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From No Condemnation to No Separation (Romans 8) | John MacArthur · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine sitting at like the most lavish banquet you could ever
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dream up. You were eating the finest meal
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of your life. Sounds pretty good so far.
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Right. Music is playing.
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Everyone around you is laughing. It is a great time, yeah, But
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then, you know, you look up and right above your neck there is
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this heavy, razor sharp iron sword.
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Oh man. And it is hanging there,
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suspended by just a single fragile horse hair.
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Just one hair. Yeah, one hair.
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That terrifying image, the Sword of Damocles, is the vivid
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picture our source material uses to describe the default natural
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condition of literally every human being on earth.
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So welcome to reformed thinking. Glad to be here for this one.
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Today we are taking a really comprehensive deep dive into
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source material. Specifically, we are looking at
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an extensive commentary by John MacArthur on the 8th chapter of
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Paul's letter to the Romans. Which is such a massive section
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of scripture. It really is.
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Our mission today is to analyze this text to understand a
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staggering, monumental shift. We are looking at the transition
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from the total inability of fallen humanity, you know,
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trapped under that hanging sort of divine judgement, to the
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absolute permanent security of the believer who is in Christ.
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And that shift is everything, yeah.
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This is material that can radically alter how you view
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your daily life, your struggles, and your eternal destination.
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But before we get going, we should probably agree on how we
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are going to handle this. Let's agree to let each other
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finish our thoughts fully today, just to maintain a clear, steady
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analysis for everyone listening. I agree completely.
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We will keep it steady. And to frame our discussion
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properly, we really have to look at this through the lens of
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Reformed theology. We're adhering closely to the
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Westminster Confession of Faith here.
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The framework we are dealing with establishes that salvation
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rests entirely on God's sovereign grace.
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It is not, you know, an arrangement based on here or
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human merit or human will. So it is not about us trying
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harder. Not at all.
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The confession teaches that God freely justifies us, not by
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infusing righteousness into US, meaning He does not make us
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inherently good on the inside so that we somehow earn our way.
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OK, so how does it work then? Well, He does it by pardoning
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our sins and by accounting and accepting our persons as
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righteous. And this happens solely for
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Christ's sake. So it is totally external to us.
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Yeah, the source text we are analyzing today highlights this
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reality. It demonstrates that the
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believer standing is an unearned gift secured from beginning to
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end by a sovereign God. I love how the source lays that
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out. We're essentially looking at a
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cosmic legal transaction. The guilty party is declared
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innocent based entirely on the merits of a substitute.
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That is a lot to unpack. Let us start right where the
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source material begins, looking at the 1st 4 verses of Romans
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chapter 8, Because well before we can appreciate the good news,
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we really have to look at the gravity of the bad news.
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And it is pretty bad news. Oh, it is terrible.
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The text points out that no single book or collection of
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writings proclaims so vividly the totally desperate situation
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of humanity apart from God. The Bible reveals that since the
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fall of Adam, every human being has been born into the world
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with a sin nature. Which brings us to a huge
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theological concept. Right.
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This is what reformed theology calls total depravity.
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Now, we should clarify that total depravity does not mean
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that people are as evil as they could possibly be in their
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actions. Yeah.
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That is a common misconception. People can still do civic good,
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you know, they love their families, they act ethically in
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society, they give to charity. Sure, they do all sorts of nice
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things. But the text argues it means
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that sin is a the defiling disease.
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It corrupts every single faculty of the individual from birth.
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The mind, the emotions, the will, the conscience, all of it
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is tainted by rebellion against the Creator.
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It is systemic. Right.
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And this brings us back to that terrifying illustration of
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Damocles at the banquet of Dionysius.
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The sword over the head. Yeah, the ancient story goes
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that Damocles was a courtier who thought the king had an
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incredibly easy, luxurious life, so the king offered to switch
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places with him for a day. Which seems like a great deal at
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first. You would think so.
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Damocles sat on the throne, enjoying the feast, living it up
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until he looked up and saw that massive sharpened sword hanging
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directly over his neck by a single thread.
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Talk about a mood killer. Seriously, the source material
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uses this to show the actual condition of humanity outside of
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Christ. There is this terrifying
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expectation of judgement hanging by a thread, ready to usher the
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unrepentant person into eternity at any given second.
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You could snap at any. Moment exactly.
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The person might be enjoying the banquet of life, totally
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oblivious, eating and drinking, but the judgement is imminent
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and absolute. What really stands out here is
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how the text transitions from that terrifying reality of the
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hanging sword to honestly the most glorious declaration in all
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of Scripture. Verse one, yes, Romans 8.
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Verse one announces that there is therefore now no condemn for
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those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation.
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That is a heavy phrase. It is, and to understand the
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weight of this we really need to unpack the original Greek word
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used for condemnation, which is katakrima.
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Katakrima. Yeah, Katakrima, this word
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relates to the sentencing for a crime, but its primary focus is
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on the penalty that the verdict demands.
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So it is not just the guilty verdict itself, right?
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In the biblical legal framework, the penalty for sin is death,
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spiritual, physical and eternal death.
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So when the text says there is no kata crema, it means there is
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no death penalty for those in Christ Jesus.
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That is massive. It means there is neither
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sentencing nor punishment for the sins that believers have
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committed in the past, are committed right now, or will
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ever commit in the future. Right.
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Even in the future. Yeah, it is a complete cessation
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of the eternal death penalty in the cosmic courtroom.
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The gavel has come down and the judges declare that the penalty
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has been fully satisfied. The sword has been removed
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permanently. So the individual is no longer
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viewed as a condemned criminal, but as a fully acquitted citizen
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of heaven. OK, that concept of a cosmic
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courtroom, that is where I want to push back a little and ask
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for some clarification, because honestly, it can be incredibly
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hard to grasp logically. It definitely goes against our
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natural sense of justice, right? If I am the listener and I know
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I have committed crimes against God's law, how does this
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actually work mechanically? I mean, if a human judge in a
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real courtroom suddenly decides to step down from the bench,
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take off his robes and take the penalty for the guilty party,
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how does that satisfy the demands of the law?
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It sounds like a loophole, yeah. Why couldn't the law just fix
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the person? If God's law is good and holy
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like the text says it is, why doesn't God just use the law to
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make the Sinner a better person over time?
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Why does he have to step in, substitute himself, and declare
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a guilty person innocent? That almost sounds like a legal
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fiction. I get that the answer lies in
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understanding the function of the law, and the source text
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explains this brilliantly. The law is a mirror showing the
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dirt on your face. It is not a sponge designed to
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clean it. Oh wow.
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A mirror, not a sponge. Right.
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A mirror can only reflect the reality of your condition.
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It can show you every flaw, every blemish, every speck of
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dirt. But you cannot rub your face
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against the glass to get clean. That would just make a bigger
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mess. Exactly.
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The law can only set forth the perfect standards of God's
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righteousness and expose how utterly incapable we are of
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fulfilling those standards. The text points out that the law
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was weak through human flesh. Meaning us.
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We are the weak part. The law itself is perfect, but
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the raw material that has to work with human nature,
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corrupted by total depravity, makes the law powerless to save
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anyone. You cannot legislate a dead
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heart into beating. That makes total sense.
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Therefore, God did what the law could not do.
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He said his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
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likeness. And it is crucial to note that
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word Christ was fully human, taking on human nature with all
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its physical frailties, but only in the likeness of sinful flesh.
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He had no sin nature. He was perfectly spotless.
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So he lived the life we were supposed to live.
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Yes, He lived a life of perfect obedience that the Law demanded,
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and then he became an offering for sin, absorbing the wrath of
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God on the cross. This is not a legal fiction, it
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is an actual legal substitution. The source material brings in
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Martin Luther's concept of the nuptial ring of faith to explain
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this exchange of substitution, and I think it is a phenomenal
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way to visualize the mechanics of salvation.
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Luther had a real knack for those kinds of illustrations.
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He really did. Luther was coming out of a
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medieval system that taught you had to earn your way to God
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through sacraments and good works, and he realized the
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terror of carrying his own sin. So he describes saving faith as
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uniting the soul with Christ, just as a bride is united with
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her husband in marriage. It is a beautiful picture.
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Right. In this covenantal marriage,
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everything the groom has becomes the legal property of the bride,
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and everything the bride has becomes the legal property of
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the groom. This is what theologians call
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double imputation. The great exchange.
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Yeah, the bride, which represents the human soul,
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brings all her baggage into the marriage, all her iniquities,
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all her debts, all her shameful secrets and all her sins.
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Quit the dowry. Exactly.
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And Christ, the perfect Bridegroom, takes all of those
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sins upon himself as if he had committed them.
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They are abolished in his death on the Cross.
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And what does this soul get in return?
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In exchange, the soul receives all of Christ's perfect
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righteousness, His royal status, and His eternal life.
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Christ lays His hand upon us and we are healed.
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He casts His royal mantle upon us, and we are perfectly.
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Clothed, so it's a complete transfer of status.
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So when God the Father looks at the believer, he does not see
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the filthy rags of our sin, He sees the perfect spotless robe
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of His own Son's righteousness. That blessed exchange is the
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very heart of the Gospel. You bring your sin, He brings
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his righteousness. But this raises a really
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practical urgent question which bridges the gap to the next
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portion of our analysis, covering verses 5 through 13.
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OK, let's hear it. If the penalty is entirely paid
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and the believer is permanently closed in perfect righteousness,
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how does the daily life of the believer actually change?
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Does this mean a Christian is completely free to live however
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they want since the death penalty is off the table?
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Right, the whole license to sin argument, yeah.
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But the text is emphatic that the freedom Christ gives is a
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permanent deliverance from sins penalty.
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But it is equally A deliverance from sins reigning authority.
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It gives the believer the actual capacity to obey God.
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So it changes their nature. Spot on.
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The text strictly categorizes all of humanity into two
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absolute groups, those who are according to the flesh and those
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who are according to the spirit. There is no middle ground, no
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third category of neutral observers.
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Let us look closely at those two categories, because the
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distinction is vital for you, the listener, to assess your own
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standing. Those who are according to the
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flesh are described essentially as spiritually dead corpses.
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Which is a heavy comparison. It really is.
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The source material shares a haunting story about a baby's
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funeral where a grieving mother tries to comfort her child.
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She brings the baby's favorite toys, speaks with affection, but
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the child cannot respond in any way because there is no life
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there. That is heartbreaking.
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It is, and that is the unredeemed person, according to
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the text, a spiritual corpse completely unable to respond to
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the stimuli of God. You can present them with the
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beauty of the gospel, the terror of judgment, or the logic of
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Scripture, but without the Spirit giving life, they just
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cannot respond. They are completely inert to
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spiritual things. On the other hand, those who are
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according to the Spirit have a mindset on the Spirit which
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equals life and peace. If you belong to God, your basic
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orientation, your desires, and your innermost concerns have to
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do with godly things. It changes what you actually
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want. Yeah, you have what the
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theologian Jonathan Edwards called holy affections.
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You actually want to please God? Your internal compass has been
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magnetized to point toward heaven.
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Yet even with those holy affections, we know Christians
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still struggle immensely with sin.
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Oh, absolutely. Daily.
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And the text acknowledges this reality vividly.
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The believer is no longer in the realm of the flesh, but they
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still possess unredeemed humanness, the physical body and
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its ingrained habits, which remains highly susceptible to
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temptation. So the battle isn't over.
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Not by a long shot. The source material quotes the
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Puritan theologian John Owen, who spent his life studying the
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deceitfulness of the human heart.
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Owen warned that sin is never less quiet than when it seems to
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be most quiet. He said his waters are for the
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most part deep when they are still.
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Satan attacks when a believer is most satisfied with their
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spiritual state, when they let their guard down, thinking they
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have finally conquered a particular vice.
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Because you think you are safe. Exactly because of this
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lingering vulnerability, the believer is obligated to
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actively put to death the deeds of the body by the spirit.
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This is what the Puritans called mortification.
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Mortification making it dead. Right.
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It is an active, violent daily requirement to starve your
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sinful desires and feed your spiritual affections.
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You do not just passively sit back and let the Spirit do all
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the work. You are actively engaged in
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warfare against your own lingering corruption, empowered
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by the Spirit. To illustrate the magnitude of
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God's mercy in saving us, which provides the motivation for this
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brutal daily warfare, the source text shares in a really intense
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story about a drawbridge operator.
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Oh, this story is rough. It is.
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This man worked on a river and his job was to lower a massive
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iron bridge for a speeding passenger train that came
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through at the exact same time every day.
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One afternoon, just before the train arrived, his young son
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fell into the giant churning Gears of the bridge machinery.
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The father looked and saw the horror of the situation.
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What a nightmare. Yeah, he had a choice.
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He could take the time to run down and free his son from the
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gears, which would mean leaving the bridge up and sending the
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speeding train plunging into the river, killing hundreds of total
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strangers. Or he could pull the lever to
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lower the bridge, saving the train full of strangers, knowing
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the massive gears would crush the life out of his own beloved
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son. That is an impossible choice.
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The story says he chose to pull the lever and lower the bridge.
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The sacrifice of his son for a train full of total strangers
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was an act of agonizing mercy. Now the next uses this to
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portray the infinitely greater sacrifice God the Father made.
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He sent his only Son to be crushed under the weight of
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divine wrath for mankind, a people to whom he owed
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absolutely nothing but condemnation.
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We were not just strangers on a train, We were active enemies of
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the bridge operator. That changes the perspective
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entirely. So when a Christian considers
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the sheer weight and horror of that sacrifice, the motivation
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to fight sin in their daily life becomes overwhelming.
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You cannot look at the crushing years of the cross and then
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casually indulge in the very sins that put Christ there.
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That fight against sin must be relentless precisely because of
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the cost of our redemption. The text references the 17th
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century Puritan Richard Baxter, who wrote a stark, terrifying
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warning to pastors in his book The Reformed Pastor.
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What did he say? He warned them against the
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hypocrisy of living in the very sins they preach against from
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the pulpit. He asked, Will you proclaim
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Christ's governing power and yet condemn it and rebel yourselves?
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Will you preach his laws and willfully break them?
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That is heavy. Baxter pointed out that it is
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much easier to chide at sin in public than actually overcome it
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in private. He warned that many a cook
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scarcely licks his fingers when he is dressed the most costly
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dishes for others. Oh, I like that analogy.
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In other words, a pastor can prepare a theological feast for
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his congregation while his own soul is starving to death
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because he harbors secret sin. This highlights the severe
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danger of outward religion without inward mortification of
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sin. The true believer, empowered by
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the Holy Spirit, is characterized by a habitual,
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ongoing, painful putting to death of the ungodly deeds of
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the body. It is the proof of genuine
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spiritual life. This constant struggle brings us
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to a massive psychological shift in the text, moving through
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verses 14 to 16. This fierce daily fight against
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sin, this agonizing struggle to put the deeds of the body to
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death, is actually proof of which family you belong to.
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How so? The text says that all who are
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being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
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The transition here is moving from a spirit of slavery, which
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inevitably leads back to fear, to a spirit of adoption.
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Right, the contrast between a slave and a son.
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When we think of slavery to sin, it always brings fear.
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A slave obeys the master out of of terror of the lash.
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The Sinner knows they are under judgement, so their relationship
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to the law is purely based on fear of punishment.
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They're just trying not to get hit, yeah.
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But the Holy Spirit delivers the believer from that slavery and
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that terrifying expectation of judgement, replacing it with the
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absolute, unshakable security of adoption into the family of the
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King. To fully grasp the weight of
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this adoption, we must look at the historical and cultural
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context of Roman adoption, which the Apostle Paul certainly had
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in mind when writing to the Romans.
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Because they would have understood that legal framework
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perfectly. Right.
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In ancient Roman society, the father held absolute,
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unquestionable authority over his entire family, a legal
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concept known as potrea potestas.
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Patriotic. Yes, he had the right to sell
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his children into slavery, disown them, or even have them
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executed without facing criminal charges.
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That is brutal. It was a very harsh system.
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If a Roman father wanted to adopt A son from outside the
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family, use a rigorous, highly publicized legal process.
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Once the adoption was finalized in the public square, the
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adopted child receives full irrevocable rights as a
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legitimate heir to the father's estate.
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So they were locked in, yes. Furthermore, and this is the
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crucial point for our theology, any old debts or legal
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obligations the adopted person previously held were completely
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wiped out by the magistrate. Wait, all their old debts just
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vanished? Completely.
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They were legally recognized as an entirely new person.
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So when God adopts A believer, all previous debts of sin are
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permanently cancelled in the cosmic court, and the believer
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is granted the full irrevocable rights of a child of the
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Heavenly Father. They cannot be disowned.
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The legal transaction is final. I think about you, the listener
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who might be driving your car or sitting at your desk right now,
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feeling overwhelmed by your own failures.
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You know the theology, but you feel the weight of your mistakes
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from yesterday. It's easy to get bogged down in
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that. When someone is struggling with
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guilt, how can they practically experience this inner witness of
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the spirit that proves their adoption?
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How do you know you are a son and not a slave?
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That is the $1,000,000 question for a lot of people.
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Right. Well, the text details 2 primary
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ways the Spirit leads the believer, illumination and
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sanctification. Let's break those down.
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Illumination is when God divinely clarifies His Word to
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make it understandable to our finite, easily confused minds.
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Have you ever been reading Scripture?
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Perhaps the passage you have read a dozen times and suddenly
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it just breaks open. Like a light bulb turning on.
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Yeah, it makes sense. It convicts your conscience, and
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it applies directly to your current situation.
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That is not just improved reading comprehension, that is
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the Holy Spirit actively leading you.
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And what about sanctification? Sanctification is the divine
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assistance to actually obey that scripture.
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You know you cannot please God in your own strength, but when
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you look back over the last five years and see actual spiritual
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fruit, perhaps you are more patient, more grieved by your
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sin, more loving to your enemies.
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You have divine objective assurance that you are God's
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child. Because a corpse cannot grow.
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Fruit. Exactly.
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The ultimate experiential expression of that assurance is
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found in the phrase the text uses, ABBA.
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Father. Yes.
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The text explains it because the spirit dwells in our hearts.
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Our human spirit recognizes that we are privileged to come before
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the Creator of the universe as our beloved Father.
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The term ABBA is an intimate familial term from the Aramaic
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language, much like a child saying Papa.
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So it is very personal. Very The fact that a believer
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who knows their own wretchedness has a compelling internal desire
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to cry out in intimate petition and praise to God, longing for
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communion with Him, is undeniable evidence of the
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indwelling Holy Spirit. Because natural humans don't do
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that. Right.
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An unredeemed person might fear God as a judge, or hate God as a
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tyrant, or try to appease a distant deity through exhausting
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religious rituals, but they do not naturally cry out to God
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with the intimate affection of a child running into the arms of a
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loving father. They run.
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Away. Yeah.
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That specific desire for communion, that instinct to run
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to God when you fail rather than running away from him, is
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absolute proof of residency. It shows the Spirit is alive
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within you. Let us trace the logic forward
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into the next segment of the text, verses 17 through 27.
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Since you are adopted, the text says you are an heir.
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Which logically follows. Right, You are a fellow heir
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with Christ, meaning you stand to inherit the new heavens and
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the new earth. But there is a glaring tension
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here. Because we aren't there yet.
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Yeah, as heirs of a glorious future, we currently live in a
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broken, cursed, fallen world. This tension leads directly to
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the concept of suffering and groaning.
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The text outlines A threefold groaning that echoes throughout
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the universe. Three different crumbs.
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First, there is the groaning of creation itself.
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The source text uses a brilliant illustration from the late
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British pastor and theologian Martyn Lloyd Jones.
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I love his work. It is great.
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He described how spring tries every single year to renew
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nature and defeat the decay of winter.
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You see the buds on the trees, the flowers pushing through the
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soil and it acts like birth pangs trying to produce a
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perfect Edenic creation. But it doesn't last.
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No, it always fails. The heat of summer scorches the
22:05
grass, summer yields to the decay of autumn, and autumn
22:07
falls right back into the frozen death of winter.
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Nature is caught in a cycle of futility.
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It is groaning, trapped under the curse of human sin, waiting
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for the final restoration when the sons of God are revealed in
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glory and the earth is remade. The second grown belongs to the
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believers themselves. The text describes Christians as
22:27
having the first fruits of the Spirit.
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Because we have the Holy Spirit within us, we are spiritually
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sensitized to the corruption of sin both in the world around us
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and deeply entrenched within our own members.
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We feel it more acutely. We do.
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The believer is described essentially as a holy seed
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encased in an unholy shell. I like that imagery.
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The inner person, the regenerate heart, is a completely new
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creation, fit for heaven, loving God and despising evil.
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But we are incarcerated in a prison of flesh, our mortal
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bodies, which are still corrupted by sin, subject to
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disease, fatigue and temptation. So there is a constant friction.
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Yes, therefore, we groan within ourselves.
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We eagerly wait for the redemption of our body, which is
23:10
the final phase of our adoption. We long for the day when our
23:13
outer physical condition perfectly matches our inner
23:16
spiritual reality and we are completely free from the
23:19
presence, the penalty and the susceptibility of sin.
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This groaning is a mark of spiritual health.
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If you are comfortable in a fallen world, you should be
23:27
worried. That is a great point.
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Now the third groan is where I really want to pause and push
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back, or at least ask for a really clear explanation,
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because this is where a lot of theological confusion happens.
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OK, let's hear it. The text talks about the
23:40
groaning of the Holy Spirit. It says the Spirit helps our
23:43
weakness because we do not know how to pray as we should, and He
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intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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Right verse 26. If I am, I'm a listener.
23:53
I might wonder, is this just an emotional feeling I get during
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prayer? Some traditions might interpret
23:59
this groaning too deep for words as a mandate for ecstatic speech
24:03
or speaking in unknown tongues during worship.
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How does the source material grounded in Reformed theology
24:10
interpret this specific spiritual groaning?
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What is actually happening when the spirit groans?
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The source material is very clear and precise on this point.
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It clarifies that this is not ecstatic speech, nor is it
24:22
unknown tongues, nor is it even an audible sound produced by the
24:25
human vocal cords. OK, so it is not something we
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do. Not at all.
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The text explicitly says these groans are too deep for words
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and are inexpressible by human language.
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Instead, this represent a profound mysterious inter
24:39
trinitarian communication. Inter Trinitarian between the
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Persons of the Trinity. Yes.
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Think about the mechanics of this.
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Human beings are weak, finite, and trapped in time.
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We do not know God's exact sovereign will for every
24:53
situation we face. When a loved one is sick, we
24:56
pray for healing, but God's will might be to take them home to
25:00
glory. We just don't have the big
25:02
picture. Because we cannot pray
25:03
perfectly, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us articulates
25:08
perfect divine appeals directly to God the Father on our behalf.
25:12
He takes our inadequate, ignorant and sometimes selfish
25:15
prayers and translates to aligning them perfectly with the
25:18
holy will of God. That is amazing.
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The Father who searches the human heart instantly knows the
25:22
mind of the Spirit. This guarantees that the
25:24
believers requests and their ultimate spiritual welfare are
25:27
perfectly handled within the Godhead.
25:29
The Trinity is actively conversing about your
25:31
sanctification and your preservation.
25:34
That is an astonishing, overwhelming thought.
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The idea that the Trinity is actively communicating on our
25:40
behalf, filtering our flawed prayers, bridges us right into
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verses 28 through 30. We are getting to the big ones
25:45
now. Yeah, we move from the spirits
25:47
perfect prayers to the absolute certainty of God's overarching
25:51
sovereign plan. We hit what is perhaps the most
25:53
famous verse in the entire letter Romans 8.28.
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The staggering promise that God causes all things to work
26:00
together for good to those who love God, to those who are
26:03
called according to His purpose. A verse that gets quoted a lot,
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often out of context. Right, and I have to stop and
26:09
ask the hardest question here. Acting as the skeptic, it is
26:12
easy to say a lost job builds character or a sickness teaches
26:16
you to rely on God. But does all things truly
26:19
include our own horrific sins, our moral failures, or the deep,
26:22
senseless tragedies that break families apart?
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How can we possibly say a sovereign God is actively
26:27
orchestrating failure and grief for good without making him the
26:31
author of evil? That is the crucial tension of
26:33
the text, and based on the source, the answer is a
26:36
definitive, terrifying and comforting yes.
26:40
All things means all things without exception.
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Including our sin. Yes, the text affirms that God
26:47
uses even the worst things, including our own sins, to
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produce ultimate good for His elect.
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Now, we must be very careful here to maintain the Reformed
26:56
understanding of God's Providence.
26:58
God is never the author of sin. Human beings are fully culpable
27:01
for their rebellion. So he doesn't make us sin.
27:04
Right, a believer sins are just as evil and destructive as an
27:07
unbelievers. However, the consequence is
27:10
vastly different because the eternal penalty has already been
27:13
paid. Because of the cross, yes.
27:15
When a believer sins, they face God's temporal discipline.
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That discipline, while incredibly painful, is a
27:20
remedial tool used by a loving Father to burn away the dross
27:23
and produce holiness. So is corrective, not punitive.
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Exactly. Think of King David's adultery
27:28
and murder. It was horrific, yet God used
27:31
the devastating fallout to bring David to a place of broken
27:33
repentance, resulting in Psalm 51, which has comforted
27:37
millions. He brought good out of a
27:39
terrible moral failure. God's providential energy takes
27:43
the worst elements of our lives, the actions of wicked men and
27:46
the consequences of our own foolishness, and orchestrates
27:50
them to purify us and draw us closer to Him.
27:53
This is not some natural synergism where bad things
27:55
magically resolve into happy endings.
27:57
It is the Sovereign Creator actively bending the chaos of
28:01
the universe to work for your ultimate glorification.
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That active sovereign orchestration that leads right
28:07
into the sequence of salvation, what theologians call the Golden
28:11
chain of grace. Romans 8.29 and 30, yeah.
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It consists of five unbreakable links, foreknowledge,
28:18
predestination, calling, justification and glorification.
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Let us look at foreknowledge first, because it is so often
28:25
misunderstood. People usually think it just
28:27
means God knew what was going to.
28:28
Happen right? It is not just God looking down
28:30
the corridors of time with a crystal ball to see who will
28:32
eventually choose him and then reacting to their choice.
28:35
In the biblical sense, to foreknow someone is to establish
28:38
an intimate, predetermined, loving relationship with them.
28:41
It is active, not passive. Just as Amos says, you only have
28:44
I known among all the families of the earth, God determined to
28:48
know and love His elect before time began.
28:52
Then comes predestination. He marked out their destiny
28:55
beforehand, determining with absolute sovereignty that they
28:58
would be conformed to the image of His Son.
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So the destination is set. It is a destiny fixed by divine
29:04
decree that cannot be altered or derailed by any human failure or
29:09
cosmic event. The next link in the Golden
29:11
Chain is calling. The text and our Reformed
29:14
framework distinguish carefully between the general outward call
29:17
of the gospel, which goes out to everyone and which many reject,
29:20
and the effectual inward call of the Holy Spirit.
29:23
The one that actually works. Right.
29:25
God's effectual call never fails.
29:27
When the Spirit changes the heart of stone into a heart of
29:29
flesh and draws a person, they will inevitably and willingly
29:32
respond. In saving faith, God changes
29:35
their desires so that they choose Him freely.
29:37
They come because they want to, yes.
29:39
This leads directly to justification, where, as we
29:41
discussed earlier, God forensically declares the Sinner
29:44
righteous in the cosmic courtroom, imputing the perfect
29:47
righteousness of Christ to their account.
29:49
Which brings us to the final link.
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Finally, we reach glorification, and the text notes something
29:55
incredible here. In the original Greek grammar,
29:58
glorification is spoken of in the past tense or the aorist
30:01
tense, even though it is a future event.
30:04
Wait. It is in the past tense, yes.
30:06
Even though believers have not yet experienced the resurrection
30:09
of the body, it is so certain in the mind and decree of God that
30:13
it is spoken of as an accomplished historical fact.
30:16
No one is lost between justification and glorification.
30:20
The chain cannot be broken. That absolute certainty of the
30:24
Golden Chain brings us to the final portion of the text,
30:27
verses 31 through 39. This sequence of salvation
30:30
requires a final courtroom defense against any remaining
30:34
doubts the listener might have. Because doubts will come.
30:36
They always do. The text asks A rhetorical
30:39
question. If God is for us, who is against
30:41
us? The logic is brilliant.
30:44
If the creator of the universe, the Supreme Judge, is acting as
30:47
your defense attorney, the opposition is entirely
30:49
irrelevant. It doesn't matter who's accusing
30:51
you. The argument moves from the
30:53
greater to the lesser. He who did not spare His own
30:56
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with
31:00
Him freely give us all things? If God was willing to pay the
31:04
highest possible incomprehensible price, the
31:07
blood of His own Son when we were His active enemies, why
31:11
would He withhold any necessary grace to keep us now that we are
31:14
His adopted children? It makes no logical sense.
31:17
It would be totally illogical for God to pay an infinite price
31:20
to purchase a soul, only to let that soul slip out of his hand
31:24
due to a temporary failure. The text then deals head on with
31:28
the accusations that threaten our daily peace.
31:31
Satan, whose very name means the accuser, and the world
31:34
constantly bring charges against believers.
31:36
And they are loud. And here is the terrifying part,
31:39
right? Often those accusations are
31:40
factually true. We do still sin.
31:42
We do fail, right? But the text asks who will bring
31:44
a charge against God's elect. God is the one who justifies.
31:48
If the highest judge in the entire universe has already
31:50
reviewed the evidence, applied the blood of Christ, and
31:53
declared you permanently righteous, no lower court, no
31:56
demon, and no guilty conscience can condemn you.
31:58
The. Case is closed.
32:00
Furthermore, Christ Jesus died, was raised, and currently sits
32:04
at the right hand of God, interceding for us.
32:06
Our defense attorney is the Son of God Himself, constantly
32:09
pleading the merits of His own blood on our behalf.
32:13
If for one split second Christ stopped His intercession, we
32:17
would fall into ruin. But His continuous perfect
32:20
mediation guarantees our eternal standing.
32:22
To illustrate how completely the threat of death and condemnation
32:26
has been removed by Christ taking the penalty, the source
32:29
text shares an incredible analogy from Donald Gray
32:32
Barnhouse. This is a powerful one.
32:34
After Barnhouse's wife died, he was driving his young children
32:37
home from the funeral. They were naturally overwhelmed
32:39
with grief as they were driving a massive semi truck past them,
32:43
casting a huge dark shadow over their car.
32:46
Barnhouse looked at his kids and asked would you rather be run
32:49
over by a truck or by the shadow of a truck?
32:52
The kids, despite their grief, replied that they would
32:54
obviously rather be run over by the shadow because a shadow has
32:57
no mass. It cannot hurt you.
32:59
Right, it is just an image. Barnhouse told them your mother
33:02
just went through the valley of the shadow of death, and there
33:05
is no pain there either because Christ took the actual physical
33:08
impact of the truck, the full crushing weight of the wrath of
33:12
God on the cross. The believer only experiences
33:16
the shadow. This beautiful.
33:18
The physical process of dying might be painful, but the
33:21
spiritual reality of death has entirely lost its sting.
33:24
It is just a shadow passing over you before you enter glory.
33:28
Because of that total victory over wrath and death, believers
33:31
are described with a very specific Greek word.
33:35
This means to be hyper conquerors or to overwhelmingly
33:38
conquer. Believers do not merely survive
33:41
tribulation, distress or persecution by the skin of their
33:43
teeth. They emerge vastly stronger.
33:46
They over conquer. So they don't just scrape by.
33:48
No, they come out of horrific troubles with a clear
33:51
understanding of God's righteousness, A stripped away
33:54
reliance on worldly comforts, and a greater reliance on His
33:57
grace. The text lists terrible,
33:59
agonizing circumstances, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, and
34:04
asserts that absolutely none of these can separate us from the
34:06
love of Christ. It is a pretty exhaustive list.
34:09
It is in fact, following the logic of Romans 8.28.
34:13
These very trials are the specific instruments God uses to
34:17
build our faith and conform us to the image of His Son.
34:21
The things that are designed by the enemy to destroy us are
34:25
sovereignly repurposed by God to perfect us.
34:28
The text builds to an absolute crescendo with a final sweeping
34:31
proof of security call list. Death, life, angels,
34:35
principalities, things present, things to come, powers, height
34:38
and depth. He covers every dimension of
34:40
time, space and spiritual reality.
34:42
He covers everything. But to make absolutely sure no
34:45
loophole exists, no technicality that a worried mind could
34:47
exploit, he adds the specific catch all phrase, nor any other
34:52
created thing. That phrase is vital.
34:54
Think about the logic of that phrase.
34:55
Since God alone is uncreated, this specific phrasing logically
34:58
excludes everyone and everything in the entire universe from
35:02
having the power to sever the believers bond with Christ.
35:04
It leaves nothing out. You cannot separate yourself
35:07
from God because you are a created thing.
35:09
Satan cannot separate you because he is a created thing.
35:13
Your sins, your past, your future all exist within the
35:17
realm of creation. Therefore, the security of the
35:20
believer is absolute, watertight and eternal.
35:24
That comprehensive exclusion of any created thing having the
35:28
power to undo your salvation is the bedrock of the believers
35:32
assurance. The text tells us that our
35:34
salvation was secured by God's decree from eternity past.
35:37
It was purchased in history by the blood of Christ and it will
35:40
be held secure by Christ love through all future time and
35:43
throughout all eternity. From start to finish.
35:45
The Father chose us before the foundation of the world.
35:48
The Son died for us and actively intercedes for us in heaven, and
35:51
the Spirit seals us and prays for us with groanings too deep
35:54
for words. The whole Trinity is involved.
35:56
The entire Trinity is actively engaged in ensuring that not a
35:59
single drop of Christ's blood was shed in vain.
36:02
Every single person who is effectually called will reach
36:05
glorification. The verdict is final.
36:07
So bringing all of this staggering theology down to the
36:10
ground for you, the listener, I want to leave you with this
36:14
final thought to consider as you go about your week.
36:17
What is that? If the Sovereign Creator of the
36:19
universe has already factored your worst failures, your
36:22
darkest moments, and your deepest flaws into a
36:25
predetermined plan that guarantees your future glory,
36:29
how does that absolute certainty change the way you face your
36:32
greatest earthly fear tomorrow morning?
36:34
That is a great question to leave on.
36:36
If you cannot be condemned and you cannot be separated, what is
36:39
left to be afraid of? Thank you so much for joining us
36:41
on this deep dive into the source material.
36:44
We wish you grace and peace.