If you turn with me to Romans 8, this is the end of Romans 8, verses 31–39. I know you are very familiar with these verses. It is important that we read the Word of God, so I will read it.
Romans 8:31–39
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 condemneth? 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.
Beloved Lord, we come to You again, bowing in Your presence. As we have had the honor to remember You this day at the table of the Lord, You are indeed our only feast, and we are so grateful for that.
Now, as we open Your Word, we pray that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation will accompany the sharing, the hearing, and the embedding of this Word in our hearts. We know only You have the words of eternal life, and we are asking You once again, as we gather in Your name at this time in the Word, that You will open Your Word and that it will do that marvelous work for which You send it forth.
We ask this with confidence, dear Father, because we ask it in the name of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, we are coming today to the end of Romans 8. I think these are some of the most powerful verses in the Bible. They give us the highest divine assurance. It cannot get any higher than this.
This is the conclusion of the first part, the major part, of the book of Romans—Romans 1 through 8. That is the presentation of the glorious gospel. In this summation of the presentation of the glorious gospel of God, which is in Christ Jesus, we have these divine closing arguments.
This is what Paul said at the end when he summed up the gospel. This is what the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul to give to us as the people of God for all generations, that we might know the highest divine assurance possible. That is the gravity of these words. That is the magnitude of these words.
It tells us how firm a foundation has been laid for us in Christ Jesus. No other foundation could be this firm. I know I have bored you before with the fact that I spent over fifty years designing foundations. It is one thing we do as structural engineers.
What we would do was always make the foundation firm enough for the loads. But God goes way beyond firm enough. You know, there are two types of foundation. Basically, there are shallow foundations. I designed a lot of shallow foundations. They worked; they were enough, but they were not the highest.
Then there is another whole category of foundations, and those are called, generically, deep foundations. These deep foundations go deep down to a substrate that is immovable. They go down to bedrock. That is how they are different.
I will not bore you too much to explain, but the deepest of deep foundations go all the way down to bedrock, and they are immovable. They can never fail. Shallow foundations can fail, but deep foundations can never fail.
I often remember that verse in 1 Corinthians 3:11. I will read it from the King James Version:
For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
This is the deepest of deep foundations. You know, the Lord spoke about being built upon the rock as opposed to being built upon the shifting sand. When we are built upon this immovable foundation, it cannot—it cannot—it cannot be moved.
That is the highest assurance we come to at the end. I mentioned before in the email I sent out that this is the divine closing argument given through the Apostle Paul concerning the gospel of God.
Romans 1 through 8, I have mentioned before, has the setting of a divine courtroom. This is where the righteous God, the righteous Judge, judges mankind, and He offers to mankind the one and only solution in the highest assurance.
Now, closing arguments—let me explain. In a trial in the United States, there are three parts of every trial. There is the opening statement. That is when the facts are laid out. The evidence is not fully presented, but the facts are laid out.
Then there is the trial. That is the longer part. Depending on the case, a trial can take mere minutes sometimes, all the way to days and months. Then, at the very end of the trial, there are these things called closing arguments.
They make the biggest impact. As a matter of fact, there was a paper written in 1968 by legal societies which said that they can make the biggest impact of all. People were found to believe the closing arguments and be convinced by the closing arguments more than the opening statement and more than the trial.
You can lose the case with poor closing arguments. You can gain freedom. You can be set free from judgment and even death, if it is a death sentence, due to the power of the closing arguments.
Well, that is the scene that we are seeing: the courtroom, and now the final closing arguments. One said in that legal paper I mentioned that the purpose of closing arguments is persuasion. That was the one thing. They were trying to persuade.
The whole trial had gone down. The whole case, all the evidence, had been presented—good and bad. But when you got to the end, there was only one aim, and that one aim was to persuade.
I think that is enlightening when you read those three words of the Apostle Paul at the end, when he said, “I am persuaded.” I think that is the context.
One said it better than I can. He said that Paul here arrives at a mountaintop of Christian position. How marvelous. How marvelous. We have arrived at that.
If I can illustrate, it is like an orchestra, you know, a symphony orchestra. Now, I have not been to many symphony orchestras. We did not do that much when I grew up. We would listen rather to something like Elvis Presley or something. But I went one time.
I remember, I think it was in fourth grade with our elementary school class, and we went to an orchestra of the Richmond Symphony. I did not know what this was. We sat in this orchestra, and we heard this music that I had never heard.
Then they came to the end of that orchestra, and they had the crescendo. You know what a crescendo is: when the intensity of the music comes to such a point that finally it is the loudest, it is the emphasis, and it is the closing.
At the end of that, I knew what to do because everybody stood up. It brought everyone to their feet. You know, when we read this closing argument, it should bring us to our feet.
There is nothing like it. It should bring us to our knees, because you cannot compare it to anything that has ever existed. This is the importance of these words.
We will just look at four things.
Well, let us look at these and go through them as quickly as we can.
Romans 8:31 starts, “God for us.” It is a question. As a matter of fact, Romans 8:31 contains two questions. As you look at this closing argument, you begin to discover multiple questions.
This is a common thing in court. Often the lawyers—the prosecutors or the defense lawyers—will use the strategy of asking questions to prove their case. So you might wonder why all the questions.
If you go through it, you can note question after question. These are not questions, in this case, to raise doubt. These are questions that give the fullest assurance. These are not causes for us to wonder, “Is it possible for us to live this Christian life? Is it possible to overcome?”
These are questions of the highest assurance that erase all doubt. You know, in the courts in the United States, we have a unique thing. We have what is called reasonable doubt.
In many countries, they have to prove their innocence. We have a wonderful thing. Now, I am not getting all patriotic and teary-eyed here, do not get me wrong. But we have a wonderful thing where, if reasonable doubt is raised, you can go free.
All the condemnation, all the judgment, all the accusation disappears under reasonable doubt. Brothers and sisters, these divine closing arguments are not about reasonable doubt; they are about the fullest assurance. There is no doubt here.
These questions do not cause us to wonder what God has done. These questions cause us to fall down and worship God for what He has done. That is the difference when you look at the end of Romans 8.
It says in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things?” What do you think the Apostle Paul was talking about in that question? What shall we say to these things?
If you understand that closing arguments are summaries, He is looking back over the whole eight chapters. Those are these things. What shall we say?
As a matter of fact, if you look in Paul’s writings, he will often use that expression, “What shall we say?” Sometimes he says, “What shall we say then?” He does it in Romans and in other books, in important places.
Looking back, we see how God has given the one divine remedy for all of man’s ruined condition. What are these things? He looks back and sees God’s deliverance from the dilemma of sins.
Now, what are sins? Sins are our acts. Sins are what we do. It is plural because we continue to do them—sins. Yet, in this marvelous story of the glorious gospel of God, we are completely delivered from the sins that we have done for all eternity.
Psalm 103:12 says:
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath He removed our transgressions from us.
Do you understand that? They have been removed. They were not just covered over. In the Old Testament, David says, “How blessed is the man whose transgressions have been covered over.”
Something marvelous happens with the glorious gospel. Those actions, those acts, those things that we have done, are completely gone. As a matter of fact, at the end of Jeremiah 31, when the new covenant is spoken about, God says, “And I will remember their sins no more.”
Is that not marvelous? Is it not? Oh, I think of our propensity to remember people’s sins. I am amazed. God can only forget; you and I can remember.
You get with us in private, and we will say, “That brother. That sister. Remember what they have done to me.” But God said, at the end of the presentation of the most glorious covenant that was ever given, “I will remember their sins no more.”
What assurance. What high assurance. That is the dilemma of sins. He bore our sins. He justified us. He gave us a righteousness that is not our own. It is Christ alone, and He fully reconciled us to God. That is these things.
There is the dilemma of sin. Notice the difference: it is singular. We have a problem with who we are. It is our nature. It is our nature.
We sin, singular, because we are sinners. Do you understand? The tree is always producing its fruit. If it is thorns and thistles, as the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount, it will produce thorns and thistles.
If it is a good nature, a good tree, a fruit-bearing tree, it will produce fruit. Do you remember when the Lord challenged—was it John the Baptist? I may be getting this mixed up—“Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.”
Something is wrong with us. It is not just what we do. What we do is the fruit of what we are.
So God, in His amazing deliverance, does something most wonderful. If you read Romans 6, He includes us in Christ’s death. All of Adam—who we are—is included in that last Adam.
The first Adam, for those that believe and are in Christ Jesus, comes to an abrupt end at the cross. That is what the sanctification work is in Romans 6. We have died with Christ. It is co-death. We have been buried with Christ. It is co-burial.
And it says something marvelous: we have been raised with Christ in newness of life. How marvelous. What assurance. This is how God deals with the dilemma of sin. He knows our nature.
But then there is something else. There is another dilemma. There is the dilemma of self. Let me tell you, I think self is the biggest dilemma God had.
You remember Paul in Romans 7, as he shares about his own experience and talks about the sanctifying process. He discovers that it is impossible for him to live the Christian life. I think that is a wonderful discovery.
I hope all of us, sooner or later, come to that end where we see the dilemma of self and see that we cannot. It does not matter how much we try. It does not matter how many times you visit the altar for a new moment of consecration. It does not matter how much you pray. There is something wrong with self.
Paul gets pretty graphic about it in Romans 7:18. He says:
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
I think that is pretty clear. He saw something, and it was deliverance. It began to be the path to progress. It began to be how he was set free from who he was. He said in Romans 7:14, “I am fleshly, sold under sin.”
I am telling you, God in His mercy does something amazing. These things are about a God who does something amazing. That which we cannot do, He makes a divine provision so that we can do that.
You remember when we were in Romans 7, we talked about indwelling sin being the problem. Well, God in His mercy, if you read Romans 8, talks about the indwelling Spirit of God. That is a divine solution.
Is that not amazing? Is that not extreme encouragement—that we have been given God the Holy Spirit to live in us, to take up permanent residence?
Our son Jonathan was a resident assistant at Virginia. The only thing I think he ever got was a thing on his door that said, “Resident Assistant.” They would come to him, and he would tell them, “Calm down. Do not be so loud. We do not want to get in trouble.” I think that was the most he did.
But we have a resident assistant of the highest: God the Holy Spirit. One of the triune Godhead has come into you and taken up permanent abode, and now makes it possible to overcome indwelling sin, because we now can live by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I think this is what is so amazing. It tells us to walk in the Spirit. It tells us how we are being transformed in Romans 8 by the work of the Holy Spirit. We are being conformed to the image of Christ.
This is how God solves the dilemma of self. Do you understand how wonderful that is? It is beyond wonderful. It is beyond any explanation.
William R. Newell looked back at this and quoted those two words, “these things.” “What then shall we say to these things?” He said, “By these things, Paul evidently indicates not only the whole process of salvation by Christ from chapter 3 onward, with the great deliverance by the help of the Holy Spirit found in chapter 8, but he also points most directly to what he has been telling us of the purpose of God.”
If you can imagine, God’s purpose is that you would be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. Can there be a higher purpose than that? I do not think so. That is these things. That is what Paul is looking back at. That is what brings him to this profound summary and conclusion.
Then, in Romans 8:32, we read how great this assurance is. Let me read Romans 8:31 again: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
Is that not a profound word? If God is for us, who is against us? Who can be your enemy if God is on your side? What enemy can prevail? Who has the power to overcome you?
This was the closing argument: if God is for us, who then is against us? It does not mean there will not be those against us. There will be those against us—enemies on every side. But that is not the point. The point is the One who is on our side.
That is the glorious conclusion that I think is so clear. That is the ultimate assurance. That question, “If God is for us, who is against us?” erases all doubt.
Brothers and sisters, we need to come to grips with this. This is our reality. In this life of sojourning in the wilderness, among difficulties and tests and trials, the one profound, ultimate assurance we have is that God is for us.
God was for us when He created man. Do you remember what it says? He did not create man as a beast like the other beasts of the field, with no shape or form. He said, speaking of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.”
Marvelous. That shows us God was for us when He created us. Not only that, God was for us when we sinned. Let me read Romans 5:8:
But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
You know, I often say this. I know it may sound foolish, but if I were counseling God, I would say, “Give up on them. They are what they are.” But God commends His love. While we were yet sinners, God was for us.
God was for us when we were His enemies. Romans 5:10 says:
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.
We were enemies, completely reconciled. He did not destroy His enemies; He saved His enemies, with the highest purpose.
Have you thought about that last part of Romans 5:10? He has put the power of His own life in you—His own divine life. I am not saying you are divine. You never will be divine. There is only One who is divine.
Nevertheless, He does the unthinkable by putting His own life in us. Do you think you will be ultimately saved? This is looking beyond initial salvation. It is salvation to the uttermost.
Do you think that is possible, knowing yourself, knowing your sins, knowing your sin? It is more than possible.
We shall be saved by the power of His life.
How marvelous. This is the ultimate assurance.
Then, when you look at Romans 8:32, we see the ultimate evidence. I know you know this verse:
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?
This is the ultimate proof. You know, a courtroom depends upon proof. There has to be proof. It is about evidence. You do not get up there and say, “Well, I feel, Judge, I feel like this guy is a real louse, and You ought to throw him in jail for the rest of his life and never let him come out.”
It is never feeling. Ask the lawyer. He is here. Ask Joe. Joe knows more about that than I can even imagine explaining to you. It is evidence. It is ultimate evidence.
What was the ultimate evidence that God is for us? The ultimate evidence is that God did not withhold from you His only Son.
He could have sent Gabriel. I have been reading about Gabriel, the archangel. Gabriel fascinates me. We do not know enough about Gabriel. I read about Gabriel appearing to Zacharias, Gabriel appearing to Mary, and Gabriel appearing to Daniel in the Old Testament.
He could have said, “I will send Gabriel. Gabriel will do. Gabriel is good enough.” If Gabriel died for you, that would be wonderful. We could say for the rest of our Christian life, “Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, the one who stood before the Lord, died for me.”
But He said something else. He said, in effect, “I did not withhold from you My only begotten Son.”
I remember that hymn, “How Great Thou Art.” I have often prayed it. The first two lines from the third verse say:
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.
This is the highest and most heavenly assurance that can be given.
The Lord has something else to say through Paul:
How shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Is that not wonderful? Not only does He give us His only begotten Son, but He gives us all things. Colossians 3:11 says that Christ is everything and in all. It is the whole package. You get the whole divine package. You get the highest.
Think of 2 Corinthians 9:15, when it speaks about the grace of giving and ends with those wonderful words:
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
How marvelous. Can there be more assurance?
Well, this is the glory of these closing arguments. Now let us think about “No accusation can stand” in Romans 8:33–34. I will just read that again:
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is He that condemneth? 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.
This proves to us that when God is for us, no accusation can stand. The question that Paul raises in his presentation of the closing argument is, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”
Now, you might quibble with those words. You might think, “Those words do not apply to me. I am not God’s elect.” You may think, “Well, maybe that applied to Martin Luther. Maybe that applies to T. Austin-Sparks. Maybe that applies to Stephen Kaung.” Bring it closer to us: “It does not apply to me.”
But do you know you are God’s elect? “I am not God’s elect?” You know, I think of the Lord when He talks about the end days. I think it is Matthew 24:24. I am not sure, but I think it is.
When it says how terrible it would be in the end days, it talks about how, if those days were not shortened, even the elect would be deceived, if possible. It is not possible.
Let me give you the assurance: that does not apply to these great servants of God alone. Thank God it does apply to them, but this matter of being God’s elect applies to everyone who believes. If you believe, you are one of God’s elect.
Then let me tell you what changed my whole view of this. I read some time ago that Henry Ward Beecher said this: “The elect are whosoever will, and the non-elect are whosoever will not.” You are one of God’s elect.
Do you think there is a chance an accusation can now be brought against you which can stand? It is impossible, because we are God’s elect—elected, chosen before the foundation of the world. How marvelous this assurance is.
But we still have accusers. You know, Revelation 12:10 describes the scene when the accuser of the brethren is cast down. It says that he accused them day and night—or perhaps it is night and day. Maybe my memory is not good.
He accused them. He never took a break. You know, even in courts in the United States, they take recesses. It gets too long, the jury is starting to nod off, and the judge says, “Well, I think it is about time we recess until tomorrow at eight o’clock.”
The enemy never takes off. He never takes a recess. He is always accusing—day and night, night and day—incessant accusations. But the ultimate assurance is this: who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect?
Now, you may remember the story in Zechariah 3:1–5 about Joshua the high priest. It is a precious story. The high priest is standing before the angel of the Lord, and beside him is Satan, standing at his right hand to accuse him.
The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, as I understand it, is the pre-incarnate appearing of our Lord Jesus before He came to earth as man. You may not agree with this, but I agree with it, and I have read it many times.
Satan’s whole job is to accuse—to accuse us, to destroy us, to tell us as he told Eve, “Did God really say? Are these words really true? They are not true of you, because you are not the elect. They are true of somebody else.”
Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect? How marvelous are these words.
It says in Zechariah 3:2:
And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
That is speaking of Joshua. How marvelous that is. Do you know who Joshua’s defender was? It was God Himself. “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.”
Though he stands day and night accusing, and will not cease until that day we read about in Revelation 12:10 when he is cast down, who can bring an accusation? This is marvelous encouragement. Christ Himself is our defender.
You remember when Martin Luther stood in the Reformation and he was accused. He did not defend himself; he knew the One who was his defender, the supreme One.
And he said:
Here I stand.
I cannot recant.
I rest on the Word of God.
Let God see to it.
Will you rest in the assurance of the Word of God that no one can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
Oh, it goes on to say in Romans 8:34, “Who is He that condemneth? 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.”
Is that not marvelous? Not only can an accusation not be brought, but no one can condemn us. This is the assurance at the end of Romans 8. It is so marvelous: no one can condemn us.
Romans 8:33 says, “It is God that justifieth.” Romans 8:34 says, “Who is He that condemneth?” Do you remember the woman who was caught in adultery? Do you remember that story? We are not going to read the story. It is a wonderful story—John 8:3–11.
She was surely guilty. Her accusers had stones in their hands and were ready to condemn her to death, a right punishment according to the law.
And the Lord did something. I never understand what He wrote; I wish I knew what He wrote. He knelt down and, in the sand, He wrote something. Maybe He wrote, “Who shall condemn? Who can accuse?”
This is the assurance. Do you remember? The Lord looked up, and all those men had disappeared. This lady was by herself. No one to accuse, no one to condemn.
And He said, “Woman, where are thine accusers? Did no man condemn thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” And He said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more.”
What marvelous words. The One who had the right to condemn did not condemn. This is the assurance.
Brothers and sisters, may the Lord show us this. It will change our lives. It will change our perspective. It will change our walk in the Lord if we can really lay hold of these things in Christ Jesus.
I think one said one of the most beautiful things about this. He said, “Even He cannot do both”—speaking of the Lord—“accuse and justify at the same time.”
Then he said this: “And since justification resides in a Person, the Lord Jesus, our righteousness, in Whom we stand uncondemned and unchargeable, as the Son Himself.”
You might think, “Wuest, like me, exaggerates.” He does not. As the Son Himself—uncondemned, unchargeable—because of the work of deliverance that He did. This is how wonderful.
And he said, “It is impossible, after being justified, that you be again accused and brought under condemnation.” That is the marvelous gospel. How beautiful it is. How wonderful it is.
Paul cites four things in Romans 8:34 to prove this is true.
First, “It is Christ Jesus that died.” The words “has died” are the way Darby rendered it. That is appropriate for what we call the aorist Greek. I do not want to get into a Greek lecture, but it is simply the best way in English to say that this is a historic fact.
It is not going to happen; it has happened. You can always look back at it as a touchstone and say, “Christ has died for me.” He is talking about facts.
Second, “Yea rather, that was raised from the dead.” Christ was raised for us, and we have been raised in Christ in newness of life.
Third, He ascended to the right hand of God. He is already there, seated.
Fourth, He intercedes for us. Not promise—fact. The fourth fact is so clear: He intercedes for us. You know what it says in Hebrews 7:25? It speaks about His occupation, the Lord’s occupation upon the throne, and it speaks of our great High Priest:
He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Now, do you believe? Are you persuaded that God is for us? You should be.
You know, you can be condemned in a court here in the United States. Thankfully, you may not believe this, but I have never been condemned in a court in the United States. Maybe that is a stretch for most of you.
But you can appeal that. You can go to an appellate court, a higher court. Then, if you do not think you got justice, you can go all the way to the supreme court of the state. Then you can possibly go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Now, when the Supreme Court of the United States makes a decision, it is called the law of the land. It is done. You cannot go any higher than the Supreme Court of the United States—except us.
We have gone to the Supreme Court of heaven. That decision has been made, and that decision can never be reduced, never be changed, never be altered. It is the ultimate assurance that once the Supreme Court rules, it is done.
It is the law of heaven and the law of earth, and even under the earth. This is, to me, the glory of it.
A brother said, “There is no ground for condemnation, since Christ has suffered the penalty. There is no law that condemns us, since we are not under law but under grace. There is no tribunal for judgment, since ours is now the throne of grace, not of judgment.”
“There is no judge to sentence us, since God Himself, the only Judge, is our Justifier.” How marvelous.
There is more assurance: nothing can separate us. That is in Romans 8:35–39. Nothing can separate us. No one can separate us.
When you read those things, you see the darkest circumstances imaginable: seven dark circumstances, the most desperate things that can happen to any of us.
There is tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. Seven is the perfect number when it comes to biblical numerology, and these seven worst things cannot separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
The worst of things—it is impossible. These greatest dangers, this unimaginable danger, cannot separate us. Think about it, brothers and sisters. What hope would we have if we could be torn from His bosom? If we could be separated from the love of God, what hope would there be?
This is Paul’s concluding point: nothing can separate us.
You know, this is, I think, so marvelous. We need to see it. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to show us. You remember the Lord said in His last words recorded by Matthew, in Matthew 28:20:
Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Those were His highest words of assurance as He was about to be caught up to the throne. I think we need to know these highest words of assurance.
This love of God is an unbreakable bond. I will use a bigger word—I do not do too many big words—an indissoluble bond. Do you understand what that means? You cannot dissolve it. An indissoluble bond cannot be broken. It has a bond that can resist anything that seeks to destroy it.
I remember this story. I thought it was rather humorous. Super glue was discovered in World War II, in 1942. It is the strongest chemical bond, by the way. Maybe they have done better now; I do not know. But I have gotten super glue on my fingers, and I could not get them apart.
They were trying to get clear gun sights for the war, and it was an accident—this sticky stuff. They could not get rid of it. I guess they picked up things, and everything was sticking to it.
Even super glue you can dissolve. Borrow some of your sister’s or your wife’s—what is that called?—fingernail remover. It is acetone remover, right? And it will dissolve it. I know sometimes I have come in looking for something when my fingers got stuck together.
But this love of God was no accident. This love of God was from the foundation of the world. This love of God was not something that just happened. It was from the beginning, and it is the indissoluble bond.
Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. This is the closing argument.
It says something also encouraging: “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long.” You might wonder why that is in there, in Romans 8:36. You might think, “This is negative. What is this? What does this mean?”
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.” But then it says something most wonderful:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
In these darkest circumstances, we who are the Lord’s have the highest assurance that we can overcome these darkest things imaginable—these seven things. This is the assurance we have.
It says in Romans 8:37, “Nay.” That means in spite of those seven things. Yet, in all these things, we more than conquer through Him that loved us.
Now let me end with this one. Paul comes to the last two verses. He says:
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.
Remember what I said about that paper written on closing arguments. What is the purpose of closing arguments? It is to persuade you. Paul saved the best to last: to persuade us.
First of all, he shared his own testimony. He said, “I am persuaded.” If you read the book of Romans, he says that five times. If you read the book of Romans, he speaks twice about being fully persuaded.
Now, when we come to the end, are we fully persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? No thing. No person. No enemy. No accuser.
There is no one, and there is nothing. That was this closing argument. It is not possible.
He went on to say, speaking of these glad tidings in the book of Romans—you know Romans 1:16–17 are the key verses—God’s glad tidings are the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. God’s glad tidings.
But then he said twice in Romans, “My glad tidings.” Well, are these your glad tidings? Is this your testimony? It was not meant to be Paul’s testimony only. It was meant to be your testimony.
You are to be the one who says, “I am fully persuaded that nothing, that no one, that no other creature, is able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
These are the closing arguments. Have you seen that God is for us? Have you really seen it? God is for us. We say it. We say, “God, we know You are for us.” It is more clear here than in any place.
Have you seen that because of this, no accusation can stand? Are you aware that nothing—nothing—no one, no being, no thing? The word “nor” is repeated again and again for the sake of emphasis. Nothing. Nor. Nor. Again and again.
This was what Paul wanted to leave with us at the end of the glorious gospel.
Here is the question: are you persuaded? Are you fully persuaded? That will make the difference.
Has this gospel—God’s gospel, the power of God unto salvation—become your gospel? Can you say, like the Apostle Paul, “My gospel”?
This is the closing argument.
Father, we bow before the throne of grace with such awe that these things were not just one man’s imagination in a moment of ecstasy, concluding the presentation of God’s gospel.
But they are the truth of God that cannot ever be broken, can never be changed, indissoluble to all eternity, because this is what You have done.
Now, could You open our eyes? We are like that servant of Elijah who sees all the enemies surrounding us and is overcome with fear, often not believing, not persuaded.
The prophet prayed that You would open his servant’s eyes. Open our eyes. Cause us to see, and to lay hold of, and enter into this glorious, glorious gospel of God.
The power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
This we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.