translate it. It is so common for Christians to think of themselves in terms that put the emphasis on what they have done. We call ourselves believers, the company of the committed, those who have made a decision for Christ, etc.—all of which focus on our response to God. But Paul puts the emphasis on God and calls us “God’s chosen ones.” That’s what we are, you know. If it weren’t for the fact that God Himself chose us before the foundation of the world and followed that up by sending His Holy Spirit to convict us and draw us to Him, not one of us would ever believe. We love Him only because He first loved us. Still, while we may be God’s chosen ones, we are not exempt from accusation.
Accusations against us are common, and some, sadly, are true. People accuse us, Satan accuses us, in fact, we even accuse ourselves, or at least our consciences accuse us. Now some of these accusations are false. Sometimes people misunderstand us; Satan is a liar and the father of lies; and all of us have been known to experience false guilt at one time or another. But even discounting all the false accusations, we know in our hearts that many of the accusations against us are true. Is it possible that any of them may stick at the final judgment and that God would in the end have to condemn us? Well, to answer that let’s take the worst possible case. Let’s take Satan’s accusations. If we can show that his accusations are inadmissible as evidence, then surely no one else’s charges against God’s chosen will be upheld.
In Rev. 12:10 Satan is called the “accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night.” Now frankly most of us have given Satan plenty of ammunition. All of us have broken God’s moral law. Even since we became Christians all of us have broken His law in one way or another. So Satan has a good case against us! But that is where Paul’s answer to this challenge comes in so beautifully. “It is God who justifies.”
The very One whose law has been broken has already declared us “Not guilty!” (33) Remember the term justification from chapters 3 & 4? We defined it as “a judicial act of God, whereby He declares, on the basis of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law have been satisfied with respect to the sinner who puts his faith in Jesus.” Since our sins have been paid for by Christ, God declares us acquitted, NOT GUILTY.
There is a very important concept in the fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which reinforces what the Apostle is telling us here. The Fifth Amendment says, in part:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.
This law is commonly known as protection against double jeopardy. I think that must be a divine law, too, because Paul is essentially saying that once God has declared a person “Not guilty,” there is no one who will be allowed to bring a charge against that person, not even Satan, not even if it is a true charge. We will never be tried again for those sins which God has already forgiven in Christ. When all is forgiven, there is nothing to hide, and where there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear.” John Wesley translated a great hymn written by Count Zinzendorf:
Bold shall I stand in that great day.
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully through thee absolved I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
In verse 34 the second part of this third challenge is given: “Who is he that condemns?” Is there anyone who might possibly be successful in condemning us as we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ? We ought to know the answer to that question, of course, because the Apostle opened this great chapter with the answer: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But how is that true?
Jesus died, was raised, sits exalted at the Father’s right hand, and is continually interceding for us. (34) Four great aspects of Christ’s work are mentioned here, and each is crucial. First, He died. He didn’t die for His own sins, for He had none. He died for ours. He died to save us from condemnation. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believes in Him is not condemned.” (John 3:18) If He died to save us from condemnation, how then can anyone condemn us?
But not only did Christ die. He also rose from the dead. This is critical because it was by raising His Son that God proclaimed to the world that He was completely satisfied with the work Jesus had done on the Cross. His work of redemption was finished, and therefore nothing could stand in the way of His victorious resurrection and our eventual resurrection, too.
Thirdly, Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Just as God rested on the seventh day after completing His Creative work, so Christ sat down when He finished His work of creation. Sitting down is a sign of finality. It signifies that nothing further either needs to be done or can be done concerning sin. As Heb. 1:3 puts it, “After He had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
But what happens if I fall into some terrible sin or pull away from God? Does that not undo everything? The Apostle takes this up as he mentions the fourth activity of Christ in verse 34—”He is also interceding for us.” Last week we saw the great intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now we find that we have a second divine intercessor upon whom we can count. Here’s how Hebrews 7:23-25 expresses it:
Now there were many of those priests (Old Testament priests) since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
No day can ever dawn when Christ will not be there to intercede for us. To every one of Satan’s accusations, He is there to say, “Yes, my child did that awful thing, and it grieves me terribly, but I died for that sin. Father, forgive him, forgive her.”
Who is the one who condemns?” No one. It is impossible because of Christ’s death, resurrection, exaltation, and intercession. No conceivable charges nor any possible condemnation can interfere with the security of God’s chosen ones. Challenge #3 defeated. The final rhetorical challenge lodged against the security of the believer is this:
Is there no trial or tribulation which might eventually separate us from God’s love? (35-37)
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” It is clear from this list that …
While the trials of life can be incredibly difficult, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Sometimes the trials and tribulations of life get extraordinarily heavy. There are a number of individuals listening to me this morning who have had recent suffering which goes far beyond the normal. And there is a tendency at such times to think, “Does God still love me? Am I still a part of Christ’s family? What’s the use of continuing to go on?” This challenge to our security is a strong one indeed, and Paul’s answer is not what we might expect. I would have expected him to quote I Cor. 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except…” Or I would have expected him to give a dissertation concerning how God comforts us in time of difficulty.
But instead, Paul quotes Ps. 44:22 to indicate that trials and tribulations will come and do come, particularly because we are believers: “As it is written, ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’” The New Testament, far from promising us a life of ease and a life in which there will be an absence of pain and suffering, rather does quite the opposite. Trials, tribulations, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and the sword are the norm for the Christian life. The life of relative ease, freedom, plenty, and peace which most of us are enjoying here in the U.S. today is highly unusual in the history of the church. And perhaps because we are not more used to suffering, it tends to more easily shake our faith and challenge our security.
Don’t allow it, says Paul. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We are not destined to drag ourselves over the threshold of Heaven and collapse in a pile! We are not to think of making it into Heaven just by the skin of our teeth. No, an abundant entrance has been provided for us. We are more than conquerors. We will not simply defeat the enemy; we will annihilate him!
Now compare that with the attitude of many Christian people you see today. There is so much pessimism, so much cynicism, so much criticism, so few smiles, rarely an amen, never a hallelujah. We go around bearing our crosses, suffering for Jesus, enjoying our misery, and wondering why our friends and neighbors don’t want to be Christians, too.
Really, friends, I’m not trying to make fun or belittle the suffering that some are called upon to endure. But I know one thing—there is no one here who has suffered more than the Apostle Paul, and his conclusion was that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
But Paul is not yet through. He offers one great final truth:
While the possible impediments to a permanent relationship with God are many and varied, nothing whatever is able to drive a wedge between God and His people. (38,39) “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Would you please note that what the Apostle is discussing here is not our love for God, which is weak and frail and susceptible to the vicissitudes of life. Rather it is God’s love for us. Thank God that my salvation does not depend on me but on God’s love for me; not upon my frail grasp of Him but on His strong grasp of me.
Paul is absolutely convinced that nothing can separate him from God’s love. “Convinced” is a word which deals with the logic of the case, not the emotions of it. There may have been times when he didn’t feel secure, but he remained convinced by the watertight logic, by the facts of the case, and by the immutable character of God, that there is security for the believer in the love of God! Now consider the scope of that security.
Neither death nor life can separate God’s child from His love. Death is the greatest of all separators. Obviously, it separates the body from the soul, but it also separates us from places and people we love. But death does not have the final word. It has been swallowed up in victory, according to I Cor. 15. It can never separate us from the love of God. Life too has its separations, but Paul wrote, “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” Neither death nor life can separate us from His love.
Nor can angels or demons separate us. Good angels wouldn’t want to, and evil angels can’t, for as Col. 2:15 says, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Time cannot separate us from God’s love. “Neither the present nor the future.” Whether it be the present with its temptations and sufferings, or the future with its uncertainties. He is the Lord of all history.
Nor can space separate us. “Neither height nor depth.” God has highly exalted Christ and given Him a name that is above every name, so nothing is higher than He. The Scriptures also tell us that Jesus Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth and led captivity captive, so that there is no more to fear from the depths than from the heights. Listen to the Psalmist:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)
Finally, the Apostle wraps us all other possible persons, things, places, and events and says, “Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It has been suggested that the Greek here leaves open the notion that Paul is addressing the possible existence of other worlds and other peoples—perhaps some alien civilization. Whether there are such creations we do not know, but, more important, we do not need to worry, because if they exist, and if they are more powerful than we (two monumental “ifs”!), they cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Challenge #4 defeated!
Four great challenges to the believer’s security have been entertained and dispelled for us this morning. Still, some would argue that spiritual humility demands that we not claim the certainty of our salvation. Friends, I submit to you that for one who professes faith in Jesus and in His holy Word to disclaim security is not an act of humility, but of unbelief!
Conclusion. I return to the beginning. The opening sentence in our text today was this: “What, then, shall we say in response to this?” You’ve heard what Paul says. Now I’d like to ask, “What do you say?” The question is a divisive one in the sense that it very clearly separates believers from unbelievers. Ask this question of a person who is not a Christian and you’re likely to get either an apathetic response (“I couldn’t care less.”) or an angry response (“What amazing arrogance that you think you have an absolutely secure relationship with God!”)
But ask this question of a true believer, and his heart responds warmly and with great joy. All who truly know Christ know that His is indeed a great love, that His love for us is the very foundation of our salvation, and that because His is a divine love, all believers can be assured that His love for us will never be shaken, weaken, vary, fluctuate, or change. In fact, it is the strongest, most steady, firm, unbending, solid, substantial, constant, uniform, dependable thing in the entire universe! That love is held out to you this morning. Receive it. Enjoy it. Be thankful for it.
DATE: May 14, 1995
Tags:
Security
Glorification
Opposition
[i] James Montgomery Boice, Romans, Vol. 2, The Reign of Grace, Romans 5-8, 953.