Rom 8.31-39

more than conquerors

(Romans 8.31-39)

Joseph Tandy

We are coming to the end of the first half of Romans, which we have been meditating on since last September.

We will then take a break in Romans which will take us to Easter.

Today ... this majestic passage from Romans 8.

There are passages in the Bible whose purpose is to depress us.

This is not one of them!

Here is our question this morning: what has the message of the good news accomplished?

Let's remember all we've seen in the last few months. What has the message of the good news achieved?

I imagine that many of us in this room would instinctively answer: What a question! This message has transformed my life! I wouldn't be here if it hadn't. What has this message accomplished? Where to start?!?

Just listening to Mariya's reading was enough to make me feel energised!

Let's allow ourselves a little moment of pessimism before diving into the treasures of this text!

If you're like me, there are times when we really ask ourselves this question - what has the message of the good news changed?

Sometimes because of our sin. "I've fallen again, I'm tired of falling back into the same old ways and dragging this weight of guilt with me! What has the message of the good news really accomplished?"

Sometimes we ask because of difficulties in life. "Lord, until when? Can't you see how I am suffering? I am at my wits' end and I am beginning to wonder if you really care about me. What has your good news accomplished for me?"

Or finally, we can ask this question in the face of what looks like failures when the good news is announced.

Before I came to Connexion, I was involved in a church plant where my efforts to share the good news of Jesus were more often than not met with indifference.

Even here we are close to 200, which is encouraging ... but compared to the population of Paris, it is still a drop in the bucket. Even if we gathered all the evangelical Christians in this city, we could quite easily fit them into a hall the size of Bercy ... and there would still be room.

What did the proclamation of the message of the good news really accomplish? What difference did it make?

God has given us Romans to fill us with confidence, assurance and joy at this question.

2000 years ago, when Romans was written, we might have had the same doubts.

When Paul took up his pen to write it, he had just spent 10 years preaching all over the eastern Roman Empire - from Jerusalem to Italy.

At the time of writing, he was preparing to move to Rome because he wanted to make the church there his base for the next phase of his mission in the western Mediterranean. He wrote Romans to convince the Christians in Rome to support him.

But looking at the results of his work, I'm not sure they would have been full of enthusiasm.

A handful of Christians here. A few dozen here. People still burdened by the same problems as everyone else. Still suffering, still sinning, still dying, while being drowned out by thousands of people, sometimes indifferent, often hostile to the message they had believed in.

What had the message of the good news really accomplished?

Even today, we sometimes ask ourselves the same question. Perhaps you are asking it this morning. I believed in Jesus. What did it change?

This passage is one of the clearest passages in the whole Bible about how good it is to be a Christian.

It tells us this.

If you believed, everything changed!

A person who has believed in this message is a person whose destiny has been radically changed, whose most fundamental problem has been solved and who is unquestionably and eternally secure!

Everyone is looking for security. Only the good news of Jesus offers it.

If we have believed, we are guaranteed that God is for us today and forever.

Let's look at this together.

This message guarantees us:

• Irrevocable justification (31-34)

• Inseparable love (35-39)

Irrevocable justification

Romans 8:31

"What more shall we say? If God is for us, who will be against us?

Paul takes us back to where it all began in Romans - in the courtroom!

You may remember that at the beginning of this series there was a trial.

God's trial against humanity.

We saw that the world's biggest problem is not global warming or the war in Ukraine, real as those problems are; it is God's righteous judgement against a guilty world.

Let's go back to Romans chapter 1 verse 18 to remind ourselves of this.

Paul says:

"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who unjustly hold the truth captive."

We had seen that everyone, including us, is guilty of saying to God more or less blatantly, "I know you're there, but I'm going to live as if you're not." So God was angry.

Let's go forward a few pages - chapter 3 verse 19. Paul says that before the judgment seat of God "every mouth is stopped" and "everyone is convicted before God".

We had nothing more to say in our defence. The guilt of mankind was obvious.

Let's go back to Romans 8.

This morning's passage puts us back before that same court, not to condemn us, but to remind us of all that Jesus has done for us!

Paul asks three questions:

Who will be against us?

Who will accuse us?

And who will condemn us?

To all these questions, we could answer ... many people and many things!

Who will be against us? Many people can be! Satan is! Our sin-corrupted bodies are! God should be!

Who will accuse us? Men can do it! Satan does it! Our conscience does it too!

Who will condemn us? Human courts can do it! Our society can do it. God especially would have every reason to do it!

Paul knew this.

In the course of his ministry he had faced all kinds of accusations, had been called a dangerous blasphemer, and had had to defend himself in court several times.

He also knew his past and present sin. Like us, his conscience could accuse him, others could accuse him, the devil could accuse him.

Paul knew very well that we are not without adversaries or accusers.

But ... thanks to the death of Jesus on the cross, it does not matter!

God ... has spoken in our favour ...!

So what does everything else matter!

In some countries there is a Supreme Court which is the highest legal body.

It has the last word. When it decides, there is nothing more to say.

Here Paul places us before the real Supreme Court - the court of God.

The supreme judge is God himself, and when he decides, that is the final word.

Verse 31

What more shall we say then? If God be for us, who shall be against us?

It is not that if God is for us, no one can be against our professional success or our search for Mr or Mrs Perfect.

Rather, this verse means that when the supreme judge has decided, that is the final word!

The matter is settled.

The Supreme Judge has ruled.

"Righteous!"

"Perfect."

"Completely in line with justice."

This is his verdict on those who have believed in Jesus.

God has erased my name from the indictment against me for all the shameful things I have done, said or thought in my life, and written the name of Jesus instead.

I, the real culprit, have been pronounced as righteous as Jesus ... by God ... the supreme judge.

Verse 33

"Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? It is God who declares them righteous!"

If even God, ... he who would have every reason to accuse us ... he who is not only the supreme judge but also the offended party ... if even God declares us just, what is any other accusation worth? Nothing!

It is as if Paul turned to the universe and said: the supreme judge has given his verdict. It is favourable.

Does anyone else object?

Yes, someone will say, but how do I know that one day I won't do something so bad that God will change his mind?

Verse 34 -

"Who will condemn us? Christ has died, much more, he has risen, he is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us!"

Christ is today with his Father.

And he is constantly saying to him: Look at my pierced hands! Remember! I took his indictment! I served his sentence. You will not punish the same sins twice!

Your verdict is therefore irrevocable! It cannot be withdrawn.

And since it is irrevocable, since God considers us righteous, as righteous as Jesus, we have nothing more to fear!

Verse 32 -

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him for us all, how can he not also grant us everything with him?"

If God so loved us as to give up his beloved Son to death ...

If by this death our punishment is purged ...

If God considers us just ...

And that this verdict is final...

What will prevent him from giving us "all with him"?

God did not shed the blood of his Son for nothing!

Not a single drop of that blood was wasted.

He shed it precisely so that he could give us all the other treasures to which it entitled.

An incredible legacy in the perfect world to come...and in the meantime, everything we need to get through the journey.

We are totally safe.

The message of the good news guarantees us irrevocable justification.

This is an incredible turning point.

Since Adam and Eve, there has always been only one verdict on humanity: guilty.

This is the verdict that, by default, still hangs over every person who enters this world.

The history of the people of Israel was a thousand year long attempt to get a new trial with a better verdict.

At the end of the thousand years, the judge had ruled again - still guilty. Israel was sent into exile.

But now the message of the good news offers a new verdict for the first time.

Just.

I can stand before God's throne of judgment, and know that I am safe.

No one else can offer that!

Other religions try to do this ... to no avail.

Secular humanism, the dominant doctrine in our society, only makes things worse by denying God's judgment.

But the good news of Jesus fulfils the humanly impossible.

We can be declared righteous, know that God is therefore for us and that he will never change his mind.

How does it feel to know that God is for us?

If you're like me, you probably find it hard to believe.

You think about your week, you look into your heart, you see what's inside, and you think: if I were God, would I be for him? I'm not sure.

And if I myself am not convinced, well, God is much more demanding than I am.

If I asked you - are you on good terms with God? - how would you answer?

Yes - fine.

No. Not good.

Or if I asked you if you could say with certainty that if you were to die today, that you would go to heaven, what would you say?

Yeah...

Or maybe I couldn't tell you.

Or maybe it's simply: Can we really know?

Maybe we function with an idea of God like a schoolmaster whose patience is always close to running out.

Indulgent with the good students but overall unsatisfactory with most of us most of the time.

But God is not a schoolmaster.

He is the judge. The supreme Judge who pulls the strings of the universe, and that Judge has already given his verdict. Through the death of Jesus, he is for us.

I ask if sometimes we are so afraid of the prosperity gospel and its idea that God wants to give us Rolexes and Lamborghinis, that we don't embrace this truth - God, he really is for us.

Even if our emotions say otherwise, even if other people say otherwise, even if our circumstances suggest otherwise, God is on our side ... if we have believed in Jesus.

God never treats us as we deserve, but always, without exception, as his son deserves.

Please meditate on this this week.

What has the message of the good news accomplished?

It guarantees us irrevocable justification.

Since it guarantees us that, it also guarantees us an inseparable love.

An inseparable love

OK - you say. God has declared us righteous if we have believed in Jesus.

So how come I keep suffering?

It doesn't seem to make sense. God is good, God loves me, and I suffer.

But how is that possible?! It seems as if we are swimming in contradictions.

Is it that God does not control what happens to us? The whole Bible teaches the opposite!

I remember a friend of mine, who had gone through a major relationship trauma, telling me that if the Bible were true, this ordeal should not have happened to him.

He concluded that God didn't really love him.

Here's the thing: God says he loves us, but sometimes it seems like it's just talk.

We look at our circumstances, and God doesn't really seem to be for us

Pause

The theme of verses 35-39 is the love of God.

But if the theme is love, the setting is still the courtroom.

Paul has just said that if God the supreme judge has given his verdict, and that verdict is favourable, we are definitely acquitted.

What happens in a court of law after the verdict has been given?

If the verdict is negative, the judge pronounces the sentence. He imposes a sentence.

The same thing happens in the Bible.

After Adam and Eve are found guilty, God announces the sentence. They are expelled from the garden. Separated from him.

When Israel, after 1000 years of rebellion, is found guilty, God pronounces the same sentence. They are exiled. Separated from him.

The sentence on humanity in the Bible is always the same - separation from God.

In these verses, the language of separation and exile is everywhere.

Paul asks in verse 35 if tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, destitution, or peril and sword could separate us from the love of God.

All the words recall the punishments God sent on Israel in the Old Testament when they sinned.

It begs the question.

To the extent that we go through these same trials, is it a sign that God no longer loves us?

Is it possible, once God has decided in our favour, that we can still be separated from him?

And what do we do when our experiences give us that impression?

Paul begins by saying that suffering has always been the lot of God's people.

In verse 36 he quotes a psalm which tells of a defeat in battle of the people of Israel.

There are many passages that tell of Israel's defeats, but the special thing about this one, Psalm 44, is that it tells of a defeat that comes when the people had done nothing wrong.

In fact, not only have they done nothing wrong. But they are clearly under attack for belonging to God.

The verse Paul quotes says,

"For your sake we are being put to death all day long."

They are suffering for their faithfulness to God.

And I think what Paul is saying is that we have a right to find this bordering on incoherence.

The next verse in the psalm says,

"Why do you sleep Lord? Wake up!”

Would you have the audacity to pray like that? God, stop sleeping!

Your people are innocent and yet they suffer. It doesn't make sense.

Paul quotes this psalm to show that suffering has always been the lot of God's people, and that we have always struggled to understand why, since God loves us.

So does this mean that God is indeed inconsistent?

Verse 37

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Nice formula.

What does it mean?

And why more than conquerors? Why not just "overcomers"?

"Overcomers", we understand.

Think back to the French football team's run at the World Cup five years ago.

A smooth start with two wins and a draw in the group stage.

Then that incredible victory against Argentina in the round of 16.

The elimination of Uruguay in the quarters.

Then the match against Belgium where the French were struggling and yet won.

Finally, the final against Croatia.

Victory!

That's what winning is all about.

The scale of the event.

The cost paid.

The strength of the opponents.

That is what being a winner is all about.

To be more than victorious means that the trial is not only overcome; it becomes our servant!

The adversary is not only defeated; he helps us.

The closest image is the one that Paul used earlier in this same chapter that Eduardo explained to us - childbirth.

A woman who gives birth experiences intense pain. Having witnessed the birth of one of my children at home on my bed, I can testify to this!

But these pains remind her that something marvellously beautiful is coming!

The same goes for the Christian.

To be more than conquerors is not simply that God helps us through our trials.

It is that the trial serves us because it reminds us of the wonderful hope that awaits us.

Look at verse 35.

What can distress, anguish, persecution or hunger do to someone whom God has already declared righteous?

They can hurt him.

They can weigh heavily.

But what they cannot do is rob him of his hope - the new creation.

Unemployment can put us in an economically precarious situation ... but it cannot take away the inheritance that Jesus earned for us.

Depression may dampen our spirits ... it does not take away from what Jesus has gained for us.

In fact the heavier the trial, the more it will make us long for the day when God will wipe away all tears and remove all sadness!

And what is the worst these things could do to us?

They could kill us! They could put us in a coffin.

Question - how effective a way is this to separate us from the love of God?

In no way at all! It would only hasten our arrival home!

Far from meaning that God does not love us, these trials, however hard they may be, simply mean that God is bringing us home.

Far from being our enemies, they are now our servants.

My unemployment.

My depression.

The celibacy that weighs on me.

My health problems or the precariousness I am going through.

These are all reminders that my future with Jesus is both guaranteed and glorious.

There is a kind of divine irony.

These things that might make you think you are defeated, actually mean the opposite.

The Christian burdened by illness, unable to enjoy life - is he beaten?

The Christian dismissed for witnessing to his faith - is he defeated?

The missionary killed for preaching the good news - is he defeated?

On the face of it, it seems so.

"On the contrary, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

And the God who makes this promise, who went so far as to give his Son for us, is not going to go back on his word.

If he has already given us the biggest, the hardest, the most precious ... then the rest is a fortiori acquired too!

God did not deliver his Son to death for us, only to forget us along the way.

We are loved with a love from which nothing and no one can cut us off.

Verse 38

"For I am confident 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 creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord."

What are we afraid of?

Of illness?

Of what will happen to our professional situation?

Of never finding a spouse?

Of death?

If we believe in the good news of Jesus, none of these things will have the last word on our lives.

Not death

Not life

Not the present

Not the future

None of what we see.

Nothing we can't see.

Nothing in the whole universe.

We can be touched, but never sunk. :-)

We're like invincible.

You see, if you are a Christian, you can lose everything in this life. You can lose your health, you can lose your reputation and you can even lose your life.

It's no accident, I think, that the kinds of suffering Paul mentions include both the suffering common to all human beings, and the suffering specific to Christians who witness to their faith - persecution, danger and the sword.

One can lose everything.

But in the final analysis, one cannot lose. The Christian cannot lose.

Because on the last day it will not be death that has the last word but the love of our God.

I don't know what your daily life is like.

Maybe it's hard right now, and if it's not hard, it will probably be hard one day.

But if God is for us, then nothing and no one can separate us from his love, nor take away the hope of being with him one day.

So ... what has the message of the good news accomplished?

Our absolute and eternal security!

We are the irrevocably justified and inseparably loved people.

Romans was written to fill our hearts with joy, zeal and assurance by showing us all that the message of the good news produces.

This security that Jesus offers, many seek but never find.

In money, in relationships, in human religions - all things that will sooner or later fail.

But if you have the message of the good news of Jesus, you have not only the security you need, but also the security the world needs.

When Paul sought to mobilise for his missionary project, that's what he wanted the church in Rome to understand, and even today, that's what he wants the Connection church to understand.

Our message guarantees absolute and eternal security to anyone who receives it.

A final word for anyone here who realizes that they do not have this security because they have not yet believed in Jesus Christ. This security is for you, if you are ready to take it. In a moment I will explain how.

Before that, I simply propose that we read the passage one last time.

What more shall we say then? If God is for us, who will be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him for us all, how can he not also grant us everything with him? 33 Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? It is God who declares them righteous! 34 Who will condemn them? Christ has died, but more than that, he has risen, and is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Shall distress, anguish, persecution, hunger, want, danger or the sword separate us? 36 For it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long, we are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.

37 On the contrary, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am confident that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord.