Living Hope Church

Pastor Phil Steiger: If you have your Bibles, turn with me, please, to the book of Romans. We are in Romans chapter 8. In just a couple of minutes, we're going to start reading in Romans chapter 8, verse 31. We're going to read through the end of the chapter. We're not going to get through all of the end of the chapter, but we're going to read it so that we sort of put it all together inside of our hearts and minds this morning.

But part of what is so important about what happens here in Romans chapter 8, verse 31, is that Paul turns his attention for at least a few verses to reflecting upon these powerful, incredible truths that he has given to us in the book of Romans and especially Romans chapter 8.

So verse 31 turns into reflection on the things that we have studied in chapter 8. He's literally going to ask the question, what do we make of all these things? What is this about? What do we do now with all of this? How do we sort of tie all of this together?

In its way, verse 31 asks that question, not just for chapter 8, but for the rest of the book as well. We've been through a lot of powerful things in Romans chapter 8 is kind of the culmination of the doctrine inside of the book in a lot of ways. And now Paul, as he's gone through this chapter, he sort of steps back and he says, well, what now? How do we think about it? How do we process these powerful things? And these are incredible truths.

It's been a few weeks since we've been in Romans chapter 8. I want to read, just as a reminder, verses 28, 29, and 30. The passage that led us into where we are this morning. Romans 8:28 says this, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

So now what do we do? Now how do we process this? Doing the work now of making sense of the consequences of these truths is a powerful thing inside of this book. What kind of comfort and what kind of courage can the Christian draw from all of these things?

Is the life of the Christian balanced on the edge of a knife? If all things go well and God is good and he keeps his eye on me, things are going to be fine. But if a couple of things go wrong, am I going to slip off the other side of the edge of the knife? Should I maybe sort of bolster my life with other things that I think might be more reliable than God himself, just in case, and I can make sure that I've got this together and I've got this together and I'm moving in this direction?

Or is the life of the Christian safe beyond our ability to comprehend if we are in Christ Jesus? Is the life of the Christian safe beyond our ability to comprehend if we are in Christ Jesus? When our passage of scripture this morning, a couple of things are going to help us sort of work through what we're going to talk about this morning. First of all, if you are in Christ, God is for you. God is for you.

Not only are you saved and secure in the work and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the angel armies is on your side. Paul in this passage of scripture is not going to say that if you are a Christian, now there's no opposition. Nobody will ever express opposition to you. What he is going to say is no one can overcome you because of who you serve. If you are in Christ, God is for you.

Secondly, and this phrase, it has stopped me and we're going to spend a little bit of time on it this morning, some more next week, but this is important. We receive everything in Christ. That sounds like a bold thing to say, but it is exactly what the Apostle Paul says. These are grand and sweeping statements in the word of God. Each of them just as true and as magnificent as the last.

Because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God will graciously, Paul says, give his children all things. That's incredible. Let's read this passage this morning, beginning in Romans chapter 8, verse 31. Friends, this is the word of the Lord.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Let's pray and close. That's great stuff. "What then shall we say to these things?" Well, this is what we're going to say about all these things. What a lot of incredible things the Apostle Paul has given us just in chapter 8 alone. Chapter 8, verse 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Chapter 8, verse 2 then tells us, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death."

That thing that we are locked in without Christ, the pattern of sin that sits naturally inside of every human heart, the law of the input and output that works through that sin, all the input I receive gets moved through the brokenness of my sin and then that's how it sits in my heart and in my mind and in my memory and comes out in my hands and comes out in my tongue. This is the law of sin and death, but Paul says, the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus. That's no longer what needs to take place inside of the life of the follower of Jesus Christ. There's now life and there's now freedom because of the Spirit of God.

Chapter 8, verse 11, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." The resurrection of Jesus Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the things that he will give us because of all of that if we are in Jesus Christ.

Chapter 8, verse 18, another one of these moments. "For I consider sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Paul says these things as a man who literally bears the physical scars of being stoned, being whipped, he's been rejected, he's been openly opposed. He's been run out of cities, he's been spat upon, he's been on shipwrecks, we've read those passages of scripture.

When Paul says that I have considered, I have thoroughly considered and come to the conclusion that the sufferings of this life cannot compare to the glory that will be revealed to us, he does not say this as wishful thinking. He does not say that as a person who sort of crosses his fingers, squints his eyes and hopes against hope that it will be true. He knows as a matter of fact that that is true. So he tells us the same thing.

And on and on it goes in chapter 8 until Paul gets here to verse 31 and he just says, and in some sense, friends, this is just the natural conclusion of all that we've learned in chapter 8. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" What an incredible moment. Paul often inside of his epistles will ask questions like this, questions that are designed to lead us to an obvious answer.

Based on everything that we have just said, based on the things that the Christian faith knows to be true, we ask this question and the obvious answer is, well, there is nobody who can stand against the child of God. There's nobody who can stand against the church of Jesus Christ if we are in God. If God is for us, who can be against us? And the answer is simple. Well, actually, literally nobody can stand against the power of God.

Now, Paul does not say that if God is for you, nobody will oppose you. He knows that's not the case. That's not the life that he has led. He's led a life full of plenty of opposition, but also full of the victory of the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what he knows. And twice already inside of this book, especially in Romans 5, in that section, we read a bit of it here in Romans chapter 8.

The Apostle Paul deals head-on with the matter of suffering. He addresses the reality of suffering and then he addresses the overwhelming reality of the goodness and power of God inside of the life of the follower of Jesus Christ. Suffering is real, but God is greater still. There's nothing in what Paul says in this passage of scripture where he has sort of closed his eyes to reality and he says, we all hope that this is true.

He knows it as a matter of his experience. He knows it as a matter of what the word of God teaches that if God is for us, there is nobody who can be against us. He does say that nobody can successfully overcome the Christian because who they are dealing with is actually the Lord of all creation. That's who any form of opposition against the gospel of Christ, the Christian, the follower of Jesus, the church of Jesus Christ.

If and when and where there is any kind of opposition to any of that, they are actually not opposing you and me. In reality, they are opposing the Lord of all creation. In Acts chapter 9, when the Apostle Paul is on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, his name was Saul at the time. And he knew that he'd thrown many in prison. He had been responsible for and he had given his favor to the martyrdom, the killing of many Christians up to that point as well.

And so when Jesus shows up and literally knocks him off of his donkey onto the ground, Jesus says, you are persecuting me. That's how seriously Jesus takes this. If God is for us, who can be against us? The Lord of all creation is the one who stands in our stead. And man alive, friends, there was another way of walking through this passage of scripture, simply by looking at the names that the Old Testament gives to God, the ways in which he reveals himself to his people.

He is, the Old Testament says, the God who heals you. He is the God who knows how to take care of you physically and he is the one who will knit every fiber of your being back in full and complete glory forever and ever. He is the God who heals you. He is the Lord God Almighty. One of the first ways he reveals himself in the Old Testament is to Abraham as God Almighty, the one with all strength and might. He is the Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of righteousness. He is the Lord of all justice. That's who's being opposed.

If that God is for us, can you seriously tell me who can be against the people of God? Jesus even says something like this. In John chapter 16, he's preparing his disciples for the crucifixion and death and all that is yet to come. And they're going to have trouble in this world. And so in John chapter 16, verse 33, Jesus says this, "I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world."

Am I in Christ? If so, then I can find this kind of peace because I also live in this world and we know that in this world there is tribulation. But that's not the end of the story. The Apostle Paul knows that's not the end of the story. Opposition to the cause of Christ is not the last word.

So friends, we are intended to live in the courage and the contentment that comes with God's love and power in our lives now and in eternity. These are the kinds of things that the Apostle Paul wants us to reflect on, make a part of our understanding of our Christian walk and of who God is. If God is for us, who could possibly be against us?

Saying these kinds of things and speaking in these kinds of grand dramatic terms, one of the obvious things that rises to our minds, the question that always sort of pushes itself forward is what of those who have lost their lives? What of those who seem to have left us long before their time? What about those who have lost their lives because they are Christians? They were, in fact, not just opposed and persecuted, but they were actually martyred for the cause of Jesus Christ.

What of those who experience severe persecution in Christ? How can we hold to what the Apostle Paul has just said? Well, remember Paul is reflecting all the things that are true in Christ and that he's already talked about. And one of the things that we have learned here from the Apostle Paul is that because Christ has conquered death, every single follower of Jesus Christ who dies in faith has won the race. Has actually won the race.

Even the moment in which the enemy believes, or the enemies of the church believe, that they have had their moment, and they have silenced a voice, they have taken someone from us sooner than maybe we wanted them to go. If they died in Christ, Paul says they've won because Christ has conquered death.

Friends, when we die with our eyes toward Christ, we die as they say with our boots on. We die doing the things God has called us to do. We die in the hands and the service of our King. We die as they used to say, in the harness. We're still working for him, living for him, and we've won the race.

Here's how the Apostle Paul reflects on his own impending death. Second Timothy, the last book that he writes, some of the last things that he writes. In Second Timothy chapter 4, verses 7 and 8, he says, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also who have loved his appearing."

Do you anticipate your Christ? Do you seek after your Christ? Do you love and want to know more and more of your Christ? Then, friends, we are going to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And now, no matter what happens, I will see my God face to face for all of eternity. If this God is for us, literally nobody can be against us.

It's amazing. Now, this isn't the only place in the New Testament epistles where we're given this kind of assurance, where the writer of the epistle says almost exactly the same kind of thing that Paul says here in verse 31. We flip over to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 6, the writer says this, "So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper; I will not fear what can man do to me."

The Lord is my helper. He is my hand, he is my savior. He is my assurance, he is my guarantee. He is the very spirit within me, taking me through this life into the next. What can anyone do to me? We can confidently say that. With passages of scripture like this, and others that we're going to read, we have to ask ourselves this question.

Again, this is the kind of question I can't answer for you, but it's the kind of question that you and I need to answer for ourselves. What would be different in your life tomorrow morning if you acted as if this is true? If you decided this really is true. Now I'm going to take the next step. Now I'm going to do this next thing. And I'm going to do it as I confidently say, what can anyone do to me if I step out in the call and the work in the name of Jesus Christ? Even if they do their worst, I've won. I mean, this is incredible, friends. This is incredible, friends.

This is an important question because the beliefs that you and, this is a little bit about how the human heart works, the way God has created it to work. The beliefs that you and I hold dearest to ourselves, the things that are deepest in our heart, that are most active in our minds, the things that that over time have formed and shaped our souls, those beliefs actually propel us in life. These are the things that help give us meaning and purpose and direction. These are the kinds of beliefs and attachments that we have that get us up in the morning.

I'm going to go through and do all of this, and I'm going to do all of these things because this is important to me, because this drives me, because I want this to shape me. It actually propels us into the future. I'm going to continue to get up because this thing gives me energy even though everything else takes it away from me. Those things that are nearest to your heart will drive you, will propel you, will will shape you and will form you into who you are going to be. The human heart was designed by God to cling to something greater than itself.

This is why our culture is full of people who are clinging to every sign, every protest, every cause, every issue they can possibly think of. It's because God has been removed from those hearts, but the heart inevitably seeks for things bigger than ourselves to hang on to for literally dear life. But the human heart was designed by God to not find rest until it finds rest in God.

So what version of what we have read so far this morning can be that kind of thing in our hearts and minds that propel us? Some version of the Lord is my helper. I can confidently say, I will not fear what can anyone do to me. Some version of this God that I know is for me. No one can be against me. I will walk out faithfully and courageously in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some version of that needs to be a work inside of our souls on a regular basis.

Friends, if all these things that Paul has said are true, is there any greater place than life in Jesus Christ? Is there a more secure and meaningful place to live than in the very palm of the God who created you? There is no other meaningful place.

As I spent time with these thoughts, with this, some of you realize it's been only half a verse of scripture really so far this morning. I would not be surprised if Paul saying something like this at this moment was bringing up in his own heart and mind, moment after moment after moment after moment in the Old Testament. There's a way of looking at that question, if God is for us, who can be against us? It's a kind of summation of so much of what happens in the Old Testament. Because we hear this thing so often.

I want to go through a couple of these passages just to remind ourselves that again, this isn't just a crazy thing that the Apostle Paul says. This is the testimony of the word of God and of faithful people who have gone before us. You're going to recognize this story when we get it started from First Samuel chapter 17. Here's a couple of these verses. "Then David said to the Philistine, the giant, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied." Who can be against us? "This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head." I love the Old Testament. "And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand." That's what Romans 8:31 sounds like in the valley of the battlefield. Here's what's going to happen to you because you're defying the Lord our God.

That's how David puts it. Elisha, the prophet, has this moment in Second Kings chapter 6. The Syrian army is warring against the people of Israel and Elisha the prophet has been telling the king of Israel, here's where the Syrians are, here's where their camp is, here's what they're going to do next. The Syrian king says, who, who is, who's the traitor in our, in our army? And his advisors say, we don't have a traitor. They have a prophet. He knows what's going on. So the Syrian king sends one of his hosts to find, capture, maybe kill Elisha.

The host shows up and surrounds Elisha and his servant. And in Second Kings chapter 6, verses 16 and 17, when his servant is afraid, Elisha said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "Oh Lord, please open his eyes that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Those who are with us, that I'm talking to you now, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. May our eyes be open to that reality.

Joseph in the book of Genesis was hated by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused of sexual harassment, put in prison, forgotten for years before anything good happened to him. And finally the story sort of reaches its final cycle and his brothers show back up, he reveals himself, he's second in charge of Egypt. And here's how Joseph views what has happened. Genesis 50, verse 20. "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today." That's how Joseph saw what happened to me. Even you, brothers, could not be against me because God is up to something. God was doing something.

When God talks to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1, on the border of the promised land, Moses is gone. Joshua's now number one, not number two. So God is encouraging him. And it's an incredible passage of scripture. And in Joshua chapter 1, verse 9, God says this, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed. Everything you don't yet see, don't let it frighten you because I will be with you and I will go ahead of you. If God is for us, who can be against us?

And then one of my favorite passages in this kind of context comes out of the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 1, when he is called by God. Now listen, if you're looking for a calling from God, read Jeremiah chapter 1 and make sure you want to be called by God. God has this magnificent, miraculous conversation with the prophet Jeremiah. And then he says this, I'm calling you to be my prophet, my mouth to my people. "Every one of them will oppose you, but I will make you a wall that none of them can tear down."

I'm going to call you to do my work, but just keep in mind that almost everybody you know is going to try to kill you. But they're not going to survive. It's not going to work because I have called you. So throughout, really the first half of the book of Jeremiah, there are these moments where Jeremiah openly complains about the opposition that he receives and he has these conversations with God. He goes back and forth and he constantly rests. He finds himself back in his security and confidence and courage with God.

And one of those moments as he's laying out his complaint and he's hearing from God and he's sort of pulling himself back together again, Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 11, Jeremiah says this, "But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior." Therefore, my persecutors will stumble. They will not overcome me. Keep that thought in your mind. The Lord your God is with you as a dread warrior. I love it.

Now, possibly one of the greatest challenges when it comes to making sense of something like, if God is for us, who can be against us? One of the greatest challenges is taking the past and making it real for the future. Here's what I mean by that. Yeah, we can read these Old Testament passages. Yeah, man, this, this happened for Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Esther, Jeremiah. Yeah, that happened in the past. Joshua, Caleb, that was tremendous. It happened for the Apostle Paul.

We see God's faithfulness in the past, but what God is calling us to do is to realize that that same faithfulness in our past is his faithfulness for us yet in the future. The same God goes ahead of us. Just as he has been faithful, he will be faithful for us.

And in this context, I want to catch a little bit of verse 32. So we hear a little bit more of what the Apostle Paul is saying about this. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" There's a lot to think about here, but at the very least in this context, friends.

This is the God who sent his Son to the earth, to the cross and to the grave for us. This is the Son of God who conquered the grave, ascended to the right hand of the Father and is our returning King. And Paul says, if you are in Christ, then God will graciously give us all things in Jesus Christ.

All these things that Paul has talked about in the book of Romans, all these things, the Apostle Paul wants us to understand about God in Christ so far in this book. All that Christ has promised his children, all that God intends for us in this life, Paul says is now available. God will give to his children. Paul earlier in chapter 8 said that we are heirs with Christ. It's incredible.

So I'm forced then at this point to make sure that I am seeking my Christ. I am actively paying attention to my relationship with him. I am pursuing him, I am going after him. God will graciously give us all things. The things that God promised us in Christ in this life, and all that God promised his children for all of eternity. All of it will be given to the children of God.

The love of God that is more vast than the ocean, that's more vast than the universe of galaxies and stars, this is the love that is given to the sons and the daughters of God. He will graciously give us all things. I want us before we finish this morning, to think about that question in a different light for just a moment, if God is for us, who can be against us?

The word is "if". The word is "if". This is not a blanket statement. We don't just get to invoke this phrase or this thought or this idea and treat it like a magic enchantment. "If God is for us" means, are you in Jesus Christ? Is God for you or are you with God? Are you surrendered, genuinely surrendered to your Savior?

Or are you using God for your own purposes? We pull him out of our back pocket when it's convenient. We show up when other people want us to so that we can be nice. Thank you for coming back after Christmas because many people don't, right? Do we just use him for our own purposes? There are many who are actively opposed to Jesus Christ.

And friends, the word of God is clear. We don't like hearing things like this, but just as it is the case that if you are in Christ, then God is for you. If you are opposed to Christ, God is against you. So we have to make sure that you and I are with Christ. With a promise like this, we tend to make sure this, we want to live in this life of courage and contentment and the growing glory of Jesus Christ. If we want the Lord to be our dread warrior for us, the guarantee of salvation and eternity. I need to be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ.

If you belong to Jesus, the full and absolute meaning of this text belongs to you. No one who stands against you in the end can succeed because God has you in the very palm of his hand. And God and his Son, Jesus Christ, will give you all things. Let's pray.