Over the last several Sundays we’ve been Roaming Through Romans and looking at choices.  Yes?

If you could go to the theater only once this year and see only one movie - meaning you can only see one of these.  Which one would you choose?   The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2 or Star Wars Episode VII?

Coming to Romans.  As we’ve been going through this section of Romans Paul has been helping us to think through how we’re responding to God’s grace and why.

Every day we’re hit with decisions where we can intentionally choose to draw closer to God or to intentionally or unintentionally be drawn farther away from God.  Paul has been showing us how the choices we’re making are really a bottom line choice of how we’re responding to God’s grace and the consequences of that choice to our lives.

What we are coming to - starting at verse 31 - is Paul’s bottom line - this is how we need to process this - application of what we’ve been looking at over these past few Sundays.  What is one of the most amazing statements in all of Scripture.  Totally over the top - essential for us to choose to hang on to and marinate on - to choose to live with the assurance of the truth Paul is coming down to here in these verses.

Romans 8 - starting at verse 31 - here is Paul’s over the top Statement of Truth (read this with me):  What shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?

There are two parts to this statement that are crucial for us to wrap our minds and lives around.

The first part of verse 31 is this question:  “What shall we say to these things?”  We need to understand what Paul means by “these things.”

Paul - in what we’ve looked at so far - over the past fifteen plus Sundays - Paul has been describing the painful reality of where we live our lives.  Paul has been like a lawyer step by painful step building an iron clad case for two absolutes truths that we need to understand at the core of who we are. 

Truth one is God’s unquestioned right to condemn all of us to eternity without Him - forever punishment - forever banishment from God - forever unimaginable torment. 

Paul has shown us that - because of Adam’s sin - Adam totally messing up with God back in the Garden of Eden - and because of our own ongoing sin - Paul has painfully reminded us that Adam was a really good representative of all of us.

In chapters 1 to 5 - Paul made certain that we all understand that given the opportunity all of us sin.  All of us - because of our own sin - we all are messed up before God - and we’re facing eternity as toast.

Paul has been showing us that we live on a planet - in a creation - that is under the curse of God.  We live in a fallen - imperfect - broken world.  As a consequence of man’s sin - God cursed the earth. 

Paul writes in 8:21 that creation exists in slavery to corruption.  We live on a planet that’s in inescapable bondage to decay.  It’s dying.  It works against us rather than for us.  And, we’re not helping it much.

We experience the evidence of that decay even within ourselves.  A sense that this is not the way it should be or will be.  But we live here - now.  We experience bodies that fall apart - that decay - that experience physical death.

Mankind living apart from God lives without hope.  People ask, “What purpose is there to life?”  “What meaning is there?”  So many people are trapped in despair and depression.  They carry wounds of abuse and rejection and condemnation - wounds that come from parents and siblings and people in their lives - and even from within ourselves.

People live under the weight of inadequacy and failure and doubt and fear.  People ask, “Is there a way out of all this?”  “Can I ever find an answer - a healing - for the deep burdens of my heart?”

People try desperately to control their lives - to find some sense of security for themselves.  Take care of number one.  Grab what you can.  Hang on to what you’ve got.  The illusion of security.  So, we live with greed and war and murder - senseless violence - hatred - fear - the collapse of our society.  Immorality.  Trying to cope and meet needs with addictions and affairs.  More wounds - more pain. 

This is where we live our lives.  Are we together?

Paul wrote - in chapter 7 - that God gives us His law.  The law is God explaining to us in real time what it means to live life with Him - to live in holiness with the holy God.  A very different life than what we see going around us and in us.

The law clarifies sin - shows us where we fall short of God’s holiness.  Labels sin for what it is - points it out to us.  “That’s sin.”  The law warns us that the consequence of sin is death - eternal separation from God - eternal punishment.

All of which can be very frustrating.  Because on one hand the law shows us that there is something different - the reality of life with God - which we crave.  And yet, on the other hand the law simply points out where - despite our best efforts - the law points out where we fail - where we continually fall short of living rightly with God.

We may try to convince ourselves otherwise - even as Christians who go to church and do Christian things.  But, we’re still very much a part of this world which is corrupt.   

We looked at Paul describing his own struggle with sin.  Remember this?  Romans 7:15 - “I’m not doing what I want to do.  But, I’m doing the very thing I hate.”  Sin - like gravity - pulls us down every day of our lives.

We all struggle with sin.  We all fall short of holiness.  We all are in big big serious trouble.

Paul writes - Romans 7:24 - “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”

Answer - chapter 7 - verse 25 - read it with me:  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” 

Which is Paul’s second truth:  The astounding reality of God’s underserved grace towards us - His offer of forgiving our sin - justifying us - giving to us a restored - made right - relationship with Him now and forever.

God - sends Jesus to the cross to die for us.  Jesus dies for us in place of us dying for our sins.  Jesus paying the penalty for our sin.  Jesus dies for us - not because we’re some super righteous holy people.  Jesus dies for us even while we were in rebellion against God - us living in the stench of our own sin - not even seeking after God.

God dies in our place to establish the means by which our sins are forgiven and our relationship with Him can be restored.  Because God - who is grace - demonstrates His graciousness - by doing what we could never earn or ever measure up to on our own - no matter how many righteous and holy things we might attempt to do.

Some of you may be thinking, “I’ve heard this before.”  And we have.  Some of you may be thinking, “I get this.  Can we move on now?”  And we will.  But as repetitious as what Paul writes is - in detail - the lawyer making his case - repetition is the key to having this sink into our hearts and to our not going complacent on what is the gravity of our situation.  Repetition so we can not only be reminded of our desperation but the beyond understanding magnitude of God’s grace.  His undeserved favor towards us.  And where Paul takes us next.

Coming to chapter 8 - Paul writes - verse 1:  “There is therefore - because of what God has graciously done for us in Jesus Christ - read it with me - there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  How beyond understanding - let’s repeat it - awesome is that?

When we choose to respond to God’s grace - by trusting Jesus as our Savior - God - because of Jesus Christ - sets us free from this body of death.  God no longer condemns us.  God justifies us.  God - by the work of the Holy Spirit - God even adopts us - makes us to be His children - heirs of His kingdom.

God’s children - we - live today knowing that one day our adoption will be complete.  Today we live in the corruption of this world - with all of its death and decay and groaning and suffering - but we live with the promise of what’s coming.  A future that’s incomparably better than what’s dying around us.

By God’s grace - God’s children - we - live today with the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  God Himself touching our lives as close as the depths of our hearts - today.  A foretaste of our relationship with God in heaven when we will live eternally in the presence of God.  Not with corruptible bodies - but imperishable.  We’ll live with no pain - no mourning - no sorrow - no tears.  We’ll live out God’s great purposes for us in what is an unimaginable future.

Not because we deserve it.  But because God by His grace sovereignly ordains it.  Amen?

So Paul’s asks the question, “What shall we say to these things?” 

Answer: There is nothing we can say.

How are we ever suppose to come up with a response to these things?  What kind of response can we possibly give to all that God has undeservedly done for us?  What kind of response could ever adequately - even begin to come close - to an appropriate response.

Perhaps - perhaps - the only response is to fall before prostrate before the sovereign gracious God in worship - in abject surrender of our lives to Him.

Second - the second part of verse 31 - Paul asks, “If God is for us, who is against us?”  The basic bottom line simple answer to Paul’s question is what?  “No one.”

The reason is simple:  God is for us.  Trying to process the unimaginable depth of our depravity and the unimaginable magnitude of God’s grace - that is a certain reality that we need to let sink into our hearts every day of our lives.  God is for us.

Try this together, “God is for us.”  Say this to yourself, “God is for me.”  Encourage the person next to you with this, “God is for you.”  There are a tremendous number of times in our lives when we need to be reminded of that reality.  Yes?  To choose to live in the reality of that truth - choosing to trust God in the midst of where we live life.

Beginning in verse 32 - and going on down through verse 39 - Paul is going to apply that amazing reality to where we live our lives.  What it means - for us - what it means that God is for us.

Verse 32:  He - God - 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?   

In other words - if God has already done the hard thing - Jesus going to the cross for us - establishing our relationship with Him as His children - anything else is gravy - a slam dunk - a piece of cake.  Since God is for us - saving us - everything else that we need for now and forever He’ll freely give to us.  We don’t have to stress over the rest of it.

But we do - stress - over the stuff of life.  Yes!

So Paul is going to give us three questions.  Questions that touch on where we stress and struggle to accept the reality that God really is for us.  With answers that we need to keep in the forefront of our gray matter.

Verse 33 - question number one:  Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? 

October 7, 1916 - was a dark and dreary day - foreboding.  On October 7, 1916 a football game of sorts took place.  On the Georgia Tech side were semi-human monsters, gorilla-like behemoths trained by John Heisman - the man football’s highest award was later named after.

Heisman was a fanatic.  He wouldn’t let his players use soap or water because he considered them debilitating.  His players couldn’t eat pastry, pork, veal, hot bread, nuts, apples, or coffee.  His reason?  “They don’t agree with me, so they’d better not agree with you.”

Georgia Tech had eight All-Southern players - intent on building their reputation.

Their opponent was Cumberland University.  Cumberland University that had dropped their football program the year before.  But Cumberland had a contract with Georgia Tech - a $500 incentive to play and a $3,000 penalty if they forfeited.

The Cumberland official who accepted the offer had graduated and left the team in the hands of the team manager.  The Cumberland team had several players who had never played football before.  Even the trip to Atlanta had been a disaster:  Cumberland arrived with only 16 players.  They’d lost three at a rest stop in Nashville.

The game began.  Georgia Tech scored 63 points - in the first quarter - averaging touchdowns at intervals of one-minute-and-twenty-seconds.
 
At half-time the score was 126-0.

To give you some idea of what this was like, at one point a Cumberland kickoff returner fumbled, probably from sheer weariness.  He yelled to a teammate, “Pick up the ball!”  His teammate replied, “Pick it up yourself!  You dropped it!”

George Allen - the Cumberland coach - paced the sidelines, exhorting the team to “Hang in there for Cumberland’s $500.”  And to their credit they did finish the game - collected their $500 - and with it collected the honor of the most brutally devastating loss in all of college football history.

The final score?  222-0. 

In life - it’s hard not to feel like Cumberland.  Defeat is just a consequence of showing up.

To bring a charge against us is like being in a court of law - an accusation is brought against us.

We live in a world where we’re constantly measured by external standards - what we do - what we have - who we know - having the right education - the right job - the right promotion - the right position - the right abilities - what we look like.  Standards - expectations - we know we can never live up to.  And we know we shouldn’t buy into this.  But we do.

We carry around in us voices that have trained us so well to reject God’s grace.  Parents.  Siblings.  So-called friends.  Co-workers.  Sometimes with words.  Sometimes with actions.  Over and over again the reinforced message of condemnation.

“You were an accident - a mistake.”  “No one could ever love you.”  “You don’t have what it takes.”  “You’ll never amount to anything.”  “You’re such a failure.”  “Look at how you’ve messed up your life.”  “How could God ever use someone like you?”

We are so conditioned - by how we’ve been brought up - by where we live - to accept the condemnation.  Worse - we don’t even need anyone else.  We’ve already internalized the message.  We never let up on ourselves.  “I’m such a failure - such a jerk.”  “I can never get it right.”  “I’m worthless.”  “I’ve messed up so bad God could never use me.”  “I’m never going to be good enough.”

Satan - the Adversary - accuses us constantly - accusations about our sins and our failures - trying to label us with guilt - to put us down and make us feel as if there’s no hope.

We think to ourselves, “Why should God care for me?”  “Why should God help me?”  “Look at the kind of person I am.”  “How can I call myself a Christian?” 

These thoughts come.  We all struggle with them.  Sometimes we allow  them to get the better of us - to discourage and defeat us.  The thoughts come but - but grab this - we don’t have to listen to them.

There’s a story about Babe Ruth.  He came to bat one day, and the first pitch from the young pitcher was called a strike.  Babe didn’t like the call.  He turned around and glared at the umpire and said, “Listen.  Me and forty thousand other people in these stands know that last pitch was a ball.”

The umpire stared right back and said, “Yeah, but mine is the only opinion that counts.” (1)

The only opinion in the whole universe - in God’s courtroom - the only opinion that matters is God’s.  He’s the final judge of our lives.  God - the judge - did not spare His own Son but delivered Jesus over for us all.  God is the One who freely justifies us.  God is the One who establishes our right standing before Him.

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  If God is for us - who is the one able to accuse us?  Answer:  No one.  God is the One who justifies us.

Second question - and like the first we have to picture a court of law.  Question number two - verse 34:  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. 

When we’re feeling boxed in - trapped by our circumstances - habits - addictions - temptations - that surround us and drag us down.  Heartaches and pressures and problems.  When we’re reminded that we’re imperfect people living in a cursed world - its easy to listen to the voice of Satan - to listen to those who speak for Him - that would challenge us to think less of ourselves that God does.

Each one of us has death sentence hanging over our head - our sin has put it there.  But it’s a death sentence that’s been paid for by the blood of Jesus.

John 3:16 is written for people like us.  Who need reassurance.  Right?

“For God so loved the world - us - that He gave His only begotten Son - God did not spare Jesus - Romans 8:32 - He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever - who?  whoever - anyone - even includes people here - whoever believes in Him - Jesus - shall not perish - could perish?  might be perishable?  Expiration date?  shall not perish - absolute certainty - but - instead of perishing - we - have eternal life.”  (NASB)

The only one who has the right to condemn us is Jesus - and Jesus died for us.  More than that - Jesus was raised to life for us.  He’s now at the right hand of God - a position of power and authority - for us.  Jesus is interceding - for us.  His broken body and shed blood - plead our case before THE Judge - who Himself establishes our pardon. 

The moment we trust Jesus as our Savior God pardons us - forgives us - cleanses us - gives us a position before Him of being - loved - wanted - adopted - destined for heaven.  What right has anyone - including ourselves - to condemn whom God has set free?

Question:  If God is for us - who has the right to condemn us?  Answer:  No one.

Verse 35 - question number three:  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Many years ago - back before the fall of the Soviet Union - I had the opportunity to travel into some of the communist world - through places like Bulgaria - the Ukraine - and of course - Armenia.  I had the opportunity to worship with the registered church - for which I found out later the pastor was interrogated.

I also had the privilege of meeting with the underground church.  Secret meetings.  “Be ready.  We’ll pick you up here.”  No mention of where we were going.

We know that we have brothers and sisters today who pay a heavy price to follow Jesus.  In places like Syria, North Korea, Eretria.

Here in the USA the cost of following Jesus isn’t the same.  At least not yet.  But it’s coming.  Sometimes God protects His children from the stuff in this world.  Sometimes He doesn’t.  That isn’t Paul’s point here.

Separation - what Paul focuses on beginning here in verse 35 - is the ultimate concern - fear of separation from Jesus - regardless of what’s going on in our lives.

Going on in verse 35 - Paul goes on with His question:  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Paul gives us a pretty complete list of the physical troubles and dangers of life.  Paul quotes Psalm 44 - the part about God’s people being like sheep getting slaughtered.  Paul quoting Psalm 44 for Hebrew history is a reminder that the death of God’s people - even martyrdom - isn’t anything new.  (Psalm 44:22)

God’s people have always suffered.  Been tortured - suffered all kinds of horrible deaths.  Death is a part of life.  Anything short of that shouldn’t come as a surprise to us.

We’re going to skip verse 37 and come back to it in a moment.  Skip down to verse 38. 

In verse 38 Paul goes on with his list - verse 38:  For I am sure - some versions say, “For I am convinced” -  meaning I am sure without any doubt in my mind - that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul gives us a list of things unseen.  The spiritual powers behind what we see going on in the physical world.  The authorities - godly and evil - the sweep of creation history present and future - even death itself.

David writes - familiar words:  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil - why?  For You - my Lord - my Shepherd - are with me.”  (Psalm 23:4)  There’s an invaluable huge confidence in that.  Nothing is more powerful than God and God will never leave us - even in the worst of this world.

Paul’s question:  Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Answer:  No One.  No Thing.  No way.  Simply cannot be done.

Back to verse 37.  No, in all these things - what things?  Those who accuse us - seek to condemn us - who and what seeks to separate us from God who is gracious and His love poured out for us in Jesus - the worst of what life in this decaying world can throw at us.

...in all these things we are more than conquerors - we don’t just somehow barely make it - we overwhelmingly conquer - through Him who loved us. 

We don’t just fearfully walk through the valley of the shadow of death - nervously peering into the darkness waiting for something - some zombie - to jump out at us - repeating over and over, “The Lord is my shepherd.  The Lord is my shepherd.”  We don’t just put up with suffering - mumbling under our breath, “This is so unfair.  What ever happened to that Thou art with me part?”   

Paul writes that in all these things - how many things?  All these things we are “more than conquerors” - we’re “overwhelming conquerors.”  In the worst of life - when we choose to turn to God - to trust God with our lives - to allow God to work in us and through us - by the grace and strength and enduring presence of God within us - God allows us to participate in His overwhelming victory won on the cross through Jesus Christ.

God takes those things that life throws at us - actually takes the very things that are designed to destroy us - and uses them as stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks.  Uses them - and us - to move His kingdom forward.  We are not overwhelmed.  But in Christ we overwhelm.

Anyone know who this is?  This Ernest Gordon.  Ernest Gordon wrote a book called “Through The Valley Of The Kwai” in which he tells of his experience during World War II, as a British officer in the Japanese prison camp by the River Kwai in Thailand.

How many of you have seen the movie The Bridge Over the River Kwai?  Or, “To End All Wars.”  Same camp.  Same railroad.  Same bridge.

Ernest Gordon was one of the prisoners that built that bridge, and he tells about that camp - the uncivilized behavior of the Japanese military - murdering prisoners overtly by inhuman means - covertly through torture and denying them medical care.  He tells about their indescribable starvation diet which made them nothing but walking skeletons - yet they were driven out each day to do heavy labor on the bridge.

Trying to put that into perspective.  4% of the prisoners held by the Germans and Italians died.  27% of those in the hands of the Japanese died.  The percentage in the River Kwai camp was much higher.

Thousands of prisoners died as cholera, and other diseases, swept through the camp.  The morale of the camp plummeted to the bottom - there was nothing left.  It was a hopeless, hideous situation in which men lived in filth and squalor, and walked about as the living dead.  The sick were ignored or resented.

Ernest Gordon tells how he himself descended, through disease and weakness, to a place where his body was taken and laid away in the death house, among all the corpses.  Even though he was still alive, he was laid there to die.

Ernest Gordon tells how men living by faith in Jesus began to transform the life of that camp.  At first, there were just a few men who were willing to sacrifice their own lives in acts of Christian love for others - in the midst of the darkest hour of the camp - to exercise a little faith and a little love, and to do things for one another.  Gradually this spirit spread, and soon others became involved - faith and joy and hope sprang into being again.

They organized an orchestra - made their own instruments.  They organized a church.  They began Bible study classes - and since Ernest had been to a university they asked him to teach the Bible Study.  Imagine - Ernest Gordon - a man who had been a skeptic all his life - who began his internment as an agnostic - became the Bible study teacher.  And, as he taught the Bible, Ernest Gordon came to trust in Jesus as his Savior.

The story goes on to tell how this whole camp was transformed and even the surrounding villages.  And though the outward circumstances were unchanged - the Japanese were as hostile and as cruel as ever - the work was as heavy and the disease was rampant - yet the spirit of those men was literally transformed and they became joyous, happy, victorious individuals.

Ernest tells about their return to civilization - how they looked forward to coming home - to the joys of life.  But, when they got home, they discovered that civilization is an illusion.  That the realities of life were discovered back in the prison camp.

It was when they were down in the darkest, and deepest, and the lowest depths of their lives that they began to lay hold of the eternal truths of God’s love and His constant presence with His people. (2)

They became, by faith, “more than conquerors”

The one bottom line choice behind all the choices we have in life is what?  To turn towards God or to turn away from God.

It doesn’t matter what the accusation or the condemnation or the circumstance.  It doesn’t matter how far we think we’ve wandered away from God.  God is gracious.  God is for us.  It is always the right choice to turn towards God.

_______________

1. Danny Hall, “The Gift That Keeps On Giving”, Romans 8:28-39

2. Ernest Gordon, “Through the Valley of the Kwai”, Harper Bros. 1962

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.