Assurance Of Eternal Love (Jan 2) Glen Meyer

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Redemption, it is so good to see you this morning and happy New Year.

Seems like uh it was last year that we saw each other, wasn't it?

It is good to be with your redemption, and this morning, as we gather around God's word, I would like you to open up Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It's been a few weeks since we last looked at Romans 8, but I want to encourage you in your time to read the whole chapter.

Today we're going to look at the last nine verses, but the whole chapter has a richness, and as we have seen in the previous times we've met, there's a depth in these words which just encourage us and strengthen us and remind us of the assurances that we have as followers of Jesus Christ.

And today we're going to look at the assurance of God's eternal love.

But just before we do that, I just kind of want to remind you a little bit of the things that we have looked at thus far in Romans 8.

So in verses 1 to 17, you will remember that we looked at the assurance that we have, the assurance of life that we have in the Spirit, because I am a child of God, because the Spirit dwells in me, and also because the Spirit's spiritual power helps me to live in Christ.

And then in verses 18 to 30, we were reminded that I have the assurance of hope because I am not alone in the struggle, because God is working all things for my good, and because I have been called according to God's purpose.

So open up your Bibles to Romans 8 or your Bible apps to Romans 8.

We're going to look at verse 31 right now, and we're going to read the last nine verses together before we jump into this.

This is what God is saying.

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, and 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 in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

Oh wow.

Powerful.

And one day they were on the phone and he was professing his love for her, his eternal love.

The love that would never die, never fade, never quench.

Nothing would keep him from loving her.

So she responds to this by saying, Well, why didn't you come over to my place and you could tell me these things in person?

The young man looks out the window and goes, but it's pouring rain, I'm gonna get soaked.

Human love has its limitations.

And sometimes its failures.

But today we're looking at a love which is the foundation of all loves.

We're gonna look at a love which is truly the only satisfying love in the universe.

And it is the only love which strengthens us and which gives us the security that our hearts desperately need.

It's the only love that empowers us to love.

And it's the very essence and the nature of our God, and therefore it is to be the root of our lives as well.

Scripture says in 1 John 4, 8, God is love.

And in John 3, 16, we all know this verse as well.

It says, For God so loved the world.

The God of the Bible is love.

And he loves the world.

But the love that we're looking at today is not for the whole world.

It is a special and specified love that God has only for his children.

And as we saw a few weeks ago in the earlier verses of Romans 8, God has adopted us and has made us his sons and daughters, and is working in our lives to transform us to be like his son Jesus.

If you have not accepted that invitation to have your sins forgiven and to have your eternal destiny to be with Jesus Christ, then listen to what I'm saying today.

But realize that until you trust Jesus Christ with your life and with your eternity, you will never know or experience the kind of love that comes from verses in Romans 8.

Sin is separating you from God.

And only Jesus can change that gap of separation and give you that kind of security that your heart yearns for.

If you are listening and you do not know Jesus Christ in this way, I hope that by the time we finish today, you will ask how to receive this kind of love.

So let's jump into it.

This section of Romans 8 begins with a summary question.

What then shall we say to these things?

And the Apostle Paul is referring to all that he has written up to this point about the hope that we have through Jesus Christ as children of God.

And there's a lot there.

We've already seen that the last couple of times we've been together.

But even though he has answered a number of our questions about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, there is still one very important answer that he needs to give to us.

And so let's say we're having a little bit of a conversation with him.

So we would say, Paul, all this that you are saying is so wonderful to hear.

I mean, Christ's death, his life, his resurrection, the forgiveness of our sins, the justification that we have now being made right with God, giving us the hope of a live relationship with God.

But what if we lose this wonderful gift of eternal life?

What if we are separated from this wonderful God who loves us as his very own children?

And this is where the apostle does a funny kind of thing.

He answers our question with questions.

And that brings us to our first point today.

I have the assurance of God's eternal love, because God is the greatest.

Look at verse thirty one.

What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Everything that Paul has said to this point can be affirmed in one statement.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

It's an argument of greater to lesser.

What he's saying is that if the biggest, grandest, greatest person in the universe is standing up for you, giving you all of these things and making all of this happen in your life, what can anyone else do?

All other persons are less than God, and therefore they are not able to accomplish these things.

Not only that, but the apostle's words, God is for us, that means that everything and anything that comes from God is for our benefit and will only help us.

No one else in the whole universe is capable or able or even willing to do these things.

God is the greatest.

Paul says something similar in verse 33.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

The reality in our lives is that there are other persons who do and will bring charges and accusations against us.

And they may say that we are worthless, they may say that we're not acting in a Christian way, they may say that we are just sinful wretches who deserve nothing more than loneliness and emptiness.

And especially the devil says those kinds of things about us and even to us.

But Paul's answer is that those charges are addressed by God with the words of verse one of this chapter.

There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God is the one who judges, and because of what Jesus did on Calvary, by dying for our sins and being our substitute, we no longer are under the sentence of condemnation.

And again, he uses the greater to lesser argument.

God is the one who makes the judgment.

And because he is the one who made the plan of salvation, who accomplished the plan of salvation, and administers this plan, there is no one greater than he.

He is the one who declares that we are absolutely and eternally righteous and acceptable to God because of Jesus.

We are his elect.

We are his chosen, adopted sons and daughters.

There are no accusers that can make their charges stick against us.

They are less than our God.

There is no higher authority, there is no higher person in the universe.

Our God is the greatest.

And you'll remember that in verse 15.

This great God is our Abba Father.

This is the one who is for us.

This is the one who loves us deeply because of what Jesus has done.

And that's the cue for our second point.

I have the assurance of God's eternal love because Jesus is alive.

Verse 34 asks, Who is to condemn?

And that sounds a lot like the previous verse about who's going to bring a charge against God's elect.

But this time, the apostle's response is to center everything on Jesus.

And he says, 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.

It's choking me up.

It's so exciting.

Who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

There is no condemnation, no judgment saying that we are worthy of being punished for our lives and our sins.

The past is forgiven, the present is cleared, and the future is secure.

Why?

Because our sins that separate us from God and would keep us from enjoying Him forever have been placed on Jesus Christ on the cross where he died in our place.

He was buried.

But he didn't stay in the grave.

He was raised back to life to show that his death did indeed remove sin.

He will never die again.

Thank you.

And now in his glorious resurrected human body, he lives forever at the right hand of God, praying for us.

Jesus is alive.

He has been given all authority in heaven and earth, and he is actively mediating for us.

He is praying that we would have the power to stand up under the temptations and the difficulties that we face.

He's praying that we will submit to God's law and follow through in our lives in the conforming of our lives to be like his.

That we will follow in the will of God.

This is a rabbit trail.

We're kind of getting off for a second.

You know what I find most amazing about all this?

There's that pause just to get you excited about what I'm going to say.

What I find most exciting about this is that we have two people in the Trinity that are praying for us.

Okay, I find that exciting.

There are two people that are taking our needs and they're interceding for us before the throne of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

I mean, when you think about it, how could we go wrong?

We've got that much spiritual power working on our behalf.

Oh, okay, let's get back to this.

There's more that we need to look at.

Like, take a look at verse 32.

Verse 32 says, 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?

Now, in all fairness, this one verse requires a couple of messages to kind of dig the depths of it.

Um, but what I want to share this morning from here is just kind of a synopsis of the beauty that's in this verse.

First of all, we need to understand that the background to this verse is rooted in the eternal love between God the Father and God the Son.

Jesus says a number of times in the Gospel of John that the Father loves him.

And even in the beginning of his ministry, as he was being baptized, witnesses like Matthew say that there was a voice from heaven which kind of thundered out the words This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

And we see as well in the Gospels that Jesus declares his own love for the Father.

In numerous places, like uh John 14, 13, 31, he says, I do as the father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the father.

There is no question that there is an infinite bond of love between the father and the son.

And so with that in our in our minds in the background, it's very significant that in Romans 832, the apostle says that he, that is God, the Father, who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, that those words mean that even the immeasurable love that exists between them did not stop God the Father from sending his beloved Son to earth to live as a human, to die as a human, and to be raised as a human after his suffering as a human and to forever be human so that the rest of us might live with him.

If Abba's Father willingly gave up Jesus to be human, then everything else is easy for him to give us.

That's the root of love.

Love gives of itself regardless of the cost.

And Paul states so vividly and clearly here that the Father's love for us moved him to give the life and death of his beloved son so that we would not have to be forever separated from him.

And based on that truth, God graciously gives us all that we need to live and love.

Because Jesus is alive, you and I have the full assurance of God's eternal love, and nothing can separate us from that love.

And that's point number three.

I have the assurance of God's eternal love because there is nothing seen or unseen that can take his love from me.

The rest of this chapter, that is verses 35 to 39, is one huge thesis about things that you and I fear could separate us from God.

In fact, verse 35 asks that very question.

Verse 35 says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

It's a great question.

There are forces in our world that want to silence the love of God and the message of hope that is found in the Bible.

There are situations that we face or that our brothers and sisters in Christ face that add to the fear of being cut off from God.

There are internal struggles that make our hearts anxious that God might abandon us.

Paul knows our fears.

He probably faced them himself, knowing some of the things that he encountered and he endured, and yet he addresses these fears head on.

Verse 35 speaks of seven things that we see in our world that do cause separation.

Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword.

We see these things every day in the news.

Families, friends, countries being ripped apart by these very things.

And then he quotes from Psalm 44 rather, verse 22, that a horrendous reality in our world is that Christian brothers and sisters are being treated like animals and tortured and killed like unwanted creatures.

The evil in the news, we see it, we hear it, and it's happening in our day and age right now.

You've read in the recent months about churches being burned in different parts of the world as Christians are worshiping in them.

Of men being imprisoned and slaughtered in front of their families because they believe in Jesus.

Of women and young girls being dragged away and abused.

He answers his question: who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

With the triumphant words in verse 37.

No.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Paul wants us to know without doubt that these things cannot and will not separate us from the love of Christ.

We are more than conquerors.

We can survive the horrors of false accusations, of tremendous conflict, of the world falling apart around us, of evil deeds, of torture, of heart-wrenching tragedy.

We can survive.

And even if we are killed because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we are not separated from him or his love.

The one who is killed, who was raised, who is seated by the throne of all authority and power, and who intercedes for us, will not be separated from us.

In fact, we will be triumphant through him in all of these battles.

We are conquerors.

No, no, no, no.

We are more than conquerors.

And the words that Paul uses here are like, we are super conquerors.

But if there is still doubt in your minds, the apostle continues.

And he lists ten more things.

Ten more things that are unseen that we may fear will take God's love from us.

Verses 38 and 39.

Let's face it.

Death is scary.

Death is scary because it is the separation from everything that we know in this world.

The separation from our bodies, from our homes, from our families, from the good things that we enjoy on earth.

But even though it looks like we are losing everything, the truth is that because of our faith in Jesus Christ, death brings us closer to Him.

It's actually going home.

It is God with us in this life.

It is God with us through the death experience.

It is God with us into eternity.

It is hard, yes.

But death and all that it takes from us is not a gap in God's eternal love for us.

When Jesus died, he won the security of his own people in death and life.

When he was raised to life, he showed the power that he has over death.

And nothing in this life can or will separate us from the eternal love of God.

Nothing like angels or rulers or powers either.

Even the supernatural powers that are manipulating and mangling human lives are powerless to separate us from God's love.

Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus' death on the cross disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to shame by triumphing over them.

Colossians 2:15

And Christ's resurrection means that, according to Ephesians 121, that he is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named.

So even though these creatures are working against us, they cannot do ultimate harm to God's elect.

The apostle then mentions four things that we may be afraid will threaten our security.

He says, things present, things to come, height and depth.

But even when pandemics hit and economies fail, and rumors of war and actual wars are witnessed, and people go to the moon or they explore the depths of the ocean, God's love is steadfast.

Psalm 139 verses 7 and 8 says, Where can I go from your spirit?

Psalms 139:7

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, that is the place of the dead, you are there.

The psalmist and the apostle assure us that nothing in heaven or hell will ever be able to separate us from God's love.

And then to sum it all up just to make sure, just to make sure that he hasn't missed any possibility.

Paul says in verse 39, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Well, that pretty much covers everything that we could dream of or or or think of or have nightmares over or fear.

Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God that has been secured in Jesus Christ.

And you know something?

That also means ourselves.

And he says that no one can snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has been given them, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

Some churches teach that even though believers are blood-bought and spirit-filled, called and justified and glorified, they can separate themselves from God and his love and end up in hell.

That is not what the Bible teaches.

As we have seen in the verses of this chapter, God knows who his kids are.

And he is actively working to keep them.

To keep us from ever falling away from him.

The assurance is not that you can leave the faith, you can live in sin and go to heaven.

No, no, no, no, no.

The assurance, the assurance that scripture gives to us is that God is and will keep us from final unbelief and separation from Him.

We may fail, we may stumble, we may even have doubts and big questions, but if you belong to God, if you receive the gift that He gives to you through Jesus Christ, He will make sure that you come back.

That's what our trust in Him is all about.

Forgiveness is flowing from His heart.

Grace is pouring out through His love.

And He's promised us this through Jeremiah 32, verses 40 and 41.

Jeremiah 32:40

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.

I will rejoice in doing them good with all my heart and all my soul.

These verses are written to remind us of the security we have of God's love for us.

So we should be rejoicing.

And I believe we are rejoicing that it is the purpose of Abba Father, it's the purpose of Jesus Christ, it is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to give of themselves to bring us true joy and happiness.

It is God's nature to act in this way toward those upon whom He has placed His love, and He will continue to act that way towards us for all of eternity.

Romans 8 has this powerful message of life and hope and love for us as we begin a new year.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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 that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Oh Abba, Father.

Your words today to us are stirring in our hearts and assuring us of your eternal love for us.

A love that can never be taken from us, can never never be removed from us, never, never, ever separating us from you.

Thank you, Father, for that assurance.

And Lord God, for those that are listening, I pray, pray for them, those who do not yet know this love.

Father God, woo them.

Bring them to you.

Bring them to see who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

Bring them to the point where they will know that they too can be called children of God.

Children born of the Spirit.

Lord God, speak to them this day and bring them into your family, I pray.

Lord God, as we go from this time, help us to continue to worship you in spirit and in truth, as the words of your love are whispering in our ears, are comforting our hearts, and strengthening our lives as we live for Jesus Christ.

And may this year show our love for you.

Help us, Lord God, in this we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, may you go from this time of reflection and worship into a new year with the confidence that God's eternal love goes with you.

You are deeply and eternally loved.