Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. There are among the most soaring words ever penned, the words the Apostle Paul used to conclude Romans chapter 8. Here, he lists all the things that cannot separate us from the love of God. If you need some encouragement, you've come to the right place.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Today we continue a series from Romans chapter 8 on the blessings we've been given as children of an awesome God. Pastor Lutzer, what you will teach today is almost too good to be true.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Yes, Dave, it sounds as if it's too good to be true, but it is true. As a matter of fact, I always like to emphasize that we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to fully understand all that Jesus has done for us. And we here at Running to Win take delight in the fact that this ministry goes around the world, and it's because of people just like you.

People who pray for us, people who support this ministry, and at the end of this message, I'm going to be reading a story of someone who listens to Running to Win in another country, reminding us that this is God's work done by God's people for God's glory. For now, let us listen.

How wonderful it is to know that we cannot be separated from the love of God. And I speak to you today on the difficult topic, the difficult topic of the love of God. It is difficult because you think of all of the power that God has to change circumstances, and then you're reminded that he doesn't change circumstances too often, and it becomes a difficult doctrine for us to understand and to believe.

Larry Crabb says that he had a friend who wrote these words to him: "When God does so little about things that matter so much to me, I have no categories for understanding God's statement that he loves me. I'm grateful that my sins are forgiven and I'm going to heaven, and I know that all of these troubles are somehow useful for good purposes, maybe necessary for making me a more godly person, but I can't get past the thought that real love wouldn't let me suffer like this."

Every one of us have struggled in the same way. How do we understand God's love? Just over a week ago, this letter arrived, sent to me by someone who used to attend Moody Church. She was married to an abusive man. She says, "My baby and I were placed in protective custody and sent to live in a women's shelter with drug addicts, prostitutes, and women who were fleeing abuse, yet abusing their own children. My first week there, my laundry was stolen out of the washing machines, my apartment was broken into, and the kitchenette flooded. We had to stay at this facility an entire year after my daughter was born before I could manage to get on my own two feet and get a house of our own."

She says that she had a child previously with this man, so they have two children. She says, "I have taught the children to love our Lord." She said, "My son is age six, he has severe autism. My daughter has autism with another disorder that I can scarcely pronounce the name. I have been so blessed by them and have grown so much from their daily courage and strength. The children teach me to take nothing for granted." And she says, "I teach them the love of the Lord."

How do you put that together? Where is love when you need it? What does Jesus do with all of his power standing by and his servants suffer? It is the difficult topic of the love of God. But it's also a topic that I like to preach about. Paul faces this directly in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Romans chapter 8. If you use a pew Bible, it's probably on page 945. Paul has said that God is for us, God has justified us, God has accepted us, God has foreknown us, and even glorified us.

He comes now to the end of this wonderful chapter, really in some senses, the high point of the entire Bible. When Paul gets there, he ends by saying in verse 35, "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." What a message, what a text.

The Apostle Paul has decided to list seven different kinds of circumstances that might be used in our minds to count against the love of Christ. After all, if God loves you, why the difficulties? Why does he stand by with awesome power and apparently do little or nothing? That's a problem we've all faced. What the Apostle Paul wants to set out to do as he concludes is to say that God's love endures. Let's look at those seven categories, those seven different circumstances over which God's love triumphs. Notice them in the text in verse 35.

Shall it be tribulation? That word tribulation means to be squeezed, to be placed under pressure. Shall distress? Distress is the confinement of the soul. We're thinking of the young woman having to live in this shelter with others who have been abused and who abuse their own children and where you can't trust anyone. Where do you go without your partner who has turned his back on you? That's distress. Persecution is affliction for believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. Famine means you've been fired from your job and you don't have enough food for your family.

Many Christians throughout the centuries have starved to death, and they've cried up to God and they died nevertheless. Shall famine separate us from the love of Christ? Paul is going to say no. Famine doesn't count against Christ's love. What about nakedness? That's complete destitution. It means that you have nowhere to turn for clothing, your apartment is cold, there is no way to obtain heat, and you don't know where to turn. You are naked and you are destitute. You are in peril or danger as this translation says, and not even the sword, Paul says, will separate you from the love of Christ.

He speaks of course about martyrdom, and that's why he quotes here Psalm 44: "We are led like these sheep to be slaughtered," Paul says. That's the way Christians have often been treated throughout the many eras of the Christian church. From time to time I read *The Voice of the Martyrs*. It's a magazine that tells us about persecuted Christians around the world. Yesterday I just happened to have one next to where I was sitting, and I read these words. It's the story of a woman by the name of Rachel who was brutally abused because of her faith in Christ in the country of Iran.

I won't go into the details of the abuse; it was horrid. You can imagine what she endured when those men came to her apartment. She's married to Ali, I guess his name is, and this is of course a made-up name because you can't even mention names when you're talking about a country like Iran. That's her husband and he's a convert from the Muslim faith. I read that they are victims of a battle raging in Iran. Iranian leaders, incensed by the success of Christian evangelism, have launched a powerful attack on Christianity.

Raids on Christian house churches have increased. Dozens of Muslim converts have been arrested, imprisoned, or tortured. Earlier this year, a husband and his wife were beaten so badly that they died from their injuries. Paul is asking this question: Can the sword, can death, can it separate you from the love of Christ? Paul is saying no, it can't, remarkably. Not only does he say that these seven circumstances can't separate us from Christ's love. Now we might think to ourselves that if I were a father and you were my child, there's no way that I would allow you to endure every affliction that the Christian church is going through.

We'll deal with that in just a moment. Hold on to that thought. Paul says it's not just that God's love endures, but it triumphs. Looking at the text in verse 37, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." We have to take out a moment now and look at that compound word "more than conquerors." Some translate it that we are overwhelming conquerors, someone else translates it "we gain a surpassing victory." It's really a compound word, first of all, hyper.

When we think of the word hyper, we think of a three-year-old who is driving everybody crazy, and we say he's hyper. There's a better way to translate hyper, and that is as the Latin does: super. But the Greek word is hyper, super. The second word is the word nikao, at least that's the verb form. Nikao means victory. We translate it as Nike, and it's known of course in the sports world and on sports equipment. That means victory. Now put those two words together. Paul says in all of these circumstances, we are super victorious. It is the only place in the New Testament where he puts those two words together; it's used nowhere else.

He says in the midst of all this, we are super conquerors, more than conquerors through him who loved us. Amazing, Paul. What do you mean? How do we conquer because of him who loved us in the midst of circumstances when there's no evidence really that God is with us that we can point to? First of all, of course, what Paul wants to say is that these kinds of trials gain blessings for us. They gain blessings for us. It's really Romans chapter 8 verse 28 where we already had a message where it says so clearly that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Trials do us good because these trials make us begin to realize, they wean us from the things of this world and they begin to help us to understand that eternity is coming and eternal values are really where it is at. I want to talk to you about martyrdom since Paul refers to the sword. When I led a tour to the sites of the Reformation in England and Scotland, we went to Oxford. If you're ever at Oxford, ask the place where three famous martyrs were put to death; they were burned to death.

It's there in the middle of the street and there's a plaque that marks the spot, and if you go somewhere else, you can actually see on a door still some of the flames of the fire that took place when they were burned. One was Bishop Ridley. Nicholas Ridley was the Bishop of London. The other was Latimer, who was a great preacher, and these two were burned together. It was Latimer who said to Ridley, "Play the man, Ridley! Today we shall light a fire in England that shall never go out." They were burned at the stake.

Watching it was Thomas Cranmer, who had been the Archbishop of Canterbury. You have to understand that this persecution took place during the reign of what we call Bloody Mary, a very tragic story in British history in the life of this young woman, Mary, who was so troubled. She wanted Cranmer, who had been the Archbishop of Canterbury, to recant because she believed that if she could get him to recant, then all of the other Protestants would recant and Catholicism would be secured in England.

Interestingly, Cranmer did recant the faith. Let's not be critical of him. You and I have no idea what we would do if we would have a gun pointed to our heads and all that we'd have to do is to deny the Lord to get out of that jam. Let's not be critical of people who from time to time under pressure sometimes they've denied the faith not because of themselves, but they've been told that if you do not deny the faith, we will destroy your family, we will persecute your children; horrid things have happened to Christians.

Cranmer denied the faith, but later on, even as he had watched them burn—it's because he watched them burn, he didn't want to go through that. Later on, Cranmer recanted his recantation. He refused to deny the faith, and he also was burned to death there. When he was, he put his right hand in the fire first until it was charred, and he says, "Let this hand that had recanted, let it burn first." Then he burned for the faith. Does that count against God's love? Were they winners or were they losers? Depends on the perspective that you have.

If you look at it from the standpoint of this earth, of course they lost. What a way to die. But if you look at it from the standpoint of eternity and you remember the martyr's crown that is promised to all those who endure, why of course they were winners, they were super conquerors thanks to him who loves us. You see, we become conquerors, we become super victorious, no matter what happens to us. Also God gains in the midst of this; he's glorified.

Many of you perhaps have read C.S. Lewis, *The Screwtape Letters*. If you've gone to see Max McLean's rendition of *The Screwtape Letters*, you know that Screwtape pronounces his name, "Screwtape." If you've been there, you've heard Max say it. There's one section that has often touched my heart, and I'm giving it to you as a paraphrase. C.S. Lewis says in this that Screwtape, the lead demon, says to one of his demons, "The worst possible thing that can happen to us, and that which glorifies our enemy the most," and he's talking about the most high God, "is when a man looks around and sees no reason to go on believing in God's love and still believes anyway."

Anyone who trusts God like that is a super conqueror no matter what possible thing could happen to him. And God is glorified in the midst of our faith in the midst of our circumstances. Now the Apostle Paul has said that God's love not only endures, but God's love also triumphs. Then Paul thinks to himself, "Maybe I've left something out. Maybe in the back of somebody's mind as they begin to think about God's work in their heart," and of course he's speaking to believers here, "maybe somebody will think there's something else that counts against God's love."

In addition to these seven circumstances, Paul lists eight personalities or events or circumstances, and he makes another list because he wants to include them all.

Well my friend, you certainly are going to have to listen to Running to Win next time to find out the added blessings given to all those who believe in Jesus Christ. This message of hope goes around the world because of people just like you. We want to thank you for praying for us, thank you for supporting this ministry. I want to ask you this question: Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? I hope that you have a pen or pencil in your hand because in a moment I'm going to be giving you some contact info.

First of all, I want to read a letter from a listener in West Africa. He says, "This program has continued to renew my faith. I've been challenged to wake up." There's also a letter from someone in prison. He talks about how the knowledge of God's Word and his relationship with Jesus and even his relationship with his family has increased and has been blessed thanks to the ministry of Running to Win. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Would you at least investigate as to what that means? Here's the info.

Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course rtwoffer is all one word. rtwoffer.com. Or if you wish, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's because of people just like you who have invested in this ministry that Running to Win is in 50 different countries in seven different languages and we are going into an eighth language. Thank you. Now because we depend upon people just like you to be a part of the Running to Win family, right now go to rtwoffer.com. When you're there, click on the endurance partner button.

Dave McAllister: It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. There's certainly all kinds of teaching out there these days, and Brenda finds herself wondering what to believe about a phrase from the book of Isaiah. Here's her question: "I've heard charismatic churches using the verse Isaiah 53:5, 'by his stripes we are healed,' to support God physically healing people. Is that what this verse means?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well thank you, Brenda, for asking a question that is relevant and has been asked many times in different contexts, but I love to comment on it. When the Bible speaks about healing such as in Isaiah chapter 53, I have no doubt that it has in mind the healing of our sins. Because in context in Isaiah as well as in the Psalms, that's what you find. For example, it says in a Psalm, "he forgives your sin, he heals your diseases." In Hebrew that little couplet, those two lines mean essentially the same thing.

However, our charismatic friends are absolutely right that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he did die for us body, soul, and spirit. He died to redeem the whole man. That is so important; redemption is complete. But here's where some people go wrong. They think that because Jesus died for his body, soul, and spirit, they conclude therefore that we can have healing whenever we want it. The answer is we can't.

For example, the Bible even says that Jesus Christ came to destroy death, but you and I know that even faith healers die. Disease is part of our condition. It's always been a part of our condition. We know that someday we are going to be resurrected with new bodies and the fulfillment of our redemption will happen at that time. But until that full redemption takes place, as Paul says in Romans chapter 8, we groan and we know that oftentimes we are in heaviness. Our bodies wear out, and we need glasses, and we need surgery from time to time and hospitalization. We need all that.

Isn't it interesting, Brenda, that your question comes at a time when I am really waiting right now for a friend of mine to die? I'm obviously not with him, but some of my friends are and he was expected to die last night, but he is still alive as far as I know today. 64 years old, pancreatic cancer, loved God, believed the gospel, and yet is dying. What we should do is pray for those who are sick. We can believe God for those who are sick, but at the same time we leave the final decision to God and we trust him and believe him that even in death and in sickness, he is glorified.

Dave McAllister: Thank you, Brenda, for your question and thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for your compassionate and very clear answer. If you'd like to hear one of your questions answered, you certainly can. Go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click there on "Ask Pastor Lutzer." Or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. It's great to know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death or the death of someone close to us. Only a Christian can face the worst life has to offer and know it's but a stepping stone to a glory that will never end. Next time we wrap up this entire series with a look at how nothing we could even imagine can ever separate us from the love of God. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.