Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 8:31-39

Read here: Romans 8

Review

• Intro
  • Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
  • IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
  • Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
  • In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
  • Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
  • Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
  • Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
  • Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
  • Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
    • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
    • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)
  • Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
  • Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation/fall/redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. God leads the way to our salvation, not us. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is certainly some free will in this somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. 

Intro

• Key words: nor/or (15), God/He (7), Jesus/him/Son (5), shall (4), love (3), separate (2).
  • Lots of contrast in these verses, highlights God’s eternal nature and sovereignty over everything. 
• Verse 31
  • A review from the previous study, where we introduced the Latin, Deus pro nobis=God for us. The verses that follow expand upon this awesome promise. If God is for us, who can be against us? “Well,” Paul seems to be saying, let me show just how “for us” God is! It is like nothing you can imagine, that’s how “for us” He is!
• Verse 32
  • Paul loves to give us stuff to think about! Think about what Jesus did, God didn’t even spare his own Son. That is how much God loves us! Wow!
• Verse 33 – Ultimately, God justifies, not man. We can and should set up legal systems, create laws and enforce them, but there will always be times when humans misjudge. God is the perfect judge and His justice is always perfect. No one, Satan included, can bring any charge against God’s elect.
  • Sproul: The principal work of Satan in the life of the believer is not temptation, though he is engaged in that; his chief work is accusation. A good song about this is Embracing Accusation by Shane and Shane. 
• Verse 34
  • This verse is saying Christ is our final and ultimate judge. Christ is interceding for us.
  • Acts 7:54-60 is the incredible story of Stephen, who was stoned to death for Christ’s sake, judged and accused wrongly by men. But, the moment before he died, he saw Jesus in a vision, standing at the right hand of God, the ultimate judge.
  • Sproul: “What matters is where the court sits, and it sits at the right hand of God.”
  • He is our Savior, judge and defense attorney, and our intercessor, our great high priest. 
• Verse 35
  • Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Paul is laying out who Christ is, who is on our side, showing the impossibility of anyone or anything being against us. He just showed how Jesus is our priestly king, who Melchizedek was a type of (Hebrews 5:6, 7:17). He is the great both/and, both Lord and Savior, judge and intercessor, defense attorney and great high priest. Who can separate us, not just from Him, but from His love?
  • Paul lists a few things that we might think separate us from God’s love, like famine. We might think about how hungry we are during a famine, and as a result, think that God has abandoned us. Or, imagine things were so bad, the situation so dire that you somehow had your clothes ripped from your body. At that point you certainly might think God abandoned you! But that is what Satan wants you to believe, so don’t. This is saying NOTHNG can separate us from the love of Christ.
  • This is not an exhaustive list, just a few of an infinite number of things that try to separate us from Christ’s love.
• Verse 36
  • Paul quotes Psalm 44:22, he is saying the apostles are facing death and calamity, just like Jesus. Likewise, we are their disciples, so we should expect this treatment as well, regarded by the world as mere sheep to be slaughtered. 
• Verse 37
  • But in spite of persecution, we are not just conquerors, but MORE than conquerors. And not just MORE than conquerors on our own, as a result of our works, but THROUGH him who loved us. See also Galatians 2:20, crucified with Christ, no longer I but Christ who lives in me (born again), and Ephesians 5:2, to walk in love as Christ did, and Revelations 3:9 and Jesus calling unbelieving Jews the “synagogue of Satan” and how the would learn that Jesus loves believers. Woah! Also Rev. 1:5 and Christ’s authority.
  • Regarding conquerors, Sproul writes here about Frederick Nietzsche, a German philosopher who hated God and had a big influence on Nazism and Aryanism (whites rule) and the idea of a human “superman”. Hitler gave his books to his leaders to read. Nietzsche, like Nazis, actually despised Christians for their ideals of mercy, love and compassion. He said what most defines humans is their will to power, which is actually Satanic and also part of our inherited sin nature. So, in a way Nietzsche was right, but the wicked problem was he encouraged people to take hold of their sin nature rather than repent.
  • What Paul is saying here though is that in Christ, we are more than supermen! So much more than the fake supermen of Nietzsche and Hitler, whose end is death and Hell.
  • Sproul: The Greek Paul uses for conqueror comes from hypernikao, or hyper-conqueror. The Latin is super vincemus – we will overcome.
  • Loved. Note the past tense in through Him who loved us, not “loved” as in He loved us then but not now, haha, but echoing verses 29-30 and foreknowledge and election. He loved us before we were born!
• Verses 38-39
  • Trust this, believe this! For believers, NOTHING will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. These verses are saying “once saved, always saved.”
  • And, they are saying that, when life doesn’t seem to be going your way, believe these words, not your feelings. God allows hard times, partly to strengthen us through sanctification, to allow us to have experiences where we have to do like it says in Romans 6:13, not presenting ourselves to sin, but to God. Feelings certainly can be an instrument of unrighteousness, or we can instead present them to God for His use and glory. Remember, Christian, the fact that you can turn at all is a sign you are saved! The fact that you want to turn, and then do turn, is sanctification in real time, becoming more like Christ and less like your born-sinner self.
  • God’s grace is sufficient(2 Cor 12:9). There is nothing else we need. Be content and satisfied with your calling and election. Trust that God knew you from the beginning, knows you now, and knows where you’re headed. His goal in saving you is not so you can have a perfect rest of your life by the world’s standards. His goal is His glory and your sanctification.
• Up next: Romans 9:1-13