Lesson by Pastor John Skaggs

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

P. O. Box 1173

Claypool, Arizona 85532

520-425-8345

Date: 09-3-00

Sermon Number: 048

Text: Romans 8:35-39

Topics Addressed in this Lesson

(Perseverance of the Saints)

"More Than Conquerors"

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell,

It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God how rich and pure. How measureless and strong!

It shall forever more endure, The saints and angels song."

It is this rich, pure, measureless, and strong love, of God that we will consider in today’s lesson. In chapter eight of the book of Romans Paul draws our attention to the magnificence of God’s love for His elect people in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The chapter is a masterpiece intended for the comfort of the saints. With words, Paul paints a picture of God’s gracious saving and keeping of all for whom Christ shed His cleansing blood. He tells us that Jesus fulfilled the law for all who trust in Him and they will never, ever, be condemned. I encourage you to review the whole chapter. We begin our reading with verse thirty-one

The question, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" alludes to the theme of this great chapter, the believers spiritual security. The people identified by the word "us" are God’s people, Christians, sinners who trust in Christ for forgiveness and acceptance with God. Who or what will separate Christians from the love of God in Christ who saved us? Paul moves quickly to his answer of which he was completely convinced. Nothing and no one can cause a Christian to loose his salvation. For, as we shall see, it’s basis is the never changing love of God for His own.

There have been volumes written in an effort to define love, most of which have failed. Some say it is an emotion, others say it is action. Some say it strikes one without notice while others say love is a deliberate decision and duty. There is some truth in each of these when we are speaking of human love and some of these things are true of divine love as well. Divine love toward the saved is our concern today. The safest way of defining this love is to consult the Holy Scriptures. We read and simply accept what the scriptures declare. The first text we look at reveals that understanding God’s love is something that increases with time and maturity. It is something to be prayed for as well. Listen to the words of Paul as found in Ephesians 3:14-19 NASB. "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, {15} from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, {16} that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; {17} so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, {19} and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."

In this text we see that whatever understanding of the love of Christ we have has come to us by divine revelation, verse sixteen. Further, that knowledge is vitally connected to the truth found in the Bible which truth defines our faith. Therefore, comprehension of the love of God in Christ comes by revelation though the word of God. It has to be this way because this knowledge surpasses or goes way beyond the human capacity to know it on its own (verse 19).

As we seek this morning to understand the love of Christ we must look at what He has done and is presently doing for us. For, love, at least in part, is something one does for another. Jesus has shown the greatest love for us in what He has done.

Here we see that the love with which Christ loves His people is the greatest kind of love. He lay down His life for us. This is even more extraordinary when we remember that Jesus was divine, He was and is God. His name is, Immanuel, which means "God with us." In Jesus we see our Creator dying so that we might have life everlasting. This is the greatest love possible.

Also in verse sixteen we see that this same great love was what motivated God’s election of us to salvation. Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you!" We must get this through our heads. God in Christ has chosen us and called us and caused us to come to life. Yes we have come, yes we have turned from our sins, yes we have cried out for mercy, yes we now love God and His Christ and the Holy Spirit, but why. We love Him because He first loved us. We chose Him to love and serve because He first loved us and saved us from the wrath to come. In verse sixteen we discover that the eternal love of Christ for His people motivated Him to appoint or predestine us, to permanent sanctification. It was God’s intent that the saved be changed and bear the lasting fruit of holiness. This text is riddled with the idea of Eternal Salvation.

Continuing to consider the love of God and His Christ for the saved we look at Romans 5:8-11 NASB. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Here is one characteristic of love that holds true whether we are speaking of divine or human love. It cannot be proven or known by others until it is demonstrated. God demonstrated His love for us by giving Jesus to die in our place? Gaze, with your spiritual eyes, upon the crucified Savior and see the Love of God for you!) {9} Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. {10} For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Since God has justified us by the blood of Christ thereby reconciling us to Himself He will certainly see to our final salvation since we are no longer His enemies but friends, sons, and brothers of Christ.) {11} And not only this, but we also exult (rejoice) in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

This is how God demonstrated His love for the elect. Love that is not demonstrated cannot be known or proven. It can be talked about but never proven. Real love does something to benefit the object loved. God demonstrated His love for us by reconciling us to Himself through the death of His dear Son. This great love appears all the greater when we remember that there was nothing in us or about us that was loveable. In fact, we were altogether enemies of our Creator and of Jesus our Lord. We would not seek Him nor did we wish Him to reign over us. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us!

Here again the love of God is demonstrated or manifested. His love is seen and proven by the sending of the Only Begotten Son into the world so that we who were destined to die for sins might live through Him. Our love for God is not what made the difference. Rather, it is that God loved us in eternity past and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

In an article on Atonement we find and explanation of the word, propitiation. "Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted relationship. Scripture depicts all human beings as needing to atone for their sins but lacking all power and resources for doing so. We, every son and daughter of Adam, have offended our holy Creator, whose nature it is to hate sin (Jer. 44:4; Hab. 1:13) and to punish it (Ps. 5:4-6; Rom. 1:18; 2:5-9). No acceptance by, or fellowship with, such a God can be expected unless atonement is made, and since there is sin in even our best actions, anything we do in hope of making amends can only increase our guilt or worsen our situation. This makes it ruinous folly to seek to establish one’s own righteousness before God (Job 15:14-16; Rom. 10:2-3); it simply cannot be done.

But against this background of human hopelessness, scripture sets forth the love, grace, mercy, pity, kindness, and compassion of God, the offended Creator, in Himself providing the atonement that our sin has made necessary. This amazing grace is the center of New Testament faith, hope, worship, ethics, and spiritual life; from Matthew to Revelation it shines out with breathtaking glory.

New Testament references to the blood of Christ are regularly sacrificial (e.g., Rom. 3:25; 5:9; Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5). As a perfect sacrifice for sin (Rom. 8:3; Eph. 5:2; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), Christ’s death was our redemption (i.e., our rescue by ransom: the paying of a price that freed us from the jeopardy of guilt, enslavement to sin, and expectation of wrath; Rom. 3:24; Gal. 4:4-5; Col. 1:14). Christ’s death was God’s act of reconciling us to Himself, OVERCOMING HIS OWN HOSTILITY TO US THAT OUR SINS PROVOKED (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20-22). The Cross (Jesus Death) propitiated God (i.e., quenched his wrath against us by wiping out our sins and so removing them from His sight). The cross had this propitiatory effect, wrath quenching effect, because in His suffering Christ assumed our identity, as it were, and endured the judgment due to us as our substitute, in our place, with the damning record of our transgressions nailed by God to His cross as the tally of crimes for which He was now dying (Col. 2:14; cf. Matt. 27:37; Isa. 53:4-6; Luke 22:37).

Those who through faith in Christ have "received reconciliation" (Rom. 5:11) "in him... become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). In other words, they are justified and receive the status of adopted children in God’s family (Gal. 4:5). Thereafter they live under the motivating constraint and control of the love of Christ for them as demonstrated in His death." God loved us so that He gave His own Son to quench His own wrath toward us for sins committed. End Quote)

In the same verse that speaks of the propitiation or quenching of God’s wrath we find the ever-popular statement, "God is love," (I John 4:8). This is very important to understanding the doctrine that Paul is trying to teach us in Romans eight. As concerns His elect children God is "Pure Love." He is nothing but love. There is no wrath in Him toward His blood bought children at all. He is love, He shall be love, He has always been love and nothing but love toward the people of His own choosing. He is love yesterday, today, and He shall be love forever without end!

Jesus is also pure love toward the elect of God. For in the beginning He was with God and was in fact God. So all that God is Jesus is as well. In fact, we must speak of the blessed trinity in equal terms. God is pure love toward us, Christ is pure love, the Holy Spirit is pure love toward those chosen to salvation. I Corinthians thirteen says, that love, true love, never fails! Is God’s love a never failing love? Of course it is! In our text for today Paul asks the question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Which is to say, "Is the love with which Christ has loved us from before the foundation of the world subject to change or overthrow by some existing power? The answer is no. There is no possibility of God or Christ ceasing to love us for any earthly, heavenly, or hellish reason, therefore, no one and nothing can separate us from His love!

There are three common arguments put forth by Christians who believe they can loose their salvation. Some think that God might cease to love them because of their stumbling behavior. Then there are some who fear that some evil force might snatch them away from God and the Savior. Third, they think that even if the love of God for them is eternal, they might remove themselves from God’s love in Christ. They might just decide they don’t want to be saved from the wrath to come. They might come to believe that eternal torment in hell is what they prefer over the joys of heaven.

In reference to the first argument that God might cease to love one of His blood bought children. Hear the word of the Lord. (Romans 5:8-10 NASB) "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. {9} MUCH MORE THEN, having now been justified by His blood, we SHALL BE SAVED FROM THE WRATH OF GOD THROUGH HIM. {10} For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, having been reconciled, WE SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE."

This love of God was brought to bear upon us not when we had repented and cleaned up our sinful act, but while we were still practicing sinners! He loved us then with unconditional love and He loves us now with that same unconditional love. When God looks at us, dear brothers and sisters, He sees a justified and righteous sinner, not an enemy. Besides this there is the promise found in (Romans 11:29 NASB) "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Salvation, beloved, is a gift from God and it is a calling as well. Neither of these things can ever change, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." God will never cast off His redeemed people until, as if it were possible, He becomes a liar and that cannot be.

As to the second argument, that some evil force, the devil, for instance, might remove a true Christian from the saving love of God. Look with me at John 10:27-30 NASB. "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; {28} and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. {29} "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. {30} "I and the Father are one."

Notice the positive nature of the statements found here. My sheep hear my voice. That is, when Jesus, by the Spirit, calls His lost elect sheep to Himself they will hear the call. There are no ifs or maybes, they will hear. "I know them", says Jesus, "I know exactly who it is that God has given Me for salvation." "When I call them they will hear my voice and they "will follow Me." In other words, when Jesus calls a sinner to salvation that call will be effective, they will respond, they will believe, they will be saved, which is His next wonderful statement. "I give eternal life to them, and they SHALL NEVER PERISH, and NO ONE SHALL SNATCH THEM OUT OF MY HAND." Why is that not possible? It is not possible because God and the Son are determined to save and keep for eternity those who come to Christ by faith. Jesus says, "They shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all. He is greater than any enemy that might try to remove us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus! Our Lord continues with the words of verse twenty-nine. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all and no one is able to snatch out of the Father’s hand. He concludes with verse thirty, "I and the Father are one." That is We are of one mind on this. We are of the same nature, intent, and strength. No one can snatch away a sinner that we have determined to save, it is simply impossible.

As concerns the possibility of removing ones self from the love of God in Christ I have this to say. In the first place we were not saved by the exercise of our own will. We were saved in spite of our unwillingness, opposition, and hardness of heart. It was God’s effective call that accomplished our rebirth, gave us the gift of faith, repentance, and renewed our wills so that we could go to Christ. He made us willing and then we went to Christ. Remember what we read earlier in John 15:16 NASB. "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you." Add to this the words of Romans nine and verse sixteen. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16 NASB)

You see dear Christian brother or sister, God did not consult with you before He set His love upon you. He did not ask you if you wanted to be saved from eternal damnation before He decided to save your never dying soul. He did not consult with you before He decided to conform you to the image of His dear Son. He has caused you who are Christian to delight in Him, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He has caused you to delight in His word. He is why you have grown to where you are today and He will take you all the way to heaven in spite of you and because He loves you in Christ.

The whole idea of a born again sinner deciding to wrench himself from the grasp of God and His dear Son is absurd. You see a man with a new heart that loves God and His Christ could never even think of such a thing. His desire is and will remain toward God and His Christ. To say that man can remove himself from the love of God and be lost after being saved is to declare that man is stronger than God. It is to say that God’s plan to save His people from their sin may not be fulfilled. It is saying that God’s intent to save His elect people is contingent on some human contribution and that is not the case.

If man can remove himself from the soul cleansing, transforming work, of the Lord Jesus Christ who died to redeem him as ordered by the Father. Then God is no God at all for His will is not eternal. His purposes can be overthrown. He is not an all-powerful God but rather a pawn of man whom He created. If this be true, that man can defy the God who made him and the Son who shed His blood, then Christ is no Savior at all. He has failed to obey His Father and is a sinner in the first degree. For God gave Him specific orders to save all of His elect people without loosing even one, (See John 6).

From heaven, to earth, to hell, and back again you will find nothing that can remove you or separate you from the love of Christ. Paul’s declaration of this truth is the grand conclusion, the climax and great crescendo with which Romans eight concludes.

(Romans 8:35-39 NASB) "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? {36} Just as it is written, "FOR THY SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." {37} But in all these things (in the midst of and in spite of all these things) we overwhelmingly conquer THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. {38} For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, {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."

Verse thirty-five lists seven things that affect people in serious ways. These things fill us with fear, make us groan, and tremble, cry, loose sleep, and question our faith, they may even take our physical lives from us. But, says Paul, the Christian will still overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. You see it is the love of God for us, not ours for Him, that keeps and protects us. Our love for God exists in different strengths depending on the day, the hour and the circumstance. But God’s love for us was perfect when it began in eternity past and it is the same today. It will be the same tomorrow and forever. We conquer, we survive, we will make it to heaven through and because of Him who loved and still loves us.

Verse thirty-six is a quote from Psalm forty-four that reminds us of the Christian’s lot in this world. We walk through a veil of tears. We are like a woman in labor who suffers great pain yet endures looking forward to the fruitful end. We must not listen to those false prophets who say a Christian needn’t suffer in this life. The word of God declares that we have been given two gifts. The first is the gift of faith by which we trust in Christ the second is the gift of suffering for Christ’s sake. (Philippians 1:29 NASB) "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,"

Verse thirty-seven of Romans eight tells us that rather than being conquered by any of these things we suffer we conquer them. We do so overwhelmingly through Christ. In fact we plunder our troubles finding great treasure in them. "For God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose." For the Christian ever cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

(Isaiah 1:18 NASB) ""Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool." It is normal for Christians to feel vile and dirty when they sin. But we must remember that our lack of perfection in thought and performance will never remove us from the Love of God. For that love is anchored in the perfect and eternally acceptable righteousness of Jesus Christ. God loves us through Him and because of Him. Therefore, His love for us can never end. May you receive these words as from the Lord and find rest for your souls.