WWUTT 1288 Who Shall Separate Us from the Love of Christ? (Romans 8:35-39)

Assurance That No One Can Condemn God’s Elect

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Who is to condemn? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The answer to these questions? No one. When we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. We come back to our study in Romans chapter 8 and as we have done this week I'm going to begin by reading verses 31 through 39. 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 a 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.

Yesterday we looked at verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. So if God has done it, no one can turn it back. God is the one who has justified you. No one can unjustify you.

In fact, as I concluded yesterday, you cannot even cause yourself to lose your salvation. And that is good news, my friends, because if you could lose your salvation, you would. The moment you were converted and became a Christian, you would just as quickly have lost it again because you have no will or ability to keep yourself in the love of God.

You cannot do it. It is by his grace that he has saved you. It is by his grace that he keeps you saved. It is by his grace that he will deliver you into eternity on that day. In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 13, God says, I am he.

There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work and who can turn it back. If God has declared it, if God has made it so, if God is the one who has justified you, can anyone turn it back from you? No.

No one can turn it back from God. No one can take it away from you because they cannot take it away from God. The father has given you into the hand of the son. And as we read previously in John chapter 10, Jesus saying, no one can snatch them out of my hand.

Christ’s Intercession and the Assurance of Salvation

Verse 34, who is to condemn? It's really a same way of of asking the previous question. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Asking the question again in a different way. Who is to condemn?

Who is to snatch you away from the presence of the Lord? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. All of that is the answer to that question.

The question again is, in anticipation of the argument, who is to condemn? And the question is kind of rhetorical because the answer is not no one. That's implied because Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.

Christ is interceding for us. So is Christ interceding for us there before God seated at his right hand? And then as he's interceding for us, the devil snatches us and takes us away. And Jesus goes, oh, whoops.

Oh, hang on. I was interceding for that person, but now they're gone and I can't intercede for them anymore. Like, that's crazy, right? He who has conquered all, who has conquered death itself, who sits on high, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us before the Father.

Do you think anybody is going to have the power to condemn when Christ has saved us and brought us into his presence? He has purchased us by his blood. He has secured our eternity. He has sealed us with his promised Holy Spirit.

He is interceding for us before God. Do you think that we're going to be we're going to be snatched away? Somebody else is going to condemn us out of the presence of God when Jesus is the one interceding for us before God?

No, that would be absurd. So again, in understanding of our assurance of the assurance of our salvation, Christ is the one who has died for us. He is the one who is interceding for us. No one can condemn you.

No one can take you from the presence of God. No one can undo your adoption any more than a person could rise up against Christ and conquer him. Now, you might think for a moment, but wait a minute. They did do that to Jesus at one point, right?

He was he was crucified by the very people whom he created. Yes, that happened once. Hence why Paul says here that Christ is the one who died. More than that was raised, who is at the right hand of God.

So Jesus is in a place where that can't ever happen to him again. He died once for our sins. Paul had previously said that Roman 610 for the death. He died. He died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

And we also have it stated for us in Hebrews chapter seven. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

That's Hebrews 727. And it's said again later on in Hebrews 912. He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption at the end of the book of Matthew.

Before Jesus left his disciples and ascended back to his father, he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Christ reigns with all authority now seated at the right hand of God.

He is interceding for us. If the one who reigns on high, who has all authority over all things, is interceding for you. Can anyone condemn you? No. For Christ has justified you with his spilled blood and you have received the blessings of the grace of God by faith in Jesus.

Jesus is interceding for us, meaning that he is speaking on our behalf to the father in first John chapter two. It says that he is our advocate before the father. An advocate is one who speaks favorably on behalf of another.

So understand as our intercessor and as our advocate, Jesus, the son speaks favorably of us before his father who is in heaven. If we have the favor of God through Jesus, the son, who can take that away from you?

Who is greater than God that they could snatch us away from the presence of the father? No one. No one can. Hence, why when we read these questions, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who is to condemn?

Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The answer to all three questions is a resounding no one, none can separate us from God. Now think about what this meant to those Christians who were in Rome to whom Paul is writing.

You have the Jews that are there in this church that had already once been driven out of Rome. They had been exiled from Rome by Claudius and Claudius exiled the Jews because, well, they had kind of this this unwritten rule, this unwritten agreement that was religio licita.

It was this idea that the Jews could practice their religion as long as they paid their taxes, but they were not to become proselytes. They weren't to try to to win people to their religion. Now, the Jews were were staunchly monotheistic, and that was unlike anybody else in the Roman Empire.

Rome, Greece, they were all polytheistic. They all worshipped multiple gods. The Jews worshipped one God. Now, that was strange to the Romans, but it didn't really benefit the Romans to force the Jews to try to worship their gods, which the Jews simply were not going to do.

And the Romans were not going to kill them all. That wasn't going to be any benefit to Rome when they could surely profit from the taxes that the Jews could pay. So they had this agreement with the Jews that you can be part of the Roman Empire.

We're not going to harm you or oppress you or make you worship our gods as long as you pay your taxes. You don't try to convert anybody else to the Jewish religion. Well, then what ends up happening there in Rome is that as many of those Jews became Christians.

They came from Pentecost in Jerusalem, moved back to Rome or into Rome, started proselytizing because they're evangelizing. They're going out with the gospel and telling people to repent of their sins and worship Jesus Christ.

Many of the Jews turned this way. They were convinced that the Messiah that was prophesied about in the Old Testament was indeed the Christ. So they became Christians. And you have Gentiles who are becoming Christians.

And Claudius is mad because, hey, this wasn't our arrangement. This wasn't the agreement between the Romans and the Jews. So he banishes the Jews from Rome, thinking that he's taking care of this proselytizing problem.

But he banished the wrong group of people because it wasn't the Jews who were proselytizing. It was Christians. But Claudius didn't know about these Christians. They just knew that there were some Jews that were proclaiming this Jewish savior.

So I'm going to get rid of the Jews. And then that won't happen anymore. But the Gentiles were left behind. Those Gentiles that had been converted to Christianity by the gospel message that the Jews who became Christians proclaimed.

So now you had Gentile Christians in the church. For a little while there, it was nothing but Gentile Christians. And they were continuing to share the gospel in Rome. And the church in Rome was growing with Gentiles who were becoming Christians.

Then the Jews moved back. Once Claudius died and Nero succeeded him, the Jews were allowed to come back to Rome. And then they come into this church and they say, wow, we're a lot more Gentiles than we used to be.

So there's some disagreements that exist there between Jews and Gentiles. We've seen Paul address some of these things so far. And we're going to see some more of this, especially when we get to the implications of justification by faith.

So far, Paul has been laying out a treatise on justification by faith, which he does through the first 11 chapters in Romans. And then we get to the implications of understanding this doctrine. What does it look like in the life of a believer?

That's chapters 12 through 16. So we'll start to address some more of those Jew and Gentile conflicts that still exist within this church. Once we get to the implication chapters, I remind you of this history to point out that the church in Rome had already been persecuted.

They had already undergone persecution for their faith. The Jews were driven out because of faith in Christ. The Gentiles were left. They continued to make converts. Then the church grows with more Christian converts.

So persecution was going on in Rome against the Christians. Before it was widespread throughout the entire Roman Empire, it was going on in Rome. And there were Christians even within this church who were being killed because of the Christ whom they proclaimed.

It was a requirement that you had to proclaim Caesar as Lord, Kyrios Kaiser, Caesar is Lord. But the Christians were declaring Kyrios Iesus or Kyrios Christos, which is Christ is Lord or Jesus is Lord.

And that was considered an offense against the emperor since the emperor was to be considered as God. So whenever there would be like a time of sacrifice or an altar with incense would be laid in public and people would have to come take a pinch of that incense and throw it in the little flame.

And they would have to say Kyrios Kaiser or Kaiser Kyrios either way, Caesar is Lord. That would be their proclamation. But the Christians wouldn't do it. The Christians would not declare Caesar is Lord.

They declared Christ is Lord. And so they would be killed for that. They would be put to death on the spot because they would not proclaim Caesar is Lord, especially these Jews, because the Jewish converts in particular were not Roman citizens.

Roman citizens were allowed a trial. But those who were not Roman citizens by birth, but instead they belonged to a Jewish heritage. They would have been killed for proclaiming anyone else is Lord except Caesar.

So this is the kind of persecution that was going on against the church that was there in Rome and people from within their midst were dying. Like you would come back to church on the Lord's day and there's one or two people missing from the week before because they had been killed for proclaiming Christ is Lord instead of Caesar is Lord.

And just like in Thessalonica, so in Thessalonica, there were there were Christians who would die and the Thessalonians who would see their brethren either persecuted to death or they would die of old age either way when it when a friend or a relative or brother or sister in the Lord would die, they would despair because Christ had not yet returned.

So they wondered, did my brother or sister die and be buried? And did they miss the day of the Lord because they died before his return? And so Paul writes to them to assure them that all of us are going to be partakers in that day of the Lord.

Those who have died will rise first and then we who are left will be caught up with caught up in the air and we will forever be with the Lord. That's in First Thessalonians chapter four. So just as Paul said this regarding the Thessalonian brethren to the church there in Thessalonica.

So he is giving assurance to the Roman Christians that just because your brothers and sisters have perished, that doesn't mean that they have been taken from the hand of God. That doesn't mean that that what Christ had purchased for them with his death on the cross, his declaration of them being justified before the father.

That doesn't mean that their death has undone their justification. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That's what Paul is arguing here and giving assurance to these Roman Christians. Not even Caesar can take this away from you.

You belong to Christ. You belong to God. So can anyone in light of all of this, can anyone bring a charge against God's elect? Can anyone condemn? Can anyone separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

So we have several things there that are very clearly could be attributed to Caesar. We have other things there that are circumstantial that Caesar doesn't have any control over. Shall tribulation that that's a kind of a word that encompasses any kind of trouble that we should go through.

Shall any kind of trouble separate us from the love of Christ? Shall distress, your anxiety, your fears, your uncertainty about the future, or even sudden uprisings of things that you did not see coming, sudden circumstances, can these things separate you from the love of Christ?

Can persecution, obviously they were being persecuted, can famine, their food, if the food dries up, the water dries up, you don't have anything to nourish yourself with. You're wondering where your next meal will come from.

Will that separate you from the love of God? Can nakedness, not having clothing, if you don't have food and you don't have clothing, does that mean God has forgotten you? Can danger or sword, you putting yourself in a situation where you could be persecuted or the sword that comes against you because you were in that position of danger.

Can any of these things separate you from the love of God? Verse 36, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. That's a quotation from Psalm 44, 22, but one of the things that Paul is showing here, as was prophesied in the Old Testament, is that even Christians will go through the things that Paul listed in verse 35, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword.

Jesus said to his disciples, in this world, you will have trouble, or as some translations say, in this world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, for I have overcome the world. We go through these things to draw us to Christ.

Now, unbelievers can even experience these things, but it doesn't lead to anything. It's just it's just their death. They perish in judgment. But for us who are in Christ, it's for God's sake. For your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. But then Paul responds to the question that he asked in verse 35. In verse 37, he says, no, no to what? Well, the previous question, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

No. In all these things, in all these things that Paul had just mentioned come against us and will even destroy us, at least in the body, they destroy us. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Now, that sounds crazy. How are we conquering against things that persecute us or famine when famine ravages us when we're naked and have no clothing, when we're in danger or the sword comes against us?

How are we more than conquerors through him who loved us? Because those things may destroy the body, but they cannot destroy the soul. You will die. Your body will perish. It will go into the ground. You will become as the dust from which man was first formed.

But your soul will live forever with God and glory, and Christ will further demonstrate his power on the day of his return when he even raises up your body that has been pulverized to nothing, and he raises it back up and makes it glorious like his own glorious body.

Because remember, as we read earlier, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers in Colossians chapter one, it says he is the firstborn of the dead. So there are many others who are going to come from the dead just as Jesus rose from the dead, and he is going to raise up your mortal body and make it like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Even the dangers that come against you, no matter what hardship you go through, as Paul enlisted, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, before he then gets to sword, right?

Sword is your body is dead, and it has gone into the ground. But even those other things, those difficult trials we go through before we even get to the sword part, in those things even you are more than conquerors, because it is in those things that you put your trust and your faith more in Christ.

You rely on him who raises the dead. You are sanctified through these things. You are being made more like Christ, shaped in the image of the son, as it said previously in verse 29. And so in that, as Christians, when we go through difficult things, we are more than conquerors through these trials, because it's through the trials we give glory and honor and praise to Christ who has saved us and delivered us from all the tribulation of this world.

And we know with hope and with faith that there is laid up for us an eternal reward in glory forever with him. No one can take that from us. So even when we go through these tough trials, we share in the sufferings of Christ.

We give him the honor and the praise. We are made more like him. And in all of this, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Amen. Glory be to God. Verse 38. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, angels, holy ones, rulers being the forces of darkness, 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.

And remember that Paul previously said this love we were predestined for. God places affection on us. He foreknew us before we were even born. So if God has predestined it, the God who has created all things, time and space itself, who knows the beginning from the end because he has foreordained it.

If God has done this, can anyone turn it back? Can anyone undo the will of God? Absolutely not. So we have this confidence in the love of God through Christ Jesus, our Lord, that no one can take from us the salvation, the justification that he has given to us by his grace.

Philippians 1 .6. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. At the day of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace.

Remind us of these things. May it give us confidence in our faith as we go throughout our day. We live as worthy sons and daughters of God because of what you have done for us, what you have given for us, your own son for our sins, that we might be in fellowship with you now and forever.

In Jesus name.

Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt .com. Thanks for listening!