God will never run out on you

Romans 8:31-39

 

The mp3 of this talk can be downloaded here

 

Introduction

We live in a world where trust is broken and hopes are dashed.  We only have to look at our newspapers or watch the TV.  This week the massacre in Mumbai has occurred. How do we respond to this?

When our hopes are dashed and promises are broken, we learn to protect ourselves from being hurt by distancing ourselves from any claims to hope or certainty.

 

So far Romans 8 has left us excited about who God is and what he has done, but sometimes we still feel a reluctance to throw ourselves into the life of the Spirit because – we doubt it is true of us.

 

Speaking about people who have, by God’s action put their trust in Jesus, in Romans 8:29-30 we read

‘For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.’(Rom 8v29-30)

 

People who trust Jesus are privileged because they are people who -

• Become like his Son.
• Are given right-standing with God.
• Are promised God’s glory.

But so often we don’t see this happening to us. If Romans 8 is true of me, surely I should become more like Jesus (which is surely a part of 'receiving God’s glory') – but actually, all I feel is my own struggle!

 

Well, we have reached the climax of Romans 8. In fact, Paul has been building up to these verses from the very beginning of this letter – like a majestic concerto reaching the full orchestral realization of the music which it has been heading towards for the last 240 bars.

 

So here is the challenge for each of us as we consider these verses. Don’t allow yourself to be deceived into not enjoying the life of the Spirit that Romans 8 has been describing. For some of us that will mean trusting Jesus for the very first time. For others it will mean really trusting him again. God is not satisfied for any of his children to doubt his love. He wants you to know, and be so convinced of it that it transforms your life from the inside out, beginning with the knowledge that you can NEVER be separated from his love, and ending with living the life of the Spirit.

 

God could not be more committed to you (v31-32)

Who chooses who? Do people choose to follow God or does he choose people to follow him. (Look here for the talk).  At the heart of this question is this – who is in control of the universe and everything?

Romans 8:28 says -

‘and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to him purpose for them.’

The thing is, we struggle to live in the light of these verses not because think God can't be in control of all that happens in the universe – but because we know what goes on in our hearts.  We can't imagine how he can work with us, and our deficiencies and weaknesses.

 

The answer to the question ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’(v31) is obvious. But Paul needs to express the question and answer it because we need to hear it.

So often we live in fear of separation from God, like a child in a household with parents who only ever argue. So often the best way to liken our own analysis of our relationship with God is that of a dysfunctional family – and so we live in fear!

So, how committed is God to us? How committed is he to you?

How much will he actually put up with us before finally turning his back?

The truth is, we often live in fear that he might turn his back because we don’t believe we are worth it (and we’re not).  We are not patient with ourselves.  So Paul reiterates how deep God’s commitment to us is.

 

‘Since God didn’t spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?’

 

I claim to be a Liverpool fan. Pete Chilvers is ‘for Liverpool’. Earlier on this season I went with my wife and 6 month old son to watch my annual game - against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. I thought twice about going because of the cost - £27 for an adult (and £12 for our son!).  You can tell the depth of my being ‘for’ Liverpool by my actions.  £27 was almost too great a cost!

We know God is 'for us' because of his actions and what he has done. God has thrown himself behind us by making the ultimate decision.

He gave up the most precious thing in all the universe – the one who will be worshipped by everything and everyone, for all eternity.  His Son.  And he did it so that we might know and experience his love forever. There is nothing greater to give. Is there anything else he could do to convince us that he is 'for us' and wants us?

 

There may be many things we don’t understand about the Christian faith and many things we find difficult – but one thing is for certain. God is for us. He loves you and considers you and I the most precious things in all creation, so precious to him that he was willing to give up the most precious thing that has always been. The Son of God.  In what other way can he prove it?

Because that it what the cross is – it is the proof of God’s commitment to you! In comparison, everything else is nothing. Everything else we need in order to live for God is nothing – so he will CERTAINLY give them to us too.

 

For many, living as a Christian is difficult. There is real opposition. In Rome as Paul wrote the Christians were despised.  But, Paul asserts, they needn’t worry. If God is for us – and we know he is, who can stand against us?

 

The bottom line is this – God is unswervingly, eternally on our side.

 

The accusations no longer stick! - v33

 

‘Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself.’

 

God is on our side.

Imagine with me for a second. What are the things about yourself you are most ashamed of?  I'm sure it is painful to think about them and know them. Now, in the quietness I want you to name them. Go on – give it a name. Lust, rage, stealing, adultery or whatever it is.

A Question – Picking up on the rest of Romans 8, has God’s Spirit convicted you of this sin and if so, have you brought this to God, confessed it and asked for his forgiveness? If not – do it today.

If you have, then God has forgiven it and given you ‘right standing with God’. You have been justified (made right).

Can that shame ever stamp its authority on your relationship with God again?

Is there anything that can change God’s mind and make you pay for it?

Can anyone use it against you? Well friends and family an those we know could – and they can make life very difficult for us, but at the end of the day when the dust settles, the only person that really counts for eternity is the judge of all eternity.

 

God will not accuse you of it – He has already forgiven you.

But what about when you accuse yourself? When you start to revel in your own sin – again, who is the judge? God, and he has made you right with him.

 

When I was 17 I took my driving test - with fear and trepidation.  A third of the way through the test the examiner asked me to pull over and insructed me that, in a moment we would start up again.  When he slammed his hand on the dashboard I was to bring the car, immediately, to an emergency stop.

We pulled off and I was on the edge of my seat (metaphporically!).  As his hand slammed down I hit the break then the clutch and the car jolted to a screeching halt!  I had skidded.

I went through the rest of the test convinced that I had failed already.

When we finished, I was asked my 3 theory questions (those were the days!) and then told that I had passed.  I immediately blurted out 'but what about when I skidded on the emergency stop'.  His wry smile said it all.

 

So often we are like that with God.  Because we know what we are like we can't quite believe that he would love us and forgive us.  We can't believe he won't change his mind.

But God is on your side, and nothing is going to change his mind about it.

 

No room for condemnation - v34

The problem is, even now, we know in our hearts of hearts it is not fair and so it cannot be true. It is just too good to be true!

Surely, Jesus – the one who lived a perfect life. He could condemn us?

 

‘No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honour next to God, pleading for us.’ (Rom 8v34)

 

But he does not and will not – for 3 reasons.

· He died for us

· He was raised to life for us

· He sits next to God pleading for us

The most important act in the universe was personal – it was for you and me.

Was it all for nothing?

Well, the only way it could be all for nothing were if those who have put their trust in Jesus death are condemned anyway! But Jesus will not do that.

He died so that we needn’t be condemned

He was raised so that we, like him, might have new life.

He sits at God’s right hand, speaking on our behalf to his equal – to his Father.  He is pleading our case - not condemning us!

 

Never left stranded? - v35-37

The third great error we make in our thinking is to believe that the quality of our life now is evidence of God’s blessing. If we seem to be doing well, then God is with us. If we are finding life hard, then we must be doing something wrong. Some of us really believe this and live like it.  Others know it not to be true but find ourselves thinking like that anyway.  After all, it is the way our world is wired. In fact, sometimes things can get so bad that we wonder whether God really loves us at all.

Paul says

‘Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? ‘ (Rom 8v36a)

 

We think – 'if I am in danger, I must be doing something wrong'. We beat ourselves us – pinning the seeming lack of God’s presence and blessing on our shoulders. But Paul goes on to quote from a OT Psalm

 

‘Even the scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered by sheep.” (Rom 8v36b)

 

This might seem a little strange – but reading the verses in context from the Psalm makes it clear

‘If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ (Psalm 44:20-22)

 

It is because of God that the suffering happens to the psalmist. Far from being evidence that they have done something wrong in order to separate them from God’s love, it is because of God that they are suffering.  And even when that is not the case – the link between Gods blessing and our experience is in our minds and emotions, rather than reality.

 

Jesus was once asked if the people who were killed when the tower of Siloam had collapsed on them had done something to deserve it.  His response was 'No', but the lesson to us all is 'Repent, for you never know the day!'

 

 

God will never run out on you! - v38-39

So we reach the summit of the mountain. Those who belong to Jesus Christ, trusting in his death and resurrection to make them acceptable before God rather than themselves will never be condemned, and nothing can ever stand against them.

God can no longer accuse us of our sin. Jesus did not die for nothing. Whatever the world throws at us is not evidence for God’s turning his back on us.

 

Paul is CONVINCED that NOTHING can EVER separate us from God’s love.

 

Not death or life – because God is sovereign over all that is now, in this life and is to come in the next life!

Not angels or Demons– Because he is sovereign over all the Spiritual realms – both good and evil

Not fears for today or worries for tomorrow – Because God is sovereign over all that today has, and all that tomorrow holds.

Not the powers of Hell – Because God is even sovereign over the Devil himself.

Where ever we are.

 

Put your trust in Jesus today and your future is absolutely certain and secure! No other religion of this world offers certainty like this. The best that anyone else can offer is a final examination or a lottery. Left to our own devices we are left with fear and uncertainty - but look at the confidence we can have in God

  

Our fears are defeated by the truth

· Gave up his Son for us (v32)

· Give us everything else (v32)

· Given us right standing with God (v33)

· Died for us (v34)

· Raised to life for us (v34)

· Pleading for us (v34)

· Overwhelming victory is ours (v37)

· Loved us (v37)

 

Nothing beats it !