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SANCTIFICATION

The love of God in Jesus Christ

Romans chapter 8: 28-39

It is God who makes all things work together for good to those who love Him, those who are called according to His purpose. Although man is given free will, God is sovereign over all, both the suffering and the blessings from His grace. It may be that while we are suffering grief, tragedies, disappointments, frustrations and losses, we doubt whether they can result in something good. However, what God allows into our lives is already planned to conform us to the image of His Son, as He is the image of the Father (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15).

Our lives are not abandoned to chance, luck or fate, but our wonderful personal Lord, who is as the saying, “too loving to be cruel and too wise to err”, directs them. God in his (to us incomprehensible) foreknowledge already knew us and chose us in eternity past (Ephesians 1:4). It was not a mere intellectual theoretical knowledge, but He knew everybody that would ever be born.

By His foreknowledge, God predestined some to be conformed to the image of His Son. It was a purpose, which could never be frustrated. His Son took on human form, so that those chosen after heeding the call of God might be justified by His death, glorified and then conformed to His divine image, and thus obtain the likeness of God's family.

That wicked sinners will be transformed into the image of Christ by a miracle of grace is one of the most impressive truths of divine revelation. We will never have the attributes of divinity, or even Christ-likeness physically, but we will be morally like Him, free of sin, having also glorified bodies as His when He rose from the dead.

In this day of glory, the Lord Jesus will be the Firstborn of many brothers, meaning also the First in rank or honour. He will not be just one among equals, but the ultimate in everything about everyone.

Returning to the subject of predestination, take care not to fall into a doctrine that preaches fatalism, denying the free will of each person.

Everyone who was predestined in eternity is also called in his time, along with all other sinners. However, he not only hears the gospel, like everyone else, but also makes the decision to receive it for himself. In this case, the call from God is effective (because it produces conversion).

All converts cover themselves with the righteousness of God through the merits of Christ and thus are able to attend at the Lord's presence. The glorification will come later, but Paul puts it in the past as something that surely will be seen in retrospect in the future.

This is one of the strongest passages in the New Testament about the eternal security of the believer. For every million people who are known beforehand and predestined by God, each of them will be called, justified and glorified. Without exception! (Compare with the "all" in John 6:37).

Given this explanation, ffour questions consist of challenges to anyone who wants to oppose himself to the will of God:

1. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" The obvious answer is “nobody!” It would be useless opposition, because the Almighty God has taken us to Himself. Because we were lost in sin, He loved us so far as to give His own Son for us all. Having paid so high a price, no doubt He will give us all other things as they are of negligible value compared to that. Someone once said the question of the unbeliever is "how will He give?" but the believer asks, "how can He not give?"
2. "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" There is no shortage of those who seek and denounce the faults committed by the people of God on earth, but Satan is the great accuser of the brethren. The answer is "It is God who justifies" and is even more understandable if we put "nobody, because ..." at the beginning of this reply. God is the Righteous Judge and Supreme over all creation, which also includes the heavenly hosts and Satan, and it is He himself who justifies His elect in accordance with His supreme law of righteousness (Romans 3:21-31). As a result, no one has any chance of success when seeking to accuse them of something. They have already been justified and, therefore, are unharmed by any accusation.
3. "Who is he who condemns?"  Again, the answer is even more understandable if we place "nobody, because ..." before the answer, "it is Christ who died ... is also risen... who is even at the right hand of God ... who also makes intercession for us." It would be very impudent to condemn someone who has been justified by God and has a Lawyer at the right hand of God "who also intercedes for him" (1 John 2:1). Our Lawyer paid the debt of our sins with His blood and if He intercedes for someone, no one else can have a valid reason to condemn him. He is free (verse 1).
4. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The answer is "nothing", even if they come upon us, for example:
   • - tribulation, which we will certainly have in the world to prove us, but we can be of good cheer because Jesus overcame the world (John 16:33).
   • - distress, for the Lord is a refuge in times of trouble (Psalm 9:9).
   • - persecution, including persecution and legal campaigns against Christians. Persecution will come to all who live godly lives in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:12).
   • - famine, which many of the people of God have suffered, even the apostle Paul.
   • - nakedness, not only lack of clothing, but the deprivation of necessary things for personal comfort and physical protection. Many of the people of God suffered it through biblical history.
   • - peril, not only of life but of spiritual and physical problems,
   • - sword, deadly blows from the enemies of the Gospel.

These are seven evils that encompass major adverse circumstances that cause most separations in human life. However, none of this can separate us from the exceptional love of Christ.

If any of these things could separate the believer from the love of Christ, then a fatal breakdown would have happened long ago, because the career of a Christian is a living death. This is what the Psalmist meant when he said, "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Psalm 44:22).

Rather than separate us from the love of Christ, all this only helps to bring us closer to Him. We are proved not only conquerors, but also more than conquerors. It is not simply for triumphing over these formidable forces, but for bringing glory to God by doing so, as well as a blessing to others and good to ourselves. We nullify the efforts of our enemies and clear the obstacles that present themselves.

We do nothing through our own strength, but only through Him who loved us. Only the power of Christ can bring sweetness out of bitterness, strength out of weakness, victory out of tragedy, and blessing out of grief.

The apostle had not yet completed his research here. He scoured the universe to see if there was anything that could conceivably separate us from the love of God, and he listed the most fearsome things for humans, as follows:

1. Death with all its terrors;
2. Life with all its seductions;
3. Heavenly creatures like the angels, and their rulers, with their supernatural power and knowledge;
4. Current things and circumstances, which threaten us on a daily basis.
5. Future things and circumstances, that arouse fear and foreboding;
6. Powers exercised over us , whether human tyrants or spiritual adversaries;
7. The height or the depth, that which threatens us from above or from below, visible or hidden.

To make sure that he was not missing anything, Paul added “nor any other created thing.”

The conclusion is that absolutely "nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". They are words of triumph that give the believer all the security, encouragement and courage to face his life in this hostile world, even bearing martyrdom in the hands of executioners that arise in order to extinguish the light of the Gospel that shines around him.

This is the love of God victorious over all possible opponents, "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." Paul reached the summit of the mountain. He actually completed his great argument about justice and love of God who is mighty to save the vilest sinner and to transform it by His Spirit, to resemble His Son during life in this world.

However, there remains the problem of Jewish people who, although chosen to be the people of God and through which His Son came into the world, rejected and continued to reject His offer of forgiveness, that could only be received through repentance and loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul addresses this problem in next three chapters. 

 

R David Jones

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

29 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.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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?

33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

36 As it is written: "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER."

 

37 Yet 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 principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Romans chapter 8: 28-39