He is For You! (Romans 8:28-39)
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
(Romans 8:31)
I don’t know about you, but this is one of the hardest things to really believe in my heart. We know the temptations that we face and the sins of our past or present and we wonder how God could really love someone like me. We go to church and see all this Christians that seem so put together, looking like they don’t have a care in the world. That certainly isn’t where I feel like I am much of the time. I’m a mess and in my most honest moments it feels almost overwhelming. We think to ourselves, “you love me because you don’t know me, but if you really knew me, you wouldn’t love me.” We tell ourselves that if others knew the details of our struggles, they would hold us at arm’s length at best and more likely just walk out of our lives. Sometimes we wonder if that is God’s reaction too!
This isn’t what the Bible teaches! If you have genuinely repented of your sin and turned to Christ alone in faith, the Bible says that you are his child! He knew every one of the sins that you have ever committed or ever will commit, and he chose you! It wasn’t a mistake. He wasn’t tricked into it. Before the foundation of the world, he knew you would struggle with sin and he said, I want him or her to be a part of my family. God has aligned himself with you! He is on your side! He isn’t against you; he is for you. It doesn’t matter what other people think or say about you, your Heavenly Father has placed his affection on your and is pouring out his love on you.
If that wasn’t enough, look at what he says in the next three verses. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:32-34) God gave us the most precious possession he had, his own dear Son. He gave up Jesus so that we could be forgiven and brought into his family. If he has given you Jesus, what else in comparison would he ever hold back that you need to walk with him? The only one who has the right to condemn us is the one who is on our side!
He concludes this passage by asking, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Isn’t that what we worry about. That somehow, we are going to sin in such a way or such a degree that God will no longer love us? Paul goes to pains to show that nothing in the created order can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Life is hard but God is good. He is on your side. He loves you. He is at work in your life. If there is one truth that I want you to comprehend in the depth of your heart is that you are fully known and loved by God. The knowledge of your sonship is the motivation for godly live, evangelism, and every other aspect of the Christian life. As his child he will only, always respond to you in love. Even when he needs to discipline or correct us it is motivated by love! (Hebrews 12:3-11)
