If God Is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

Introduction

We’ve come to the end of Romans 8 this morning. I feel like we’re finishing a book. It’s such a significant chapter, and those of us who have been here regularly, visitors, you’ll have to go back and listen to some of the other sermons to hear kind of the greater content of the chapter, realize we’ve spent a lot of time here. This is our fourth sermon in Romans 8. The other chapters I’ve done probably one or two sermons in, but there’s so much significance and content in Romans the eighth chapter, we just needed to slow down and take our time moving through it. And even then, we just still haven’t gone in depth. We haven’t gone into the depths of this, and I can’t do that even this morning with the last few verses in 31 through 39.

One thing I do want to do, though, is let the Bible speak as much as I can this morning, and so we’re going to go back to chapter 8 and verse 1, and I’m going to read this entire chapter and kind of set the context for the few things that I want to say about the end of the chapter. So begin reading with me in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. It says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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 condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set in the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of Adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 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. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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’m 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. I hope you were listening to the song service carefully this morning. If you were, it almost preached the sermon. The content of the songs had to do with victory in Jesus and his rule as King, and the fact that we will conquer through him, and that by the power, the same power that is in Jesus that resurrected him from the dead, we also will be given life.

And in the midst of all of that, and in all those thoughts, we have hope. We have hope that one day, provided we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him. This is the very end of Paul’s main argument, the first argument, at least, in the book of Romans. He’s about to go into something else in 9 through 11 that we will get to as we continue on through the book. But beginning all the way back in chapter 1, he’s been working on this idea that the just shall live by faith in Jesus Christ. That they’re being made right, their justification is going to happen not through the law, not through some other means, but it’s going to happen by the faith that they have in Jesus.

And that’s all going to come into fruition because of God’s love that’s being poured out into the heart by the Holy Spirit that He’s given in. That’s Romans chapter 5, 1 through 5. And so Paul is now sort of circling back to that idea. As he comes to the end of Romans 8, he’s concluding his argument. You may have even kind of heard a shift in the way he’s going about talking about this. He’s been kind of argumentative, not in the bad sort of way, but in a persuasive way. He’s been arguing his point. But as he gets to the end of chapter 8, you can sort of hear the difference. This is like a celebratory type of rhetoric. Right? He’s giving these lists, and it’s something to encourage us and to give us hope and saying you’re on the right path, and if you’re with Christ, all these things are going to work out, and God works for you.

He works for the good. Right? This is where you begin back in verse 28 that in everything or in all things, God works for good with those who love him, with those who are called according to his purpose. Those who are working God’s plan in the world, he’s on their side. And he’s working with them to accomplish the things he has set out to accomplish. And that little part toward the end of chat, that first section that comes before where we’re headed this morning, that may be a little confusing to some of us in verse 30, 29 and 30. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the images of his son, in order that he might be firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

The point here, if we kind of summarize what’s being talked about here is that God has a plan and he knows where he’s going with the world. It’s already been determined. And it’s whether or not I want to fit into that plan, whether or not I’m going to heed the call and accept the call that’s going to make the difference in terms of where I stand with God, whether I’m justified or I’m not justified in his sight, has to do with whether or not I’m going to decide to be in Christ or not in Christ. Right? And he’s really been working this idea or this concept all the way back to chapter 1, beginning in verse 18, as he talks about God’s wrath being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, those who suppress the truth.

But those who are on his side should have great assurance of the things that are happening in the future. And I think this is the direction I really want us to head this morning is talking about this idea of the certainty of victory. And it just happens that our children’s Bible classes begin today, a six-month study on God’s victory. Looking at story after story after story about how when you are with God, you are victorious. In all sorts of ways and all sorts of methods. It’s not all physical battles. It’s not all stories like David and Goliath. Yes, those are in there. But it’s also things like Jacob being victorious over Laban because God is on his side. Or think about things like Joseph, God is with him.

And despite the troubles and the difficulties, he’s facing, everywhere he goes, God is there with him, and he is victorious, and God works through him, his victory and his plan and his purposes. And this text, this very text you’re talking about in Romans 8, has to do with the idea that we can be assured of overwhelming victory. If you have the NLT, that’s what it said there in your verse. In mine it says, we will be more than conquerors. And all of this is happening and is working through Christ Jesus. And so the first thing I want us to recognize this morning, and I think unfortunately, many times this is lost in religion because of how God has talked about it and the way he is pictured.

1. God Is For Us

The first thing that we need to understand here is that God is for us. I mean, if we are in Christ, if we are his, which is the context of what’s being said here, then God is for us. He is on our side. Paul just said a few verses earlier, just before this, that in all things God works for good with those who love him. He is on our side, he’s working for us. And in essence, this is actually the entire point of the gospel. I mean, we need God on our side. We need God’s reign and his rule to fix the mess that’s going on in the world around us. And if we will submit to his will and we will give ourselves over to him, he will be for us.

We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to fear the things that are going to take place. We don’t have to be worried about where we stand with God. If we’re on his side, God is for us. And he demonstrates that he’s on our side by the way he provides. I can’t really go into depth this morning on the various echoes that are in this text, but there are numerous ones there. There’s already one that we the very first verse, Psalm 18, 118, if you want to go look at that one in verse 6, you can go look at that yourself. But there’s really three major echoes in this passage. Paul does this very rarely, but he does it in moments of significant significance, where he pulls from each part of the Old Testament.

So the law, the Psalms, and the prophets. And he’s going to do it right here as he’s concluding this argument. So there’s an there’s an echo here of Genesis 22, and I’m basically just going to point you to that and not spend a lot of time talking about it, but it’s so easy to see. That he’s demonstrating that he’s on our side by this reality that he is faithful. He’s so faithful that unlike Abraham, who he called to offer Isaac, but he spared him at the last moment, God did not withhold his son. God did not spare his only son, but gave him up for us all. And then Paul just sort of makes the conclusion for us. Given what we see about God, and we know the way God acts and the way God works in the world, and this specific example of giving his own son, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Now, the all things here, that’s not like wealth or health in this life or those types of things. In fact, we’re right in the middle of a text. It’s all about how sometimes you don’t have any of that, how you suffer greatly, and the world is dark and evil, and how do we deal with that? How do we wrestle through that reality that when we look at the world, things are not good? Right? And as God’s people who are trying to accomplish his purposes, why does that happen? Right? That’s the sort of the question that is undergirding what Paul’s doing here in this text. But it really goes all the way back to verse 17. When he talks about how we’re going to be heirs with Christ, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, he says, you’re you’re kind of entering this realm of life that makes you like the Messiah when you suffer.

Suffering does not mean that God is not with you. Quite the opposite. When we’re suffering for God’s purposes, it’s what makes us like the Messiah. It’s what makes us like Jesus, that we’re willing to suffer for his sake and for his name. And so he says, provided you suffer with him, you will be glorified with him. And so the all things being discussed here really has to do with this concept of inheritance. That God is going to rule, he’s going to reign, and we are going to reign with him. We are heirs, we are adopted sons. And if God will even give up his own son, if he will not withhold his own son, can’t we believe in his promise that we will inherit all things?

The things he has told us he will do, he will do. And he demonstrates this by the magnitude of the love it took to offer his own son for us. I think one of the ways that we struggle with text like this in Romans 8 is that we put so much emphasis, and then I this is extremely important, so it’s not that I don’t think it’s important, but we put so much emphasis on the crucifixion and on the removal of sin. That becomes the thing that’s talked about all the time. And yet, if you listen carefully to the way Paul talks and the things that he says, that’s one piece of the puzzle. But this whole other part of it that involves the resurrection, without the resurrection, there’s no hope.

I mean, if Christ is not raised from the dead by the power of the Father, then we are of all people most to be pitied, Paul says. So crucifixion, extremely vital. It has to do with the removal of sin. But when this becomes the focus of everything, then how do we deal with well, what if we sin again? You know, this feeling that maybe you’ve heard sometimes where like I feel like I’m in and out, I’m in and out, right? Like I sin, so now I’m on God’s bad side, and then I make it all right. And of course, kingdom imagery, I think helps with this to some degree. We’re citizens of his kingdom. God is for us, we are with him. And Romans 8 is not saying that we’re never gonna mess up again.

You know, we walk according to the Spirit. I don’t think anyone here this morning believes that means that they’re just never ever going to ever sin ever again because they walk according to the Spirit. No, but this is a mindset that we take on because we know that God is changing the world. There is a new world order coming through his Messiah, through his anointed one. It has now been revealed, and we say, I want to be with him. I want to do things his way. I want to walk in alignment with the Lord’s Messiah. I want to follow Him. I want to be on His side. And when we do that, God is for us. He is not against us. He is not a God who is kind of dangling us over the fire, waiting for the moment that we mess up just to let us fall in and be consumed.

That is not Paul’s God in Romans 8. He’s not a God who’s just waiting for that moment where we slip up or we make a mistake so he can condemn us. That’s not the God that we serve. Actually, quite the opposite. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s where he began all of these thoughts in Romans chapter 8. With a concept that relates to assurance. And so this is how Paul summarizes the gospel. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God gave him up for us. But more than that, he was raised. That means he was enthroned with power. And now he intercedes for us. Now we could trace all of those if we had time through the body of Romans 8.

Right? Each of those statements relates to parts of Romans 8 as you work through the text. And all of them are vitally important to understanding the concept that God is for us and we will have victory through him. And it’s not something that we have to worry about or be in fear of at all times, that at one moment we just we don’t do the right thing, and so now we’re out. That’s not the idea of who this God is.

God is for us, he wants us to be on his side, and he is on our side, and in everything and in all things, he is working for good with us. And he wants to graciously give us all things. Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t walk away and decide we’re not going to serve God anymore. That certainly can happen. But as far as God’s concerned, he wants to bless us. He wants to graciously give, and that’s what this text is telling us here in Romans 8 31 and following. This is his desire. He wants to make the world right, and he’s going to make the world right, and he’s going to use his people. He’s going to use his servants, much like the servant in Isaiah 40 through 55 in those texts, which he actually we’re about to talk about in a minute, that’s echoed here.

He’s going to use his people as servants to accomplish his will, and he is with us in this process. And so we need to understand and believe and be convicted and devoted to the reality that God is on our side. God is for us. And while it certainly is a legitimate idea to realize that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, he is a consuming fire. That is a reality for the wicked, those who turn from him, but for those who are on his side, his steadfast love endures forever. He is loving and merciful and patient and gracious. And much of what’s being talked about here actually has to do with God’s covenant loyalty, his faithfulness to us. That’s why the text ultimately goes to the idea of God’s love and how you can’t be separated from it.

God is faithful. God is always faithful. And these stories show that. So in Genesis 22, when Abraham does exactly what God says, he’s faithful, he takes Isaac up to the mountain, he binds him, and he’s about to sacrifice him because that’s what God told him to do. And this is sort of this ultimate point in Abraham’s life where his faith is demonstrated, and God stops him and says, No, I don’t want you to do this. A ram has been provided. And the conclusion of this is that it is said on the mountain of the Lord that the Lord will provide. Trust in God. That’s part of the lesson that Abraham learns in this moment. That the Lord provides. And so we see that God is for us, both in the echo of Genesis 22 and many stories throughout the Old Testament that lead up, and they’re probably within the mind of Paul as he’s writing about this, that when we’re going through darkness and we see evil and we see the things around us that are not right, just as we read in the earlier part of the text, that’s because the world is subject to corruption.

2. Who Can Be Against Us? It Is God Who Justifies

I mean, things are not right, and we all see that things are not right. It doesn’t mean that God is not for us, quite the opposite. It means that we have an opportunity to work with God in accomplishing the justification of all things, setting all things back to right. We can work with him as his people to accomplish this, and God is for us. And here’s the next step in this if God is for us, who can be against us?

Now, Paul’s not saying here that the elect can never be opposed, or no one can ever do anything harmful to them, or that sort of thing. Again, we’re right in the middle of a text, it’s all about how that does happen. So he’s talking about something bigger than kind of the material earthly things that are going on around them. He’s trying to give them encouragement that when they face oppression or they’re ostracized, or they’re dealing with problems and culture and society around them, to realize that the ultimate victory is there. That if we are with God and God is with us, that there’s no enemy that can stand against them, there’s no enemy that can defeat them. And unlike the Psalm 44 reference, which we’ll get to in just a moment, the Genesis 22 and the Isaiah 50 references here are illusions.

They’re kind of caught up. It’s hard for you to see them in some ways in English. They’re not quoted, they don’t have quotes around them, so it’s not like readily seeable as we read through the text, but they are there. And so this whole thing that Paul does here about who shall bring any charge against God’s elect. It’s God who justifies. Who is to condemn? And he goes into this summary of the gospel. This is a reference from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament to Isaiah 50 and verse 8 and 9. It’s a text, one of the servant texts, it’s kind of the penultimate one, right? We know Isaiah 53, that’s the big one at the end, but Isaiah 50 is the one just before that.

And what’s happening here in Isaiah 50 is the servant is complaining about oppression. Right? He’s complaining about how he’s treated. He’s trying to do the will of God, he’s being faithful, he’s doing the things that God has told him to do. And yet he says, I give my back to those who strike, and my cheek to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord has helped me. Therefore, I have not been degraced, disgraced. He goes on to then reference this idea of adversaries and those who accuse. He who vindicates me is near, it says in verse 8. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

But the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? This should start sounding familiar. Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment, the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. The concepts Paul’s referencing here, and it continues on in parts of Isaiah 51, and really the whole context of the servant, is that the servant, the one who’s faithful to God, the one who’s loyal, goes through difficulty and oppression and tribulation, things even to the extent of execution. Many of the prophets in the Old Testament are treated poorly by God’s own people and ultimately murdered because they speak the word of God for his namesake.

So part of what Paul’s doing here is just the reality that we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not a sign that God is not with us when things aren’t going well. When we face darkness, when we have difficulty in our life, just like Job’s friends miss this as he’s going through suffering and difficulty, and they think this must mean that he has some problem with God. They’ve missed the idea here. And Paul in the same way is saying that’s not what this means. In fact, it’s very normal. For those who speak the words of God, those who are faithful to his covenant, those who do not turn to evil and wickedness often face difficulty in the world. But what we have to understand about this is that it is God who justifies.

It is not the world who gets to decide where we stand. Let me illustrate this in a new CEO comes in and they say, We’re changing how we’re going to do things. And they have a bunch of new things they’re going to do in the company. And of course, how are people going to feel about that? I think the immediate reaction to those sorts of things is often not super positive. You know, this guy’s going to come in here and change all sorts of stuff. But you’re on board. You see his vision, you think it’s right, you see where this can take you. And so you start doing all the things that this new leader says to do.

Hopefully, you’re starting to see kind of where this is going. Well, we’re going to start telling management, we’re going to tell the CEO what you’re doing. Good. It doesn’t matter what they think. I mean, if you if he’s listened and he has heard what this new direction is going to be, and he’s following that, and then those who don’t want to listen to it, then go and complain and accuse and try to bring accusation against him, and yet what he’s actually doing is the very thing that the president or CEO wanted to have done, how does that work? We live in a world that is growingly hostile to the things of God. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, Paul said earlier in Romans 8.

And so when they call you outdated or bigoted or misogynistic, or if they’re really deeply philosophical, patriarchal, just no, who cares? They don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. What matters is what the CEO thinks, not what rebels think. When people accuse you of being unloving or uncaring or any of these sorts of things, when you’re trying to keep the will of God and you’re trying to be faithful to what God has told you, who cares what they think? They don’t understand love. They don’t understand what’s caring. And I’ll tell you one thing, they don’t know how to fix the world’s problems. And so if they think some other method of leading and ruling, these people who will directly oppose the hierarchy that God has placed in creation, they still haven’t figured out a way to make it right.

So they can criticize and condemn all they want, but they are completely wrong and they have no answers. This is the sort of thing Paul’s talking about here. Who’s going to condemn? It’s God who justifies. Young people, when you stand against alternative lifestyles, don’t worry about what other people think. They’re wrong. God says it’s wrong. God says what’s right. It’s he who justifies, not the world around us. They’re not the arbiters of what is just and right and good in the world. And so stand with God and realize when you do that, people are going to criticize you. People are going to say that you’re bigoted or unloving or you have outdated beliefs or whatever it is. But just realize they’re not the ones you listen to.

You should just think about not that I agree with everything that Buckter said, but this guy, Harrison Buckner, man, it has been all over the place because he said moms should raise their children. Now, there’s a whole lot of other stuff in the speech that I’m sure people are really upset about. And some of the things he said, because he’s a Catholic, I definitely don’t agree with.

But the media storm that’s happened because of what he said is this very thing right here. They want to condemn and criticize and pronounce guilt on someone who, for a lot of the things he said, are actually correct from scripture. The things that they oppose the most are probably the things I agree with the most that he said. Now he said a bunch of stuff about the Catholic Church and various other things that, first of all, I don’t really know anything about, and the parts I did know about, I don’t agree with. But the things he said just from a cultural level on how we live day to day, he was correct for the most part. And he’s appealing to Scripture. And look at how the world hates him.

At least those in control of media. And how they want to make an outcry about what this guy said, about the importance of the home and how fathers and mothers, their greatest service can be in raising their children. How horrible. That’s what he said. You know that, right? What he actually said was that father’s vocation is in the home, and that a mother’s vocation is in the home. He said that for both of them, actually. Probably not what you’ve seen in clips and quotes, but that’s what he said. If you go read the whole thing. And people who don’t want to listen to the will of God hate him for it. And they hate you too. I’m not trying to be overly negative here, it’s just the reality.

That if you’re going to stand for God and His will and what He says, the people who don’t, whose minds are set on the flesh, they’re hostile to God. That’s what Paul says. It’s right here. Romans chapter 8, verse 6. The mind that is set on the flesh is death. Right? Verse 7. For the mind that is set in the flesh is hostile to God. They have no interest in the things of God. Now there’s a variety of reasons for that we’re not going to get into this morning. But don’t be surprised by that. Don’t be fooled by it. Don’t be so shocked that people who don’t want to listen to the things of God, whose minds are set on the flesh, hate the things of God, the things that God has said.

This is the natural way of things. But God will be victorious. And none of them will make any difference in the end with your standing or my standing, our standing as God’s people before him, and what’s going to happen in the final reality when God makes all things new and he brings everything back to right. All the things that they’re believing and teaching and trying to spread, those are the things God’s going to change. He’s going to make things back to right to where they’re supposed to be. They are Adam and Eve in the garden, subjecting themselves to human thoughts, going against the will of God, going after their own desires. God’s going to take all those things away and make it all right, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, where all of that kind of stuff will be taken away.

3. God Is Going to Come and Restore His People

That’s where they’ll be. To be on. It’s a battle. It’s a war. And that’s why God talks about it that way. And there’s no enemy that can stand against God. And then there is Psalm 44. Some of these seem sort of strange in terms of what they ultimately mean. Right? Because we read this quotation that Paul gives us here, for your sake, we’re being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Victory. Doesn’t quite sound like it, does it? But maybe that should tell us that the way we perceive things isn’t always accurate. You know, the results or the consequences of things that happen here don’t necessarily determine victory or success. But what Paul’s doing here is he’s actually referencing this Psalm 44, and when New Testament writers do this, they don’t intend for you to just go think about one verse.

They recognize they themselves have this broader understanding of the Old Testament, and usually the audience they’re writing to does as well. So if we sort of set Psalm 44 in its full context, it’s pretty amazing what Paul’s doing. So he’s quoting verse 22. By the way, verse 21 talks about he who searches the heart, which we’ve already seen a few verses earlier. References this one who searches the heart and knows the mind of man and knows that he’s faithful to the covenant. He’s not turned to idols and all those sorts of things. He’s trying to do the right thing. And the psalmist is not saying I’m perfect, and I never make mistakes. But what he is saying is I’m trying to do your will. And yet everything’s a mess and everything’s bad.

What’s happening? Rise up, God, come and defend your people. That’s sort of the idea there in Psalm 44. Psalm 42 and 43 really go together. They’re two psalms of lament that when you look at them literarily, you see it’s actually probably one flowing together because they have literary markers that are exactly the same. Right? Why is my heart downtrodden? Why am I depressed? The psalmist keeps asking in both of those psalms. And the answer is hope in God. Right. So the psalmist is lamenting in Psalm 42 and 43 and 44. But ultimately in 44, he’s calling God to take action. Look at the world around us, God. You are just and you’re righteous, and I’m trying to follow you. I want to be faithful. Come and defend your people and vindicate us.

But what’s amazing is that in 45 through 49, these are all written by the sons of Korah, by the way. The Psalms turn from a state of depression and sadness and gloom and lament to now one of joy and glory and victory. And often Paul does this sort of thing, as we’ve talked about earlier in Romans chapter 3, this whole thing about no one is righteous, no not one, and he quotes all these psalms, and actually the end of all of those psalms has to do with hope. It’s kind of amazing. Sort of a similar thing here where he’s referencing the section in the Psalms that is a lament. It’s it’s about being downtrodden the darkness and the evil in the world, and yet in the midst of all of that, God is going to come and restore his people.

Young people, that’s what I want you to keep asking yourself this quarter for the next six months. What kind of God do we serve? As you look at each of these stories, story after story after story. That’s really what the New Testament writers often do, actually. You know, when they’re quoting or alluding to Old Testament passages, what they want you to do is see the story. They want you to understand this is this is how God works. These are the kind of things that God does. In fact, this whole section from Romans 5 through 8, it portrays Exodus. Right? He’s talking about slavery, and he’s talking about coming through waters of baptism to new life. This should all sort of sound familiar. He’s retelling the story of Israel through Jesus and through his life and how God brings deliverance and salvation through his anointed one.

4. Nothing Can Separate Us From the Love of God

It’s just telling the stories, the same story being told over and over again with slightly different characters and people involved, all leading up to the Christ. And now in chapter 8, he’s saying this is the ultimate part of the story. Where there will be victory and there’s nobody who can take it away. And so that’s when he starts going through these lists. He lists seven threats and ten sources of those threats. And to the Jewish mind, they would have sort of seen the completedness to that, right? The significance of the number seven and the number 10. 10 is this idea of divine completeness. Number seven, as you already well know, is the number of perfection. And so they would have picked up on this, I’m convinced, that Paul lists these seven threats and these ten sources at seventy when you put them all together, and then he really summates it at the end when he says, Nor anything else and all creation, all the created things around us, all the material things that we see, none of those can separate us from the love of God.

Nothing. We will have overwhelming victory through Jesus Christ. That’s Paul’s message. And so what I really want you to understand this morning is the hope that you have through Jesus Christ. And when I say a hope, I’m not saying a wish, or maybe this will happen. And what Paul’s saying is if you are in Christ, there is now therefore no condemnation. If you are part of his people, if you’re on his side, then God is for you, and there’s no one that can overcome you. There’s nothing in all creation that can overcome you. Or as John says, no one can snatch you out of his hand. You’re on God’s side, and there’s nothing that anybody else or anything else can do to take that away from you.

And so when we view the things we see in the world, we need to understand our part in all of that, which we’ve talked about in previous sermons, how we’re working with God, who is just and justifier to bring the world back to right. And at the same time recognizing that this is the nature of how things work. That those who are against God and oppose him, they will be sources of threats. They will try to come in and take away what we have, but Paul’s message is they can’t. They can’t do it. There’s absolutely nothing they can do to take that away from you without against your will and against your power. And God is powerful to save. He will give life to all those who are in his son, just as he did with him.

Conclusion

All of this is based founded on God’s love. And when I say love here, I don’t mean like warm, fuzzy feelings. That’s not the idea. It’s the kind of love that caused God to give sacrificially his son. I doubt that felt amazing. Didn’t give him butterflies and all of that. That’s not the idea. It’s a kind of love that is about commitment and loyalty. And so Paul wants us to see here, too, that God is faithful. He’s committed. He’s loyal. He loves us. And if we understand what he’s done for us and the sacrifice that he’s made, he will graciously give us all things. The question is, whose side will I be on? Will I be on his side? Will I accept his offer? Will I heed his call?

Will I listen to the answer that he has given to fixing the problems of the world? If I’ll do that, then God’s for me. And he will bring me to completion. If you need Jesus Christ in your life this morning, we can help you with that. He’s told us what to do. If we want to leave slavery, we can die with him. And we can be buried in baptism. We’d be resurrected to newness of life. He’ll give us new life. And we can begin this process of being part of a new world, a world that’s changing under the order and the reign of the Lord’s Messiah. And you can be a part of that starting right now. Just have to commit yourself to him and submit yourself to his will.

Can we help you do that this morning? Come now as we stand and we sing together.