God is For Us (Romans 8:31-32)
This sermon was preached on 1/4/2010
In his letter to the Romans Paul gave to the church a clear explanation of the Christian faith, both its doctrinal beliefs and its practical expressions. In chapters 1–8, he has explained God’s remedy for the problem of human sin, a remedy which was to provide salvation, a salvation that includes the standing of justification, the status of adoption, and the prospect of glorification. All who have received this salvation have also been given the Holy Spirit to enable them to work out in their lives the consequences and effects of these new blessings, and the all-embracive term for this work of the Spirit is sanctification. In a sense, Paul’s remaining words are his conclusion to what he has taught in the preceding part of his letter.
The enquiry that Paul makes
As Paul comes to this closure, he functions as a barrister summarising his case by asking several relevant questions based on the evidence he has presented. The questions that he will bring up are all logical deductions of what he said in the previous chapters. The first question he asks is, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’
We should note that Paul’s use of ‘if’ does not suggest uncertainty; the term can have the meaning of our word ‘since’. Further he is not saying that nothing will attempt to be against God’s people. They still have many enemies – including human and demonic, and he lists some of them in verses 38 and 39. Paul is stressing that these enemies cannot succeed because God will provide for and protect his people.
We can also note in passing that this method of Paul is a reminder that the Christian faith welcomes hard questions. There is not an issue that the Christian faith cannot explain as far as its primary causes are concerned – for example, the primary cause of the problems in the world, including why there is suffering, is sin. One of the devil’s successes has been to persuade people that the Christian faith is intellectually weak or that it collapses under the pressure of difficult questions. The problem is not that the Christian faith does not have an answer; instead the problem is that most people do not like the answer that the Bible gives.
Also connected to this passage is that it is an example of a very useful way of giving instruction, which is by posing a relevant question and then giving an appropriate answer. This was a method commonly adopted by Christ and his apostles. It invites a response, causes the listener’s mind to react, and creates the opportunity for helpful dialogue.
When Paul asks, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’, he is stating a proposition that every thinking person would accept. God is the most powerful being that exists, who possesses infinite energy and strength, and who can treat with disdain the strongest exhibition of earthly or creaturely power. It is logically true that if God is for a person, then it does not matter who is against that person. If God acts on behalf of a person, that person is going to win.
Of course, Paul does not say that God is for everybody. He limits God’s support to those described as ‘us’, which is a reference to Christians. Not every person, who believes that God helps people, would accept this feature of Paul’s logic. For example, most of his fellow Jews would not accept that God was for Christians. Today, there are many who would not accept Paul’s logic. Moslems teach that Christians are infidels and so are not the recipients of God’s support. At the other extreme are universalists who say that God’s supports every person. So Paul provides the evidence for his claim that the powerful God will help Christians by asking a second question, this time connected to his giving his Son for them. The main evidence that God is for them is not divine providence when he is bestowing enjoyable blessings on his people in the present, but that he gave his Son on their behalf in the past. This is a reminder for us to always look at Calvary when we want to think about the bigness of God.
The evidence that Paul presents
Paul turns our gaze on to what took place at Calvary. He does not focus on what Jesus did there, which of course would be a wonderful encouragement to us as we think about his willingness to forgive the soldiers who were crucifying him or to give the assurance of heaven to the penitent criminal. Instead he directs our thoughts to what God the Father did for us at Calvary.
Paul’s words are few but profound because they take us into the centre of the life of the Trinity and we see that the Father spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all. Between the Father and the Son was an eternal relationship that was affectionate beyond words. The Father and the Son lived in an existence of love, a love that was fully reciprocated eternally by the one to the other. In this love, there was both admiration and aspiration.
The admiration involved appreciating the beauty of the other. Nowhere else could the Father see such beauty and such balance and such perfection of glory as he saw in his beloved Son. Similarly, the Son saw these features in his heavenly Father. This was their eternal joy and delight. But in addition to their mutual admiration, there was also shared aspirations, desire to express their love in a most dramatic and expressive way. That way was for the Father to punish his Son instead of punishing his people. This was not an indication that the Father had ceased to love the Son, nor did the Son respond to the punishment by ceasing to love the Father. Jesus gives a wonderful insight into the Father’s love for him when he says in John 10:17: ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.’ And he describes his own attitude in John 14:31: ‘But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.’ So what is described here is an activity of love, not merely love of the Father to his children, but also love to his beloved Son. Calvary was a place were God expressed his love.
Yet it was also an activity that involved loss for the Father. We know that Jesus experienced loss as he suffered because he cried his orphan request: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ We sense the sadness and the sense of strangeness described in these words. Yet there was also sadness and a sense of strangeness in the experience of the Father, for not only was the Son in a situation that he had never known before, so also was the Father. Calvary was a strange place for God.
In addition to expressing his love and experiencing loss, the Father also punished his Son as he took the place of sinners at Calvary. There he was regarded as their Substitute and God the Father spared him not one wound of the divine sword or one lash of the divine punishment. Jesus was delivered up by his Father to the fullness of the divine judgement and there the Father cause to meet on his beloved Son the iniquity of us all.
This was the proof of the Father’s love to us. If he had spared his Son one of the wounds it would have been a sign that his love to us was wavering and that his shared aspiration with the Son, of having a community of redeemed sinners could not have been realised.
But if there ever was an occasion when the heavenly Father admired his Son, it was when he was on the cross, lovingly accepting each strike of his hand, each stroke of infinite punishment delivered with the intensity of divine power. To the onlookers at Calvary Jesus was humiliated beyond description; yet the heavenly Father ‘has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him’ (Ps. 22:24). And Jesus, as the blows descended upon him with such rapidity that they hid his Father’s face, with affirming love turned to his Father and said, ‘My God, my God.’
Paul reminds us that God has already given his best, that he gave his best because he loved us. God gave his best because only his Son had the capability of achieving his Father’s purpose of love.
The conclusion that Paul draws
There are several details in the conclusion Paul draws from considering what the Father did for his people at the cross when he spared not his own Son. First, Paul reminds his readers that God has not withdrawn his best gift. When he gave his Son to his people, it was not for a temporary period in the manner that some gifts turn out to be merely short-term loans. In this deduction of Paul’s, there are several important words, and a helpful way to consider it is to meditate on each. It is impossible to say what word is the most important, but note that the things that God will give are always given ‘with Christ’. God gives us nothing apart from Christ.
Second, all that the Father gives is donated freely and graciously. We can never purchase God’s blessings. Although the nature of the blessing will depend on our current state of soul, the giving of it is always free. Normally, a sense of peace comes to those who are spiritually obedient, but it is not their obedience that purchases the peace.
Thirdly, the Father will never deprive us of anything that we need. Throughout the spiritual journey of each of those he loves, he will provide whatever their current requirement is. God provides these blessings through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and we have thought of some of them in Romans 8: enablement to keep God’s law, power to mortify our sins, sense of assurance in our hearts, and others. These blessings come to us with Christ: he is the model to which our lives are being transformed; he is the Commander who helps us, his soldiers, slay our spiritual enemies; he is our peace, who shares his peace with us in order that we can know assurance with God. Therefore, we have fellowship with the Father who gives us his Son in each blessing that is provided.
On our journey we will have many needs. Sometimes we wander from the way, but the Father’s response is to give the grace of repentance; at other times we are assaulted by the devil who tries to force us off the road, but the Father’s response is to give us the grace of resistance (Jas. 4:7); on occasions we lose the practice of brotherly love, but the Father’s response is to give us the grace of reconciliation. These examples could be detailed in long lists. But however long, they would not extend beyond God’s capability to meet the need.
This promise is a great basis for assurance. God has already given the best, so he will surely give the rest. It is also a marvellous encouragement for prayer: to express gratitude, to intercede on behalf of others to the God who constantly wishes to meet the needs of all his people.
Paul answers his first two hard questions with wonderful answers.
The enquiry that Paul makes
As Paul comes to this closure, he functions as a barrister summarising his case by asking several relevant questions based on the evidence he has presented. The questions that he will bring up are all logical deductions of what he said in the previous chapters. The first question he asks is, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’
We should note that Paul’s use of ‘if’ does not suggest uncertainty; the term can have the meaning of our word ‘since’. Further he is not saying that nothing will attempt to be against God’s people. They still have many enemies – including human and demonic, and he lists some of them in verses 38 and 39. Paul is stressing that these enemies cannot succeed because God will provide for and protect his people.
We can also note in passing that this method of Paul is a reminder that the Christian faith welcomes hard questions. There is not an issue that the Christian faith cannot explain as far as its primary causes are concerned – for example, the primary cause of the problems in the world, including why there is suffering, is sin. One of the devil’s successes has been to persuade people that the Christian faith is intellectually weak or that it collapses under the pressure of difficult questions. The problem is not that the Christian faith does not have an answer; instead the problem is that most people do not like the answer that the Bible gives.
Also connected to this passage is that it is an example of a very useful way of giving instruction, which is by posing a relevant question and then giving an appropriate answer. This was a method commonly adopted by Christ and his apostles. It invites a response, causes the listener’s mind to react, and creates the opportunity for helpful dialogue.
When Paul asks, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’, he is stating a proposition that every thinking person would accept. God is the most powerful being that exists, who possesses infinite energy and strength, and who can treat with disdain the strongest exhibition of earthly or creaturely power. It is logically true that if God is for a person, then it does not matter who is against that person. If God acts on behalf of a person, that person is going to win.
Of course, Paul does not say that God is for everybody. He limits God’s support to those described as ‘us’, which is a reference to Christians. Not every person, who believes that God helps people, would accept this feature of Paul’s logic. For example, most of his fellow Jews would not accept that God was for Christians. Today, there are many who would not accept Paul’s logic. Moslems teach that Christians are infidels and so are not the recipients of God’s support. At the other extreme are universalists who say that God’s supports every person. So Paul provides the evidence for his claim that the powerful God will help Christians by asking a second question, this time connected to his giving his Son for them. The main evidence that God is for them is not divine providence when he is bestowing enjoyable blessings on his people in the present, but that he gave his Son on their behalf in the past. This is a reminder for us to always look at Calvary when we want to think about the bigness of God.
The evidence that Paul presents
Paul turns our gaze on to what took place at Calvary. He does not focus on what Jesus did there, which of course would be a wonderful encouragement to us as we think about his willingness to forgive the soldiers who were crucifying him or to give the assurance of heaven to the penitent criminal. Instead he directs our thoughts to what God the Father did for us at Calvary.
Paul’s words are few but profound because they take us into the centre of the life of the Trinity and we see that the Father spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all. Between the Father and the Son was an eternal relationship that was affectionate beyond words. The Father and the Son lived in an existence of love, a love that was fully reciprocated eternally by the one to the other. In this love, there was both admiration and aspiration.
The admiration involved appreciating the beauty of the other. Nowhere else could the Father see such beauty and such balance and such perfection of glory as he saw in his beloved Son. Similarly, the Son saw these features in his heavenly Father. This was their eternal joy and delight. But in addition to their mutual admiration, there was also shared aspirations, desire to express their love in a most dramatic and expressive way. That way was for the Father to punish his Son instead of punishing his people. This was not an indication that the Father had ceased to love the Son, nor did the Son respond to the punishment by ceasing to love the Father. Jesus gives a wonderful insight into the Father’s love for him when he says in John 10:17: ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.’ And he describes his own attitude in John 14:31: ‘But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.’ So what is described here is an activity of love, not merely love of the Father to his children, but also love to his beloved Son. Calvary was a place were God expressed his love.
Yet it was also an activity that involved loss for the Father. We know that Jesus experienced loss as he suffered because he cried his orphan request: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ We sense the sadness and the sense of strangeness described in these words. Yet there was also sadness and a sense of strangeness in the experience of the Father, for not only was the Son in a situation that he had never known before, so also was the Father. Calvary was a strange place for God.
In addition to expressing his love and experiencing loss, the Father also punished his Son as he took the place of sinners at Calvary. There he was regarded as their Substitute and God the Father spared him not one wound of the divine sword or one lash of the divine punishment. Jesus was delivered up by his Father to the fullness of the divine judgement and there the Father cause to meet on his beloved Son the iniquity of us all.
This was the proof of the Father’s love to us. If he had spared his Son one of the wounds it would have been a sign that his love to us was wavering and that his shared aspiration with the Son, of having a community of redeemed sinners could not have been realised.
But if there ever was an occasion when the heavenly Father admired his Son, it was when he was on the cross, lovingly accepting each strike of his hand, each stroke of infinite punishment delivered with the intensity of divine power. To the onlookers at Calvary Jesus was humiliated beyond description; yet the heavenly Father ‘has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him’ (Ps. 22:24). And Jesus, as the blows descended upon him with such rapidity that they hid his Father’s face, with affirming love turned to his Father and said, ‘My God, my God.’
Paul reminds us that God has already given his best, that he gave his best because he loved us. God gave his best because only his Son had the capability of achieving his Father’s purpose of love.
The conclusion that Paul draws
There are several details in the conclusion Paul draws from considering what the Father did for his people at the cross when he spared not his own Son. First, Paul reminds his readers that God has not withdrawn his best gift. When he gave his Son to his people, it was not for a temporary period in the manner that some gifts turn out to be merely short-term loans. In this deduction of Paul’s, there are several important words, and a helpful way to consider it is to meditate on each. It is impossible to say what word is the most important, but note that the things that God will give are always given ‘with Christ’. God gives us nothing apart from Christ.
Second, all that the Father gives is donated freely and graciously. We can never purchase God’s blessings. Although the nature of the blessing will depend on our current state of soul, the giving of it is always free. Normally, a sense of peace comes to those who are spiritually obedient, but it is not their obedience that purchases the peace.
Thirdly, the Father will never deprive us of anything that we need. Throughout the spiritual journey of each of those he loves, he will provide whatever their current requirement is. God provides these blessings through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and we have thought of some of them in Romans 8: enablement to keep God’s law, power to mortify our sins, sense of assurance in our hearts, and others. These blessings come to us with Christ: he is the model to which our lives are being transformed; he is the Commander who helps us, his soldiers, slay our spiritual enemies; he is our peace, who shares his peace with us in order that we can know assurance with God. Therefore, we have fellowship with the Father who gives us his Son in each blessing that is provided.
On our journey we will have many needs. Sometimes we wander from the way, but the Father’s response is to give the grace of repentance; at other times we are assaulted by the devil who tries to force us off the road, but the Father’s response is to give us the grace of resistance (Jas. 4:7); on occasions we lose the practice of brotherly love, but the Father’s response is to give us the grace of reconciliation. These examples could be detailed in long lists. But however long, they would not extend beyond God’s capability to meet the need.
This promise is a great basis for assurance. God has already given the best, so he will surely give the rest. It is also a marvellous encouragement for prayer: to express gratitude, to intercede on behalf of others to the God who constantly wishes to meet the needs of all his people.
Paul answers his first two hard questions with wonderful answers.
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