WWUTT 1286 If God is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? (Romans 8:31-32)

Assurance in Romans 8 and the Golden Chain of Redemption

If God is for us, who can be against us? If you believe in Jesus, you've been forgiven of your sins and you've gone from being the object of God's wrath to the object of His love and mercy. So what can man do to you when we understand the text?

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. I appreciate you letting me take a vacation week. We're back on our regular schedule this week. Today, we return to our study in Romans chapter 8, and I'm going to start reading in verse 31.

If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. If you listen to the sermon that I preached yesterday and uploaded to the podcast, then you heard the announcement that I made at the very beginning that I am resigning as pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas, and joining the pastoral staff at First Baptist Church in Lyndale, Texas, under the pastoral ministry of Dr. Tom Buck.

Everything regarding When We Understand the Text is going to stay the same. The podcast, still be doing what videos? I'm just moving the ministry from Kansas down to Texas. Becky and I will talk about this a little bit more on the Q &A this Friday.

So we're back to a regular schedule this week. We've got to finish up Romans chapter 8 between today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. We've got one more lesson in the Psalms. I still haven't quite finished the Psalms yet, so that'll be on Thursday.

And then, of course, our question and answer on Friday. You can submit questions to the podcast by emailing whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. So if you have any questions about the move, send them to us.

We'd love to answer them. Let's get to our study in Romans chapter 8, picking up in verse 31, and I'll read through to the end of the chapter. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 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.

Know 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.

Amen to that. You might remember a couple of weeks back, we were looking at Romans chapter 8 verses 28 through 30, that section that we refer to as the golden chain of redemption, the order of salvation, ordo salutis, I about combined my English and my Latin there, ordo salutis, the order of salvation, and we begin in verse 28 with,.

We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. How do we know that all things are going to work together for our good, for those called according to his purpose?

Because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he, Christ, might be the firstborn among many brothers. And so that we have been predestined to be conformed to Christ, tells us that no matter what we go through, no matter difficult, no matter how difficult the circumstances are that we go through, they are meant to shape us to be more like Christ.

So when we go through hard things, know that it is not God punishing us, not to obliterate us, not to destroy us, but it is that we may persevere through these things, looking to Jesus, clinging to him, and trusting in him more and more, putting our faith in him who raises the dead.

We would not trust in ourselves, we would not trust in this world, we would not be looking for hope in riches, or popularity, or people, or any of these things, we look to Christ. He is our salvation, and when we know that we have been predestined to be conformed to his image, not just to be saved and delivered into heaven, but we've even been predestined to be grown in holiness and righteousness, through perseverance, through hope, through steadfastness, all of these things, then we know that these circumstances that we go through are ultimately for our good.

They are not to destroy us, they are not separating us from God. They're in fact to draw us closer to him, that we would look to him, cling to him, long for him all the more, less for this world and more for Christ.

We know that all things are working together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, because it was his purpose that he predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ.

And we're being conformed to his image so that Christ would be glorified. That's the next statement. In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. So God is glorifying Jesus. Would God not glorify Jesus?

Of course God is going to glorify the Son. And so if the glorification of the Son involves our sanctification, then we have this assurance that as God would glorify himself, we will be sanctified to the glory of God.

All of this is pointing to Christ. Our assurance and our hope, our certainty that we will be delivered ultimately from this world into his presence is all about the promise of Christ. We look at Christ, we look at what the Father has given to the Son.

We look at how the Father has glorified Christ and seated him at his right hand, how he's given us to the Son as a possession, as an inheritance. Like we're the reward from the Father to the Son. We are what the Son receives from the Father.

The sanctified bride being given by the Father to the Son, clothed in white, in purity. The wedding feast of the Lamb when all of these things will be culminated, consummated fully which we read about at the end of the book of Revelation.

All of these things build an assurance for us that the difficulties that we go through are ultimately for something great. We do not fall into despair. We do not think that any of these perils that we go through are going to separate us from God or that he's forgotten us.

In fact, even the worst of these circumstances is ultimately for our good because they are sanctifying us, drawing us closer to him. And when we get to the other side of this, when we pass from this life into the next.

That's why Paul says previously in chapter 8, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. That was in chapter 8 verse 18. We're going to get to the other side and we're going to go, man, what was I afraid of?

Look at this. This all makes sense to me now. God told Moses through the burning bush, you will know that I was with you when you come back here and worship me on this mountain. That's an Exodus chapter three.

He didn't tell Moses, you will know that I was with you because of all the plagues that I'm going to lay upon Egypt. The Red Sea is going to part. You will be delivered through the waters. The waters will close in on Pharaoh's army.

They will be destroyed. You will come out to the wilderness. This mountain that you're on, it's going to go up like smoke and there's going to be fire and my voice is going to come out. I'm going to give you 10 commandments.

These were not the signs that God gave to Moses as an assurance that God was with him. He says to Moses, you will know that I was with you because you're going to come back here and you're going to worship me on this mountain.

When you get here and you look back, you will see and you will understand how God was working through all of these things for his glory, for your deliverance and your good, but all to the glory of God.

And that's what it's going to be like for us as well. We likewise are coming to a mountain. As Isaac Watts once wrote, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.

So we're all coming up to Mount Zion to worship God, which is heaven. It is his eternal throne. And when we arrive there at that mountain, we're going to look back over the life that we had been given by God.

We're going to look at how God was working all things together for our good and for his glory, how he brought us to his son, how by faith in Jesus, our sins were forgiven, how through life from then on, we were growing in knowledge of God and in holiness and righteousness.

We went through really difficult circumstances that made us cling more to Christ. We put off sin. We pursued holiness. We hated our sin. We loved righteousness. As we went through this process, through our lives, ultimately to our, our end, the end of this life, the beginning of the next in glory.

And we're going to get there and we're going to look back and we're going to say, oh, okay. I see it now. I see how God was working for our good in all of these circumstances. First Corinthians chapter 13 even talks about this verse 12, where it says, now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face.

And then we will know, just as we are fully known, we have kind of a fuzzy image in front of us now, but this, this one that we will know, just as we are fully known is going to be our fully sanctified selves.

God knows what the fully sanctified self looks like. When we ultimately get to glory, we don't see that image clearly. Now we see something that we're pursuing, something that we're going after, something that we want to be.

We want to have the holiness of Christ, but we haven't attained it yet. We haven't gotten there. We're going to step into glory. We're going to look back and we're going to see. We're going to understand how God was working all these things ultimately for this great reward that we have received in his presence forever in his perfect and eternal kingdom.

These things that have been laid out for us are assurances for us. They're a comfort to us that nothing that happens to us in this life is going to separate us from God's love. In fact, it draws us more into God's love.

That's how we should look at those circumstances to cause us to cling more to Christ. The world will fail us. Our stuff will fail us. Opportunities will dry up. People are going to turn their backs. No one will ever have the power to save us.

Science won't save you. Medicine won't save you. Jesus will. And so as we go through these difficulties, we cling more to Christ and we know only he satisfies, only he lifts up, only Jesus saves. And everything that is being spelled out for us here is a love letter from God to give us those assurances of these things that we are not being separated from God by our circumstances.

We're being drawn to him all the more looking to Jesus. We know Christ and God and his will through the Holy Spirit who has given us his word. And when we read the scriptures, we're reminded of the promises of God, just as we're doing here.

And so verse 30, which we concluded with Wednesday a couple of weeks ago, those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

This golden chain of redemption is not necessarily given for the purpose of laying out like a treatise on here's the order of salvation. That's what we draw from this. But Paul's goal here is that we would simply see how God is working through Christ to bring us into his presence, that it's all been predestined from before the foundation of the world.

And the glorification at the end of the world is promised for us as well. All of these things have already been predetermined by God. So there's no reason for us to despair any difficult trial or circumstance that we go through.

This is such a wonderful chapter on assurance, assurance of salvation, assurance of the promises of God for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? If God has been for us from before the foundation of the world, if he by his foreknowledge had placed his love and affection on us before we were even born, if all of these things had already been guaranteed to us in Christ, then what do we have to fear of any man?

What do we have to despair of our circumstances? We don't have anything to be worried about because God is for us. So 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? Understand what's being said here. How much did God demonstrate his love for us? By giving his son to die for us, the most precious thing that exists anywhere.

I mean, I know I'm being crude here by describing Jesus as a thing, but you understand what I mean. Jesus is the greatest treasure. He is the greatest thing that we can ever have, the greatest possession we could ever be given.

And God has given Christ his own son to his children. God even gave his son to die. He gave his son to receive the wrath of God when he perished for us on the cross. God did that for us as an act of love for us.

Now again, this is all to the glory of his name. And even Jesus submitted himself to the father for the glory of the father. That's Philippians 2 11. And so as imitators of Christ, we should do all things to the glory of the father as well.

Ultimately, Christ is the one who will be glorified. But that's not to take away from the fact that God has indeed done these things out of his love for us. John 3 16. God so loved the world, the world of men, men from everywhere on the planet at all times that man has existed on the planet.

God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. God's act of love, his demonstration of love for us, those whom he predestined to be conformed to the image of the son.

God's act of love was giving his son to die for us to take our sins upon himself as a propitiation. There will never be a greater act of love than what Christ did for us on the cross. No matter how much you love your spouse, your spouse will never give you anything that even compares to the gift that God has given to us through his son, that the gift the son himself has given to us.

Jesus gave up his own life. It's not just that the father gave up the son and the son went unwillingly to the cross. Jesus went willingly to the cross. It was an act of love from the father, from the son, and even by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus death on the cross for us, for our sins, so that whoever believes in him, we receive all the benefits that God has promised us through that sacrificial act. The grace of God that has been poured upon us by faith in Jesus.

Jesus took our sins upon himself. He has given to us his righteousness so that we may walk no longer in our sins, but in the righteousness of God. And we reflect and demonstrate that we're not children of this world anymore.

We are children of a different kingdom, not one that is perishing and passing away. We are children of an eternal kingdom that we are fellow heirs of with Christ and will enter into when we die and join him in glory.

These are the promises that have been given to us in his word. 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?

God already gave the greatest thing that he could have given us his own son. So all of the other stuff is icing on the cake. I mean, the cake has been given to us complete. It's full. It's like extra icing off to the side.

I don't know if that metaphor works or not for you because I'm not really much of a cake eater myself. I'd rather have a pie than than have cake. So for somebody to say, here's a whole cake and here's some extra icing.

I don't know. That'd be a great reward for me, but maybe it is for you. I hope you get the point. We've already been given the greatest thing that we could be given and that is Jesus and God is going to give us more than that.

He's going to give us all things through Christ. If he's already given us Christ and everything else is going to come right with him. And in fact, we have been told Titus chapter 3. I'll make a reference to Titus again that we are fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom.

Jesus said to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 that the one who conquers will sit with him on his glorious throne. We receive everything that the son gets. The father is given all things to the son and whoever is in the sun will be fellow heirs with him and we receive all the stuff the king gets.

How incredible is that? We went from being treasonous criminals against the king on the high throne of heaven and we have been made into fellow heirs with him of his eternal glorious kingdom in heaven.

What an incredible act of love and grace and mercy that we will not fully comprehend or fathom on this side of glory. Although I would certainly love to try. I want to know the love of God that has been demonstrated in his son, but we will understand and see these things fully when we get to the other side.

God is going to give us with him all things by his grace who shall bring any charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies. That's where we're going to pick up tomorrow in verse 33. Let's conclude with prayer.

Heavenly father. We thank you for this goodness that you continually show to us day by day. You gave us life. You gave us eternal life through Jesus Christ. You have made us fellow heirs with him of his eternal kingdom.

You have promised us that kingdom. You promised us that you're using the circumstances that we go through to make us more like Christ. So we would not despair, but it causes to be filled with hope cling to Christ all the more look forward to his kingdom.

So let us not struggle today. Let us not be overwhelmed with anxiety or grief, but help us to rejoice in Christ our Savior and no matter what difficulties we go through today, we cling more to Christ and look all the more forward to that heavenly kingdom that has been promised us in his name.

Help us to exalt his name today to demonstrate the Christ whom we serve by the righteousness. We are supposed to live in forgive us our sins lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake and we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcast episodes videos books and more visit our website at www .utt .com if you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment email when we understand the text at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.