God’s Promises Fulfilled in Christ

God’s Promises Fulfilled in Christ

8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
8:33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
8:36 As it is written:
‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
8:39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Introduction
The Roman Christians are asked “What then shall we say to these things?”
The ‘things’ are found in the verses before. These verses speak of God’s great promises:
to save us from sin of which we are all guilty. (Ch 1-3)
to give us His power through salvation (Ch 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.)
He promises blessing if we are not hypocrites (Ch 2 see: 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.)


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to justify us by faith in Christ alone. (Ch 3:24-26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.)
to give us the Substitute, Jesus Christ who took our place on the cross so as to die for your sin. (Ch 3:25)
to fulfil all His promises to Abraham. Abraham was justified by faith as we are. (Ch 4.)
to give us peace with Himself and the gift of eternal life. (Ch 5)
to give us understanding that grace is not an excuse to live as we wish. That we obey God out of gratitude for all the things He has done for us through Christ. (Ch 6)
to grant us knowledge that Christ has delivered us from obedience to the law. That we are saved by faith in Christ and enabled by His Holy Spirit. (Ch 7)
to bless us with the power of the Holy Spirit so we can live the life God wants us to live. (Ch 8)
that we are adopted as His children forever. (Ch 8: 12-17)
and finally the assurance Ch 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
So God promises us everything we would ever need to be free from sin’s power and penalty, and one day, its presence also.




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Indeed, as Paul goes on to say: “If God is for us who can be against us?” (31)
Of course he does not mean we have no enemies or that life is not a struggle. Surely temptation to do our own things and to let the Devil take advantage of us is always present. But now we are free not to follow it.
But Paul is thinking of the end purpose.
What will happen in the end is that through Christ and the grace of God in Christ, we will be victorious.
So what shall we say to these things?
Hallelujah!
Thank You God!
Praise God!
We love You God!
What will You have us to do Lord?
David and Paul’s Perspective
Sometimes we lose perspective: Like David facing the giant Goliath, many including king Saul and even David’s own brothers, thought the boy would be slaughtered. Goliath thought he always had the better of David but because of God’s plan, protection and providence, David succeeded and Goliath was defeated/ overcome/ vanquished!
Is that how you approach life? Are you like David’s critics? Sceptical as to how things will turn out?
“It is short sighted,” says Paul. “If God is for us who can stand against us?” (31)
Let us have David and Paul’s perspective!



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V. 32 tells us why: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
The little phrase “delivered Him up” is interesting because it means that God gave us His most precious gift by surrendering Him to the cruelty of men and then to the cross. What for? John in his Gospel tells us in these familiar words of Jesus: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (Jn 12:31-32)
Jesus became the great, atoning, Personal Sacrifice for our sins. As Paul says elsewhere “He is our peace.” (Eph 2:14) His suffering and death made God our Friend and broke down the wall that separated us from God, uniting people to God.
God has also joined Jews and Gentiles together, but we will come back to that wonderful truth in the next three chapters.
The Elect
Ch 8:33 “Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
At this point (33) we come to a word that is a challenge to many Christians and it is the word ‘elect.’ Not only does it say that some people are chosen but that Paul calls them ‘God’s elect.’ God’s elect are Christians. He chose us before we chose Him. Eph 1:4 says God: “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…”

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You if you are Christ’s: “Come, (says Jesus), inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…” (Mt 25:34)
As Paul has already said in v 29 & 30 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
This explains who the elect are. It takes us well beyond ourselves! It takes us beyond ourselves spiritually, morally, mentally and right out of our depth.
The ‘elect’ are chosen by God. They have a destiny that is already sure. They have a destiny that has been determined by God Himself. God ‘knew’ them which means He decided to set them apart for Himself before they were born, before they knew Him, before they could do anything to gain His pleasure or do any act that would put them in good standing. As the verse from Eph says:
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” (1:4) Before the world was created God ‘knew’ you, if you are in Christ.
Ezekiel’s picture is apt here: “ ‘…on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.
And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'


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I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,’ says the Lord GOD.
‘Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.
I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.’ ” (Ezek 16:4-10)
Well, can you see that you are God’s! Your place, your life in God’s favour, your future, your hope is all because of the predetermined ‘knowing’ of God. It is all because of God’s prevenient grace. God’s grace comes first.
“We love Him because He first loved us.” (I Jn 4:19)
God went ahead with a plan that would overcome all obstacles, including our own objections, and chose us in Christ before the world was made!
(See Rom 11: 2; Acts 2:23; 1 Pet 1:2)
God, being who He is, saw that everything happens according to His perfect will.
8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Some people are very uncomfortable with this teaching as it seems to deny any free will on our part. But does the
foreknowledge of God and His plan to save people before they could choose Him really do that? Does it nullify,


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remove or dismiss our free will? According to the Bible it does not, because God calls people who decide not to come to Him: “For many are called but few are chosen” as Jesus says. (Mt 22:14) Jesus called people who did not remain His followers, some were even disciples. John tells us: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (JN 6:66)

So what does our text say?
Back to our text: V 33 “Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?” and V 29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”
So another way of explaining this: is it only those God has not chosen who will turn away from His voice and be separated from Him forever?
Or does God look down the thousands of years of human history and seeing some that will have faith chose those ones only?
But it does not say God foresaw a person’s faith or good deeds or anything of the person’s qualities; it says “those (people) whom He foreknew, He also predestined.” (Rom 8:29 NASV)
God saw people. God loves people apart from their deeds with unconditional love. Indeed, “God is love.” God knows all of us intimately and lovingly not just seeing ahead in time to see what we will do.
As someone said: “God chose to save us despite our sinfulness” which seems to be what is implied here.
Praise God


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Now we have wonderful reasons to praise God and to honour God for His great grace rather than try to find ways of explaining God’s sovereign will as something that needed our help. He is the King, so it is foolish to treat Him as though He was not really a king at all.
He is Lord of all or not Lord at all.
The God of the Bible saw us with unconditional prevenient, powerful love that did not depend on anything we were or did or said or believed.
MH says: “The whole human race deserved destruction; but for reasons not perfectly known to us, God determined to recover some by regeneration and the power of his grace…”
http://mhc.biblecommenter.com/romans/8.htm
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.” (Rom 8:31-32)
Now that’s grace!
Amen!