Some of you might want to come a little closer. I’d like to request that. It gets so spread out. If you take a few moments, I’ll let you adjust. And the young people—you see, they’re not afraid of me, so they know I don’t bite, and they’re closer. So feel free to come a little closer.
And we’ll share. If you will turn with me to Romans 8, that last paragraph. Romans 8—I think you all know it. We’ll begin in Romans 8:31 and read through Romans 8:39.
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He Who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him grant us all things?
Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect? It is God Who justifies.
Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Even as it is written,
“For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we are so thankful for Your Word. We do remember: Your words are spirit and life. How we need the Holy Spirit to help us this morning in our weakness. Help us, Lord.
We pray for the anointing from above: for the ability to speak, for the anointing from above to receive Your Word, and for that same anointing to respond to Your Word.
We tell You, Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? We are only interested in hearing what You have to say.
So we say together, with one voice, this is our prayer: “Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth.” And we ask this together in the mighty name, in the precious name, of Jesus. Amen.
Well, I’m sort of on a liquid diet just today in preparation for a procedure in the morning. So this is my lunch, breakfast, and dinner—I think; maybe more for a little bit. But I want to share with you from these verses at the end of Romans 8.
These are uncanny, powerful verses, if you think about it. Several months ago, I was thinking and considering the Word of God, and these verses seemed to come alive to me. I couldn’t get away from them.
Even though we’ve had several conferences—I know I’ve been in San Antonio, and we’ve had the family conference and shared on different things, and now the youth get to go to Toronto this week—even with all of that, the deep impression from this closing paragraph in Romans 8 has not left me.
I believe, in one way, this is God’s Word to us in the form of a divine closing argument. Above everything else, I think that’s what it is.
I believe that at the end of Romans 8 there is a break. Most of you who know the book know that when you go to Romans 9, 10, and 11, it begins a somewhat different subject. It deals with election, with Israel, and with God’s sovereignty concerning Israel. It deals with His sovereignty in election, in bringing the Gentiles into the church through the hardness of Israel’s heart. Yet it concludes that God will save all Israel. What a glorious, glorious section.
Then, when you come to Romans 12 through the end of the book, I think all of you know that section. It is the practical response of the Christian to this entire book. And if we miss that practical response of the Christian, then we miss everything.
It is not enough to hear the Word. It is not enough for the Word to be spoken. The Word must be responded to, and that is what the Word of God is all about.
So you all know that famous verse in Romans 12:1. I’m sure you can recite it:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service.
Other Bible versions say, “your reasonable service.” I think most people in the world would think it unreasonable to give yourself as a living sacrifice. But the Word of God is so living, so real, it demands that we do that.
So if you look at Romans—I know there are fuller breakdowns—you can look at the first eight chapters and then a profound ending. You can look at the next three chapters and see God’s election. Then you can look at the final chapters and see the response for which He is looking.
My concern is this last paragraph in Romans 8. It seems to me that it is a summary, a summing up of everything that went before it. It seems to me, if you look at it closely, that it is God’s summary for His chosen. It is God’s summary for His elect.
It is God’s case that He was making, adjudicating all through Romans 1 through 8. It is that glorious closing argument in the last paragraph that gives us such astounding comfort as His own.
Now, I don’t know if this will be effective, and I don’t even know if you’ll like it, but I pray the Lord will anoint at least portions of it. I want to bring you into the divine courtroom and have you see what God has done. Then, at the end, see what He concludes when He makes these ultimate statements.
Now, in the legal world, closing arguments are a normal part of business. Every trial has a closing argument. Every trial has an opening statement. They are far different.
At the end of the trial, after all the evidence is presented—and that is Romans 1 through 8—all the evidence is presented for God’s salvation, for God’s great work, and for all the things He has accomplished. It is laid out before the heavenly jury.
Then He makes this closing argument that we read. You may not know what a closing argument is, but I’ll read to you from a legal paper. It may help.
It says that the closing argument is a vital component of a court case. It is a summation, or summing up, that is the concluding statement of each party’s counsel, reiterating the important arguments to the trier of fact—often the jury, or it could be a judge.
A closing argument occurs after the presentation of all the evidence. In other words, in those first seven—almost eight—complete chapters, all the evidence is laid down. Then, at the end, comes that summary closing argument that God wants to leave with His elect.
The opening statement is different. It is limited to what is going to happen in the case. But a closing argument is the summation of what happened. It is the last opportunity for the lawyer to convince the jury or convince the judge.
If you cannot convince the jury and the judge in those final moments with that summary, they will never be convinced. As a matter of fact, this same legal paper said that jurors have stated through much research that the closing argument is far more impactful than many of the arguments and facts that went before.
It is an opportunity for counsel to say, “This is it,” and ultimately convince the judge or the jury. The one thing all legal counsel wants is to persuade the trier of fact. That is the whole aim of a closing argument: to persuade.
Now, it cannot go unnoticed in Romans 8:38 what the apostle says: “For I am persuaded.” This is it. The evidence has come out so clearly, the argument is so concise, the work so complete, and the closing statement so clear that the apostle Paul had to conclude, “I am persuaded.”
Brothers and sisters, that is the intention of the divine closing argument in Romans 8:31–39. It is to persuade. May the Lord help us to see this in a living way. I think we know these verses, but let us see them in a living way.
You can think of closing arguments. They say that there have been numerous “cases of the century.” I don’t know why every time a new case comes out that has some impact, it becomes the case of the century.
Some of you who are quite old may remember something about the Scopes trial. It was called the case of the century, and that was about evolution—science versus creation. The strange thing is, people lose this: the trial was won about creation.
Then you remember the Lindbergh baby. Here you had this hero of America who flew across the ocean for the first time in his little plane and landed, I believe, in Paris. When he landed, he became a hero unlike any hero in the United States at that moment, and his baby was kidnapped. It was the trial of the century.
But probably the one you remember best is O.J. Simpson. It was called, without a doubt, the trial of the century. And do you know what changed that whole trial? It was that short closing argument of Johnny Cochran.
All the evidence was against O.J. Simpson. Do you guys know who O.J. Simpson is? O.J. Simpson, number 32 of the Buffalo Bills football team, was one of the greatest running backs that ever lived. Orenthal something Simpson—he was famous. He came out of USC, I believe—the University of Southern California, for you young people.
I’m not going to pick on you, I promise. O.J. Simpson was this famous athlete. He was this darling who became a movie star. Then all the evidence was against him in the most horrendous crime. He killed his ex-wife and her friend at the door to her home.
Now, all the evidence was against him. Let me tell you, I am not the trier of fact, but he was dead guilty. He was completely guilty. The evidence was so overwhelming. There was no way he could have been innocent.
But in that moment, that brilliant moment of closing summary, Johnny Cochran got up and took the stocking cap—the killer’s stocking cap left at the scene—and put it on his head. He said these infamous words that changed the case: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
Those were the words. Then he took the glove, and it was more than just a little bit. I’m falling apart here, brother. He told me I had big ears, so it worked for me—maybe not.
But then, the rest of that case—you just think of it. He took that glove, and I can remember the scene. I watched it with rapt attention. He stretched, and he pulled, and he strained. He thought he was in a workout video. He was pulling.
Here he was, this smaller man than O.J. Simpson, and O.J. was a great athlete. But the closing argument was, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
In the power of the closing argument, with all the evidence against him, the case was won. Orenthal Simpson—number 32, Buffalo Bills, Heisman Trophy winner, great athlete, murderer—walked free.
That is the power of a closing argument. But brothers and sisters, the power of this closing argument in Romans 8:31–39 exceeds the power of any closing argument that has ever been made in any trial whatsoever, earthly or heavenly.
This is the divine closing argument. This is the summation of God to His elect. This is the blessing and comfort that He extends to those who believe. This is the grandest closing argument ever spoken.
Now, consider Romans 8:31–39. It is the most powerful and the most persuasive closing argument. Not only is it the most powerful and most persuasive, but it erases all doubt whatsoever.
In a court case, if you are the defendant, the whole point of that closing argument is to produce reasonable doubt. Now, in this closing argument, the point is not to produce reasonable doubt, but to produce living faith. That is the difference.
There is no doubt in this closing argument. You read it: we are being defended by God. God is our Defender. God is our lawyer. We are being so skillfully defended that every instance of doubt should be erased from the believer’s mind.
I would like to read just a few moments of what others have said about these verses. Brother Newell, who wrote a verse-by-verse book on Romans—one of Steve Sheridan’s favorites—put together a few thoughts from different ones concerning the importance and power of these verses.
He mentioned a brother named Bengel. Bengel said of these verses, “We can no farther go, think, or wish.” What a powerful statement.
Another said, “The profound and colossal character of thought is within these verses.” Another said, “This whole passage to verse 34, and even to the end of the chapter, strikes all thoughtful interpreters and readers as transcending almost every language.”
That is a strong word. In other words, there is no language like it. I think it is the consummate end of all of God’s work.
One brother called it “the magnificent climax.” Think of it. Have you ever been to an orchestra? Now, I’m not so refined. I’ve only been to a few orchestras.
I remember going in the fifth grade. They put us all on a bus and hauled us off, and we had to listen to the orchestra. I was pretty much amazed at all the symphony working together—all the music and all the instruments in coordination.
But when it got to the climax, when the music rose to its loudest crescendo in that orchestra, everybody stood on their feet and cheered. I thought, “I must be at a sporting event.”
This is the climax of Romans 8:31–39. The music has risen in crescendo. The work of God is so perfectly presented. The power of God to save, to sanctify, and to seal is so evident that, at the end, it is a crescendo—a climax like nothing else before.
Well, the style of Romans 8:31–39—you may have noticed it—is full of questions. It is all questions. Look at all the things that look like statements. In fact, they are questions with question marks at the end.
It is quite an effective manner in closing arguments. You remember, if you have a defendant, you are trying to raise enough doubt—just like the enemy did in the Garden of Eden when he said, “Has God said?”
He was a skillful lawyer, the enemy. He knew if he could just put reasonable doubt in the minds of those hearers—this new creation of God, man—he knew he had won the battle.
But this is a series of questions, and it is not to raise doubt. There is no doubt whatsoever when you read these verses. Yet it is a very, very effective style.
I say it like this: these are the greatest questions that answer all of our questions. I say it like this: these are questions that give the answers to all.
If we understand these questions, if we can take them in, if we can assimilate them, if they can become part of us, they will be so transforming in their nature that they will answer all of our questions.
So it seems paradoxical. These are questions, but they answer all of our questions.
Well, that is the long introduction for the series. I do not know how many messages it will be. It will certainly be three; it may be four. I do not know. But today we are going to look at these first two verses.
Today we are going to look at just three things:
First of all, the unexplained question. Listen to the way it starts:
What shall we then say to these things?
What shall we then say to these things? Think about it. What things is he talking about? It seems to me, on the surface, to be an unexplained question.
What things is he referring to? Is it the whole book—Romans 1 through 8? Is it the whole Bible—Genesis to Revelation? Is it just the immediate context that deals with the glorification of the saints and the purpose of God in Romans 8 that directly preceded it?
What is this unexplained question? I believe that is important. I believe Paul is referring to all eight chapters that preceded it. He is looking at the case of God for man and concluding at the end, in rapt attention, “What shall we then say to these things?”
All these things—from Romans 1:1 to Romans 8:30—this is what he is talking about. He is looking at the entire glorious masterpiece of Romans 1 through Romans 8.
In this glorious masterpiece are presented the hues of the gospel in the grandest form they have ever been presented. If you are going to understand the good news of Jesus Christ, if you are going to understand the gospel of God, you have to consider the book of Romans.
Nowhere like Romans is the gospel of God so clearly presented. Look at Romans 1. We will go to the beginning.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He promised afore through His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son, Who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.
What is being presented here is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ concerns only one thing: His Son. In His Son, everything else is included. That is the story and the introduction to Romans.
We know these verses in Romans 1:16–17:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is revealed a righteousness of God by faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith.
This is the subject of the book of Romans. It is the gospel that Paul is not ashamed of. It concerns Jesus Christ, and this is what the whole book has to deal with.
Then, in general, if you look at the rest of the book, you discover that God has a dilemma. Now, you do not think of God as having a dilemma. He is that uncreated Being Who made everything. He is the One Who is before all, and by Him all things consist.
He is the One Who is over all. He is omniscient, omnipresent; He is deity. He is God.
You know, when people argue with me—and they often do—about God, I say, “He is God.” That is it. What more do you need to know? If He is God, that settles it. That settles the whole argument. That is the closing argument: He is God.
Well, He has a dilemma because He purposed in His heart, as we so eloquently heard from our brother Stephen Kaung at the family conference, to use man—this lowly created being—to bring everything unto the feet of the Lord Jesus.
That is what God, this sovereign God, this almighty God, determined in His heart. And He was going to use this lowly being, made a little lower than the angels, to defeat in the end this high being, Satan, and bring everything under the feet of Jesus.
That is the purpose of God. So a dilemma arose. It did not take long with man. When that enemy, that legal genius, walked into the garden and said, “Has God said?” they were overthrown. They did not know what to believe, and reasonable doubt filled their being.
Then, all of a sudden—you know the story—they sinned. God has a dilemma of sins. How is He going to use you and me to bring Satan under His feet when He has such a dilemma concerning sins?
It seems impossible. I would have thought, if I were God—and I am not, and you are so thankful for that—I would have thought He would say, “That is it. One strike and you are out.”
He would have given up. He would have gone to Plan B and said, “There has to be a different way. Man will never do it. There is not a hope that man will rise to the occasion and be used by Me in My eternal purpose to overcome Satan and bring everything to the feet of Jesus.”
But He did not give up. Brothers and sisters, that is the encouragement of Romans. He did not give up.
He saw us when we fell into sin. Romans concludes in such graphic detail in those early chapters that Jew and Gentile alike are under sin.
You know the verse, Romans 3:23:
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
Everyone. This is the dilemma God has. I think you know that verse. But thank God that verse does not stop there. If it stopped there, it would be over. It would be over for you and me, and the word written upon us would be “guilty.”
But then it says this, in glorious tone:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be just, and the Justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.
This was the great work of God. “Sins” here is plural. God had a dilemma. If it were you or if it were me, you would have given up. You would have looked to some other way. But God did not look to another way.
In His mercy, He sent His Son to die, to forever take away sins once and for all. That is what this verse is hearkening back to when it says, “What shall we then say to these things?”
These are overwhelming things. What can you say? God, Who should have given up, Who was right to give up, Who was reasonable to give up, did not. In His mercy, He did the unspeakable: He gave His only Son for your sins and my sins.
I believe that is the first dilemma God faced. Look at Romans 5:10:
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
Brothers and sisters, He saved His enemies.
I often think of those closing words of the Lord to His disciples in John 14 through 17. When He said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” I believe that is a very good definition. It is the highest definition of love.
But think of this: He did not just lay down His life for His friends—His own definition of the greatest love—but He laid down His life even for His enemies. He exceeded His own definition of greatest love.
That is what He did when He took sins away. That is what it means: “What shall we then say to these things?”
Or consider another dilemma that God has with sin itself—singular, not plural. You see, most of you probably know that we sin because we are sinners.
There is this argument that man makes: “Well, they are good people.” Every sinner sins. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. It comes out of us. It is natural.
I look at my grandchildren, and I love them to pieces, but some of the things that come out of them convince me of the truth of God’s Word concerning old Adam.
It seems to me that this is a dilemma God has. There is something corrupt in man that He has to deal with. It is not just that we have committed these sins, and if He can take care of the past, everything is solved.
He has another dilemma, which seems more impossible to overcome than forgiving the past. What do you do with a sinner? What do you do with one whose nature is wrong?
In Romans 6 there is brilliance. There is divine brilliance. What He does for the sinner—what He does for sin, singular—is take you and me to the cross in the Lord Jesus.
We read those glorious words, that we know that we have been crucified with Christ. You, believe it or not—and you may not like this, and you certainly will not like it about your children—are nothing but a sin factory.
Some of you are more productive than others. But you are but a sin factory. So God has to deal not only with sins; He has to deal with sin.
When He deals with sin, His way to deal with sin is to take the factory and put it out of business. Do you get it? I think that is a good business plan. I think that is a great business plan: take the sin machine and pull the power plug.
That is the secret. So when you read Romans 6, you discover that this is exactly what God did. He nullified the sinner. He took the sinner to the cross. He nailed the sinner to the cross. He took the sinner to the grave, and He took the sinner with Him in resurrection.
Now that sinner is raised in newness of life, and the power of sin need no longer have dominion over him. That is the glory of the book of Romans.
That is what the apostle Paul means: “What shall we then say to these things?” It seems almost too glorious.
Then there is a third dilemma, believe it or not. It is addressed in Romans 7. Paul the apostle makes this tremendous discovery that few believers ever discover.
He discovered that not only were there sins in the past that needed to be dealt with, and not only was there a sin nature that needed to be dealt with, but there was some other problem. That other problem is self, manifested in the flesh.
You know the words. You know the verses. He said, “I have discovered that in my flesh good does not dwell.” What a dilemma. This goes beyond sins. This goes beyond sin. This goes to the very makeup of man.
What God does in His great work is take sin to the cross and take self to the cross, so that we can begin to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and put self to death.
That is why the message of the cross needs to be repeated more and more in the church today. People think the message of the cross is so cruel. They say, “We do not want to talk about the cross.”
“We will talk about the substitutionary work for sins. We will talk about the inclusive work of the cross in Romans 6 for the sin nature. But we do not want to talk about the voluntary part of the cross, where we are told, if we are going to be His disciples, what must we do?”
Take up your cross and follow Him.
What is the theme of the conference? Deny yourself. Do you suppose that is what He is talking about in Romans 7? I suppose that is exactly what the apostle Paul is talking about.
So he cries out in wretched pain, “What shall I do with this body of death?” The self-life is a body of death.
Unless you take up your cross and follow Him, unless you take this ultimate provision of the Holy Spirit abiding in you and living in you—because that is the other part of the battle, and the Holy Spirit wars against the flesh, which is the manifestation of self—you will never come into this liberated position, being liberated from self.
All you have to do is look at Satan and see the power of self. I believe it is a message not spoken about much. I believe it is a message we need to see.
Then there is another thing. If that were not enough, what shall we then say to these things? When you look at the very end of Romans 8:28–30, you know these verses. This is just before our text:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren:
And whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Brothers and sisters, this is the wonder of these things. Not only did God save you from sins, not only did God save you from sin, not only does God make provision to save you from self, but in the end He makes this unbelievable statement: the purpose of God is to conform you to the very image of the Lord Jesus.
He did not reject us in His purpose. He did a consummate work and brought us to the place that we can fulfill His purpose. This is what it means: “What shall we then say to these things?”
I think we ought to fall in worship when we look at God’s work and His plan. I think our only response can be Romans 12:1. I think we can wonder why we were not disqualified, why we were not found guilty and left guilty.
How the mercies of God have been poured out upon us in unimaginable depth, that we should be called the very elect of God. Our response ought to be one of worship.
There is another thing. I think in Romans 8:31 we see the ultimate assurance. Now, you have read this verse many times, but do we know this verse? It says:
If God be for us.
Think of that. That is the ultimate assurance. Here is where I think people stumble: it is in a question form. So all that looks on the page, if you look at the page, is the “if” in size 32 text, and “God for us” in size 7 text.
You begin to say, “If? Is God for me? Maybe He is not for me.” Many believers say, “I do not believe God is for me.” What a tragedy.
This is God’s divine closing argument: if God be for you, who then can be against you? That is the ultimate case. That is what He brings us to, and that is what we as believers need to lay hold of in a living way.
Let me tell you, dear brothers, write it on the front leaf of your Bible. Write it there so that every time you open the Word of God, you read: God for us.
Write it upon your mirror so that when you get up in the morning—and Linda might shoot me, but maybe I’ll just do it—you see it first thing in the morning. When you go to bed at night, you see this ultimate assurance: God is for us.
But more importantly, let the Holy Spirit write it upon the pages of your heart. So many Christians live in a spirit of condemnation.
They still live as if they were under their sins, which He so completely dealt with. They live as if they were under their sin, which He so completely dealt with. They live as if there is no safe harbor from self, though He has made every provision to deal with it.
They live as if their life has no purpose whatsoever, though they have been called and saved for the very purpose of God. Listen to these verses:
If God be for us.
Now, I like what Newell says, and I know Brother Steve is a student of Newell. He says the “if” should not be “if.” I happen to agree with that. He says the “if” should really be “since.”
Since God is for us, who can be against us? That, to me, is one of the most glorious and ultimate assurances in the Word of God. It is in black and white.
Notice that it is the first argument in the closing argument. If we as believers cannot lay hold of this singular fact—that in this lifetime, even when we were enemies, even when we were sinners, even when we were under the power of sin, even when we were under self-domination—God is for us, we will never triumph in Christ.
This is why I think this is the most important assurance that we can have. Never forget it.
I often call people up and talk to them about things, news events, and such. But what if you called up a brother or sister and said, “Brother John, Sister Sue, do you know God is for us?”
Think how the revelation of that, if it entered into our very spiritual being, would transform our communion with God, transform our fellowship with one another, and transform the expression of the fullness of Christ as we meet together.
If God be for us—since God is for us—this, to me, is the greatest of all assurances in the Bible. This is fact. This is not wishful thinking.
We say, “Oh, I just somehow wish that God would be for me.” I think that is how believers think. I think that is the way the one-talent servant who buried his treasure thought. He said, “You are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow.”
He had a wrong understanding of God. The glorious closing argument and the absolute, ultimate assurance is: God is for us. End of story.
It is the first thing that is brought up. May we lay hold of that. It will erase all doubt.
Now, the second thing about “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Think about it. God has no natural enemies.
You may say, “Brother, you may want to call me on the carpet and say, ‘Brother, Satan is God’s natural enemy.’” In one sense, I would agree, but in another sense, I am not sure. I am willing to be corrected if Scripture ever directly says Satan is God’s enemy.
It says to the disciples, “Your adversary goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour.” The apostle Paul says, “A door has been opened to me, wide and effectual, and there are many adversaries.” We have adversaries.
But listen: I know Satan wants to destroy all that God has done. I am not fooled about that. But in a sense, we can say God has no enemy. Who can be God’s enemy? Would you like to be God’s enemy? Would you like to take on the Most High?
God knows that He could say one word to Satan, and Satan would be done forever. Often we think, “Why did He not do it?”
Instead, He came up with this remarkable purpose: that He would choose you and me, and somehow this weaker vessel would be used to destroy our arch-enemy. Isn’t that amazing?
If God be for us, who can be against us? There are some animals that they say have no real natural enemies. They are sort of the king of their species. This is not a zoology lecture, but they call them apex predators.
They have no natural enemies. They do not walk about in fear. They do not live in fear. Now, they make it clear that there are enemies even for these natural creatures—bacteria and disease. They do have enemies.
But if you think about it, God has no enemies. The ultimate assurance is this: since God is for us, who can be against us?
That is the issue, right? To me, that is so glorious. When I think of my weakness, how easily I am overwhelmed and overcome—surely the enemy just blows upon me, and I am down and out.
But when I think of the ultimate assurance that God is for us, and therefore, if He is for us, who can be against us, what hope rises even in my heart.
This is the ultimate assurance. Praise the Lord for that ultimate assurance.
There is another thing we should think about when we look at these first two verses. We need to think about this unspeakable gift that we have.
Listen to this. Turn back to our text:
He Who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him grant us all things?
He Who, yea—and I am emphasizing that word for a reason—has not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Brothers and sisters, this is the unspeakable gift: His Son.
This is the unequaled proof of God being for us. You know, we make love a very cheap word. We just say, “Well, brother, I love you.” I have done it many times. “Sister, I love you.” “Oh, I love this. I love peanut butter and chocolate.”
We love everything. It is a cheap word. There is no cost. There is no price paid. Think of it. It is just a term.
But God in the Bible always proves His love. That is the difference. When you read 2 Corinthians 8:24, on the grace of giving, Paul exhorts the church:
Show ye therefore unto them in the face of the churches the proof of your love.
Brothers and sisters, God’s unequaled proof of His love is giving His only begotten Son. Can you think of greater proof? Can you imagine greater proof?
It would seem to me, in my darkened thinking, that He could have easily sent an angel. But no.
Can you imagine? I do not know what it was like in that moment in the eternal counsels, when the Godhead was fellowshipping and God the Father was sharing with God the Son, along with God the Holy Spirit.
Then, in that incredible moment, They came up with this eternal plan: “We will send Jesus, the only begotten of God.”
He will be the proof—the ultimate proof forever, the unequaled proof forever—that God is for us.
That was what God did. It seems to me you would think it would be so unreasonable, so over the top. How could God do such a thing?
I think of Genesis 22, the story about Abraham and Isaac. You know the story quite well. It says in Genesis 22:2 to Abraham, who is representative of God the Father:
Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Can you imagine? Dutifully, Abraham went to that mountain. Dutifully, he laid Isaac upon the altar. Dutifully, he laid the wood upon Isaac. He was about to sacrifice his only son.
Then, dutifully, Abraham raised that knife without hesitation. He was about to plunge the knife into the heart of his only son, and the heavens broke open. The Angel of the Lord—Who is the Lord Jesus Himself—said, “Abraham, Abraham, do not harm the boy.”
I often think of that. He did not extend that same courtesy to the Son of His love.
Think of it. Think of the unequaled proof. That knife that was raised at Calvary was plunged deeply into the heart of our Lord Jesus. It was withheld from Isaac, forbidden concerning Isaac. But we read those words that are beyond human comprehension in Isaiah:
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.
That is the unequaled proof. That is the unspeakable gift.
How can you imagine that? That hymn I often refer to, “How Great Thou Art”—you know that hymn. You are probably tired of me referring to it. It is number six in our book.
It was made famous by George Beverly Shea, who sang it. My wife is always telling me I cannot keep “sung” and “sang” straight. Let me try: George Beverly Shea sang it. Is that right? That is right.
He sang it ninety-nine times at a New York revival with Billy Graham. America became introduced to this song. I often pray this:
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and