Last Sunday we enumerated some of the many sights and
sounds that people will hear this Christmas season in an effort to introduce
what we looked at in Romans 8:26-30. Today I want to ask where you might find yourself over the next few weeks. What
contexts will you endorse this holiday season? Some of you may make trips to
different cities and find yourself in an airport, or in a car. Others of you
may spend time at home. Many might find themselves at the mall, in line at the
register, seated in an auditorium for a performance, outside at a live
nativity, inside by a warm fire. Wherever we are, the hope is (right) that we
are enjoying the time of year and celebrating what is most important… J Easier said than done!
Especially when your flight is delayed, the car begins to make a weird noise, the
store runs out of that must-have item, the line for checkout stretches for a
quarter mile, the performance doesn’t meet your expectations, its frigid
outside, and the fire won’t light. Instead of the season looking like the end
of It’s a Wonderful Life, it becomes more like National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation. Instead of James Stewart embracing the little girl and bells awarding
angels their wings, we are Chevy Chase falling off the latter and being locked
up in the attic!
The Christian life (in the Spirit), is much the same way. We
have every intention of growing in Christ, persevering to the end, and seeing
to it that others are reached no matter where God leads us and yet sometimes we
find ourselves in places/situations that seem more like inhibitions than
opportunities. Thankfully, Paul provides us with an inspiring passage that
carries us through the end of Romans (Romans 8:31-39). There we witness four contexts
in which the victory of God is realized in the life of a believer.
1) The
Battlefield-8:31-“…What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who
is against us?...”
Throughout Romans 8, Paul has carefully described what life
is like for those who are “in the Spirit.” So far he has revealed that those
who are in the Spirit enjoy freedom (1-17), persevering hope (18-25), and
victory in Christ (26-30). As Paul has delineated this reality, he has also claimed
that those in the Spirit enjoy status as adopted sons and daughters of God
(8:15), an inheritance as heirs (8:17), and the assurance of hope that comes
from the guarantee of the Spirit. Believers have also been reminded that
because they are in the Spirit, they cannot lose when it comes to prayer or
their own salvation.
As chapter 8 comes to a close Paul discusses several
different contexts in which believers enjoy these blessings, their status, and
the victories involved therein. The first context that Paul chooses to deal
with is the context of the battlefield that is this world. Paul asks in verse
31-“What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” In
other words, if God is going to provide freedom, hope, victory, adoption,
inheritance, and assurance of salvation, who or what should intimidate the
people of God? The answer is a resounding No One!
Make no mistake, life is a battlefield.
Ephesians 6:10ff-“Finally, be strong in the Lord and
in the strength of HIs might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be
able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places.”
1 Peter 1:6-“In this you greatly rejoice, even though
now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
Paul’s point in Romans 8 is that even in this battlefield,
believers can know victory and enjoy the blessings that he has labored to
enumerate in this compelling chapter of Scripture. Paul therefore agrees with
what Jesus said in John 16:33--“these things I have spoken to you, so that in
Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I
have overcome the world.”
Because Jesus has overcome the world and all battlefields
therein, He is capable of assuring the blessings contained in this chapter for
His children as they traverse the same theatres of war. None can stand against
Him or those who are in the Spirit!
2) The
Storehouse-8:32-“…He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over
for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?...”
To this end, it follows naturally that those who endure this
warfare need to be adequately supplied. This too is guaranteed by the Lord in
verse 32—“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all,
how will not also with Him freely give us all things?” Here, Paul employs an
argument from the greater the lesser—“A God who sacrificed his own Son on our
behalf will certainly not withhold that which by comparison is merely trivial”
(Mounce, 190). In other words, if God is willing to bestow His greatest grace
for his children—His Son—surely he will also bestow every other grace needed to
endure to the end. After all, “God is by nature a giving God” (Mounce, 190).
Psalm 31:19-“How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear
You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons
of men!”
Those in the Spirit not only know blessing and victory in the
context of the battlefield, they know blessing and victory whenever they go to
the storehouse of God’s grace for in that storehouse is an consistent abundance
of God’s goodness ready to be bestowed.
3) The
Courtroom-8:33-34
Believers also enjoy God’s victory and blessings in the courtroom—that
is the courtroom of spiritual judgment. Paul asks “Who is able to bring charges
against God’s elect?” (8:33). The verb “to bring a charge against” means “to
bring serious…accusations against someone, with the possible connotation of a
legal or court context” (Louw Nida). Certainly, the world and the devil himself
would love more than to bring charges against the people of God. In fact, in
Revelation 12:10 Satan is called the “accuser of the brethren.” One example of
this is found in Job.
Job 1:8-11-“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you
considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a
blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.’ Then Satan
answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge
about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed
the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put
forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will sure curse You to Your
face.’”
Like a prosecuting attorney in a court, the devil and the
world system would love more than to indict the people of God.
However, the question “Who will bring a charge against God’s
elect?” must be answered negatively when one considers the rest of the
verse—“God is the one who justifies” (8:33b). When the devil draws up
accusations against those who are in Christ, it falls on deaf ears. The gavel
has already fallen in the case against God’s people and the Lord has found them
righteous—acquitting them from all wrongdoing and rendering them justified in
His sight.
This idea is supported by Paul in verse 24 when he takes
things one step further. If the devil and the world can no longer bring charges
against God’s people, certainly they cannot convict them either. “Who is the
one who condemns?” Paul wonders. The clear answer is no one. As Paul has
already articulated earlier in this chapter, “Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). But why is this? Paul
provides the answer in the rest of the verse—“Christ Jesus is He who died, yew,
rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes
for us,…” (8:34b).
In this single verse 3 reasons are given for why followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ are not condemned and therefore enjoy victory in the
courtroom of life. First, Jesus died, thereby paying the penalty/suffering the
condemnation that all deserve. Through faith in Jesus Christ, believers have
the satisfaction of the atonement Jesus provided on the cross applied to them.
In other words, because He suffered the condemnation, believers do not have to.
Second, and even better, Jesus rose again, indicating that He was a worthy
sacrifice to begin with and victorious over sin and death. Therefore his
followers enjoy the same liberation from the same condemnation. Third, and
probably best, now alive, Jesus acts as the believer’s advocate before the
throne of God. In other words, while Satan might serve in the courtroom as
prosecutor against the people of God, Jesus acts as the believer’s defense
attorney, pleading their case in a most convincing way. Only He can say before
God, my client (those in the Spirit), are acquitted—I’ve suffered their penalty
already and demonstrated my worthiness to do so by overwhelming condemnation
altogether.
Praise the Lord that believers do not have to fear
accusation and/or condemnation before God! Instead, they know victory in God’s
courtroom!
4) The
Marriage-8:35-39
The final context in which the believer enjoys victory and
blessing might be illustrated best as the marriage—that is the marriage between
the church (the bride) and Christ (the bridegroom). Though this isn’t explicit
in Romans 8, Paul and others illustrate these two parties in this way elsewhere
in his writings.
John
3:29-“The one who
has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and
hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of
mine is now complete.”
Ephesians 5:25-“Husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”
Revelation 19:7-9-“’Let
us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has
come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe
herself with fine linen, bright and pure’— for the fine linen is the righteous
deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those
who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These
are the true words of God.’”
With this analogy in mind, we can read the remainder of
Romans 8 and appreciate what it has to say about the deep connection that is
enjoyed between those in the Spirit (the bride) and Christ (the groom). First,
Paul asks “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or word?...”
(8:35). Again, as with most of the question in this passage, the answer is
clearly “nothing”—nothing can separate God’s people from his love.
Here, the context of marriage provides us with an
illustration of this phenomenon. Typically, during a marriage ceremony, the
bride and groom exchange vows. As part of these vows, the two parties of the
marriage promise their persevering love to each other, even in sickness,
poverty, until death do them part. Here, Jesus love for his bride is said to
withstand “…tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or word?...” (8:35). In other words, God’s love for those in the
Spirit follows them even in the worst seasons of life, providing them with all of the blessings that come with a
meaningful relationship with Him.
This is important to remember given what Paul reminds the
church of next. He continues by saying “Just as it is written, ‘For your sake
we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be
slaughtered’” (8:36). Paul understood what it was like to endure difficult
times. He was beaten on several occasions within an inch of his life,
imprisoned, shipwrecked, etc. In enduring these circumstances, Paul followed in
the footsteps of Jesus who was betrayed, whipped, and crucified. In fact, every
follower of Jesus should expect, to some degree or another, a path of ridicule,
humiliation, and suffering. After all, this is only natural for those who
follow the one who was crucified on the cross. It is one of the ways in which
believers grow more like Him. Just as He was a sheep led to the slaughter,
those who take up their cross daily and follow Him can expect the same path.
However, this is no cause for alarm. As God’s love endures
even the worst of all circumstances in the context of a believer’s spiritual
marriage to Christ, “in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him
who loved us” (8:37). The unbroken relational bond believers enjoy with Jesus
provides them with victory and blessing as they follow Christ’s even to the
point of great suffering and death (that is if it be required of them). The
word “conquer” means to prevail over completely. Put differently, the victory
believers enjoy in their relationship with Jesus is overwhelming.
Given the presence of this overwhelming victory that is
enjoyed in the context of the believer’s spiritual marriage to Christ, it ought
to come as no surprise that Paul would conclude by making the case that nothing
can separate the bride and the groom.'
Paul is “convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39). In other words,
no life event, no matter how final, no spiritual being, no matter how
intimidating, no matter what what’s past may hold, no matter how shady, no
matter what the world has in store for tomorrow, no matter how epic, no matter
what space may seem to exist at any given moment between believers and God,
NOTHING can severe love that God has for his children. Why? Because they are “in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Though I typically do not give this invitation in the
weddings that I conduct, in a traditional ceremony the pastor will often say
near the beginning of the ceremony “If any can give just cause for why these
two should not be joined together, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Most
of the time, no one speaks up and the ceremony continues uninterrupted. The
same is true of God’s people—no one, nothing can provide any reason for there
to ever be any separation of love between Jesus and His bride—the church (i.e.
those in the Spirit).
So What?
Though we are all gathered together in the context of this
church this morning, I wonder what context some of you will enter upon leaving
this place later this afternoon. Some of you may be heading into a battlefield—a
conflict at home or at work, persecution, or some internal struggle. Perhaps
after being filled by the fellowship that God will allowed today and the Word that
has gone forth, some experience will require much of you leaving you looking
for the storehouse for what it is that you need to make it through another week.
Maybe you will find yourself under attack, accused, and near-prosecuted for
your faith. Your weirdness for Jesus may make those around you uncomfortable.
Perhaps some in your vicinity are hoping to catch you in some kind of process crime
so that they can indict you for hypocrisy. In whatever context you may find
yourself, know today, you who are in Christ and living in the Spirit, that the
victory of God and His blessings go ahead of you and with you! If God is for
you, who can be against you? If God gave you His son, why should we ever expect
to hold back what we need (according to His will)? Charges against God’s
clients? What charges? All has been paid in full! The battle of life, the needs
we run across, and the case against us is no match for the victory believers
have in Christ. He is the victorious general, the affluent provider, the bullet-proof
defense, and He is ours! His love and affections are for us and nothing can
separate us from that! Praise the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment