“If God is for us”

[Romans 8:31-39]

God loves me and you.  Because of His love, God chose us in advance (predestination) (Rom.8:29, 30), who knew in advance (foreknowledge) (v. 29).  And God called us, the chosen ones, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and made us believe in Jesus amidst the inspiration, influence, and works of the Holy Spirit, and thus called us righteous (justification).  And God has given us who have been called righteous eternal hope.  That eternal hope is the glory that will be revealed to us in the future (v. 18), the redemption of our body (v. 23), and the glory of resurrection.  In other words, God will glorify us in the future (v. 30).  This is God's will for us who love Him (v. 27).  As God accomplishes this will, God the Holy Spirit also dwells in us who believe in Jesus and continues to pray with inexpressible groanings for His will to be fulfilled (vv. 26-27).  In this way, if the Holy Spirit personally prays for God's will to be done with inexpressible groans, will not Heavenly Father answer that prayer?  Paul was confident that God's will would be done.  Therefore, he wrote a letter to the saints in Rome with this conviction and said in the first half of Romans 8:31 – “What then shall we say to these things?  …”  Because Paul knew God's unchanging and faithful love, he said that we have nothing to say in saving His children whom God loves and chooses.  Why?  Why did Paul say that neither he nor the saints in Rome have anything to say?  The reason was because he was sure (because there was no doubt at all) that God would definitely accomplish what He intended and planned for salvation.  In this conviction, Paul goes on to Romans 8:31b and says: “…  If God is for us, who is against us?”  Here in the Korean Bible, “If” is written, so it can be heard as saying that God may or may not be for us.  Rather, it is more appropriate to translate ‘Since God is for us’ (MacArthur).  Today, I would like to receive three lessons about what kind of assurance we must live in, “If God is for us,” that is, God is for you and me.  I hope and pray that you and I will live with these 3 assurances.

First, since God is for us, we must live with the assurance of victory.

Look at Romans 8:31 – “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?”  Paul is saying, ‘Who will be against us?’ since God is for us.  This does not mean that we do not have adversaries.  The Scripture clearly says that we, the children of God, have an adversary.  Our adversary is “Satan.”  In Hebrew, the word “Satan” means “the adversary.”  Satan opposes God and also opposes God's people, me and you who believe in Jesus.  So the apostle Peter exhorts: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him, firm in your faith, ….”  Obviously, Satan exists.  And Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  Who will he devour? It is me and you who believe in Jesus, the people of God.  In other words, Satan is prowling around to devour us who belong to God.  And he is trying in any way to seduce us and make us commit sins.  What should we do? Of course, we must resist Satan.  And in order to resist Satan, we must be sober and awake.  How can we resist Satan while sleeping spiritually?  In order to resist Satan, we must stand firm in our faith.  In what faith must we stand firm?  Since God is for us, we must engage in the spiritual battle with the conviction (belief) that God will surely fight Satan and give us victory.  How can we have this assurance of victory?  The answer is today's text, as Romans 8:32 says: “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?”  The reason why we can have the assurance of victory is because God loved us and did not spare Jesus, His only begotten Son, and gave us up to die on the cross.  We can have the assurance of victory because of God who loves us even to the point of allowing His only begotten Son to die on the cross.  The more we feel God's love, the more we can have the assurance of victory with complete trust in God.  In particular, when we look with faith to the victorious Jesus who overcame Satan and death on the cross, we can have the assurance of victory.  That God even gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, for our salvation. ‘Will He not freely give us everything along with his Son (Jesus)?’ (v. 32)  Won't God give us everything so that we can win our spiritual warfare?  Since God, who gives us everything as gifts, loves us and chooses us and justifies us, how can we not glorify Him?  God is for you and me.  Since God with us, who will be against us? (v. 31)  With this attitude of faith, let us all advance boldly and courageously with the assurance of victory.

Second, since God is for us, we must live with the assurance of forgiveness.

Look at Romans 8:33 – “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies.”  Since God is for us, Paul dares to say, ‘Who can bring charges against God’s elect’ (v. 33).  In other words, the Scripture says, ‘Who is the one who condemns?’ (v. 34) since God is with us.  God, the Judge, has justified us who believe in Jesus whom He loved, chose, and called.  Who can accuse and condemn us?  Neither Satan nor anyone else can condemn us.  Therefore, we should not condemn ourselves either.  Why?  There are 2 reasons for this.

• The first reason is that God justified us (vv. 33, 34).

This word means that through the death of Jesus on the cross, God has forgiven all our sins.  Because we who believe in Jesus have all our sins forgiven by the precious blood of Jesus, no one can condemn us.  And no one can condemn us because we have been justified by the resurrection of Jesus.  In particular, for us who believe in Jesus, since Jesus' righteousness, not our own, has already been imputed, no one can say that we are guilty or that we have sinned.  Therefore no one can say we must die forever as punishment.  Think about it.  If the highest judge in the highest court judged not guilty, who can condemn it?  So, Paul already said this: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

• The second reason is that Christ Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God, is interceding to Heavenly Father for us (v. 34).

In other words, Jesus, who is righteous, sits at the right hand of God and whenever we commit a sin, He goes before Heavenly Father to defend for us (1 Jn. 2:2).  And when Jesus pleads for us, the evidence is His own precious blood shed on the cross.  We, the children of God who have received atonement through the blood of Jesus, Jesus went before Heavenly Father and pleaded and defended us, so that Satan or anyone else could not condemn us.  Therefore, we must freely lead a life of faith with the assurance of forgiveness from God in Christ Jesus.  No one can condemn me or you.  It is God who justifies, but who can call us sinners and condemn us like those who will perish forever?  We must not condemn ourselves or ourselves.  Even when we have sinned, we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross, confess our sins, and repent.  We have the assurance of forgiveness by believing in Jesus Christ, the Advocate who sits at the right hand of God and pleads for us.  We must enjoy a life of true freedom in faith.

Third and last, since God is for us, we must live with the assurance of love.

                      Look at Romans 8:35 – “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”  How do you hear this word of God, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?"  It is the word of God that I personally will never forget.  The reason is that after the first baby Charis fell asleep (died), the late Pastor Ike Kim wrote Romans 8:35-39 among the contents of a letter handwritten with a ballpoint pen.  I still remember the words of Romans 8:35-39.  Verses 38-39 are especially comforting to my heart: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Paul confidently states that not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Even the death of my beloved baby Charis cannot separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.  No tribulation, hardship, persecution, or anything else can separate you and me from God's love.  No matter what happens in this world, even death, cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  No matter how much Satan and his followers oppose and condemn the true believers in Jesus, they can never separate us from God's love, the love of Jesus Christ.  In that love, God will eventually glorify us who He has chosen, called, and justified.  In other words, God will complete the redemption of our body.  In other words, God's love is what provides the stability of our salvation.  So, Paul is saying, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

                God loves us and is for us.  God is for us until He gave up his only begotten Son, Jesus, on the cross for us.  Therefore, we must live boldly with the assurance of salvation, the assurance of victory, the assurance of forgiveness, and the assurance of love.  God is for us, who can be against us?  Who can condemn us?  Who can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?