Good morning.
Those of you who have your Bibles with you, would you please turn to Romans 8? I suspect most of you know where we are headed. We will look at the closing paragraph of Romans 8 and review verses 31–39.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth;
who is He that shall condemn? 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.
Lord, we are so grateful that we have Your Word. Without Your Word, we would be lost. We are thankful that, as the psalmist said, Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
We are grateful for it, and we know that as we come and read Your Word, we are utterly dependent upon You to open Your Word, that the Holy Spirit would anoint Your Word, and that the Holy Spirit would take it and make it living to us.
We always say, Lord—and we believe it with all our heart—that You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?
We pray, as we are together these few moments this morning, that the Holy Spirit would enlighten and make alive the Word of God, and that we may be helped as we see once again, in a fresh and living way, our precious Lord Jesus.
Open our eyes, Lord. Open our ears. Open our mouths to express what is in Your heart, and give us a fuller understanding of what is in these words. For together we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think most of you know that we have been sharing from this last paragraph in Romans 8. We have called this the divine closing argument. This is God’s case.
The case He has made from Romans 1 through Romans 8 is the divine case. He reveals the substance of this case when He says that it concerns the good news, the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
That gospel is very narrow in one sense. It says in Romans 1:3, “concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Some people say, “I do not know what the gospel is. What is the good news? What is the gospel?”
The gospel is very simple. In all of its completeness, as expressed in God’s case, it concerns His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything about the good news, everything about the gospel, is included in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Every case, as you know, does not just have an opening statement. That is the opening statement: “This good news that I bring to you concerns My Son, Jesus Christ.” Then He presents all the evidence, from chapter 1 to chapter 8, leading to this great conclusion.
The evidence He presents is so compelling. When we read it, we see the absolute ruin of man. When you look at the condition of man, you have to agree with the Word of God: no one is righteous, not even one. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Yet, in this evidence that God presents, He does an unbelievable thing. He takes that ruined creation and begins to restore it. He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, as our brother spoke about.
He takes man who has fallen into sin, man who has turned from God, man who has turned from all that He is, and He seeks him out and redeems him for Himself. That is what He does.
Not only is the evidence compelling, but He shows that He delivers man from the sins of his past. I do not know if you know this, but you can get a completely new start in Christ Jesus. It is the only way in this world that you can get a completely new start.
You may have failed in every respect. You may be more ruined than any human being has ever been. But if you will trust in this Lord Jesus, who is the gospel, you can get a completely new start, and you can be a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Not only did He deliver man from the sins of the past, but He delivered man from the dominion of sin. As we read in Romans 6, we see how unbelievably God put us in Christ Jesus. Baptism is a symbol of it.
We who were once alive in the old Adam are made alive in Christ, the new Man. We are made alive in the second Man. Just as we were dead in our trespasses and sins, in Christ we are raised in newness of life, and the dominion and power of sin are taken away.
Unbelievable evidence. Even more than that, He puts within us God the Holy Spirit. When we see man floundering with self, we read Romans 7 and think, “What a chapter.” If it had been left out, what would have been lost?
Here is the apostle Paul sharing with us his own experience. What he is trying to relate is that it is impossible for me to live the Christian life. It is not merely difficult; as I often say, it is absolutely impossible.
He cries out in desperation, “O wretched man that I am!” Yet he says, “Thanks be to God,” who delivers me from this body of death. Only the Lord Jesus can do that.
He can deliver us from the sins of the past. He can deliver us from the sin that dominates and controls us. He can deliver us from self—perhaps our greatest enemy.
Then Romans 8 goes beyond what you could imagine. It says that all of this is the great purpose of God. Everything is working for that purpose. It goes further and says, “This ruined creation, I am ultimately going to make in My image.”
That is where we begin this closing argument. That is why the apostle Paul says, “What then shall we say to these things?” Here is a great summary. Here is the great closing argument of God’s case for the gospel, God’s case for man, and God’s case for His purpose.
In these nine verses, He makes a summary that exceeds every summary we could even begin to imagine. You read these verses; they are rapturous. You read these verses about God and what He has done, and they have to bring you to a point of praise.
I like what Griffith Thomas said about this closing section that I call the divine closing argument. He said that it describes “the triumphing over every actual and conceivable opposition.”
What triumph is in these verses! What victory is in these verses! What glory is in this closing argument!
Another brother said, “We can go no farther—go, think, or even wish—than these verses.” That is what we have been sharing.
In the first message, we shared the first two verses: God is for us. Many Christians do not know that. You talk to believers, and they hem and haw, and you say to them, “Did you not know God has concluded that God is for us?”
Is that not tremendous? Brothers and sisters, if we could only lay hold of that single fact in this closing argument, it would bring a great change in our Christian life. God is for us—that is the conclusion.
We talked about the ultimate proof: He who gave His only Son. That is the ultimate proof. How shall He withhold from us anything?
Think about it for a moment. If God was willing to give His only begotten Son for you, to restore you as part of His ruined creation—if He was willing and able, and actually gave His only begotten Son—do you believe for a moment that He would withhold from you menial things? It is impossible.
Then, in the second message, we looked at Romans 8:33–34: God defends us. Is that not good news?
If you want a defender, if you want a lawyer, if you want a paraclete, if you want a barrister, if you want someone to stand up for you, I would suggest you become a Christian, because you have the greatest legal mind in your corner of anyone who ever was.
Now, I know that may be demeaning in the way I put it to God, but do you get the point? Here in this closing argument, God says, “I am your defender. Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect?”
People stumble around and say, “Oh no, I could not be one of God’s elect.” But everyone—whosoever will—is God’s elect.
God defends us. Listen to this defense: “It is God that justifieth.” No one else. It is God that justifies. Do you need to be justified? You have the Justifier on your side.
When we read those verses, we have to say, “Case closed.” It seems to me that this is one of the greatest sections of Scripture in the whole New Testament.
Today we want to look at Romans 8:35–37. This section clearly tells us that God is with us. Not only is God for us, and not only does God defend us, but when you read these three verses, you discover a new secret: God is with us.
Brothers and sisters, when you look at it carefully, you discover that God is with us in every circumstance. He does not pick and choose the circumstances in which He will come alongside you. He is with us in every circumstance.
It goes further than that. When you read these verses, you realize that He is talking about the darkest of circumstances. God is with us.
God is with us in every circumstance. Remember that. God is with us in the darkest of circumstances. Remember that. God is with us in the best of circumstances. Remember that. That is the closing argument.
We have only one more message in the closing argument, and that is, “I am persuaded.” The end of a closing argument, if you know anything about court law and jurisprudence, is to persuade the hearers of the evidence.
It is to persuade the hearers that all that is said is true, until they come to the point where they declare, “I am persuaded.” That is what the divine legal closing argument is about.
We are going to look at three things by the grace of God. We may not be able to go deeply into them, but we will at least touch upon them:
I believe that, in some measure, these are the things contained in Romans 8:35–37.
Let me read again the beginning of Romans 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
Now think of it. Would you not think that would be the greatest danger a believer could face? Of all peril, all loss of hope, all dire circumstances you could put yourself in, I believe it would be absolutely true that the darkest danger you could face would be to lose the love of Christ.
It would be the worst. Science talks about a black hole that is endless. I could not think of a deeper and darker black hole.
You may lose different things in your life as a Christian. Sometimes you lose your peace. Sometimes you lose your joy—believe me, Christians do that. Sometimes you lose your rest.
But one thing you cannot lose—it would be the greatest danger if you could—is the love of Christ, or the love of God. You cannot lose it. That is the substance of this closing argument.
When you look at Romans 8:39, at the end of this closing argument, Paul emphasizes it again:
Nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a case! Brothers and sisters, that is the good news. That is the gospel. No other creature—and there is an enumeration of many things before that—will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is impossible. It cannot happen. You may turn from His love. You may forsake Him. You may turn your back. You may be overcome by sin once again, but He will never turn His face from you. Never.
No one and no thing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. How can we be so sure of this? Our love fails; His love never fails. Our love is hot and cold, but His love never changes.
It never fades. It never fails. It is never diminished. It is always the same from the beginning to the end. That is the reason we can be assured.
Dean Alford asked concerning Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Is it our love for Christ? Is it Christ’s love for us? Or is it our sense of Christ’s love for us?
He concluded that it was the second: the love of Christ for us. That is why we can be sure.
Brothers and sisters, it is not your love for Christ. That is not your assurance. Here is another great danger we face as believers: it is not even your sense of the love of Christ for you.
Many believers stumble because they say, “I do not sense the Lord’s love for me.” Sometimes when you counsel believers, they say, “I do not feel the Lord’s love for me.”
But this closing argument says that it is the love of Christ for us. It is His love. That is the whole thing.
Having shown that God’s great love to us is such that none can accuse or harm us, the apostle now asserts the permanence of that love under all circumstances. That is good news.
None of these things can affect that love. More than that, it is by that love that we are enabled to obtain victory over all such adversaries.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to lay hold of that. It is His love for us that keeps us—not our love for Him, and never merely our sensing of His love for us.
This love is an indissoluble bond. Do you know what indissoluble means? It simply means that it is impossible to destroy, impossible to break, impossible to get rid of.
You might think of superglue as indissoluble. Superglue was an accident, I do not know how many of you know that. In 1942, chemists were trying to develop something to make clear gun sights for the war.
They worked up this concoction, as chemists like to do, and it was a mess. It stuck to everything and held on to everything. They thought, “What on earth do we do with this blundering mess?” So they shelved it.
Years later, it was sold to another company, and now you go to Lowe’s and, whenever something is broken, you get superglue—or, as some people say, crazy glue. But John warns us, “Do not get it on your fingers.” It is an indissoluble bond.
But, brothers and sisters, God’s love is much more than superglue. The second thing about God’s love is that it was not an accident. As Brother Stephen was sharing with us yesterday, God loved us from the foundation of the world.
The psalmist said, “You knew me before I was formed, my inward parts.” It is no accident. It will never be shelved. It is a bond that you will never be able to break. This is the closing argument.
There is never a danger that we can lose this love. Think of the Lord’s concluding prayer in John 17. This is the Lord’s high priestly prayer.
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world knew Thee not, but I knew Thee; and these knew that Thou didst send Me;
and I made known unto them Thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them.
That was the end of His high-priestly prayer: that this love, this indissoluble bond, would be in them, and that He Himself would be in them.
To me, that is the greatest mystery of the glad tidings. I can imagine the Lord loving me when I read His Word, but I cannot imagine the Lord Jesus coming and taking up permanent residence in me by the Holy Spirit.
What a love that is! Is that a love you can even begin to describe? This One prayed to His Father, “That I may be in them.”
The Christian life is not you living for Him. The Christian life is Him living in you. The Christian life is not you trying to hold on to the love of God, trying not to fail, and trying to recover when you fall. The Christian life is Him holding on to you. Do you see the difference?
That was the argument the apostle made in this closing argument.
I love that old hymn by Samuel T. Francis, “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.” I started to request that we sing it beforehand, but I would not put you through that agony if I sang it.
I remember Brother Acaroy visiting Linda and me when we were young newlyweds. He shared with me what that hymn meant to him. At the Lord’s table, just as we had the breaking of bread, he said, “Let’s sing this hymn.”
In that deep voice of his, that hymn moved him, and it moved us as we sang it. It speaks of this unbreakable bond:
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is