2.21.21 Romans 8:31–39
31 What then will we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? 33 Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies! 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! 35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 Just as it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is For Us, So the Losers are the Winners
When Tom Brady recently won his seventh ring, all of his fans were adamant. “Tom Brady is the greatest of all time!” If you happen to mention any other quarterback who has a better throwing percentage or has more touchdown to interception ratio, you will quickly be shot down and told, “Seven Superbowls, more than any franchise in NFL history! End of story!” I hope I don’t alienate too many Michigan fans, but being a Packer and a Chiefs fan, I was cheering against him. Unfortunately, he beat me. You won. We lost. I’m still kind of salty about it. But such is life.
I use this as an illustration because I think it is kind of a neat illustration for God and us. God is FOR us, but many people are AGAINST us, as Christians. They WANT us to LOSE. They don’t like our morality. They don’t like our hypocrisy. They don’t like our theology. The devil is AGAINST us. Sometimes we are even against OURSELVES, our own worst enemies. Even when you are on the same team with someone, there can be rivalries and jealousies. You want to win the game, and you can have a great game, but your teammates can still end up angry at you if you got more minutes than they did or if you got the winning shot and they didn’t. It’s hard to find a UNIFIED team where everyone wants everyone else to succeed for the good of the TEAM. So even Christians can be jealously against each other unfortunately. And it even seems that sometimes GOD has it out for us too. At least that’s what the devil wants you to think. But that’s not what Paul says. God is FOR us, not against us. And that ought to make all the difference in the world. After all, He is God, the ALMIGHTY God.
What does it mean to be FOR us? When Cindy Schlosser recently died, I especially felt badly for her grandchildren, because she had such an active interest in them. She wanted them to succeed. Did you have a parent or grandparent like that? Someone who wanted you to succeed? Someone who paid for your lessons? Someone who went to your games even though you were a mediocre athlete, actress, student at best? It’s hard to find, but it’s great when you have someone whom you know is FOR you.
God is for us. He isn’t against us. He doesn’t want us to be damned. He wants us to be saved. God didn’t just give us money to take lessons. He didn’t just cheer us on from the sidelines. Lent shows how He actually came down here to take on the battle and do the work FOR us. Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? God came here to live our life and suffer our death for us; to take on our hell for us.
Who could be included in the US? Look at that beautiful word all. He gave Him up for us ALL. So there’s not ANYONE that God doesn’t want to be saved. That means He must want me too, if I’m part of all. If you think back to the Tom Brady illustration. He’s easy to cheer for in some senses. Nice looking guy. Family man. Somewhat conservative I think. He’s good at what he does, there’s no doubt. You have reasons to cheer for him. He’s not a loser. But then when we look at ourselves? WHY on EARTH would God want to be for US? The devil points at us and says, “Why do you cheer for these losers? You give them angels. You protect them from evil. Yet they still worry! You give them the Word, but they don’t read it! You give them ways out of temptation, and they don’t take them! They stink!” And to be honest, he’s right. Many of the accusations are true. We give into temptations. We don’t pray like we should. We like to complain. We like to give up. Even though we have His Holy Spirit, and even though He rules this world in a way that should make it easier for us, we don’t fight against the world and our sinful flesh like we could or should. There are people that would make a lot better Christians than I am. There are people that could do a lot more for God than I am doing. It doesn’t seem to make sense!
That’s the beauty of God’s grace. He doesn’t need a reason, other than that He is a gracious God who wants to save people who DON’T deserve it. I fail a lot! Yet He put a big investment into me. He put His LIFE into me. He put His DEATH into me, all so that I could be forgiven. That’s quite a thing, to go through death and hell for someone.
What’s more than that?!? He doesn’t give us just SOME things. He gives us ALL things. He stacks the deck in a sense. He runs the world in such a way that it all works out for our good. He referees this world and directs it so that we will be declared not guilty at the Final Judgment. Have you ever watched a game where you are sure that the refs have it out for your team? No matter how much you scream, you NEVER get the calls. It’s like the game is rigged. So the devil is on the other side, doing everything he can to make sure we fail. Yet he KNOWS that God is protecting us. He knows that God is giving us strength through the suffering. It must drive him crazy! But the devil doesn’t give up. He doesn’t quit fighting. He just gets dirtier. He will use lies, cheap shots, anything he can do to get us to fall. He doesn’t cheer for anyone. He just wants everyone to fail. He hates us all. It’s not FAIR, he says. But LISTEN to what Paul says. “Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect?” Nobody can. He simply won’t listen to it. He won’t listen to it from you or the devil.
Why not? God is the one who justifies! 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! You think of when a prosecuting attorney loses a lower court decision, he then appeals to a higher court, all the way up to the Supreme Court. Well, there is no more Supreme Court than God! And He already judged Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world. He already declared that this one payment would be enough. More than that, He raised Jesus from the dead, which is proof that that was what God the judge wanted to see happen. God makes the laws. God decides the payments. God makes the verdicts. There’s no higher court to go to. He’s made up His mind. He decided to give it to people forgiveness and grace to people free of charge, through baptism and through faith. He decided to die for wicked and sinful people. There is no one else to take the case to. Nobody else will listen to it. He’s it. If He declares you not guilty, then that’s all there is. The gavel has swung. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, the verdict was declared. Not guilty.
That’s the part even we have a hard time believing. Time and again we drudge up our past. Time and again we suffer for the sins and mistakes we still do today! We suffer from sickness. We suffer from death. The devil is constantly harassing us. We don’t feel like we are special in any way. We feel as if life were cursed. But here’s where Paul turns everything on its head.
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 Just as it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I think of the Rocky movie where he was purposely getting hit in the head by one of his opponents. One of his coaches was yelling at him to get out of there. But his other coach said that it was all part of his ploy, getting hit in the head only made him angrier so that he would fight back. It seemed like a strange strategy, but it worked for Rocky.
This isn’t a movie, this is real life. But God works it out in His own way. He allows us to get slaughtered and put to death. He allows us to go through trouble and distress and famine and nakedness and danger and sword. Look at the history of the Christian church. We’ve been spoiled up to this point in America. And I can almost guarantee you it is going to get worse. But that’s a good thing! It’s a good thing when it drives us back to God, gets us praying more, gets us coming to worship more, gets us clinging to Jesus more, gets us looking forward to getting rescued from this world. One of the most interesting verses in the Bible to me is Amos 4 where the prophet says to the Israelites,
6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. 7 “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. 8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. 9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. 10 “I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. 11 “I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
Now most people would logically look at this and say, “Well, what did you EXPECT? You treated them like garbage and you wanted them to come TO you?” God answers, “YES!” That’s how He gets us to repent. That’s how He gets us to beg for mercy. That’s how He gets us to look to HIM for strength instead of ourselves. It’s when things are going WELL for us that we so often desert Him as the Israelites did. So the ironic thing is that when God wants to save us He has to allow us to go through awful times. He really shows He is FOR us when it appears most that He is AGAINST us. And that, my friends, takes FAITH to believe that God WANTS us when He seems to be chasing us AWAY!
Who would choose to come into this backwards type of world? Think of the love it took for Jesus to come here! Think of the trust it took for Jesus to go to the cross, be abandoned by the Father, and trust that in the end that through all of this suffering He would end up with His hand raised as the victorious King. This is the ONE we look to for salvation. This is the One we are pointed to during Lent. It’s a matter of faith. In spite of how you feel, in spite of what the world thinks of you, in spite of what the devil says to you, in spite of what YOU say to yourself, GOD IS FOR US.
In the Old Testament, Joseph’s brothers were living under his grace and providence in Egypt. He was FOR them. Joseph had forgiven them all and brought them all down to take care of them and their families. But when Jacob, their father, died, they all feared that Joseph was going to take his revenge out on them. King David actually did that. When he was dying he commanded his son Solomon to exact justice on Joab, his general for committing murder. (2 Kings 2) Sometimes when your parent or your grandparent dies, you might feel the same way too. When you get a different coach, you may not be under the favor of the new coach. He may decide to bench you. He may not like you. But when it comes to Jesus, we don’t have to worry about someone else taking over as judge and jury. He died, but He also lives! Christ Jesus, who died and, more than that, was raised to life, is the one who is at God’s right hand and who is also interceding for us! He is always our number one defender, and he always will be. Even though our sins and our failures still disappoint and anger our holy God, Jesus is always there to defend us, to keep us from getting what we deserve. And in the end, because of HIS work, HIS defense, we WIN.
I’m still not a Tom Brady fan. I guess I’m a slow learner or a glutton for punishment. And if the Packers have to face him again next year, I’ll probably be angry again. He’ll probably throw five interceptions and somehow and in some way still win the game. Then all of his fans will say, “He is the GOAT!” And in reality, I’ll just have to smile and say, “Congratulations, you win.”
The devil will never willingly do that for us. But that doesn’t matter. In the end, God wins, and so do we. Why? Because Jesus died for us, and Jesus is defending us, and there’s nothing the devil can do about it. God loves us, Jesus died for us, and there’s nothing that can separate us from His love for us in Christ. Despite of being losers, we are winners. What a gracious gift from God, knowing that God is FOR us. Amen.
