Jeffrey Heine: Well, good morning everyone. Good morning. It's good to see you all. As Joel mentioned last Sunday, I was supposed to preach last Sunday. My sermon was written.
I was very excited about preaching, and then I got sick. And so, I'm grateful to Joel for jumping in without hesitation, not only for him helping me out, but also I'm thankful for him offering such a beautiful sermon on God's sovereignty. We are gonna continue our study, Paul's letter to the Romans, closing out the end of chapter 8. So we will be in Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 31, and making our way through the end of the chapter. So, Romans 831 through 39.
Let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. 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 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. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 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. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure 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.
This is the word of the Lord. It is to your heart. Let's pray together. Lord, would you meet us this morning by your Holy Spirit and open our hearts and minds to your truth? Help us to know you this morning, to know the truth of your love that we might grow in our love for you.
And out of that love, grow in our trust and our obedience to you. Whether we know it or not, each one of us here this morning needs to hear from you. So would you speak, lord, for your servants are listening? Pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
As a pastor here at Redeemer, I get the privilege of reading new member testimonies. And I'll admit that when Paige Bierman sends the email with the list of the testimonies to read, at first it can feel a bit daunting. And I say that because we often have a very short turnaround time from when we receive the testimonies and when they need to have been read, and I don't want to rush through them. I wanna take my time. I wanna take as much time in reading each testimony as our new members have taken in writing these testimonies.
And so I have to find a sizable window of time that week, to read through these testimonies carefully. But let me say that when I do, when I sit down and start making my way through these pages and pages of testimony, it's the opposite of daunting. I am joyfully overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God in your lives. I get to read story after story of Jesus' relentless pursuit of and love for each of you. And it is such a beautiful privilege, and I know that all the other pastors and elders would say the same.
Now over time, you start to see similarities in the testimonies. There are a lot of interesting patterns that come up. Often, specific themes, experiences, and traits arise. For example, in the previous membership round, I had only one testimony of a new member who was an over the age of 25. I I feel like that's pretty remarkable.
I'm pretty sure that my jeans that I'm wearing are older than many of you here, which says more about me than it does you. Another thing, aside from that, you know, we we also, see patterns in names. If you see a woman at Redeemer and you don't know her name, you've got a great shot that it's Sarah, Caroline, or Mary, or Mary Sarah Caroline. Aside from that, many patterns show up in the testimonies themselves, patterns that speak of the blessing that comes from being raised by Jesus' following parents, or the solid foundation that can come from a faithful kids' ministry or youth ministry. Another thing that I see a lot in many testimonies is the reoccurring theme of uncertainty.
Uncertainty regarding a number of things, but in particular, the time line of one's own salvation. When you know, the the idea of when a person really meant it, when they said that they wanted to follow Jesus. Was it when they were 6 or when they were 13, or 17, or in college, or after college? Uncertainty of when they understood it enough, or if they meant it enough when they prayed that prayer, or went down front, or when they were baptized at a summer camp, and then at another summer camp, and then another camp. Some of you need a punch card for all of these baptisms.
I think you could probably get a free sub by now. We should probably talk about that. But anyway Now, of course, part of this uncertainty is due to the great mystery of salvation. I'd also think that it can often point to unnecessary confusion and sometimes fear. I've heard a lot of uncertainty over the years, both from your stories and from my own.
And uncertainty is what the apostle Paul is addressing here in this passage this morning. So if you are here today and you have uncertainty about your salvation, about your faith, about who God is, or what it means to follow Jesus, I would say that you are here today on purpose. God has something to say to your uncertainty today. God wants to meet you in your uncertainty, and and I believe He will meet you with His confidence. Up to this point in Paul's letter to the Romans, we've seen Paul intricately and boldly unpack the truths of the gospel.
All the way back since October, we've been making our way through chapter 5 through chapter 8. And Paul has been expounding on the glorious work of God in Christ the Son, and the manifold blessings of the Spirit. And we call this work and blessing the gospel. And of all the gospel teaching, it builds to this great crescendo at the close of chapter 8. And in these four chapters, Paul has described in detail justification with God, the new life we have in Christ, the death of sin, our new righteousness in Jesus, our freedom from the law, our liberation to follow the Spirit, our adoption and inheritance with Christ, and the promise of future glory.
Paul has covered so much ground in these four chapters. It all leads to this grand conclusion, one that starts with Paul asking a series of 7 questions in this quick succession. And this should tell us something, for nowhere else in, Paul's letter to the Romans does he do it quite like this, asking these emphatic, rapid fire questions to summarize his points. Why? Why is Paul making this remarkable shift in tone?
Why so many questions at once? What is Paul doing here? What is the benefit of asking so many questions right in a row? How can a series of questions bring about clarity? And of all the ways to bring about a rhetorical crescendo, why use questions?
Maybe it's like a quiz. Paul has been teaching for 4 chapters on the multifaceted gospel truths. Starting back in chapter 5 until here at the end of 8, maybe Paul is giving a pop quiz to see if his listeners have actually been listening. Or maybe it's like when a parent asks a child to repeat back to them what they just said. Perhaps Paul wants to know that we understand his teaching, and he's restating his points and summarizing them in this question and answer back and forth to summarize and confirm our understanding.
Or maybe it's a third option. Maybe Paul is putting an eloquent bow at the end of this extensive teaching. New Testament Greek scholars often note the elevated language and prose that Paul uses in this section. It's markedly different than anything that he has been saying in the 4 chapters previous, so so much so that some scholars have even suggested that the passage is borrowing from early Christian liturgy. Maybe Paul is quoting a song or a catechism with questions and answers.
Maybe he's using poetry that was common in early church worship. I think all of these reasons are possible for this unique passage. And it's my opinion, it's likely a mix of all of them. All these options are part of the reason for this shift in voice. They all work together for Paul's bigger goal.
I think Paul wants to pose these summary questions and answers because he wants to ensure that we truly understand, and further, that we would gain greater and greater certainty, specifically a certainty regarding one life altering point, that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Always wonder when I'm up here what you are thinking. I wonder what your internal monologue is saying. Are you agreeing, disagreeing, engaged, disengaged? Am I being confusing or helpful?
And I wonder what questions you might be considering. Paul is asking these questions because he knows people. Paul is anticipating the kinds of questions that come up in that inner monologue. He knows that after all this gospel teaching, that people will be asking these kinds of questions to themselves. He knows there will come a point in the Christian's life when they will ask these questions, and Paul wants us to know with certainty what answers we have.
He wants us to have gospel clarity. In addition to this, I believe there's another reason why Paul wants his readers to grow in this certainty of faith, and it's directly tied to the previous paragraph where he has directly addressed the sufferings that we encounter in life. I think a big reason Paul is wanting us to grow in this gospel clarity is tied to the suffering that he just talked about. He's just talked about the sorrows and the pains of life, suffering that will surely come for every person. And it's this suffering that can make you feel and can make you think that you have been separated from the love of god.
That would be another pattern that I read in the new member testimonies. Suffering, So much pain and loss. So many trials and so much sadness. We all suffer in some measure, some regard. And many of you are in a time of great suffering even now.
And I believe that God, through the words of Paul to the Romans, God wants to speak to your uncertainty and suffering today. So let's back up a little bit in chapter 8 and get a running start at our passage today. Look with me in verse 16. Chapter 8 verse 16. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Paul goes on. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Paul is describing the great longing of all creation for redemption, and this longing is made even more poignant. This longing is louder in our suffering. And Paul holds out this future hope of renewal, the revealing of the sons of God. He says that just as our suffering is certain, so is the revelation of redemption to come.
That doesn't mean your suffering is insignificant. Quite the opposite. It means that as real and deep and overwhelming as your suffering can be, the redemption and glory of God is even greater. It's not about belittling our suffering. When we make much of the future hope that we have in Christ, we don't have to belittle our present pain.
It doesn't have to work like that. Instead, we see our suffering in light of God's glory and His promises that doesn't dismiss our pain. It speaks truth to us in the midst of our pain. Following Paul's declaration of God's promise that the spirit would intercede for us, he goes on in verse 28. Look with me.
For we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
Again, note the emphasis that Paul's making here. It's on God's work, not ours. God's. Paul is reemphasizing the work of God, him calling you to his purposes, him foreknowing you, predestining you to redemption, calling you to faith, justifying you through Jesus's atonement, Paul is saying that all of this will lead to God's work of glorification. The response to suffering is not only a call to endure, but a call to confidence in the work of God, that he has worked and is working all things together for good.
And it's out of that confidence that Paul moves to build this crescendo and conclude this 4 chapter exposition of the gospel. Look with me at verse 31. 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 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? Again, note the actor, the doer of the action, the subject of these questions. It's important here to Paul, who is acting.
Paul asks this series of questions, and they all have to do with who. Who will be against us? Who will bring a charge against us? Who will condemn us? And they are to each they are each answered by these who statements.
It is God who is for us. It is God who did not spare his own son. It is God who justifies. And that is precisely where Paul wants to turn our attention next. The questions of who will be against us, and who will condemn us are addressed by who Jesus is.
Look at verse 34, the last half. 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. Please hear this. Our questions of uncertainty are met with the certainty of who God is.
Because of all the promises of God, they find their yes in the person, Jesus. There's a practice that has existed forever, but has become branded and kind of popularized in some Christian circles in recent years. It's the process of questioning one's faith traditions and theology. You might have heard this practice called deconstruction. In its healthiest and most beneficial form, it involves asking challenging questions that lead to a deeper and more rooted faith in Christ.
In its more common and less helpful form, it's the opposite. It's a shallow engagement of questions that lead to a comfortable disengagement of church and faith. And I'm all for engaging in the hard questions of faith and doctrine and church. I I think that this is an essential part of being a follower of Jesus, and the church should be a safe place for these questions to be asked and answered. I'm all for deconstructing and decommissioning the unhelpful add ons that have sought to undermine the gospel truth and distract us from real, genuine discipleship.
Question asking serves to strengthen faith, and we should ensure that we have a relationally safe place here in our church for real questions to be asked. By asking questions himself, Paul isn't dismissing the reality of uncertainty. He's affirming that questions will come. But he wants us to know what to do with these questions when they arise, because Paul does not dismiss the reality of uncertainties. He isn't pretending there aren't big questions.
He's directing us where to go to find real, actual answers. And the focus of his answers, the focus is the person, Jesus. And that's key to our doubts, our fears, our questions. They are to be met with the person and the work of Christ. And Paul wants us to know who this Jesus is and what he has done, because of all the things that I don't know, which are many, One thing I do know, I know that I sin.
I know of the brokenness and the selfishness inside of me. I am sure that I don't even know the half of it. I do know that my sin is against god, and I know that God is the rightful judge of my sin. So to the question, who will condemn me? Who will being who will bring charges against me for the wrongs of which I already know I'm guilty?
Logic tells me that if I'm guilty and God is judge, then there's a pretty reasonable conclusion as to who will condemn me. Right? So Paul asks, who will condemn us? And he answers, well, it won't be the one who gave his son up for you. He says, I know it won't be the one who sacrificed his son to justify you, and I know it won't be the one who died for you, and even more was raised for you, And I know it won't be the one who is seated at the right hand of the father and is praying for you right now.
And I know it won't be the one who has given everything for you to be against you. At this crescendo, it builds louder and louder till this big question is asked, the biggest question yet in verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Why is this the biggest question? Well, because everything hangs in the balance of the love of Christ.
The love of Christ is what takes the condemnation away. It's how we are freed from guilt and from punishment. And so Paul lists the powers around us asking if they can separate us from our only hope, the love of Christ. Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, 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 returns to the question of suffering, and he looks back to the Psalms. Paul is listing suffering, the distress, the sorrow, the dangers. He's asking if any of those things have the ability to separate you from the love of Christ. And in the last line, Paul is referencing Psalm 44.
It's a psalm about tremendous suffering of the people of God. And, I'm not sure if you have, the psalms just on immediate recall. I do not. So I'll read a portion of Psalm 40 4 for us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever.
But you have rejected us and disgraced us, and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten treasure. You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. It goes on and concludes, awake.
Why are you sleeping, oh Lord? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression?
I think Paul wants us to connect with the feelings and questions represented in Psalm 44. We need to hold in our mind that our suffering and our sorrow can make us wonder if God has rejected us and forgotten us. Paul wants us to consider this feeling of condemnation, the feeling that our suffering is because God doesn't love us anymore, and He must be against us. Paul wants us to acknowledge, in our times of sorrow, we can feel this way too. And it's precisely in the these seasons of suffering and sorrow that we need to hear the truth of God spoken back to us, where Paul responds in verse 37 and says, no.
No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure 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. This is the height of the crescendo. And Paul says, I am sure.
I am certain. I know this to be true. Nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing. This is God's answer to our deepest questions.
This is the truth of the gospel. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. Nothing. And Paul lists this great expanse of nothing. Death, life, power of angels, rulers.
What is happening now, what will happen in the future, the expanse of the height and the depth in anything in all creation, none of it has the power to separate you from the love of God in Jesus. And do you know what's included in not anything else in all creation? You. You are part of the nothing that can separate you from the love of god. That means your sin and your good works, your best days and your bad days, your faithfulness, your unfaithfulness, your sorrow, your suffering, even your uncertainty.
None of these things will separate you from the love of God. They're not able, Paul says. They don't have the power. They have the power to confuse us, to frustrate us, to sorrow us, to to bring us low, to make us question if God even loves us at all, if he sleeps somewhere and needs to be awakened. It can do those things, but it does not have the power to separate.
So where is the power? How are you going to make it to the end? How will you persevere? The answer? You will persevere because you will be preserved.
You are kept by his love. That is your hope. This is no shallow certainty, for true certainty can never be shallow. It is a truth that can bear the weight of your questions, your confusion, your anger, your disappointment, your suffering. This is unshakable love of God.
This confidence, this certainty in the love of God is not only a comfort to our suffering, it is energy for our obedience. Knowing this love of God fuels our desire and our strength to follow Jesus, even in times of sorrow and suffering. The great modern preacher, and as of last week, Matt Francisco's new BFF, Fleming Rutledge, she she said this in a sermon once. Quote, Christians do not simply look to the cross of Christ with prayerful reverence. We are set in motion by its power, energized by it, upheld by it, guaranteed by it, secured by it for the promised future, end quote.
Our certainty in the love of God is not merely for reverence or for intellectual satisfaction, or for generic comfort. The love of God is a transformative reality that leads us to endure when we transformative reality that leads us to endure when we don't have the strength, to hope when we do not understand and to believe when it all seems unbelievable. That is the transformative power of God at work in your life. It is the grace of Jesus as he intercedes for you, the spirit as he prays for you, and it allows you to know, to truly know, that nothing will separate you from his love, not now, not ever. Let's pray.
Oh, lord. Help us to believe. Help us to believe what seems so unbelievable at times, that you have set your love on us. And your love is strong enough to hold our questions, our suffering, our confusion, our heartache, even our sin. So spirit, would you meet us in this time as we continue to worship you in spirit and in truth?
Would you meet us, strengthen us that we might love you with all our hearts, that we might trust you and obey you from our hearts. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.