WWUTT 168 Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ?

The Assurance of Romans 8 and the Love of Christ

Every experience of human life from conception to natural death has been verified and sanctified by Christ because He experienced it all. And He didn't just die, He suffered and died. So even suffering is sanctified by Christ when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, a 5-minute Bible commentary so we may know the things freely given to us by God.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Open your Bibles up to Romans 8, as we will be looking again today at verses 31 -39. We'll finish up the chapter and start in on chapter 9 tomorrow, but we won't get into more of the controversial sections of chapter 9 until next week.

Romans 8, verse 31 is where I'm beginning. 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.

I want to go back to verse 35, which we had looked at yesterday. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

And when we look at that in light of verse 36, For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. What we come to realize is that when Paul mentions the things that he does in verse 35, he's not saying that we won't experience those things.

Because according to verse 36, we will experience those things. And we experience those things. Why? Why do we experience tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword? We experience those things for the cause of Christ, for His sake.

I was sharing with somebody just yesterday out of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, where Paul is saying to the Corinthian church, starting in verse 8, We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

So why is it that we experience the tribulations that we experience in this life? Well, Paul says it here in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, It was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

I think that Paul also brings out another point here in 2 Corinthians 1 that is important for every Christian to understand. Because Paul says to the Corinthians, You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Perhaps you, as I, live in a country, in a situation, where you experience a freedom of religion, in that the government is not going to point a gun in your face because you proclaim Christ as Lord, or you proclaim that to other people and attempt to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they might repent of their sins and also become followers of Christ.

The government is not persecuting you because you would do something like that. However, I don't think that we should get comfortable in our situation. We should be aware of the persecutions that our brothers and sisters in Christ are enduring around the world so that we may help them by prayer and many will give thanks on their behalf for the blessing that is granted to them through the prayers of many.

So let us be aware of those who are facing the tribulations, distresses, persecutions, famines, the nakedness, the dangers, and the swords because they would proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ for His sake, for the cause of Christ.

More Than Conquerors Through Christ

All right, let's go on in Romans 8, where Paul says in verse 37,. No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. What does that mean, to be more than conquerors? We'll note that Paul has said here, in all of these things, so everything that we had read in that previous verse, we are more than conquerors.

Christians are more than conquerors because God turns everything, even suffering and death, into good for His glory. You're talking about even what I've heard John Piper describe as the greatest sin ever perpetrated by man, the death and the crucifixion of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the greatest sin ever perpetrated by man.

And yet God turned that into something good, which was for His glory, the forgiveness of sins. Christ Jesus came to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a people who are zealous for good works, as we see that described in Titus 2.

So God took something that was evil and used it ultimately for His good. And so we see that in all of these evil things that could befall us because we are Christians proclaiming the gospel, God is turning it, even suffering and death, into something good.

Christ Sanctified Human Life from Conception to Death

Everything in the human experience has been verified and sanctified by Christ because He experienced it all. Jesus could have come into this life any way that He chose. Coming to this world in the form of a man, He could have done that any way that He wanted to, just snapping His fingers and boom, there He is, a 33-year-old man dying on the cross for our sins, if that was the way that He wanted to do it.

He chose conception by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. And so from the moment of conception and all 9, 10 months of pregnancy, and then all of the human experience growing from a boy into a man, even being tempted by the devil, even suffering at the hands of others for something that He was not guilty of, even being put to death on a cross.

All of these things He verified and sanctified because Christ Jesus went through all of those things. So why is it that we say that we defend life from womb to tomb? Because Christ experienced all of that, verifying and sanctifying even suffering and death, and that good things come out of this and God uses it for His glory.

Even suffering, even suffering has been sanctified by Christ. And we will often have these arguments about whether or not a person should be allowed to suffer. Isn't that inhuman to let a person have to go through suffering?

You think of the story of Brittany Maynard back in November of 2014, I believe this was, the 29-year-old with brain cancer and she decided to end her own life because she did not want to have to suffer from that disease.

Well, Christ Himself suffered physical abuse, and so sanctifying that process. And when we go through suffering, even physical suffering in this body, we are sharing in something that Christ Himself went through.

And Paul has said elsewhere that we are to share the sufferings of Christ. And so it is not for us to play God, to decide who should live and who should die because they should suffer or not suffer. We should joyfully endure suffering, knowing that suffering produces something good.

We are more than conquerors. We don't just defeat the thing. We use it for the good of the glory of God. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

I want to note here that Paul has said in verse 17, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Now this is the same book of the Bible that I read from you just a few minutes ago when Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 that they had endured so much suffering that they thought they had received the sentence of death, but this was to teach them not to rely on themselves, but on God who raises the dead.

So he had been going through more suffering than you or I have ever experienced in this life, to a point that he thought that that's it. I mean, we can't do this anymore. We're just going to die under the weight of this suffering that we are going through, teaching them to rely on God.

And yet Paul calls that, a few chapters later in chapter 4, he calls it a light momentary affliction when compared with the glory that is beyond all comparison that is ours in Christ Jesus if we endure.

Hold fast, Christian. Hold fast. Pray to God for steadfastness. Pray to God that our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted in the faith would be steadfast and would receive that eternal weight of glory.

Our God is working this ultimately for his good and his glory. And if we are in Christ, no one can take that from us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And that's what we read as we close out our study of Romans 8.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.

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