God for Us
Romans 8:31-39
1 January 2017
31 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, 39neither 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.
2016 has come and gone. For some it was good. For some it was bad. For some it was just another year. I’m not going to ask you how you did on your New Year’s resolutions, but I am going to ask: have you ever heard someone say “God help us all” or “what have we come to?” or “the good old days”? I feel like I hear those kinds of things more and more as the year numbers keep going up. 2016 was an election year; just look at politics. People look at police shooting incidents and say that we’ve regressed in race relations. People look at the legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage and abortion and say that we’ve regressed morally. Others look at the amount of opposition to those same things and say that we’ve clearly regressed socially. People look at the number of mass murders, like the shooting at the club in Orlando, and say that we’ve regressed in all sorts of areas. Older people look at the habits of people my age and younger and say that our nation is doomed. So maybe some of us are nervous about what 2017 will bring. It seems that the world is more and more divided, so many of our positions and views go against the majority or against societal norms or against the government.
But Romans 8:31 says “if God is for us, who can be against us?”Have you ever felt that way about someone? Think about school and those dreaded group projects. Oh, wait, that person’s in your group; you’re safe; you’re getting an A for sure. Maybe you’ve been nervous about going to court for something. But you’ve got a great attorney who says you’re going to win, and if he’s for you, who can be against you? Sometimes we forget how strong our God is. When we go against something minor like a common cold or car trouble or strife with a friend, we trust God to take care of it and work it all out – He can handle those problems. But then when we lose a job or get divorce papers or hear the word cancer, then suddenly we act like God isn’t all that capable. But He is. If God is for us, who can be against us? What can be against us? Let that be our attitude heading into 2017.
Go back a week. Did you get anything for Christmas? Do you know anyone who’s just filthy rich and gives ridiculous Christmas presents? Usually during the holiday season there are car commercials where they suggest that this brand new luxury car is the perfect Christmas gift. I always wonder why they are coming out of a suburban 2000 square foot house. Don’t the people who drop 50 grand on Christmas gifts have huge mansions with a fountain in Beverly Hills or something? Well, if you’ve ever gotten a gift like that and then the next year mentioned that you wanted a pair of shoes or a Blu-ray player, would you have any doubt that person would be able to afford it? “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?”So if God has already bought us a brand new Mercedes SUV, you really think He can’t keep food on the table and clothes on your body? If God was gracious enough to send His only Son to the cross and thereby permanently take care of our biggest and most pressing need, then what can He not give us?A raise at work or better job?A girlfriend? Healing? The things that God does not give us are not things He cannot give us. But if we trust that He has done the biggest thing for us, then all of those things take their rightful place in our minds and then whatever He does give us is everything.
More importantly, “who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.”It’s one thing to have a really good lawyer. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase – the complaint “justice is for sale.” The idea is that the better lawyer you can afford, the more likely you are to have things go your way in court. But if you’re caught on multiple cameras committing the crime, and dozens of witnesses are testifying against you, your lawyer’s probably not going to help you much.But what about the judge? God is the judge. And He can be bought. Jesus paid off the Judge in blood – His own blood. So how is any charge going to stick when God is the judge and He specifically sent Jesus to pay Him off so that He could declare us not guilty?
“Who is he that condemns?”The very next word in the text is Jesus, but that’s not the answer to the question. This is Paul talking a little smack. You’ve heard of LeBron James. He’s an Ohio native, plays for the Cavaliers, and is probably the most famous current NBA basketball player. He’s been the league MVP four times. He’s won three championships, including last year, and was the finals MVP all three times. So let’s say the team the Cavaliers plays next is getting interviewed. The reporter asks the coach, “How are you going to prepare for LeBron James?” And the coach says, “Who’s LeBron James?” That’s what Paul’s saying. Who is he that condemns? Satan? Big deal – we have Jesus on our team. We don’t even need to worry about anyone trying to condemn us. Because, as the beginning of Romans 8 says, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God is for us.
“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.”Paul continues to build his argument against the thought that Jesus might not be enough. Who will bring any charge and who is he that condemns if we have Christ Jesus interceding for us? As we begin a new year, whether we make resolutions or not, hopefully we take at least some time to ponder the past and think about how we can make this year better. So in other words, we remember some sins. When we really stop to think about the implications of this verse, it affects us. It was our sins that caused Jesus to die, but He did it. And more than that, He was raised to life, meaning He wasn’t done working for us. He is at the right hand of God the Father in a position of power and authority and He is using that position to intercede for us. Now if you owe someone a favor, it’s probably because that person did something for you: helped you when you were in trouble, covered for you. You probably don’t owe anyone a favor who is the reason you’re facing the death penalty. Yet the favors from Jesus never stop, not that He owes us favors, but simply because He favors us, and He is able to do those things. God is for us.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”This is maybe less of a rhetorical question than you think. It really depends on who’s answering. You probably know someone whose troubles and hardships seem to come between that person and Christ. What started as missing church a few times for health reasons turned into a sense of not needing Christ’s love, feeling either sufficient without it or betrayed by it. And you probably know someone who faced so much persecution that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. The love of Christ wasn’t enough to fight for through all the slander and mistreatment. But “who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Not Christ. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to be our own doing. And that should be a warning to us. God’s not going to force a relationship with us if we want nothing more than to reject Him. But it’s also comforting, and in this context of Paul’s, that’s what he’s going for.
That’s not to say there are no hardships. “As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ ” That’s from Psalm 44, and it’s addressing God. So God’s people have always known that there will be struggles and persecutions. The idea that a true Christian should have a nice tidy, easy life, or that there’s some sort of heaven on earth, is a very new non-biblical idea. So the struggles are real, but “no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”So what happened in 2016 does not matter. What will happen in 2017 does not matter. What matters is that God is for us, and His love cannot be bound by time; it does not come and go like ours does.
“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.”Sometimes Paul gets a little carried away in his letters. He starts to lose sight of grammar and his writing becomes less academic – less professional, and more like a journal entry – just stream of consciousness. I remember having to memorize this verse and thinking, “Well, why couldn’t he just have said ‘nothing will be able to separate us from God’s love’?” Paul wants you to make no mistake, so he mentions all these different pairs of powerful things that will not have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that is our comfort: knowing that God is for us. There might be a lot of good coming in 2017. There might be a lot of bad coming in 2017. But either way, God is for us, and that means no one can be against us.
So let us not neglect our relationship with our Lord. There are many good ways to have a devotion every day. There are meditation books. There are Bibles that are all divided into one reading per day. There are many Bible reading plans online for one year or three years or whatever. I have audio for the entire New Testament if you’re interested. Whatever your plan is, let’s be as convinced as Paul that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.