March 19, 2021
Hey y’all, this is Brother Grant. I have been wanting to do a weekly blog for a while so, here goes nothing! My hope for the blog is that it will be another way to communicate with you each week. I plan to do sermon summaries, devotionals, and anything else the Lord leads me to do. I pray that God will bless it and that it will be beneficial to anyone and everyone that may read it.
This week, as we continued through our sermon series through the book of Romans, we were in Romans chapter 8, verses 31 through 39. Here’s the passage:
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
Because of you
we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This world can feel out of control sometimes, can’t it? Do you ever feel like your life is just spinning out of control and you can’t seem to find any stability. I think we all feel that way from time to time. How could we not? From the havoc that Covid-19 has caused in the last year to riots in the streets to whatever else has been going on for you personally, it’s been a stressful year for just about everyone.
Paul gives us a couple of things in these verses we need to remember if we want to find stability in this unstable world.
I. We are justified by God in Christ.
God’s Son Jesus went to the cross and died in our place so that we can be free from the penalty of our sin. Through Jesus, we can have peace beyond our understanding (Philippians 4:7) This is a supernatural peace that is present in our lives no matter what our circumstances are like in life.
You’ve seen this before no doubt, but’s it’s worth seeing again.
No God, no peace.
Know God, know peace.
To know God is much different than knowing about God. To know God is to have a relationship with God.
II. God will not allow anything to condemn us.
God, as the Creator of all things, is the only one that is qualified to condemn anyone. He has no rivals and no equals.
Satan accuses us all the time. He loves to bring up all of our sins and shortcomings. BUT, he has no power to condemn us. No one has the power to do that except God.
In Christ, we have been made righteous. Not because we earned it or deserved it, because no one can deserve it and no one can earn it.
“If God is for us, who is against us?”
III. God will not allow anything to separate us from His love!
Paul gives us a couple of lists here in verses 35 through 39 of hypothetical things that could separate us from God’s love. Can any of those things separate us from God’s love? No! Paul tells us that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? It means to win in battle, and not to just barely win, it means to win overwhelmingly.
In Christ, we are more than conquerors!
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
I want to finish up our time in this amazing passage of Scripture with a couple of takeaways. These are practical ways we can apply what we’ve learned from the text.
1. Don’t live in fear!
Life can be scary sometimes, but we do not have to live in fear! Don’t live blind to the dangers of the world, but at the same time, understand that if God is for us, no one can be against us because God has authority over all things. God is in control and we can trust Him.
2. Make your spiritual life a priority.
God made you a priority when He sent His only Son Jesus to be the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Will you make God the priority of your life?
Life is often difficult; anyone that’s lived very long can attest to that. But through a personal relationship with Jesus, even as chaos seems to surround us, we can find stability in life. “If God is for us, who is against us?”
If you are a born-again believer, I hope that is an encouragement to you.
If you are not a born-again believer, I want to ask you to consider accepting the free gift of grace and eternal life that is only found through faith in Jesus Christ.
God bless y’all, hope to worship with YOU soon at Pine Grove Baptist Church!