Insight for Living

Host: Do you ever find yourself wondering if God is truly on your side? Do the failures in your past make you question your standing before Him?

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll delivers a life-changing message from Romans 8 that will revolutionize how you see yourself and your relationship with the Almighty. As Christ followers, we're more secure than we ever imagined. In Romans chapter 8, Paul made it clear, no accusation can stick, no condemnation can hold, and no force in the universe can separate us from God's love. Chuck called today's message, We Overwhelmingly Conquer.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: Paul is summarizing at the beginning of verse 31, what shall we say to these things? Any intelligent reader asks, what things?

Well, the things he's been writing about, salvation, chapters one to five, sanctification, chapters six, seven, and the early part of chapter eight. Humanism says about sanctification, God has done so much for me. Now I must work hard to do much for Him. As if to say I now got to earn this favor that He's given me in Jesus. Another heresy.

Again, it's not about us. Who's helping whom? God has devised a way for us to overwhelmingly conquer. His indwelling Spirit does the great work of righteousness, prompting us to obey, and as we obey under the power of the Holy Spirit, God is glorified.

He comes to the end of chapter eight and he looks back over his shoulder saying, now all of these great things about salvation, sanctification. What do we say about these things? Then there's another phrase in there that says if God is for us, who shall be against us? In the Greek language, the word if is rendered in various ways depending on the construction of the sentence. In this particular case, it's assumed as true. So it could be rendered since.

What shall we say to these things since God is for us? That's the declaration. God is for us. Who does it matter who is against us? The apostle's answer to his own question is to ask more questions. And there are four of them here, none of which is answered any other way but impossible.

Look at the questions. Look closely. You can mark them in your Bible or you can put them in your outline. Number one, verses 31 and 32, who shall oppose us? Since God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things? Who will oppose us? The point is, who on earth, who in heaven, who under earth even matters if you have God who is for you?

Second question, who shall accuse us? That's verse 33. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who shall accuse us? Verse 34 is, who shall condemn us? Who is the one who condemns? And the fourth question is down in verse 35, who shall separate us? So you got them? Who shall oppose us? Who shall accuse us? Who shall condemn us? Who shall separate us?

First question, verse 31, who shall oppose us? Now, are there things that stand against us? Oh, you know there are. I've made a list of a few. Hardships are against us. And they work hard to bring us down. Unbelievers who persecute are against us. Indwelling sin within works against us. It's against us. Death, our constant enemy is against us. All sorts of fears and foes can be against us. And I haven't even mentioned the invisible, sinister forces of Satan and the demons who stand against us and accuse us.

The point is, what are they in light of the one who is for us? Don't you love the words of verse 32? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? He gave you Christ. Doesn't it make all the sense in the world that He'll be happy to give you, delighted to give you whatever else you may need?

The next question, who shall accuse us? It's a little bit darker here. See the words, bring a charge against. The Greek terms are to call in. Two monosyllable words, to call in. The point is, it is a, it is a forensic term. It's a legal word for summons. Who will summon you?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Don't you love this? Nobody. I mean, why? Because we are the elect. We have the Supreme Court on our side. We have the attorney who defends us before the Father, pleading our cause and putting down every accusation from the enemy. Nothing will stand to bring a charge against you.

Some of you live under such guilt. All you can remember is the wrong you've done, the shame you've brought into your life, the failure you've accomplished as a result of going your own way, and you just live in the fear of that, that somehow that's going to accuse you when you die. Please, stop it. God is for you. Christ died on your behalf. He took out all of His wrath on Christ. Jesus bore our sins. Christ is the one who paid the complete penalty. That's why coming to the Lord Jesus is coming to a free gift.

There's no accusation. Well, surely there are some who can condemn us. Verse 34, who is the one who condemns? Pay close attention to the answer. Let your eyes graze over verse 34. Paul does not even hint at human works. He refuses to focus on the goodness of any person or how bad we are. Instead, it's all about Christ. Look at how he answers. Who is He that condemns? Answer, Christ Jesus died, was raised. He's at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. There are four massive doctrines wrapped in that single 34th verse.

Crucifixion tied into the whole subject of salvation. He died. Resurrection tied into the subject of satisfaction. When God raised Christ from the dead, it was saying, I'm satisfied with your death. As Lewis Johnson used to say that the resurrection was God's amen to Christ's, it is finished. And that having been raised, He is seated. When is the last time you heard a sermon on the session of Christ?

He is seated at the right hand of the Father. The doctrine of session, which means His work is done. Salvation is provided. You don't keep coming back again and again and again to the mass, so that Christ can die again and the sacrifice can be paid again, so that somehow we might be delivered again. The Reformation announced deliverance from such. We are freed from that kind of bondage. Christ is seated. It's called the finished work of Christ.

And not only is He seated, and how marvelous is this, lest you think He sort of dozes off into a slumber, having finished His work. It says He intercedes for us. Christ is our advocate. Our advocate. I don't know if you've ever been in the minority or you've ever been in a situation where you needed someone to speak on your behalf. I've been there. I know that feeling. I'm sure many of you have been there. Christ is always there.

He's always our advocate. The enemy comes and says, have you seen the life of, just like the enemy who came accusing Job. And the Lord Jesus Christ speaks on our behalf and says, she's under the blood. He's one of my own. I stand on his behalf. I'm for him. I'm for her. This is grace at its very best. It nullifies all opposition, it silences all accusers, it overrules all condemnation. It doesn't get better than that.

We've unpacked the four doctrines. Christ died, was raised, is seated, and intercedes. Who can stand against that? Well, there's one final fear that is somehow I will, I'll not make it to heaven. Somehow I'll, I haven't the security I need because these things that I've done. If you only knew. No, it says in verse 35, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Again, impossible.

I don't know if you have any what is commonly called separation anxieties, but usually they come toward death. Usually they come when people are in a helpless state, lying there, unable to carry on any longer. The signs of death are around them. There isn't much hope for them physically, and they realize it won't be long before they will at least in their spirit stand before the presence of God. This is why these verses need to be learned and committed to memory. Look closely. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? And he begins the list. Will tribulation or distress? Will persecution or famine? Or nakedness or danger, or sword?

It's as though the apostle is standing on the mountain peak and he's shouting this out into space. He's shouting it for all to hear and for all to embrace. In fact, he quotes from the Psalms when he says, it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. I love the word picture. Do you know why we can't earn our way in? Do you know why we're not qualified to handle our own salvation? We're sheep. Baa.

That's the best we can do. Sheep don't run fast. Sheep can't defend themselves. They got little tiny mouths. They stink. Have you ever looked at the north end of a southbound sheep? It's frightening. All they do is just grow wool and get fatter. Just grow wool. He could have said you're wolves. We're not wolves. He could have said gorillas. He doesn't say that. So grateful he doesn't say gorillas. He says, you're counted as sheep, and in the most helpless moment is sheep to be slaughtered.

Sheep that are about to be sheared, that's one sight, and I've seen that in Australia. But sheep that are about to be slaughtered, that's helplessness at its worst. That's us. The point being, we're sunk if it depends on us. We can't make it. But the fact is, verse 37, which makes everybody smile, in all these things, being put to death all day long, counted as sheep to be slaughtered. We overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

You know who's conquering? Sheep. Is that an oxymoron or what? Sheep. Who conquer? It's even funny when you try to act it out. We sang about the Lamb who heals us and the one who has healed us of all of those things that have plagued us. He, the Lamb, has His sheep. We are the sheep of His pasture.

How magnificent this is. It is now at the place where Paul is at the apex of his writing. If this were a pipe organ, he would be pulling out all of the stops and playing at full volume. That's the only way a pipe organ ought to be played, by the way. I don't know if you like pipe organ music, but I am thrilled with it when I'm around it. I like it when it kind of sends out afron, it just opens up all the holes in your head, just gets rid of, cleans out all the sinuses. You bleed a little from the ears and a little from the nose as you take in the sounds of this magnificent. We heard one in Leipzig. We sat through a pipe organ recital played by several organists. It was magnificent.

And you know, nobody chattered when we walked out. It's done to say anything after a great pipe organ recital. You go out in silence, like sheep. If this were a work of art, this would be the supreme, the supreme wonder of the world. Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing. We overwhelmingly conquer through these things. And even when we reach the very end, we have conquered in Christ.

And we breathe our last on this earth, we take our first breath of celestial air. It's just like that, because we have been born anew. And then as if to put the finishing touches on it, as Martin Lloyd Jones writes, he now is climbing a grand staircase here. I am persuaded. What a magnificent statement. The Greek implies, I stand. I stand persuaded. I stand convinced.

This is unquestioned, unqualified, unconditional assurance. I stand convinced. And he goes right to the ancient enemy of death. Neither death, nor life, anything in life, nor angels elect or fallen, nor principalities and powers, those things that we cannot see in the realm of the sinister forces of darkness that are insidious and invisible. None of the things present that threaten us. None of the things yet future that prognosticators would tell us about to frighten us, nor height, nothing from out of space, nor depth, nothing from beneath us, nothing from beneath the sea, nothing from within the earth. Nothing shall separate us. Not even any other created thing will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don't know where you are in your in your awareness of a sense of security, but this passage will give it to you. For all of the people who would put you down, and all of the people who would condemn you, and all of the people who would accuse you, and all of those who would stand against you, please understand, they hold nothing in the presence of the living God and what He is able to do for you.

The old King James says, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Roy Laurin writes, here is Christianity's superlative result. His superlative result, to be more than a conqueror over tribulation is to be patient through it. To be more than a conqueror over distress is to become master over the most straitened circumstances. To be more than a conqueror over persecution is to become Christ-like toward your persecutor. To be more than a conqueror over famine and nakedness is to let economic adversity teach us the wealth of spiritual things. To be more than a conqueror over peril is to have a confident dependence on God that gives poise in the midst of impending calamity. And on and on he goes. We are more than conquerors.

Now, I remember sitting at that table on the ledge as we were so high above water level on earth and looking down and realizing from that vantage point there at Jungfrau how insignificant the things were back in the meadow. How insignificant they were. The hotel that seemed so big, you could barely find it, just a speck. People, you couldn't identify one of them. Not one was that significant. Change the whole perspective to stand at the peak or to sit there and look down and to see it in light of that vantage point.

Now, with that in mind, it seemed to me a couple of very practical statements need to be made because we spend our life at this level and not in the ethereal. The first is this, when we lose what we expected, we receive something far better from God. On this earth, we all have dreams and expectations and when those dreams are dashed or they die, what we had hoped for falls away. What God has planned is something far better.

The other, when God removes what we considered valuable, He replaces it with something invaluable. Isn't it interesting that the best things from God have no price tag? And they are all ours to claim and live in the light of from eternity's vantage point.

Philip Melanchthon lived some 14 years beyond the life of Luther. By the year 1560, he breathed his last. They buried him beside his long-time companion in their fight for freedom in grace. When he died, I have read this week, he had this passage of Scripture on his lips. Not a great thought? All the more reason I urge you to memorize these verses of Scripture. You will need them. You do need them.

You will come to an impasse and you will need the reminder that no one can oppose, no one can accuse, no one can condemn, no one can separate you from the things that matter most, and the one who loves you the most. These words were on the lips of Philip Melanchthon. 100 years after his death, life had turned upside down for another man living on another continent.

The land of England, John Bunyan was fighting for survival. The simple tinker was about to be again imprisoned, and he says in one of his works, I remember as I was sitting in a neighbor's home very sad, the word came to me, if God be for us, who can be against us? That was a help to me. Not great? That was a help to me. While in prison he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and of course, left in his legacy the immortal Pilgrim's Progress.

To the very end of his life, it was this section of Scripture that held him close to his God. That is my message to every one of us today. Wherever you find yourself, you need, you need these words. You need these truths. And when you reach the very end, may they be the words that are on your lips. I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's bow together. Everything falls into.