Romans 8:31-39
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
If we were just to begin at verse 26 listing what God has and is doing for
us we would truly be overwhelmed:
The Holy Spirit prays for us. God the Father answers those prayers. God
works all things in our lives together for his good and our highest and
best. God has a purpose and that purpose includes us. From eternity past
we were in the mind and thinking of God. He laid out a perfect plan for
each of us who by faith believed in His Son. He called us, beckoned us
to that plan, He justified us, He is now in the process of glorifying us.
We are a part of His family over which His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ
is the head.
Romans 8:31
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against
us?
Paul will let the critics have bring in their doubt as he does so often
in this epistle. What shall we say to these things, the things that God
has done, is doing, and will do for us. What can anyone say?
Paul makes a dogmatic statement that is to be applied to every Christian
. . . If (First Class Conditional = "since God is for us")
There are no exceptions. If you are one of us Paul is saying then God is
for you!
The preposition used is HUPER which is the preposition of substitution or
being and acting in the place of another. It also includes the idea of
protection, care, benefit, and favor.
Now we have an advantage these Romans did not have. We can look at this
little word as it is used in other passages and even add to the list given
here.
1. Romans 8:34 coming us, Jesus Christ prays for us.
2. Philippians 2:13 God works in us for His good pleasure.
3. I Peter 2:21 Jesus Christ suffered for us to be an example for us.
4. II Thessalonians 2:1 Jesus Christ is coming for us.
5. I Timothy 2:6 Jesus Christ gave Himself as a ransom for us.
6. Galatians 3:13 Jesus Christ became a curse for us.
7. Hebrews 2:9 Jesus Christ tasted death for us.
8. Hebrews 9:24 Jesus Christ entered Heaven for us.
9. The greatest number of times this preposition is used though is when
the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ dying for us, dying on behalf of us as
in Romans 5:6 and 8.
Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, commending God's love for us, while
we were yet sinner.
INDEED, IF GOD IS FOR US, Who is against us?
The answer: NO ONE!
THIS DOGMATIC DECALRATION OF TRUTH both takes away and adds to our lives:
1. It takes away fear, it takes away the need to live in denial
of reality, it takes away the need to live in pretense, it takes away the
hurt of life.
2. It adds to us security, it adds to us confidence, it adds to us healing,
it adds to a God who will never leave us nor forsake us and will at all
times be for us.
The God of the universe, our creator, His Son, His Holy Spirit is for us
. . . they are here, with us, on our behalf.
AND WE HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS GREATER THAN ALL the armies who have ever marched
or all the navies which have ever sailed, all the kings who have ever reigned,
all the governments who have ever rules . . . God is for us.
II Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power
and love and a sound mind."
WANT A LIST OF THINGS NOT TO FEAR:
v 35 Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.
v 38 Death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come,
powers, height, depth, nor any other created thing.
AND HOW DO WE NOT FEAR THESE THINGS that are the causes of fear for so many?
Hebrews 11:35b-39 Approved by Faith
Romans 8:32
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Now the critic might ask, how far is God willing to go on our behalf. After
all, as human beings we all have our limits, we may go far but only
so far. There are always human boundaries that we set, would not be so
with God?
But for you and me, God already has done the very most for us. He has gone
to the greatest extreme to be for us. He who did not spare His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all. God went the distance for us.
The word "spare" is FEIDOMAI and means to treat with tenderness.
God did not do this because to secure a means of salvation for us He had
to judge His Son.
And to do that He had to deliver Him up:
Acts 2:23, This Man (Jesus), delivered up by the predetermined plan and
foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men
and put Him to death.
God was willing to go the distance before you even existed, before creation,
before angels, from the eons of eternity past. God created us knowing we
would fall, knowing we would need a Savior, knowing He would have to go
the distance for us.
THERE IS ONLY ONE THING THAT WILL DO THAT and that is love. The love that
God had for us motivated His not sparing of His own Son, His delivering
up of His own Son.
God so loved the world that He had to sacrifice His only begotten Son.
Have we ever considered the weight of sacrifice that is found in John 3:16?
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
We have a saying today, Love Hurts. God knows that full well, love does
hurt because love is tested in its willingness to sacrifice.
And not only did the Father love us that much but so did the Son for they
are one in essence and God is love:
Ephesians 5:2, And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave
Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
And His love for us is our starting point:
I John 4:10, In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
And then it goes on to the fulfilling of the new commandment we have to
love one another and we can only do that as a result of God the Holy Spirit
producing in us the fruit of Love:
Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
If God did the greatest thing for us in providing salvation, he will now
do the less... freely give us all things.
1. Our salvation demanded of God the greatest sacrifice
2. Our salvation demanded of God the greatest plan. To being His Son into
the World as fully God and fully Man.
3. Our salvation demanded of God the greatest love to motivate it.
4. Our salvation demanded of God the greatest power to complete His purpose.
5. And now we are His children, now we are born again, recreated into the
image of Christ as the new man, now the Holy Spirit indwells us . . . how
we He not now freely give us all things.
6. If has already done the greater, what is it that He will now do the
less.
7. WARNING IN THIS: Satan loves to turn this around. Oh, salvation is
nothing, no big deal. Getting to heaven, that is what is hard, that is
where God needs you help, the verdict is still out on heaven.
People, it just is not so . . . He has already done the greatest thing for
you, what is left is less.
Where as verse 31 took away our fear of opposition, verse 32 removes our
fear of want.
This parallels very closely with Matthew 6:25-34 which the Lord summarized
by saying: But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these
things shall be added to you.
Romans 8:33-35 THREE QUESTIONS:
Who shall bring a charge against you?
Who is the one who condemns you?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Romans 8:33
Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;
CHARGE is EGKALEW and means to charge with a crime, to accuse, to call in
a debt, to call to an audit (IRS), to arraign before a judge.
Who can do this to the ones God has chosen.
That term ELECT or CHOSEN is used here to strengthen the case.
Paul is saying in a sense: Who would dare to bring a charge against the
one whom God has chosen?
Who do I offend the most? I know I occasionally offend people, but my miserable,
finite, sinful life is always an offense to the very perfection and holiness
of God. AND YET GOD justified me, gave me worth, gave me His righteousness.
Now who wants to accuse me and you? In Revelation 12:10 we are told that
Satan is the accuser of the believer and he is before the throne of God
accusing us, charging us, day and night.
But the debt has been paid. The charges taken to the Cross, and God sees
us as having the worth of His imputed righteousness.
But he still accuses. Gary touched on this last night. We cannot hear
what goes on before the supreme court of heaven but we listen to those Satan
uses to build into us an attitude that says we do not count.
But God says you have worth because I loved you, my Son died for you, and
I have given you my very righteousness.
I remember a little sign I once on a colleague's desk: Satan is the accuser
of the brethren, don't do his job for him.
Romans 8:34
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather
who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for
us.
The word "condemn" is KATAKPINW the same word we saw at Romans
8:1 where it was used in its noun form. Here is the verb and the verb rests
on the noun. There is no one who can condemn because there is now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus.
AND WHO REALLY HAS the right to condemn? Jesus Christ.
Yet He died for us, salvation, and more importantly when it comes to the
condemnation we face from others, he was raised for us.
This reminds us and others that Jesus Christ is in heaven and the head of
His church, His bride and the sovereign head of every believer.
HE DIED which was His choice for us
HE WAS RAISED UP which was the Father's choice for us
AND NOW HE PRAYS TO THE FATHER FOR US . . .
Who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us from within us. Here the Lord Jesus Christ
seated at the right hand of the Father, in glory, prays for us.
v 26-27 The Holy Spirit who prays for us while resident in us. He prays
that our unrealized needs may be meet.
In verse 34, Jesus Christ prays for us at the right hand of the Father.
He prays His redemptive work may be fully applied to the believer.
We noted that the Holy Spirit who prays from within us prays when we pray.
But here the Lord Jesus prays for us, not as a helper as with the Spirit,
but as our Lord and the head of the family to which we belong.
This ministry of the Lord Jesus for us in His present session actually began
before He left earth. In John 17:1-26 we have His prayer for His own, it
is a prayer begins there and continues now at the right hand of the Father>
Lewis Sperry Chafer said this of this ministry of intercession:
"As intercessor, His work has to do with the weaknesses, the helplessness,
and the immaturity of the saints who are on the earth--things over which
we have no control. He who knows the limitations of His own and the power
and strategy of the foe with whom they have to contend, has become unto
them a Shepherd and Bishop of their souls . . . The effectiveness of this
intercession of Christ in the preservation of each believer is declared
to be absolute. He is able to save to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). That is, to save, to keep
saved forever those who come unto God by Him and this on the ground of His
ministry of intercession.
"So who would condemn the believer? If anyone had a right to it would
be Jesus Christ. He is the head of our family. But He does not condemn
the saints. No, rather He intercedes on their behalf, in their place, to
God."
Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Distress?
Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Peril? Sword?
While the first and second question dealt with our position in Christ in
whom there is no condemnation and no charge to be made against us, this
question deals more with our function as believers.
We were saved because God loved the world. And now we live because God
loves us.
In Ephesians 5:2 we even read that we are to Walk in love, just as Christ
also loved you, and gave Himself up for us . . .
We face the danger of being overwhelmed by so many things in life. In so
many circumstances, in so much adversity, we can fail in faith and end up
thinking God doesn't love me.
There are times in our lives where we might see ourselves living from crisis
to crisis. No sooner is one resolved and we stop to take a breath than
another hits. What is wrong? Does God no longer love us?
But that is the very point isn't it. God's love for us, His own, is greater
than all the problems of life put together.
1 John 4:18, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected
in love.
1 Peter 4:8, Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because
love covers a multitude of sins.
GOD LOVES US, HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US:
And that is why the Holy Spirit lead Paul to mention eighteen different
things that we might think can separate us from God's Love but do not:
These seven things are part of the adversity that can come against a believer
as a result of antagonism towards his faith [Paul experienced all of these].
They are placed in order of an increasing intensity. Tribulation all the
way to Death by the sword [Somewhat prophetic in that Paul died by being
beheaded, by a sword]
Romans 8:36
Just as it is written, For Thy sake we are being put to death all day
long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
This is a quote from Psalm 44:22.
Psalm 44 is rather unique in that it is a lament Psalm in which the writer,
the choir director, laments the adversities the nation is facing and yet
can find no cause for them in his generation.
Psalm 44:1-8 Looks back historically on the victories God had given to
Israel
Psalm 44:8-19 Describes the present distress
Psalm 44:20-26 Calls upon God for deliverance
The real issue in this Psalm is that the people saw no current reason for
the adversity yet they did not turn from God but rather to God. They did
not say, God let us down.
They recognized that even in perplexities, even in the midst of not understanding
what God was doing, He was God and He was the one, the only one, they could
call upon.
Now jumping ahead a 1000 years to Romans, we see the same principle. We
will face adversities. Some we will find reason for in others we will not.
But no adversity can separate us from the Love of God.
PRINCIPLE: Even in the midst of our tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, we are not separated from the
Love of Christ.
Romans 8:37
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved
us.
Here is the conclusion: Christ loves us and in all these things we can have
the victory.
1 John 5:4, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is
the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith.
2 Corinthians 2:14, But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph
in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of
Him in every place.
Even when talking of death Paul could proclaim the victory that we as believers
have in Jesus Christ:
1 Corinthians 15:57, But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:38,39
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul ends this impressive chapter with a discussion on the believer's security
in Jesus Christ.
I like what John Witmer says of these verses: "Absolutely nothing
in God's creation can thwart His purpose for believers in Christ. What
a climatic way to affirm the certainty of the believer's salvation."
There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further
this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to:
Grace Notes
1705 Aggie Lane
Austin, Texas 78757
Warren Doud, Director