Latest / Reformed Thinking / More Than Conquerors: The Unbreakable Love of God in Christ (Romans 8:31–39)

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More Than Conquerors: The Unbreakable Love of God in Christ (Romans 8:31–39) · Reformed Thinking

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  40%, almost half of the people sitting in church pews today
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  secretly believe that their eternal salvation is, you know,
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  entirely up to them to maintain. Yeah, that statistic is just a
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  devastating reality. It really is.
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  Welcome to reform thinking. I mean, today we are taking a
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  sledgehammer to that anxiety. Absolutely, because of the
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  modern church is facing this massive crisis of assurance.
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  Right. You see, when we talk about a
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  physical medical diagnosis, we expect precision.
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  You know, like you break your arm, the X-ray shows a jagged
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  white line and the doctor points to it.
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  It's broken or not broken. Yeah, it's a binary clean
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  reality. Exactly.
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  But when you step into the world of human security, specifically
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  eternal security, that X-ray machine seems broken.
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  People are looking at a landscape of personal assurance
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  that is quite honestly terrifying.
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  It is terrifying because the human heart, by its very fallen
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  nature, is kind of a factory of works righteousness.
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  Yeah, they think they're standing before God fluctuates
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  with their daily performance like it changes every single
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  day. Right.
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  We naturally default to the terror of conditional security.
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  We desperately want to contribute to our own rescue,
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  you know. We want to feel like we earned
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  it, or at least helped out a bit.
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  Spot on. And when we think we have to
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  contribute or maintain our status through our own good
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  works, well, we fall into a theological error, one that
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  denies the absolute assurance of the believer.
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  So our mission on this deep dive today is to address those
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  agonizing questions of the tender conscience, the questions
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  that keep you staring at the ceiling at 2:00 in the morning.
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  Those late night fears. Have I done enough?
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  Did that latest failure cross the line?
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  Right. Or can the fierce trials of this
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  life or my own weakness just sever my union with Christ?
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  And we are going to answer those questions by looking at what
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  might be the greatest text on assurance in all of Scripture.
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  Yes, we are doing a comprehensive examination of
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  Romans chapter 8, verses 31 through 39.
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  And let me be clear right out of the gate, this is not a light
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  devotional reading for your morning coffee mug.
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  No, definitely not. This text is the Mount Everest
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  of biblical soteriology. Yeah, and for anyone listening,
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  you might not be familiar with that term, soteriology, simply
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  the theological study of salvation.
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  You know how God saves, why He saves, and how secure that
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  salvation actually is. And we promise you this, by the
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  end of this deep dive, you will understand how God's sovereign
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  decree and Christ's infallible substitutionary atonement
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  guarantee absolute security. But to do that properly, we have
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  to travel back in time a bit. We need to look at the bloody
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  historical reality of Rome in 8057.
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  That context is so crucial. We have to ground this text in
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  its historical setting to really grasp the weight of what Paul is
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  saying. So the Apostle Paul is writing
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  this letter from Corinth, right? And he's sending it to the
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  church in Rome. Paint that picture for us.
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  What did it mean to be a Christian in Rome at that
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  specific moment in history? Well.
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  Rome in the 1st century was the epicenter of a highly
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  pluralistic, violently hostile empire, the Church.
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  There was this fragile mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers.
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  And they needed a full, orderly statement of the gospel.
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  Yeah, but they also desperately needed fortifying.
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  I mean, the shadow of Emperor Nero was lengthening over the
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  city. Wow Nero, that brings up some
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  dark imagery. Does so.
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  When Paul lists threats in this passage, things like famine,
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  nakedness, danger, or sword, he is not using abstract rhetorical
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  hyperbole. He is talking about the literal
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  Evening News of the day. Right, He's talking about what
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  happened to their friends and neighbors last Tuesday.
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  Precisely these believers faced the imminent threat of being
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  dipped in pitch and burned as human torches, literally, to
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  light the imperial gardens. That is just horrifying to even
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  think about. That is the historical reality
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  they woke up to, yeah. Declaring Jesus is Lord was not
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  some private religious hobby. In the Greco Roman world, Caesar
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  was considered divine. So to stand up in Rome and say,
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  no, Jesus of Nazareth is the supreme Lord, that was an act of
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  high political treason. Absolutely.
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  The Roman Christians lived in a world where imperial authority,
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  public shame, economic vulnerability, ethnic tension
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  and social suspicion pressed heavily upon them every single
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  day. OK, hold on.
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  Let me push back on this for a second, because this clashes
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  violently with the modern mindset.
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  How so? Well, if I turn on the
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  television today and listen to certain popular preachers, I
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  hear a message that says if you have enough faith, you will be
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  prosperous, healthy and safe. Ah yes, the prosperity gospel.
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  Right. There's this widespread
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  assumption that suffering means God is mad at you, or that you
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  have stepped out of his will. Or maybe you just, you know,
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  didn't pray hard enough. Yeah, that is a very common
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  modern error. So if I am a Roman Roman
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  Christian facing the prospect of being fed to wild animals,
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  doesn't the sheer terror of that situation contradict the idea of
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  God's favor? That is the precise error Paul
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  is addressing, and the text systematically dismantles the
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  prosperity gospel. So, Paul?
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  Is attacking that idea directly. Yes, prosperity preachers claim
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  that suffering or poverty or the sore are indicators of a lack of
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  faith. But Paul promises the Roman
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  believers that these horrors are actually guaranteed for the
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  Pilgrim church. Guaranteed.
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  Not just possible, but expected. Right.
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  They're not anomalies. Believers are strangers and
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  aliens in a hostile world. We are not promised earthly
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  prosperity or physical dominion in this present age.
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  So suffering is not a sign of a lack of faith or lost favor.
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  No. It is the very context for
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  divine grace. It is the arena in which
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  believers conquer. That makes the theological
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  argument Paul is about to build even more astonishing.
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  I mean, he knows these people might face literal lions in the
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  Coliseum. He knows the brutal reality
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  awaiting them. He knows they might lose their
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  businesses, their homes, their families.
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  And how does he prepare them? He does not give them a pep
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  talk. No, a pep talk wouldn't survive
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  the Coliseum. Right.
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  He does not give them a mystical breathing technique to manage
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  their anxiety. He gives them heavy, rigorous
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  doctrine. Because doctrine is the only
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  thing strong enough to hold up under the weight of martyrdom, a
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  pep talk evaporates the moment you smell the smoke of the
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  executioner's fire. That is a sobering thought.
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  It is Paul prepares them with the reality of God's sovereign
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  love. He is establishing an
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  intellectual and spiritual fortress in their minds.
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  OK, so Romans 8.31 starts with a massive inferential question,
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  Paul writes. What then shall we say to these
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  things? Yes, these things is the key
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  phrase there. Right, if I'm reading this like
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  a normal letter, these things implies he just finished
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  explaining a massive concept. How did we get to verse 31?
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  Walk us through the literary mountain climb up to this point.
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  Well, to isolate this passage from the chapters that precede
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  it would be exegetical malpractice.
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  This text is the triumphant summit of the massive doctrinal
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  argument Paul began in Romans chapter 1.
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  So we need to trace his logic from the beginning.
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  Exactly. Let's trace it in Romans one
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  through 3. Paul acts kind of like the
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  prosecuting attorney for God. He indicts the entire human
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  race, both Jew and Gentile, under the righteous wrath of
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  God. He is laying out the charges.
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  Right, and he proves the doctrine of total depravity.
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  Let's define that real quick, because total depravity sounds
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  like everyone is as evil as humanly possible, like we are
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  all serial killers or something. But that is not what the term
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  means, is it? No, it does not mean humans are
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  as evil as they could possibly be.
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  It means that every part of our human nature, our mind, our
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  will, our emotions, our flesh, all of it is corrupted by sin.
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  So the infection has reached every part of the system.
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  Yes. There is no part of us that is
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  untainted and therefore we are completely incapable of
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  producing A righteousness that God would accept.
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  There is none righteous. No, not one.
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  We are spiritually dead. OK, so the prosecution rests and
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  humanities found guilty with 0 defense, Yeah.
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  A totally hopeless situation. But then, from Romans 3.21
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  through chapter 5, Paul introduces the staggering
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  doctrine of justification by faith alone, and that is apart
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  from the works of the law. He provides a solution.
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  Yes, he grounds this in the substitutionary atonement and
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  imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
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  Let's breakdown imputed righteousness for the listener.
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  It's kind of like a judge looking at a completely bankrupt
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  person's bank account. The person owes a billion
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  dollars, right? That's a good way to picture it.
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  So instead of just forgiving a debt and leaving the account at
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  0, the judge actively transfers a billion dollars of his own
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  money into the bankrupt person's account.
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  That is imputation. It's a massive transfer of
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  wealth, spiritually speaking. You aren't just declared not
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  guilty or left in neutral. You were declared perfectly
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  wealthy in Christ. His perfect record is placed
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  into your file. That is a highly accurate way to
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  view it. We are declared righteous not
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  because of anything inherent in us, but because of what Christ
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  accomplished outside of us. Wow, that is huge.
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  But Paul knows his audience. He knows that once he explains
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  Free Grace well, people have to deal with the reality of their
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  daily lives, which he addresses in Chapter 6 and 7.
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  Because even though I have a billion dollars in my spiritual
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  bank account, I still woke up this morning and acted like a
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  complete fool. I mean, I still struggle with
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  patience, with anger, with lust, with pride.
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  And Paul totally anticipates that pension.
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  In chapter 6 and seven he explains the agonizing reality
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  of indwelling sin. The believer still struggles.
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  Yeah, Paul himself cries out, wretched man that I am, who will
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  deliver me from this body of death.
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  Exactly. But he also establishes
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  definitive sanctification through our vital union with
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  Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin,
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  even if we still fight against it every single day.
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  Which brings us to chapter 8, the chapter that famously begins
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  with There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
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  in Christ Jesus. Yes, the turning point.
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  But right before our text today, in verses 29 and 30, Paul lays
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  out with the illusions called the golden chain of redemption.
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  We read that for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to
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  be conformed to the image of his son.
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  And those whom he predestined, he also called.
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  And those who he called he also justified, and those whom he
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  justified, he also glorified. That golden chain is the
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  specific reference point when Paul asks what then shall we say
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  to these things? The verbs in that chain are
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  decisive, foreknown, predestined, called, justified,
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  glorified. It's an unbroken sequence.
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  Right. And notice the tense.
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  Even glorification, which is obviously a future event for the
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  believer, is written in the past tense in the Greek.
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  Wait, really? Past tense.
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  Yes, it is so certain in the mind of God that it is spoken of
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  as an already accomplished fact. Salvation is not some fragile
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  possibility suspended upon autonomous human will.
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  It is God's gracious, effectual and certain work from beginning
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  to end. So think about this golden chain
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  of redemption. Like a massive steel bridge
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  anchored in eternity past and eternity future.
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  God is the sole acting subject doing all the heavy lifting.
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  He is the one doing the building right?
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  He foreknows, he predestines, he calls, he justifies, he
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  glorifies. The bridge cannot collapse
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  because man did not build. It that is the beauty of it.
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  If any of those links depended on my daily performance, I mean
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  the bridge would snap the moment I lost my temper in traffic.
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  Seriously, if my salvation depended on me maintaining it,
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  I'd lose it every time I merge onto the Interstate. 1 bad
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  morning at the DMV and I am out of the Kingdom.
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  And that is the practical reality of Armenian theology,
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  which suggests you can lose your salvation.
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  It places an impossible burden on the shoulders of the
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  believer. It sounds exhausting.
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  It really is. The structure of Paul's epistle
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  dictates that the truths of sovereign election are central.
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  They are the granite foundation upon which your emotional and
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  existential assurance must be built.
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  Because God's decree of salvation in verses 29 and 30
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  cannot fail, the believer, security in verses 31 through 39
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  cannot be broken. It is a rigorous logical
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  deduction. Yes, if God has sovereignly done
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  all this, absolute security is the only logical conclusion.
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  OK, so with that massive foundation laid, Paul
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  transitions to the first of his rapid fire rhetorical questions.
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  He sets up this incredible celestial courtroom drama.
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  Let's look at the Supreme Court of Heaven in verses 31 through
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  33. Let's do it.
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  I will read verse 31. What then shall we say to these
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  things? If God is for us, who can be
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  against us? And verse 33 says, Who shall
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  bring any charge against God's elect?
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  It is God who justifies. We really need to look closely
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  at the Greek of verse 31 because it carries enormous weight.
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  If God is for us is translated from the Greek phrase.
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  I hope Theo's hyper home. OK, break that down for us.
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  This is a first class conditional clause in Greek
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  grammar. A first class condition assumes
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  the truth of the statement. For the sake of the argument, it
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  does not mean if as in maybe or perhaps.
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  Oh, so it's not a hypothetical? No, it means since since God is
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  for us, there is no doubt in the premise.
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  The preposition hyper meaning for or on behalf of is a
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  covenantal marker of advocacy. So Paul is basically saying,
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  since God is actively savingly committed to us, who could
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  possibly stand against us? Yes, and Paul follows that up in
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  verse 32 with the ultimate historical proof of God's love.
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  He writes He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for
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  us all, how will he not also with Him graciously give us all
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  things? That is a heavy verse.
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  It is, and the Greek phrasing here idios huos for his own son,
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  directly mirrors the Septuagion translation of Genesis chapter
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  22, verse 12. Oh wow, Genesis 22.
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  That is the the terrifying moment when God tells Abraham to
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  take his son Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him.
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  That is the exact moment God tests Abraham, and when Abraham
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  raises the knife, the Angel of the Lord stops him, right,
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  Right. God says to Abraham.
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  Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld
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  your son, your only son, from me.
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  Paul is making a breathtaking theological connection here.
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  He is showing us that God the Father is the ultimate Abraham.
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  Because unlike Abraham, God actually carried through with
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  the sacrifice. He did.
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  God actually carried through with the sacrifice of his
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  beloved Son on the Mount of Calvary.
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  He did not spare him. He delivered him up.
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  Yes, delivered him up to the wrath of the Cross, according to
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  his determinate counsel. The Cross was not an accident,
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  you know. It was the deliberate giving up
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  of the Son by the Father for the sake of the elect.
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  This is an argument from the greater to the lesser.
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  Think about it like this, listener.
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  If a billionaire friend buys you a state-of-the-art $50 million
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  private jet, completely paid for in cash, are you going to worry
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  that they might refuse to buy you a $5 sandwich while you were
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  on the flight of? Course not, That would be
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  absurd. Right.
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  If God already paid the infinite, incomprehensible price
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  of His own Son to secure your salvation, He will absolutely
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  provide the lesser graces. You know the daily strength of
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  perseverance that the forgiveness needed to get you
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  safely home to glory. The logic is completely
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  unassailable. And that brings us to verse 33,
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  where Paul introduces a specific legal term.
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  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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  Another rhetorical question. Yes, and the Greek verb here is
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  echolesh. This is a technical, precise
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  term used in the Greco Roman world for bringing a formal
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  accusation in a court of law. So we are back in the courtroom.
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  We are Paul is picturing the highest courtroom imaginable.
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  He is daring Satan, the accuser of the brethren, to approach the
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  bench. He is daring the hostile world,
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  false teachers, and even your own condemning conscience to
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  file a formal legal brief against you.
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  I picture the defense attorney stepping up, looking around the
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  courtroom and saying does anyone have a charge against my client?
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  And the room just goes totally silent.
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  And the reason the courtroom goes dead silent is found in the
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  next phrase. It is God who justifies.
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  The judge has already spoken. Exactly justification is the
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  definitive once for all forensic declaration where God imputes
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  the righteousness of Christ the believer.
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  Because the Supreme Judge of the Universe has already brought
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  down the gavel and handed down the verdict of righteous well,
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  no lower court possesses the jurisdiction to appeal or
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  overturn the ruling. I.
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  Want to make sure we explain this clearly because this
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  shatters so many religious systems out there.
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  When you say forensic justification, what what does
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  that actually mean in contrast to what other churches teach?
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  Well, forensic just means legal. It is a legal declaration made
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  in a courtroom. It is an objective change in
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  your legal status before God. So it's not about an internal
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  feeling. Right.
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  And this completely shatters the Roman Catholic view of
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  reversible justification, which teaches that justification is an
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  ongoing process, a process dependent on human cooperation,
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  participating in the sacraments, and maintaining inherent
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  righteousness. So in that system you can lose
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  it. Yes, in their system, if you
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  commit a mortal sin, you lose the grace of justification until
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  you do penance. But Paul's ground is vastly
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  stronger. The verdict is not based on your
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  inherent innocence or your behavioral cooperation.
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  It is based solely on Christ's imputed righteousness.
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  OK, so the eternal verdict is not guilty.
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  The gavel has fallen in the eternity past, but I'm living in
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  the present, right? And I just screamed at my kids
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  this morning. Or maybe I just fell back into
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  an old addiction. The daily reality of sin, yeah.
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  How does a past verdict deal with my present guilt?
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  The tender conscience is agonizing over today's failures.
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  Who handles that in the courtroom?
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  That leads directly to verse 34 where Paul outlines the
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  compressed Christology of assurance.
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  He gives us what we can call the four pillars of the Advocate.
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  The four pillars, OK, what are they?
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  Listen to the text. Who is to condemn Christ?
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  Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised?
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  Who is at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for
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  us? So he died, He rose, He is at
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  the right hand, He intercedes. Those are the four pillars.
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  Let's take the first one. Christ died.
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  This refers to penal substitutionary atonement.
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  Christ stood in the place of sinners, bore the full measure
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  of divine justice, and secured reconciliation.
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  He took the penalty. Yes, liberal theology often
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  recoils from the idea of substitution.
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  They try to reduce the cross to a mere moral example of God's
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  love or a political protest against systemic Roman
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  injustice. But Paul says no.
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  Right. Paul insists it is a legal
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  substitute. The reason no charge can condemn
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  God's elect is that Christ has already paid the penalty.
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  The debt is 0. Then the second pillar, Christ,
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  rose. The resurrection is the public
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  vindication of the Son. Death is conquered.
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  If Christ remained in the grave, it would signify that the
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  payment was insufficient, that sin and death still held
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  control. It would mean the check bounced.
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  Basically, yes. But because he lives, we know
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  with absolute certainty that the Father accepted the sacrifice.
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  The condemnation has been entirely exhausted.
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  The third pillar is that he's at the right hand of God.
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  God. But let me stop you there,
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  because practically speaking, for someone listening right now
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  who is drowning in medical debt or dealing with a rebellious
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  child or facing a terrifying medical diagnosis, well, an
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  exalted Cosmic Lord sitting at the right hand of God sounds
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  really far away. You can feel very disconnected
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  from daily life. Yeah, it sounds abstract.
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  How does that specific pillar actually support them today?
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  It supports them because it speaks to absolute sovereignty
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  over their specific trials. The right hand of God is the
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  position of ultimate cosmic authority.
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  He's in charge. Exactly.
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  Christ is not a defeated martyr in history.
• 19:25
  He is the reigning king over everything, including that
• 19:28
  medical debt and a diagnosis. This completely refutes secular
• 19:32
  materialism which ignores unseen realities and assumes we are
• 19:36
  victims of random chance. It also refutes fearful
• 19:39
  mysticism, which is constantly terrified of demons, curses and
• 19:43
  spiritual attacks. Because Christ is above all of
• 19:46
  that, yes. Christ reigned supreme over all
• 19:48
  authorities, both earthly and spiritual.
• 19:51
  Your trials have to pass through His sovereign hands.
• 19:54
  That reframes everything. And that brings us to the fourth
• 19:57
  pillar, which directly answers my caution about our ongoing
• 20:01
  daily sin. He intercedes.
• 20:03
  This is an ongoing, uninterrupted reality.
• 20:06
  The Greek tense here reveals A continuous action.
• 20:09
  Hebrews 7.25 confirms this, stating that Christ is able to
• 20:14
  save to the uttermost because He always lives to make
• 20:17
  intercession for them. Always lives, so it never stops.
• 20:21
  Right. His intercession is not a
• 20:23
  repeated sacrifice. Christ is not suffering on the
• 20:26
  cross over and over again as the Roman mass implies.
• 20:29
  The intercession is the living application of his once for all
• 20:32
  atonement. So when my conscience condemns
• 20:35
  me, or when Satan brings an accusation about something I did
• 20:37
  an hour ago, how does this intercession actually work?
• 20:40
  Think about a human defense attorney.
• 20:42
  A good defense attorney doesn't stand up in court and say, your
• 20:45
  honor, my client is completely innocent.
• 20:47
  He didn't commit the crime. Yeah.
• 20:48
  I mean, if the client is caught on tape, that defense fails.
• 20:51
  Right. Christ does not claim you are
• 20:52
  innocent of the daily sins you commit.
• 20:54
  He does not say Satan, you were wrong.
• 20:55
  My client didn't do that. Because we did do it.
• 20:57
  Exactly. Instead, Christ claims his own
• 21:00
  sufficiency. He acts as the defense attorney
• 21:03
  who slides a receipt across the judge's desk proving that the
• 21:06
  fine for that specific crime has already been paid in full.
• 21:09
  Oh I love that imagery. The receipt is already stamped.
• 21:12
  Yes, He points to his wounds. His blood speaks a better word
• 21:15
  than you're condemning. Conscience.
• 21:17
  Condemnation simply cannot stand where Christ's intercession is
• 21:21
  continual and perfect. That is just incredible.
• 21:24
  Our peace does not depend on us having some fresh spiritual
• 21:27
  revelation or achieving an emotional high during a worship
• 21:31
  song or practicing mystical meditation techniques to calm
• 21:34
  our anxiety. No, it's built on something much
• 21:37
  more solid. Right.
• 21:38
  Our peace depends on an actual historical person who is
• 21:41
  currently, right now, physically at the right hand of the Father
• 21:45
  speaking on our behalf. That is true assurance.
• 21:47
  So we have established that the legal matters are settled in
• 21:50
  heaven, the gavel has fallen. But down here on earth, the
• 21:53
  battlefield is still raging. I mean, we get sick, we face
• 21:57
  bankruptcy, we face persecution. Let's look at the battlefield of
• 22:00
  what Paul calls the Super Conquerors in verses 35 to 37.
• 22:04
  This is where the theology hits the bird, yeah.
• 22:07
  Verse 35 asks, Who shall separate us from the love of
• 22:10
  Christ? Shall tribulation or distress,
• 22:13
  or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
• 22:17
  Notice Paul has seven intense hardships here.
• 22:21
  These describe pressures that attack the body, the mind,
• 22:24
  reputation, security and life itself.
• 22:26
  He covers everything. He does, and notice that he
• 22:29
  completely refuses to define God's love by earthly ease.
• 22:33
  He then quotes Psalm 44.22 in verse 36.
• 22:36
  For your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
• 22:39
  We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
• 22:42
  That is a brutal, disturbing image.
• 22:44
  Sheep waiting for the butcher's knife.
• 22:46
  It is a deliberate 1. Paul is explaining that the text
• 22:49
  guarantees affliction. Suffering, for God's sake has
• 22:52
  always marked the righteous throughout history.
• 22:53
  But our instinct is to think the opposite.
• 22:56
  Yes, the natural human heart assumes that pain means divine
• 23:00
  abandonment. We instantly think, if God loves
• 23:02
  me, why am I going through this horrible trial?
• 23:04
  I think everyone has asked that question at some point point.
• 23:07
  Absolutely. But Paul uses the Old Testament
• 23:10
  Scripture to prove that God's people may be slaughtered for
• 23:12
  his sake, and yet they are still perfectly fully loved by Christ.
• 23:16
  OK, but in verse 37 Paul says no and all these things.
• 23:20
  We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
• 23:23
  I have to stop you there, because that word conqueror
• 23:26
  feels almost offensive if you're the one starving to death in a
• 23:29
  famine or facing a literal sort of execution.
• 23:33
  It sounds like a contradiction. It does.
• 23:35
  If I am losing my home or my health is failing.
• 23:38
  The world looks at me and sees total defeat.
• 23:41
  They see a victim. How is Paul not just wrapping
• 23:44
  tragedy and toxic positivity here?
• 23:46
  It is not toxic positivity because the secret is in the
• 23:49
  glorious Greek word Paul uses here, hypernikamen.
• 23:52
  Hypernikamen. What does that mean?
• 23:53
  We translate it in English as more than conquerors, but it
• 23:57
  literally means super conquerors.
• 23:59
  You see, believers do not just survive trials by the skin of
• 24:02
  their teeth. We are just barely making it.
• 24:04
  No, we do not just endure them with stoic grit, gritting our
• 24:08
  teeth and hoping it ends. Instead, God sovereignly
• 24:11
  subjugates the trials themselves.
• 24:13
  He forces those very afflictions, even the sword of
• 24:16
  the executioner, to produce final sanctification and glory
• 24:19
  for the believer. Wow, so he takes the weapon
• 24:22
  meant to destroy us and turns it into a tool that perfects us.
• 24:25
  That is it. The victory is entirely derived
• 24:28
  from your union with Christ. It is not human heroism.
• 24:31
  When the Roman believer face the lions in the Colosseum, they are
• 24:34
  hypernikamen because that gruesome, horrific death was the
• 24:38
  very vehicle ushering them immediately into the presence of
• 24:41
  the Lord. So the trial can't stop the
• 24:43
  victory. It actually delivers it.
• 24:45
  Right. The conquest is the absolute
• 24:47
  inability of suffering to destroy faith, sever your union
• 24:50
  with Christ, or prevent your final glorification.
• 24:53
  The trial itself becomes the servant of your salvation.
• 24:55
  If earthly trials, even the worst physical pain and death
• 24:59
  cannot sever this bond, what about the cosmic unseen forces
• 25:03
  we all have late night fears about?
• 25:04
  The things we cannot see or understand.
• 25:06
  The demonic realm, the future, the unknown.
• 25:09
  Those fears can be paralyzing. Yeah, and this leads us to the
• 25:12
  grand sweeping climax of the chapter.
• 25:14
  In verses 38 and 39, Paul says. For I am sure that neither
• 25:18
  death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
• 25:22
  things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
• 25:26
  else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
• 25:29
  love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 25:31
  Paul expands the field as far as the human imagination can
• 25:34
  possibly reach. He covers the absolute extremes
• 25:37
  of existence to ensure no loophole remains.
• 25:40
  No exceptions at all. Exactly.
• 25:42
  He mentions death and life, recognizing that both states
• 25:45
  hold unique terrors, temptations, and pains.
• 25:48
  He mentions angels and rulers encompassing all spiritual and
• 25:51
  earthly authorities, both demonic and human.
• 25:54
  He even covers time. Yes, he says things present and
• 25:57
  things to come, proving that God governs all of time.
• 26:00
  Tomorrow's failures are already covered.
• 26:02
  He lists height and depth, covering all spatial and cosmic
• 26:04
  extremes. He covers time, space, life,
• 26:07
  death, and the supernatural. He literally covers the entire
• 26:10
  map. He does, but the crucial phrase
• 26:13
  is at the very end of that list. Nor anything else in all
• 26:16
  creation. The Greek word for creation is
• 26:19
  sketisis. It encompasses absolutely
• 26:22
  everything in the universe that is not God Himself.
• 26:25
  So God is sovereign over all of gutisis.
• 26:28
  Exactly. The creator holds it all.
• 26:30
  Wait. Let's pause right here.
• 26:32
  Anything else in all creation? If you are listening to this
• 26:35
  right now, look in the mirror. You are a created being.
• 26:40
  Therefore you are part of gitais.
• 26:42
  You are part of creation. That is a staggering
• 26:44
  realization, and it is entirely textually accurate.
• 26:47
  John Calvin and the great Puritan theologians drew heavily
• 26:50
  on this specific insight. Because it changes how we view
• 26:53
  ourselves. It does because the believer is
• 26:55
  a created being. Even your own remaining sin,
• 26:58
  your own terrible failures, your own weakness, and your own
• 27:01
  crippling doubts cannot separate you from the love of God in
• 27:04
  Christ Jesus. The argument you always hear
• 27:06
  against eternal security is well, no outside force can
• 27:09
  snatch you out of God's hand, but you have free will.
• 27:12
  You can choose to jump out yourself, but this word geetais
• 27:15
  shuts that down completely. It really does.
• 27:17
  If I am part of creation, I do not have the ability to sever
• 27:20
  the bond either. My free will is not stronger
• 27:24
  than God's sovereign grip. You do not have that ability.
• 27:27
  The text does not teach that the believer holds firmly to Christ.
• 27:30
  It teaches that Christ holds omnipotently, firmly to the
• 27:33
  believer. That is such a relief.
• 27:35
  It is. The Armenian system tells you
• 27:37
  that your eternal security is contingent upon your ability to
• 27:40
  endure in your own strength, that you maintain your justified
• 27:44
  status by choosing correctly every day and repenting
• 27:46
  perfectly every time you fail. But if that were true, heaven
• 27:50
  would be entirely empty. Our wills are too frail.
• 27:53
  Our flesh is too weak. Yes, the glorious truth of
• 27:57
  Romans 8 is that preservation is God's work.
• 28:00
  So what does this all mean? When we wake up tomorrow
• 28:03
  morning, the theological argument is complete.
• 28:06
  The courtroom is clear. The cosmic forces are defeated.
• 28:09
  But how does this alter the way we live our daily lives?
• 28:12
  Let's talk about application. This is where we see the fruit
• 28:14
  of the doctrine. Right.
• 28:16
  How does this staggering security lead to the death of
• 28:19
  fear and act as fuel for holiness?
• 28:22
  Because some people will hear this and think, great, I'm
• 28:24
  eternally secure, I can do whatever I want.
• 28:26
  We have to apply this text carefully to confront 2 massive
• 28:30
  opposite errors in the church, legalism and antinomianism.
• 28:34
  Let's tackle legalism first. Legalism says I must obey God
• 28:38
  out of fear of losing my salvation.
• 28:41
  It is obeying a master because you are terrified of the whip.
• 28:44
  It produces joyless, anxious rule keeping.
• 28:48
  And then antinomianism. Antinomianism which means anti
• 28:51
  law says because my salvation is completely secure, I can live
• 28:54
  however I want, I can indulge in sin and grace will just cover
• 28:58
  it. But both views represent a total
• 29:00
  misunderstanding of the Gospel. Absolutely.
• 29:03
  They completely missed the point of grace.
• 29:04
  So how does a right understanding of Romans 8 thread
• 29:07
  that needle between terrified obedience and lazy rebellion?
• 29:11
  By utilizing what theologians called the third use of the law.
• 29:14
  This is the understanding that the law acts as a guide for the
• 29:16
  believer who is already perfectly secure.
• 29:18
  It shows us how to live to please him.
• 29:20
  Right. This staggering assurance does
• 29:23
  not lead to spiritual apathy. When you truly grasp what it
• 29:27
  cost the Father to give His Son, and you realize you are
• 29:30
  eternally safe, it produces radical, overflowing gratitude.
• 29:35
  It changing your motivation. It produces a deep love for the
• 29:38
  one who saved you. You obey not to earn favor, but
• 29:42
  because you already have favor. The great Puritan theologian
• 29:45
  John Owen wrote extensively on the mortification of sin, which
• 29:49
  is the theological term for putting sin to death.
• 29:51
  He did. Alman understood the psychology
• 29:54
  of the believer perfectly. Because he knew that only the
• 29:57
  person who knows they are perfectly loved and fully
• 29:59
  justified has the courage to ruthlessly put to death the sin
• 30:04
  that remains in their flesh. Yes, let me put this in a
• 30:07
  visceral scenario for the listener.
• 30:08
  Please do think about the one habit, the one sin you hide from
• 30:11
  everyone. The reason you don't fight it,
• 30:13
  the reason you keep sweeping it under the rug, is because you
• 30:16
  are terrified that if you look closely at it, it proves you
• 30:19
  aren't really. Oh, that is so true.
• 30:21
  We hide what terrifies us. If you think your salvation is
• 30:24
  on the line every time you sin, you will hide your sin.
• 30:27
  You will minimize it. You will play mental games to
• 30:30
  convince yourself you are still good enough.
• 30:33
  But if you know you are bulletproof in a heavenly
• 30:35
  courtroom, you finally have the psychological safety to look
• 30:39
  that ugly habit in the face. Exactly.
• 30:41
  You drag it into the light and you slaughter it because you
• 30:44
  know it cannot condemn you. That is the pastoral heartbeat
• 30:48
  of Paul's letter. Your security is not based on
• 30:51
  the strength of your grip on Christ, but on the omnipotent
• 30:54
  grip of Christ on you. And this produces fearless
• 30:57
  living in every sphere of life. Because this love is secured,
• 31:01
  husbands can lead their homes without the paralyzing fear of
• 31:04
  man or the terror of making a mistake.
• 31:06
  And wives can trust God in the midst of chaotic domestic
• 31:10
  trials. The church can engage in bold
• 31:12
  evangelism, knowing that no cultural rejection or physical
• 31:15
  persecution can sever them from Christ.
• 31:18
  Security produces grateful, courageous obedience.
• 31:21
  It changes everything. It strips away the anxiety that
• 31:25
  plagues so much of modern religion.
• 31:27
  It takes the focus off my fluctuating emotions and puts it
• 31:31
  squarely on the historical, objective reality of the cross
• 31:34
  and the empty tomb. It replaces that anxiety with
• 31:36
  Apostolic certainty. I love that phrase.
• 31:38
  Apostolic certainty. The Apostle Paul is hailing all
• 31:41
  of our enemies, sin, death, demons, the world, our own
• 31:46
  consciences into the Supreme Court of the universe.
• 31:49
  And we get to watch as they are entirely silenced by the gavel
• 31:53
  of God the Father who declares it is God who justifies.
• 31:56
  That is the absolute certainty of the text.
• 31:59
  Assurance is not some emotional exaggeration we work up during a
• 32:02
  really good worship song. It is objective Apostolic.
• 32:06
  Certainty. The world tells you your worth
• 32:08
  is found in your performance, your bank account, your status.
• 32:11
  But Christ thunders from heaven that your eternal security is
• 32:14
  found entirely, exclusively, and irrevocably in His blood and His
• 32:18
  righteousness. I.
• 32:19
  Want to leave you with a final thought to ponder as we close.
• 32:21
  We talked a lot about being super conquerors in the midst of
• 32:24
  terrible trials. If our definition of conquering
• 32:27
  is usually about escaping pain, you know, getting the promotion,
• 32:30
  the physical healing, the financial windfall, well, how
• 32:33
  does knowing that Christ uses our deepest wounds as the actual
• 32:37
  vehicle for our victory change the way we pray tomorrow
• 32:39
  morning? Wow, do we stop praying just for
• 32:42
  a quick escape from our circumstances and start praying
• 32:45
  for triumph within the fire? That is a staggering question.
• 32:49
  We always want the easy way out. We want the trial to disappear.
• 32:52
  But God is doing a far heavier, far more glorious work right
• 32:55
  there in the flames. Thank you for joining us on this
• 32:58
  deep dive on Reformed thinking. We encourage you to stop
• 33:01
  striving, stop looking inward at your own performance, and rest
• 33:05
  completely in the finished work of Jesus Christ.