Introduction
Recently I was listening to another preacher preach on Romans 8 and he used the image of riding on the crest of a wave. Now, I’ve never surfed and I doubt if the preacher I was listening to has ever surfed, but I can imagine what it’s like and why that preacher used this image, because I imagine how exhilarating it must be for the experienced surfer, when he catches a wave and it lifts him up and he’s driven along by the surging sea. And I have no doubt that it’s wonderfully exhilarating.
And that’s what it’s been like for Paul throughout this, the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans. In fact, it’s been wonderfully exhilarating for him and for his readers ever since verses 16 and 17 of Romans chapter 1, where he said that he’s not ashamed of the gospel, because it’s the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Isn’t that wonderfully exhilarating news? And he went on to say in the next verses that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Isn’t that wonderfully exhilarating news? And then, we turn over the page and there’s Romans 3 and verses 22 to 24, where Paul says: ‘There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace though the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ Isn’t that wonderfully exhilarating news? And then, we turn over the page again and read at the beginning of chapter 5 that since we’ve been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ….’ And that’s wonderfully exhilarating news, isn’t it? And then we turn over the page again and we begin Romans 8 and the announcement that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.’ And then: ‘[I]f the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.’ And then: ‘[Y]ou did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Adoption. And by him we cry “Abba Father”.’ And then: ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ And then: ‘[T]he Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.’ And then: ‘[W]e know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’
Ever since the beginning of this magnificent letter, Paul has — as it were — been riding the crest of a wave and it’s been wonderfully exhilarating to ride alongside him and to be lifted up by these things that he’s been teaching us about God and about what God has done for us by his Son and Spirit to bring us to perfection in his presence.
And the wave we’re riding just goes on and on and on and on. It hasn’t broken yet. It’s still going and it’s still going in today’s verses which are verses 31 and 32, where Paul says: ‘What, then, shall we say in response to this? 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, along with him, graciously give us all things?’
Verse 31
Paul is riding on the crest of this wave and it’s as if he looks back on the whole experience so far and he’s thinking about all the marvellous things the Spirit of God has enabled him to write. And he wonders out loud what shall we say in response to all of these wonderfully exhilarating truths about God and our salvation? What shall we say in response to these things? What shall we say? This is what we shall say: If God is for us, who can be against us?
Everything he’s been teaching us says to us that God is for us. Everything he’s been teaching us says to us that God is on our side. Yes, we’re sinners who deserve to be condemned. But look at all the things that God has done for us by his Son and Spirit to save us from the destruction we deserve and to give us eternal life in his presence. Remember what he said about us? He said here’s no difference between us, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of being like God. But that’s not all he said, because he went on to say that all may have have sinned and all may fall short of his glory, but we’re justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. So, we’re sinners. We deserve to be condemned. But God is clearly for us, because wasn’t he graciously and freely willing to justify us because of Christ the Saviour who died for us? God is clearly on our side.
And if God is on our side, then who can be against us? And Paul means: who can succeed against us? There may be many people who are against us, but not one of them can succeed against us when God is on our side. So, I’ve been reading through 1 Samuel as part of my daily devotions and it tells the story of how the Israelites asked the Lord for a king to rule over them. And so, God appointed Saul as their first king. But it soon became clear that Saul was not a good king. And God soon appointed David to replace him. Well, Saul was jealous of David. In other words, Saul was against David. On two occasions he threw his spear at David. And then David had to flee for his life and Saul kept pursuing him from place to place. There was the occasion when David and his men and Saul and his men were both going around the same mountain at the same time. And David was about to run into Saul when — at just the right time for David — Saul received a message that he was needed somewhere else and he had to abandon his pursuit of David and go off somewhere else. Saul was against David. But Saul was not able to succeed against David, because God was on David’s side and God helped David again and again and again.
Earlier in Romans 8 Paul has referred to our present sufferings. In a few verses he will refer to trouble and hardship and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword. He quotes from Psalm 44 about facing death all day long. Paul mentions these things, because this is what his life was like. His life was full of sorrow and suffering and troubles and trials and persecution. But even though Paul faced these things, he was not afraid, because he knew that no one who was against him could succeed against him. No one could really harm him. No one could really harm him, because God was for him. And the God who was for him is the same God who works in all things that happen to us for the good of those who love him and who have been called by God according to his purpose, which is to conform us to the likeness of Christ. No matter what people might do to harm us, God is able to turn it for our good and to bring us a little closer to our goal, which is to be like the Saviour.
If God were not able to work in all things for our good, then perhaps someone might be able to succeed against us. But God is able to work in all things for our good. God is able to work in all things for our good and God does work in all things for our good. And since this is true, then no one can really harm us, because no matter what they might do to us, God will work in it for our good. Though someone may make us weep or though someone may break our heart or though someone may cause us great trouble, God is at work in it for our good.
Now, there’s something for you to remember and believe as you go into a new week. Who knows what you might face this week? Who knows what the people around you might do to you? Who knows what trials and troubles you might face this coming week? No one knows apart from God who knows all things. But the God who knows what is going to happen to you is the same God who works in all things for your good, so that no one, no one can succeed against you.
Verse 32a
But how can we know whether God is for us? That’s the question, isn’t it? Paul says in verse 31 that if God is for us, then who can succeed against us? That’s a wonderful truth. But how can we know that God is for us?
I’ve already said that everything Paul has told us thus far makes clear to us that God is for us, because though we’ve sinned and though we fall short of the glory of being like God, though we deserve to be condemned by God for all that we have done wrong, nevertheless Paul has told us that God is graciously and freely willing to justify us because of Christ. Though we deserve to be condemned, God loves us and has sent his Son to save us.
So, everything that Paul has written throughout this letter says to us that God is for us. But just to be absolutely clear, Paul gives us one clear and succinct way we can know that God is for us. We can know that God is for us because of the cross of Christ.
Now, before we get into this, let me tell you what we must not rely on to know whether or not God is for us. What we must not rely on to know whether or not God is for us is our circumstances. We mustn’t rely on our circumstances to determine whether God is for us or not.
Earlier I mentioned the story of the time when Saul was in hot pursuit of David. And it seemed that David was done for and in a minute or two, David would run into Saul and be captured by him. But then, in the nick of time, Saul was called away somewhere else. And David might point at that event and say to himself: ‘Now I know that God is for me, because look how he saved me from Saul.’ David might think that what happened to him on that day demonstrated that God was on his side. But David’s circumstances were not always favourable, because there was another time, when he was king, when he had to flee from Jerusalem and go on the run because his son was against him. David might have looked at his circumstances on that occasion and concluded that God was against him. Or there’s the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. And so, when Joseph was working as a slave, or when he was later imprisoned after being falsely accused, he could look at his circumstances and conclude that God must be against him, because look at all the bad things that had happened to him. And yet we know that God loved Joseph. Think of Job, who lost his wealth and his health and his family. Anyone who looked at what happened to him might conclude that God was against Job. But they would be wrong. God loved Job. Or think of the Lord Jesus, who was taken away and crucified. Anyone who saw him hanging on the cross might conclude that God was against him. But they would be wrong, because the Lord Jesus is God’s beloved Son.
So, we mustn’t look at the circumstances of our life to determine whether or not God loves us and is on our side. We mustn’t look at the circumstances of our life, because God often sends trouble into the lives of his people for their good. He uses the bad things that happen to us to bring us a little closer to our goal, which is to be like Christ.
So, what should we look at? What should we look at to know that God loves us and is on our side? We should look at the cross. And so, Paul describes God the Father in verse 32 as the one who did not spare his own Son, but who gave him up for us all. So, this is how we know the love of God for us: When he had the opportunity to do so, God the Father did not spare his own Son, but he gave him up for us.
Think of the story of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was Abraham’s beloved son. And one day God commanded Abraham to take his beloved son and sacrifice him to the Lord. In other words, kill him as an offering to God. And since Abraham loved the Lord more than he loved his beloved son, and since Abraham believed that God was able to raise the dead, he was prepared to do what the Lord commanded him to do. And so, he took his son and they travelled to Mount Moriah. They built an altar and Abraham took his beloved son and bound him and laid him on the altar and he reached for his knife to kill his son. And that’s when the angel of the Lord spoke up and told him not to lay a hand on the boy. In other words, the angel told him to spare his son’s life. Instead of killing his son, let him live.
That’s what the angel of the Lord told Abraham to do. And hundreds of years later, when God’s beloved Son prayed to his Father in heaven, asking if there was a way for him to be spared the agony of the cross, his Father in heaven answered his beloved Son with a no. No, I will not spare you from this. No, I will not spare you from the agony of the cross. No, I will not spare you from suffering in body and soul for the sins of your people. No, I will not spare you, even though you are my beloved Son who has done nothing to deserve this. I will not spare you.
And instead of sparing his beloved Son from the agony of the cross, the Father gave him up. The Father delivered him over to death. He handed him over to the Sanhedrin who accused him and to Pilate who condemned him and to the soldiers who beat him and who whipped him and who crucified him. God the Father handed his beloved Son over to them so that they might kill his beloved Son.
And he did it ‘for us all’. Do you see that in the middle of verse 32? God the Father did not spare his beloved Son but he handed him over to death on the cross ‘for us all’. And when he says for us all, he means the Father handed him over to death on our behalf or in our place. So, when he died, he was suffering in our place the punishment we deserve for all that we have done wrong. And when Paul says for us all, he means Christ was handed over to death on behalf of all of God’s people.
And so, this is how we know that God loves us and is for us. We know he loves us because look what he was willing to give up for us. Because of his abounding love for us, he was willing to give up his beloved Son for us. And though Paul doesn’t mention it here, we should bear in mind as well that the Son was willing to give up his life for us. So, it’s not that the Father was willing, but the Son was unwilling. It’s not that the Father is for us, but not the Son. No, the Father is for us and the Son is for us too. We know that, because even when the Lord Jesus prayed for a way to be spared from the agony of the cross, he went on to say: not my will, but yours be done. So, he submitted himself to his Father’s will and he willingly gave up his life for our salvation.
I have a friend who has a yacht. And from time to time Yvonne and I go out with him and his wife on the yacht around Strangford Lough. And he might ask us to steer for a while. And when he does, he tells us to pick a fixed point on the land and aim for it. So, don’t aim for something on the water, because things on the water move around with the current and you’ll not go in a straight direction. Choose something that is fixed and which will not move. Then you’ll go in a straight line. And as we go through our life, we mustn’t look at our circumstances, because our circumstances move around. They change. They go up and they go down. We need to fix our thoughts on something that doesn’t move. And what doesn’t move is the truth of the gospel and how the love of the Father was demonstrated in his willingness to give up his Son for our sake. Fix your thoughts on that and you won’t go wrong, because that’s the constant reminder you need of God’s abounding love for you.
Verse 32b
And Paul goes on to say in the second part of verse 32 that if God loves you like that — if he was willing to give up his Son for your salvation — then will he not also along with him graciously give you all things. And when Paul refers here to ‘all things’, he means all the things we need to bring us to perfection in God’s presence.
So, God has already done the really hard thing for us. The really hard thing he’s done to secure our salvation was the giving up of his Son to the agony of the cross to pay for our sins with his life. That was the really hard thing for God to do. And if God was willing to do that, then the rest is straightforward.
So, what else do we need? We need God to give us his Spirit to enable us to repent and to believe so that we’re united with Christ by faith. And we need justification so that we’re pardoned and accepted by God. And we need adoption so that we’re brought into God’s family. And we need sanctification so that we’re able to live a holy life of obedience to God. And we need assurance of God’s love and we need peace of conscience and we need joy in the Holy Spirit. And we need God’s help to persevere in the faith. And we need God to work in all things that happen to us to make us like Christ. These are the things we need so that we will one day be brought to perfection in the presence of God. And since God has already given up his beloved Son for us, then he’s not going to withhold any of these other things from us.
Conclusion
And so, we should rejoice in our Father’s love for us. And we should look to him for all that we need as he leads us to perfection in his presence. And we should remember and believe that if God is for us, then there is absolutely no one who can succeed against us, because the God who loves us works in all things for our good.
