Latest / Reformed Thinking / From No Condemnation to No Separation: Christian Assurance in God’s Sovereign Purpose, Verdict, and Love (Romans 8:28–39)

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From No Condemnation to No Separation: Christian Assurance in God’s Sovereign Purpose, Verdict, and Love (Romans 8:28–39) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is where we take a stack of
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  your sources, your articles, notes, research, and we do a
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  structured deep dive to pull out the most critical insights.
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  Hello. Today we're opening up a passage
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  that, well, I think many would say is the most solid defense of
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  Christian security in the entire Bible.
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  We're looking at Romans. Chapter 8, specifically verses
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  28 through 39. It's a stunning piece of
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  writing. It really is.
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  Paul's been talking about the spirit, the fight with sin, even
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  the suffering we all face in this broken world.
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  And then he gets here and just brings it all to this incredible
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  conclusion. He's asking a huge question,
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  isn't he? After all this struggle, this
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  external pressure and internal weakness, does any that make God
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  saving work shaky or uncertain? And that's our mission for this
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  deep dive. Our sources boil Pauls answer
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  down to three massive certainties.
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  The whole point is that our assurance isn't built on how
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  we're doing or how we're feeling.
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  No, it's built entirely on God's actions, totally outside of us.
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  It's objective. We're looking for the three
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  theological anchors Paul uses to guarantee that a believer gets
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  all the way to the end, to glorification.
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  And these three anchors, they're like 3 different modes of
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  assurance. They're laid out with this
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  amazing logical precision. Yeah.
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  We go from God's plan to his legal verdict, and then finally
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  to His active presence in the world.
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  Yeah, I like thinking about the whole passage from verse 28 to
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  39, like a safety deposit box. And inside is the believer's
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  final salvation. OK.
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  And to make sure it's absolutely secure, God puts three locks on
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  it. Three locks that cannot be
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  broken. I like that.
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  So lock #1 will be the certainty of God's eternal and sovereign
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  saving purpose. That's the golden chain.
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  It guarantees the destination. Lock #2 is the certainty of
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  God's irrevocable saving verdict in Christ that sets up the legal
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  undisputed ownership through justification.
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  And lock #3 the certainty of God's inseparable covenant love.
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  This one proves that no force in the whole universe can pry that
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  box open. So let's start with that first
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  lock, the golden chain. Let's do it.
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  The first step in building this assurance starts in Romans 8.28.
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  It's a verse that's so well known it almost gets quoted
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  without its context, which is dangerous.
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  It is. It starts and we know that for
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  those who love God, all things work together for good, for
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  those who are called according to His purpose.
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  And right away, that first phrase we know Paul doesn't
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  start with a, you know, a hopeful guess or a nice feeling,
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  he says. We know this is a piece of
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  settled Christian knowledge. It's a doctrine that comes from
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  who God is and what he's revealed.
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  It's fixed its objective. Assurance begins in the mind
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  with truth, not in the heart with feelings that come and go.
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  And. One of the first things our
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  sources point out is how we understand the mechanics of that
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  verse. A lot of people here, all things
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  work together for good, and they picture some, I don't know,
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  impersonal cosmic force. The karma or fate?
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  Yeah, that everything will just sort of balance out in the end.
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  But the Greek verb Paul uses their Sinner guy is so
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  important. It translates to works together,
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  sure, but the grammar implies a single active personal agent
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  doing the work. So it's not things working
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  together, no. The real subject of that
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  sentence, the one orchestrating it all, is God himself.
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  That's why the verse has teeth. It's not impersonal.
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  It is intensely personal. So we're not talking about
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  circumstances magically falling into place.
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  We're talking about the active, personal, wise and sovereign God
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  who is standing behind and within every single event
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  ordering it. Why is that distinction, God
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  doing the work versus some impersonal force so vital for
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  our assurance, especially when you the listener are going
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  through real hardship? Well, because fate and chance
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  give you no comfort. There's no goal if it's just an
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  impersonal force who might just as easily turn against you
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  tomorrow. True, but if it's your wise,
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  good and loving Father who is sovereignly directing every
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  event, then the outcome is certain.
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  It means everything that happens in your life, every little
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  detail, has a purpose and an intention behind it, directed by
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  a mind that loves you. And that takes away the fear
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  that everything is just spinning out of control.
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  It does. That brings us to the scope of
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  all things. People often limit that phrase
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  to, you know, good things or neutral things.
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  But Paul's just spent verses 18 to 27 talking about suffering,
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  creation, groaning our weakness, and prayer.
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  The context demands a total scope.
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  Absolutely total. The all things has to include
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  the dark, the difficult, the painful realities, persecution,
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  distress, financial trouble, broken relationships, sickness.
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  None of those things fall outside of God's providential
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  circle. If God only used the good
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  things, it wouldn't be sovereign Providence.
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  No, it'd just be him stepping in from time to time.
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  Paul is saying God uses all of it.
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  OK, so if the promise covers everything, who gets the
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  promise? The verse describes them in two
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  ways, from a human side and a divine side.
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  From the human side, they are those who love God, and that
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  points to a real affection, A genuine mark of grace.
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  It's a necessary part of true faith.
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  But then Paul immediately grounds that human action in
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  something that came before it. Yes, the divine side, those who
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  are called according to His purpose.
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  And that relationship is so helpful for anyone who's
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  questioning their assurance. Because if your feelings of love
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  for God go up and down, and they do, where do you plant your
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  feet? The sources make it clear that
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  our love for God is the fruit of His prior calling.
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  It's the effect, not the cause of God's eternal decision.
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  So your assurance doesn't rest on how strong your love feels
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  today. It rests on the certainty of
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  God's objective initiating act, His eternal purpose.
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  He chose you and called you first, and that calling
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  guarantees everything else that follows.
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  OK, that brings us to the promise itself, the good.
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  If all things includes famine and tribulation, then the good
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  cannot possibly mean worldly comfort.
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  Or getting a better job. Or having an easy life.
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  Right. If you define good that way,
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  this verse looks false for a lot of believers throughout history
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  and even today. And that is the exact
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  theological mistake we have to avoid.
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  When someone takes on a shallow, material idea of good, they're
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  forced to conclude God is feeling them whenever life gets
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  hard. But Paul corrects that right
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  away. He does.
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  He immediately defines what the actual good is in the next two
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  verses, 29 and 30. So what is God's non negotiable
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  definition of the good that He's working all things toward?
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  The highest good is conformity to the image of Christ and in
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  the end, glorification. That is God's stated eternal
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  goal for His people. The good is all about becoming
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  like Jesus, who is the first born among many brothers.
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  So the suffering we go through, the all things, they aren't some
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  detour from God's plan. Not at all.
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  They're actually the tools He's using, the instruments of
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  refinement to chisel us into the likeness of His Son.
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  That's it. So when suffering shows up, the
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  believer who is anchored in this doctrine knows that this trial
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  is serving a purpose far greater than immediate comfort.
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  The purpose is becoming like Christ.
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  That lifts the doctrine of Providence out of just shallow
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  optimism. It does.
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  It becomes a deep assurance that even pain is constructive when
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  it's in the hands of a loving God.
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  And this eternal purpose gets its logical guarantee in verses
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  29 and 30, what everyone calls the golden chain of salvation.
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  Paul uses this really tight grammatical structure.
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  Those whom he also to show that the group of people he starts
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  with at the beginning is the very same group that gets
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  glorified at the end. Not one person is lost.
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  The structure is designed to show the absolute certainty of
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  God's action across all of time, from eternity past to eternity
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  future, and it all begins with foreknowledge.
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  OK, now the common popular idea of foreknowledge is that God
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  just, you know, looked into the future, saw who would freely
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  choose him, and then he chose them based on that.
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  But our sources really insist on a key doctrinal distinction
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  here. And they're right to.
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  In the Bible, foreknowledge isn't just God having foresight
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  of what people will do. It refers to God's prior
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  intimate, loving choice of specific persons.
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  It's relational. Like how the Old Testament talks
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  about God knowing Israel. Yes, or knowing the prophets
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  before they were born. It's a covenantal term.
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  So to be foreknown isn't just to be known about, but to be set
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  apart in covenantal love. Precisely.
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  It's God setting His love upon particular people, choosing them
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  before they even existed or did anything.
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  That act of love is what precedes and produces every
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  other link in the chain. It's the starting point of our
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  assurance. So from that foundational loving
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  choice, you get linked to predestination.
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  What's the specific goal of that?
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  Predestination in this context is defined by its result, a
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  loving determination that these chosen sinners will be remade,
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  to be conformed to the image of His Son.
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  The theological goal is adoption.
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  The practical goal is Christlikeness.
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  It reminds you that the point of election isn't just about
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  escaping hell. It's about resembling the Son of
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  God. And that makes our
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  sanctification, our growth and holiness, central to God's
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  eternal plan, not just some afterthought which means us to
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  link 3 effectual calling. And here we really need to
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  separate the general call of the gospel from what Paul is talking
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  about. That's a key distinction.
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  The general no gospel call goes out to everyone.
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  All are invited to repent and believe, but the effectual call
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  is a successful inner work of the Spirit.
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  How would you describe the difference?
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  Think of it like a public announcement broadcast over a
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  city. Many people will just ignore it,
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  but the effectual call is like a personal successful summons that
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  ensures the person responds because it changes their heart
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  and draws them to. Faith so this effectual calling
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  is guaranteed to work. It is because it's guaranteed by
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  the foreknowledge and predestination that came before
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  it. It's the mechanism that brings
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  the eternal decree into our reality, into time.
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  It's the Spirit of God bringing a person from spiritual death to
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  life. And that leads directly into
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  link 4 justification. God's legal once for all verdict
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  of righteousness. A critical link.
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  This is the legal declaration that the Sinner is now righteous
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  before God, not based on their own merit, but based entirely on
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  the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone.
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  It settles the legal standing immediately and forever.
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  Which is why it guarantees the chain will continue.
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  And then finally, link 5 glorification.
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  This is the end goal and the way Paul writes it is just stunning.
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  He puts it in the past tense. Those whom he justified, he also
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  glorified. This is something that's still
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  in the future for us as believers.
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  The resurrection body, perfect holiness, eternal life.
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  But Paul speaks of it as if it's already happened.
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  He does, and he does that to underline the absolute certainty
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  of it in God's mind and in His eternal decree.
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  So the gap between our justification now and our
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  glorification then might be filled with decades of trials
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  and sin and suffering. But in God's sight, it's a done
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  deal. If God decreed it and He started
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  it, He is guaranteed to finish it.
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  That golden chain promises that not one single justified person
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  will fail to be glorified. And that's the first lock on the
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  safety deposit box, the guarantee of the destination.
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  Because of God's planning, it sets up the theological why.
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  And that leads us perfectly into the second lock, which gets into
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  the legal How? So after establishing this
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  amazing, unbreakable chain of God's plan, Paul immediately
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  pivots to the judicial side of things versus 31 to 34.
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  Change the scene. We're out of God's eternal
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  counsel and we're now in a courtroom where the believer
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  status is being challenged. He opens with this rhetorical
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  challenge in 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 that, if God is for us,
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  isn't introducing any doubt. It's setting up a premise based
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  on everything he just said. Right.
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  Since God did all that in the golden chain, He is clearly for
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  us. So the question becomes, who can
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  possibly stand against that purpose and succeed?
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  Of course enemies exist. Our own sin, the world Satan.
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  Sure, but Paul makes them all relative.
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  If the Supreme Judge of the Universe has already declared
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  his stance in favor of the accused, then the accusers don't
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  have a leg to stand on. Our assurance is rooted in God's
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  objective position toward us, which was established in our
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  justification. And this brings us to the solid
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  proof that God is for us. The cross.
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  Paul uses this airtight logic, the argument from the greater to
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  the lesser. He says he who did not spare his
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  own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with
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  him graciously give us all things?
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  That logic is so comforting. Think about the weight of the
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  greater gift. The sources point out how he
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  says his own son to stress the incomparable value of the
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  sacrifice. It's a deliberate echo of
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  Abraham and Isaac. It is but where Abraham was
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  stopped from sacrificing his son, the father actually went
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  through with it. God paid the highest price
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  imaginable. He gave up His own Son to the
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  cross to secure our redemption. That was the greater act.
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  And so the argument is, if God did the most costly, painful,
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  difficult thing possible to get our salvation started, the
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  cross, it is completely unthinkable that he would then
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  fail to provide the lesser gifts needed to keep us going and
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  bring us to the end. And the lesser gifts are
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  everything we need for sanctification, for
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  preservation, for final glory. Everything.
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  The cross is the unanswerable historical guarantee that God
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  will not abandon his saving work halfway through.
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  If God spared nothing for our justification, He will surely
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  spare nothing for our sanctification.
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  The courtroom scene then gets more intense in verse 33.
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  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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  And that charge could come from anywhere.
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  The world, Satan, the accuser. Or maybe the worst of all, our
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  own guilty contents pointing out our real, actual failures.
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  And Paul's answer doesn't deny the sin.
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  Not at all. It just overrides the charges by
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  appealing to the highest court in existence.
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  The answer is it is God who justifies.
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  The whole defense rests on the judge's own prior verdict.
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  Yes, and because justification is a sovereign legal decree from
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  the only court that matters, there is no higher Court of
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  Appeal. If God, the perfect Judge,
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  declares you righteous in Christ, then no created being,
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  no demon, no self accusation can successfully overturn that
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  verdict. The legal case is closed
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  forever. That should just remove the fear
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  of condemnation that can paralyze A believer.
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  If God has declared you righteous because of Christ's
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  work, then living in constant fear of judgment is like you're
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  questioning God's own final. It is.
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  It grounds you in the objective reality of imputed
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  righteousness, not your performance.
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  Your assurance moves from anxiety about how you're doing
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  to a forensic certainty. And Paul takes it even one step
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  further. In verse 34 he asks who is to
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  condemn? And the answer isn't just that
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  God justified us, but that Christ's own work is this
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  impregnable bulwark, as our sources call it, against any
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  condemnation. He gives 4 aspects of Christ's
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  ministry that guarantee our security.
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  These four things basically summarize the whole gospel, and
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  they dismantle any lingering fear of judgement.
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  OK, so the first one is the foundation.
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  Christ died. The penalty for our sin was paid
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  in full. The debt is gone.
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  Condemnation requires a payment, but the payment has been made.
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  But a dead savior isn't enough for our assurance, no?
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  So the second reality is he was raised.
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  The resurrection is the Father's public statement that the
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  sacrifice was accepted, the payment was enough, and the
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  victory over sin and death is complete.
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  The justification that was secured by his death is
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  validated by his life. Right.
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  And those two points cover what he did historically.
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  The next two are about what he's doing right now to maintain that
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  status for us. The third reality he reigns.
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  He is at the right hand of God. This is his position of supreme
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  authority. He is ruling over everything for
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  the sake of his people. He's not passive.
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  He is actively managing the universe to make sure those he
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  died for are secure. And 4th And this is maybe the
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  most comforting part for a struggling believer.
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  He intercedes for us. This is his ongoing work as our
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  priest. This is huge.
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  This is where we see Christ as our perpetual advocate.
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  So when the accuser points out our daily failures, our current
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  weaknesses are shaky faith. Which he does.
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  All the time Christ points to the effectiveness of His
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  finished work and pleads His own blood on our behalf.
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  He is constantly sustaining the verdict of righteousness that
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  God declared. He guarantees that the
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  justification sticks. So condemnation is impossible,
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  not just because Christ died, but because he lives for us,
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  actively keeping our status secure.
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  And that is the second lock on the deposit box.
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  The legal certainty, our ownership is not in dispute.
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  We've gone from God's eternal plan to the legal reality
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  secured by Christ. And now Paul takes all of this
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  certainty and applies it to the arena where it gets tested the
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  most, the messy reality of life and suffering.
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  Anchor 3. This takes us right onto the
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  battlefield of the Christian life.
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  Paul knows that having a theological security is one
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  thing, but feeling secure when you're, I don't know, facing
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  persecution or losing your job is something else entirely.
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  So he hits these painful things head on in verse 35.
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  He asks the critical question, Who shall separate us from the
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  love of Christ? And it's so helpful that he asks
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  about Christ's love for us. That's the key for assurance,
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  our love for Christ. While it goes up and down, we
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  have moments of real devotion and moments of coldness.
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  But Christ's love for his people is constant.
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  It's stable. It's anchored in His eternal
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  purpose. And then he lists this catalog
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  of frankly brutal afflictions. Shall tribulation or distress,
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  or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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  This isn't a list of small annoyances.
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  No, these are existential threats.
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  Paul absolutely refuses to sanitize the Christian life or
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  promise that we won't suffer. Why does he list such severe
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  physical dangers? He's grounding the assurance in
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  the harshest possible circumstances.
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  If Christ's love can hold you fast even when you're facing
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  death by sword or actual starvation, it can certainly
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  hold you through your lesser anxieties.
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  He uses the worst case scenario to prove the bond is durable.
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  And then to really drive the point home that this suffering
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  is normal, he quotes from Psalm 44.
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  He does for your sake. We are being killed all the day
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  long. We are regarded as sheep to be
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  slaughtered. That citation is so important
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  for context. It creates this historical
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  continuity. God's people, going all the way
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  back to Israel, have always been a suffering people.
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  Often they suffer because of their relationship with God, not
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  in spite of it. Which is a direct contradiction
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  to any idea that God's favor means you'll have an easy life.
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  Suffering and God's love are not mutually exclusive.
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  So the immediate answer to his question about separation is a
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  powerful no. But his statement in verse 37
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  goes way beyond just being preserved.
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  He says no and all these things. We are more than conquerors
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  through Him who loved us. More than conquerors?
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  How can a sheep being led to slaughter be considered more
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  than a conqueror? It sounds like a contradiction.
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  It does, unless victory is defined differently.
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  The victory isn't avoiding the trial, it's that God
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  successfully harnesses the trial.
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  The very circumstances that were meant to destroy you are somehow
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  twisted and used by God to bring about your final good.
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  Which is Christlikeness and glorification as he said back in
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  verse 20. 8 Right. So the hostile events become the
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  very stage where the invincible nature of Christ's love is put
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  on display. The world intends these things
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  to separate us, but Christ uses them to bind us closer to Him.
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  And the means of this conquering is specified through Him who
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  loved us. That moves the focus away from
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  our own strength or our own effort.
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  It has to. That's the anchor.
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  Our ability to get through suffering and even to gain from
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  it isn't rooted in our spiritual grit.
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  It's rooted in the fact that Christ's prior unchanging love
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  is holding us fast. So when everything else is
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  stripped away, the one thing that's left is Christ's active
• 19:57
  love keeping us secure. We aren't strong enough to
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  conquer the world, but Christ is strong enough to conquer the
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  world and keep us in it. And now Paul gives his final
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  exhaustive list of threats. He starts with this definitive
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  statement of his own confidence. I am sure he's about to leave no
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  corner of reality unexplored to prove that nothing can break
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  this bond. He starts by covering the whole
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  timeline of our existence, both temporal and existential
• 20:21
  threats, neither death nor life. Death is the ultimate fear, the
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  great separation. Life is all the daily pressures
• 20:28
  and temptations and distractions that can wear away at your
• 20:31
  faith. So neither the final moment nor
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  the daily grind can separate us, correct?
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  Then he covers time itself, nor things present, nor things to
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  come. That covers our immediate
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  anxieties and all our fears about the future, the whole
• 20:43
  timeline. And then he moves into the
• 20:44
  spiritual and cosmic realm, the realm of created beings and
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  authority. He lists neither angels, nor
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  rulers, nor powers, nor height, nor depth.
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  That's a powerful, systematic dismissal of everything.
• 20:56
  It is angels and rulers covers the spiritual hierarchies, good
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  or evil, demonic forces aligned against us.
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  Powers could be earthly or spiritual authorities, and
• 21:06
  height nor depth is often seen as the whole cosmos, every
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  spatial dimension you can imagine, from the heights of
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  heaven to the depths of the grave or despair.
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  The point is that every single created thing, no matter how
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  great it seems, is under the control of Christ, who is at
• 21:20
  God's right hand interceding for us.
• 21:22
  And then Paul just slams the door shut with the universal
• 21:24
  summary in verse 39. Nor anything else in all
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  creation. That phrase?
• 21:28
  That's the capstone that makes the list completely exhaustive.
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  Why is that phrase so absolute and guaranteeing our security?
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  Because the only only thing that stands outside of all creation
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  is the Creator himself. And since Paul just listed every
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  category of created thing he could think of, every power,
• 21:45
  every time, every dimension, he concludes that nothing created
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  has the authority or the ability to break the bond that got
• 21:52
  himself made in Christ. The bond is secure against the
• 21:55
  entire universe, yes, and this all leads to the final
• 21:59
  specification, the precise location of this unbreakable
• 22:02
  bond. The inseparable love is located
• 22:04
  in Christ Jesus our Lord. Which reminds you, the listener,
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  that this isn't some general vague feeling of divine goodwill
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  that's just out there in the cosmos.
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  Not at all. This is the specific covenant
• 22:16
  love of God, the love of the Golden Chain, and the courtroom
• 22:19
  verdict. And it's only experienced by
• 22:21
  those who are united to Him by faith.
• 22:22
  The security is absolute because it's anchored completely and
• 22:26
  only in God's eternal decree, and Christ's finished an ongoing
• 22:30
  work. And not in the believers
• 22:32
  fluctuating faith or feelings. We've now completed this deep
• 22:35
  dive into Romans 8.2839. Paul built this magnificent
• 22:40
  argument to ground our assurance not in our shifting internal
• 22:43
  experience, but in the fixed, objective facts of God's work.
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  Right. So to summarize Paul's
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  systematic approach, let's go back to that picture of the
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  safety deposit box guaranteed by the three unbreachable locks.
• 22:54
  Lock number one was the certainty of God's eternal
• 22:56
  purpose, what we called the golden chain.
• 22:58
  That's verses 28 to 30. It stretches from foreknowledge
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  all the way to glorification, and it guarantees the
• 23:04
  destination by showing that God started the work and He will not
• 23:08
  fail to finish it. Lock number 2 was the certainty
• 23:10
  of God's irrevocable verdict in Christ.
• 23:13
  That was verses 31 to 34. This established that our
• 23:16
  justification is a final legal sentence that no accuser,
• 23:20
  earthly or spiritual, can ever overturn.
• 23:22
  It was sealed by the cross, and it's maintained by Christ's
• 23:25
  current intercession at the right hand of God.
• 23:27
  And lock #3 was the certainty of God's inseparable covenant love.
• 23:31
  In verses 75 to 39, this lock proves that no created force, no
• 23:37
  suffering, no time, no spiritual authority can break the saving
• 23:41
  bond that was forged in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 23:44
  The whole structure of Romans 8 delivers this logical settled
• 23:47
  certainty. The chapter begins with no
• 23:49
  condemnation in verse one. And it concludes with no
• 23:52
  separation in verse 30. 9 perfect bookends.
• 23:54
  They are now for a final thought to take with you.
• 23:57
  We spent a good bit of time on that courtroom scene, especially
• 24:00
  verse 34, which grounds our security in Christ's ongoing
• 24:03
  work of intercession. The reality that the reigning
• 24:06
  sacrificial Son of God is pleading His perfect sacrifice
• 24:09
  on your behalf is a current active truth.
• 24:12
  It's happening right now. So consider this How should that
• 24:15
  objective assurance practically change the way you pray about
• 24:17
  your own persistent spiritual weakness and your daily sins?
• 24:20
  That's a. Good question.
• 24:21
  Do you pray believing Christ's intercession has already
• 24:24
  guaranteed your hearing and your acceptance before the Father?
• 24:28
  Or do you still come to God as though you first have to make
• 24:30
  yourself acceptable before you'll listen?
• 24:33
  That's a critical challenge to make our subjective practice
• 24:36
  line up with that objective reality.
• 24:38
  Thank you for sharing your sources with us and letting us
• 24:41
  unpack the three certainties of assurance in Romans 8.
• 24:44
  We hope this deep dive brings you a settled confidence.
• 24:47
  And we invite you back next time for another systematic look at
• 24:50
  the doctrines that anchor Christian thought.