Pastor Greg brings to a conclusion our series, The Eighth Chapter, an exposition of Romans 8, preaching from Romans 8:31-39. In this text we learned that Paul uses a series of rhetorical questions to provide objective gospel truth for the fears Christians often have related to their relationship with God and assurance of salvation.
Transcript
We’ll open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 please and I will read for us the text this morning we had part of it I believe this morning in the call to worship. Let’s read this entire thing and then we’ll we’ll jump in. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being
killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now church, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
We use them in our modern language almost daily. What were you thinking? What part of no don’t you understand? Do pigs fly? Why me? The Apostle Paul is a master at using them. In fact he uses seven of them in our verses this morning. Paul uses them here and he uses them in his other letters to emphasize the truths of the gospel and as a way to encourage God’s people and I hope and pray to encourage you this morning. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the rhetorical question. George Grant is very helpful to better understand the rhetorical question and he says the following quote, a rhetorical question is a statement formulated as a question where no response is required or expected. It is a question asked to make a point rather than to get an answer. It is a question asked for emphasis or effect. Sometimes the intended effect of
The Power of Questions
a rhetorical question is heightened obviousness or exaggerated emphasis. End quote. That is what Paul does here in our text this morning with the rhetorical questions. If you think back to late October when we started this series and we started in verse 1 of chapter 8, Paul started off with no condemnation and today he’s going to end the chapter with no separation. So this is to give us comfort. This is to give us assurance that we are indeed Christ’s and that we are loved and we belong to Jesus. Now in our text this morning Paul is going to lay out four different fears and then he’s going to use rhetorical questions to provide the comfort and the objective truths of God’s Word to calm these fears. So I’ve broken this out into four sections for us this morning. We’ll see first the fear of enemies. Second we’ll see the fear of
lack. Then we will see the fear of our sin. And lastly we’ll see the fear of separation. Now as we discuss these fears this morning I don’t in any way want to minimize your fears. We do have many actual things and real things in our world to be afraid of sometimes. Our world can sometimes be dangerous. It can be filled with suffering and loss. And as a Christian trying to walk through this world there are some very real things that we may fear. But you must remember this. The things that we fear ultimately have no power in light of the gospel and in light of God’s love for you. Now Paul is not using a comprehensive list of every single thing that we could be afraid of. He’s primarily here focused on the kinds of things that people worry about related to assurance of salvation
or what we might say is related to our relationship to God. I will admit that I often find myself fearing many things. My mind can turn itself on to just chasing down roads of things to fear that are almost endless. Kind of like Mark Twain once said he said I’ve had a lot of worries in my life most of which never happened. Isn’t that so true? Friends I think it is in God’s great kindness to us that Romans 8 is in our Bibles. Especially for those of us that have a tendency to be fearful. So lean in with me this morning and listen to what God through the Apostle Paul is telling us from his word about just how much just how much you can trust God with everything. You can trust God with your life. You can trust him with everything. And remember that if you are in Christ
Fear of Enemies
Jesus God is for you and since God is for you he will bring what he has begun in you to completion which we must remember is ultimately eternity. So let’s start with the first rhetorical question that Paul uses which is going to point us backwards a ways. So we’re going to do some review this morning. He starts off here in verse 31 right at the beginning and he says what shall we say to these things? We don’t exactly know what Paul means by these things. At the very least he means everything he’s been talking about since verse 26. But it is likely that he means everything he’s been talking about back to verse 1 and he may actually mean everything that he’s been talking about since about the middle of chapter 1. And don’t worry I’m not going to go back to chapter 1 but I think we
should go back to the beginning of chapter 8 here and let’s look at some of these things. Verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. These things. Christian there is no condemnation for your sin. Then in verse 3 there’s this great summation of the gospel. Paul writes for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. These things. Christian your sin problem has been dealt with. Verse 11, this is the great hope that we have that someday God and he has promised this someday God will resurrect our bodies and give us new bodies. That is profound hope that you can rely on. Verse 11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and if you’re a Christian he does, he who raised Christ
Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. These things. Christian, death has been and will be defeated. Verse 15, Paul reminds them of this great truth that they are adopted children of the living God. He says for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by whom we cry Abba Father. These things. Christian, you can call God daddy because he has adopted you. Verse 26, we see that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray, we maybe don’t know what to pray and even at times when we can’t pray. It’s like Thomas told us a couple of weeks ago, God fixes our prayers to be according to his will. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought
but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. These things. Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells you and is always there to help you. You must remember too, the Holy Spirit is not some magical force. He’s not a power, he is a person. He is the great paraclete, the comforter, the teacher, the counselor, the convictor and he is the one who will be at your side constantly until you finish the race. And then what can you say about verse 28? And we know that for those who love, we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. These things. Christian, God is working out his perfect plan for you and there is nothing, nothing that can thwart God’s plan for you. And then in verses 29 and 30 which we saw last week, we read that God chose sinners through foreknowledge,
predestination, by calling and he has justified you and he will one day glorify you. These things. So there is ultimately no answer required here. What shall we say to these things other than we can just say God is for you and all these things? Now what Paul does is he stacks another rhetorical question on top of the first one which brings us to our first section which is the fear of enemies or what we might call the fear of forces or the fear of things that may come against us. Verse 31, the second half of that verse, if God is for us who can be against us? Well we know that obviously God is for us in light of these things that we just reviewed. So Paul really isn’t saying if God is for us. He doesn’t expect an answer to if. There’s no question about it. It’s a
no-brainer. It’s safe to say instead since or because God is for us who can be against us? And the answer is obvious. Nothing, no one. Now against it here carries with it the idea of finality or maybe said better eternality. It is almost better to say who can be against God’s final plan for you. The very eternal plan that he has called you into and is working out for you. Now we will obviously have opposition in this life. All Christians to some degree or another are going to face enemies and are going to face forces that will come against us in this world. I mean most commonly the New Testament talks about the threefold enemy we face. You’re all probably familiar with this, the flesh. It’s our sin nature that we carry with us till we’re glorified. It is the world that hated Jesus and will hate us and it is the devil and all those that he’s
able to influence against us. But to be sure the flesh, the world, and the devil or any other thing may be able to come against you for a time but they will not have ultimate power over God’s plan for you. Because if you are in Christ Jesus God is for you and since God is for you he will bring what he has begun in you to completion which has its end in eternity. Now let’s move on to fear number two. This is the fear of lack. This is a fear that somehow you think God will fail to meet your needs. God will fail to provide for you. 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? Well this is an argument that goes from the
greater to the lesser. So since God gave up his own son for you why in the world would he not provide for all your needs Paul is saying. I mean this is really what John 3.16 is all about. God giving his son for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And be sure that God delivered up his son for you. Jesus wasn’t the victim of bad luck, mean people or untimely circumstances. Jesus died on the cross because he was sent by the Father and he perfectly obeyed the Father in coming and suffering in your place. You should remember that every time you partake of the Lord’s Supper. You should remember that. Now it’s interesting Luke is writing the book of Acts and Peter is speaking to the Jews and he says this, he says this Jesus
delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. We read in Isaiah 53 that wonderful beautiful passage but he Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and by his wounds we are healed. Now about God meeting your needs remember Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. And all these things are all those things that we tend to worry about. Our clothing, our food, our shelter, our needs. So since the greater thing has already been done and given God giving his son for your redemption you do not need to worry about the lesser things. There is nothing God will not provide you to care for your body
Fear of Lack
your soul and your mind. And when you have doubts or you have fears about this kind of thing whether or not God is going to provide for you provide for you remind yourself of these truths. Remind yourself 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. Now let’s move on to the third fear which we see in verse 33 and is the fear of our sin. Maybe said better the fear of being condemned by our sin. Verse 33 who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that. Who is raised? Who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us? Well Paul has already been telling the Romans in this letter prior to chapter
8 this very truth about how God had justified them. So what I’d like us to do is jump back a little ways and look at a couple of these passages because they’re meaningful for the context here. So flip back with me to Romans 4. We’re going to start at verse 22. We’re going to read a few verses then we’re going to go to 5 and read a couple of verses. But here we are in 4 starting in verse 22. Paul says that is why his faith and his there is Abraham he’s referring to Abraham. His faith was counted to him as righteousness but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Now look
over at chapter 5. We’ll start in verse 1.
Therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, that’s Jesus. We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of glory. Jump down to verse 9 in that chapter real quick. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
— Romans 5
, 9 (ESV)
Friends this is just quite simply Paul repeating over and over and over to these Romans the gospel. When you came to believe in Jesus prior to that you were a sinner. You were in need of forgiveness. You were in need of a savior and when you turn from your sin and you put your faith in Christ. When that happened God not only forgave all of your sin but he gave you the righteousness
of Christ. We call this imputation. It is what some have called the great exchange. It is your sin for Christ’s righteousness. There’s probably no verse in the Bible captures this better than 2nd Corinthians 521. For our sake he, God, made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Someone has said that pastoral ministry is all about convincing the unbelievers they are sinners and convincing the Christians they are forgiven. That is what Paul is doing here in Romans over and over. This is why we put the gospel before you over and over and over throughout our service, throughout the year. And it is why godly people have written books about preaching the gospel to yourself every day. I think of Jerry Bridges. He wrote a book called The Discipline of Grace. He’s now with the Lord. He was doing this when it wasn’t
cool. He was doing this when nobody else was talking like this. Milton Vincent’s little book, A Gospel Primer. Most of you know I love that book. I use that book. I recommend that book. Now flip back with me to chapter 1. We’re going to get even a little more of a flavor for this. In chapter 1, Paul’s writing to these dear people and he’s already told them they’re saints. He’s already told them their faith is famous around the world. Then he says this, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, that’s the gospel, in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous
shall live by faith. I believe it was that verse that saved a German monk who lit the fire of the Reformation, Martin Luther. The just shall live by faith. So humanity’s problem, your problem has been solved by Jesus in his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension to the right hand of the Father where we see he lives to make intercession for you. Look at verse 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died and more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. So why do you still worry about your sin in any way that would allow it to condemn you? Now look, we all know that practically we are still sinners and we’re quite aware most of us of the ugliness of our sin, especially when we may happen to be in a season of struggle.
We don’t deny the sin that it still is with us, but our sins are covered by the blood of Christ. Positionally, you are completely forgiven and made righteous. I love this J. I. Packer quote, he says this, he says, nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. God justified you with his eyes wide open. Isn’t that amazing? It’s a great illustration that Dr. Roy Gustafson gives to illustrate this. It tells of a man in England many years ago who put his Rolls Royce on a boat. If you don’t know what a Rolls Royce is, it at one time was the most expensive, finest car in the world, made in England, probably cost $100,000 in the 1940s or 50s. He put his Rolls Royce on a boat and he went across to the continent to go on a European holiday. And while he was driving
around Europe, something happened to the engine. The thing just died. So he called the people with Rolls Royce back in England and he said, I’m having trouble with my car. What do you suggest I do? Well, the Rolls Royce people immediately flew a mechanic over. The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England, left the man to continue on his holiday. As you can imagine, this fellow gets back and he’s wondering, I wonder how much the bills are going to be for this. So he writes the company a letter and he asks them how much he owed them. He received a letter back from Rolls Royce that read as follows. Dear sir, there is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls Royce. That is like justification, brothers and sisters. I mean, you may fail, you may stumble and
Fear of Sin
even fall and need to repent and get back up. But God Almighty looks down at you and says the record is wiped away. You are credited with the perfect, eternally secure righteousness of the Lord Jesus. So as you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and forgiven by his blood, even though Satan is the accuser of the brethren, he must remain silent as Jesus intercedes on your behalf. So rest, rest in your forgiveness, in your justification. Jesus was punished in your place. God will not require a second payment from you for that sin. Now let’s look at the fourth fear. It is the fear of separation or what we might say better, the fear of losing God’s love. Starting in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Now Paul had already experienced six of the seven things on this list when he wrote Romans. And we know from history that he likely experienced the seventh thing, the sword, when he was martyred for his faith while in Rome. Now tribulation or some translations may say affliction there is the outward suffering of people. Distress is the inward. It is how a person feels when they are going through hard things. Persecution is pretty obvious. It is the suffering that a Christian receives at the hands of the forces coming against them. And famine and nakedness and peril are the temporary losses that some people suffer and that have been inflicted on some people as a way to try to separate them from Jesus. And Paul is saying it cannot happen. He told the Philippians, he said, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but
also suffer for his sake. And then we see here in Romans 8, verse 36, Paul quotes from Psalm 44. And he does this as a way of reminding us that for the Christian, there should be nothing unexpected or strange about suffering. As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. If we’re honest, we have to admit there are times when God’s people are badly mistreated and even killed. Sometimes that’s the very thing that God uses to usher them into eternity. Now, Paul may have also used this as a way of defending himself and as a way of defending his early followers, the early followers of Jesus, I mean, from the mistaken belief that if a person is truly blessed and truly loved by God, they will never suffer. And quite simply, that is a lie.
And Paul then turns and he says, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. This might be said, the suffering ends with us being super conquerors. I saw a sports story this week of two high school football teams that played such a lopsided game, the referees called the game at halftime, it was 95 to nothing. If you know anything about football, nobody scores 95 points in a whole game, even against the worst team. But that’s the victory we have in Christ, it is total, it is complete, through him who loved us. And now Paul the pastor is still trying to convince the Christians they are forgiven and that they are secure. He’s trying to convince them that God’s love is unalterable. So he gives this list of all the potential things that will not be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So look with
me at verse 38. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And let’s look at these. Paul first says, for I am sure. And he says this because of all these gospel truths that he has been telling them, and Paul is very certain of what he is telling them because he had lived it. He had suffered and seen the very worst. This guy was dragged out of town and stoned. And Paul starts with the thing that most people fear the most, and that is death. So even death will not be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I mean, if you remember, Paul himself was often torn between whether he should live on for the
proclamation of the gospel or go home and be with Jesus. He told the Philippians, he said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Paul then gives the opposite of death, which some people fear. Quite simply, it is life itself. It is easy to see how many people fear life. They fear having to continue on in the midst of certain types of affliction or persecution or loss. About 12 years ago, I watched a friend, I am not a crier, but I watched a friend die of a hideous illness. This was a man who had a very strong faith and he was very courageous. And by the way, the faith and the courage came from
Jesus and his hope in the gospel. Toward the end, he was done. He just wanted to go. He was just becoming too hard to continue on. And in some ways, it was even harder for his wife. And so when I read this and I studied this, I was like, that’s him. That’s what happens sometimes to people. I mean, there are situations for some people who suffer such loss that life itself becomes unthinkable to continue on with. And beloved, I pray that doesn’t ever happen to you. But even if it does, that will not be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So whether you are facing hard things in life or imminent death, they cannot separate you from God’s love. Next thing Paul says is, nor angels nor rulers. This is referring to angels. It could be evil ones or good ones, likely evil in this context. One translation, I like how the
Phillips version rendered this. It’s neither messenger of heaven nor monarch of earth. And if we imagine the stress of having earthly rulers persecuting Christians, it makes sense how this verse or how this particular issue would cause great fear in the people that Paul’s writing to in this verse. He then moves on to nor things present nor things to come. Simply put, even time, a lot of it or a little, will not be able to separate you from God and his love. Paul says, nor powers. This is a reference to transcendent beings, good or evil, likely evil. And it can also mean people who are given power by transcendent beings. So no evil government, no evil being from the spiritual realm, nor things that have happened in the past, nor things that may happen in the future, will ever be able to separate you from God and his love for you in Christ. The last pair is nor height nor depth. And this is simply a metaphorical way of
saying no matter what it is, however high it is, however low it is. One commentator says this tends to refer to difficulties that would easily defeat human beings, but that for God pose no obstacle at all. They cannot separate you from God and his love for you in Christ. Then Paul finishes with nor anything else in all creation. This is Paul’s way of just covering anything else that isn’t clearly seen in the list. There’s even a bit of an echo of verse 35, who shall separate us? There is no one, there is no thing, there is nothing that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s kind of like that silly children’s game when two kids will say the same thing at the same time, and one of them will say jinx. They’ll say infinity jinx, no changes. It’s like game over, right? Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Fear of Separation
Well I hope and I pray you believe this. This is truth that you can live by even through your darkest days. So how should you think about these verses and how they’re going to intersect with living the Christian life? I’d like to leave you with four things. First, what is the thing or things that you fear the most? The things that you think might be able to separate you from God? Whatever it is, it cannot. If you’re here this morning and you’re struggling with fears, or maybe the burden of your sin, I hope that you will see that Jesus is showing you through this great chapter that if you are in Christ, you are forgiven. You are made righteous, and nothing will be able to separate you from God and his love for you in Christ. Remember earlier, we said that Paul uses this argument from the greater to the lesser. Remember that since God gave his son for you, he will not leave you lacking for whatever it is you need, even if you are under attack from the evil one, if you are in despair, affliction, if you are fearful, even in your time of dying.
God will never leave you or forsake you. He will bring you to glorification with him in eternity. Second thing, I’d like to ask you this. Do you really understand how much you are loved by God? If not, let this be the catalyst for you to embrace fully the deep, deep love that God has for you. J.I. Packer again is very helpful for us when he says this. This is amazing. He says, There is unspeakable comfort, the sort of comfort that energizes knowing that God is constantly taking in knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me so that no discovery can now disillusion God about me. Thirdly, if you have not, you must ground your identity in who you are in Christ. You may have many secondary identities. We all do. You may be a mother or father. You may be a son or daughter.
You may even want to identify as related to some sort of sin or something. But first and foremost, you are a Christian. You are a person who is so loved by God that he gave his only begotten son for you. And he will never withhold from you, and he will never turn on you. J.I. Packer in that same book, Knowing God, goes on to urge Christians every day to remind yourself of who you are. It’s on the screen behind me. This is amazing. I am a child of God. God is my Father. Heaven is my home. Every day is one day nearer. My Savior, Jesus, is my older brother. Every Christian is my brother and sister, too. That’s who you are. According to God’s Word, that’s who you are. First and foremost, daily remind yourself of who you are. Preach the gospel to yourself over and over and over.
Living Without Fear
And finally, fight your fears and your falsehoods that come at you. Fight those things with truth. I’m sure I probably sounded a little bit like a broken record this morning, but I think when it comes to this gospel and it comes to these truths, we must repeat these things to ourselves and to our church over and over and over. Paul certainly does that here in Romans, doesn’t he? And we would do very good to imitate his model. So I will end near where I began. If you are in Christ Jesus, God is for you. God is for you. And since God is for you, he will bring what he has begun in you to completion, which ultimately is eternity. Now, if you’re here this morning and you find yourself not sure about Jesus, not sure about this stuff in the Bible, I don’t know if I’m a Christian. I’m so glad you came today.
Because God is extending his mercy to you. He’s extending his grace to you to let you hear the gospel this morning so that you can turn from your sin. We call this repentance. It is literally to do a U-turn in life. Instead of heading the way you’re heading now, you turn and you head toward the way of Christ. You admit that you are a sinner, that you are a person who has sinned against God, the very God to whom you owe your existence. You admit that you need a Savior. And there is only one Savior. It is Christ the Lord. And you can right now today pray and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and ask him to be your Savior and he will do that. And then I recommend you tell everyone you know, I’ve decided to follow Jesus. I don’t know perfectly what that means right now, but I’ve decided to follow Jesus. Come and tell us. Come and speak with anyone you’ve seen up here this morning.
We’d love nothing more than to give you a Bible and make sure that you get connected with a good church where you can be discipled. And if you have come to believe in Christ, he commands you to be baptized. We would love to baptize you. And if maybe you’re here and you’ve been hanging out with us for a while and you’ve come to believe and you’ve not been baptized, it’s okay. Come and talk to us. We’d love to talk to you about what it means to be a person who is in Christ so that you too may be a beloved person of God’s who cannot be separated from him and his love for you in Christ. Let’s pray. Oh God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We just literally stand in awe this morning. Of all that you have done to save us. Of all that you have done are doing and will do to bring us to eternity.
God, I pray for these dear people here this morning that are trusting in Christ, that they will accept, they will see they are forgiven. May they live without any fear of condemnation, any fear of separation. God, if there’s anyone here this morning who has not yet come to believe in Christ, that this would be the day. That they see their sin, repent and believe the gospel. Receiving Christ. God, we love you. We worship you. And we thank you. In Jesus name. Amen.