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Where can you go in this world to be absolutely secure? During the cold war of the 1950s and 60s, bomb shelters were popular to survive an enemy attack. You can still build very sophisticated bomb shelters that even promise protection from nuclear war. They aren’t cheap. But with China’s growing presence in the west, including Cuba, and Russia boasting 400 nuclear missiles, we never know when we might be looking for a bomb shelter.
But what shelter in this world is absolutely guaranteed to keep you safe and secure? The apostle Paul is going to tell us this morning. There is no absolutely safe place for your body and material possessions on this planet, but every child of God can know in his or her heart that he is absolutely secure in Jesus Christ, and nothing can ever destroy that relationship. We might say God has provided the ultimate guaranteed spiritual bomb shelter for your soul, and that is in Christ Jesus. Even if the devil and all his goons lined up all the powers of darkness against you, absolutely nothing could destroy your security in Christ or separate you from His eternal love.
As we come to the very summit of the biblical Mt. Everest of Romans 8, the view is breath-taking. Here Paul lays aside all restraint as he looks at every conceivable threat to the child of God and gives us unassailable arguments for the absolute security of every believer in Christ. Paul hurls out question after question and then powerful answers to pour assuring and strengthening courage into the souls of God’s people who have faced every kind of attack against our faith and our very persons down through the centuries. Let’s look at five reasons you as a believer in Christ couldn’t be more secure than you are right now.
#1 REASON: GOD IS FOR YOU.
Romans 8:31, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Paul throws out this first defying challenge. What things? He may be wrapping everything from Romans 1 to Romans 8: the wrath deserved, the revelation of Christ and His saving work for sinners, justification by faith alone that brought peace with God in Romans 5, our union with Christ in Romans 6, release from the law and the indwelling of the Spirit in chapters 7-8, God’s working everything for our good. Then there are those five glorious links from eternity to eternity, God’s foreknowledge or choosing you in eternity past, predestinating your conformity to Christ, calling you and justifying you, and finally glorifying you – those five golden inseparable links. What are you going to say to all this? Is there anything greater, more wonderful, more incredible? No wonder Paul declared way back in Romans 1:16, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel!” For God’s people facing all kinds of trials and suffering, this is designed to fill your believing heart with courage, with boldness, with joy, assurance, zeal, strength. We dare not be ashamed of this great and mighty gospel message.
And what is Paul’s answer? God is for you. There’s no doubt. Think about that. It’s one thing to know your parents or a spouse or your teacher or a coach or friend says, “Hey, I’m for you. I’m on your side.” But when God Almighty says, “I’m for you,” whoa! Who is God? He is the omnipotent One, the creator, maker, sustainer, and sovereign controller of all things. He is Lord of all, from eternity to eternity. He is infinite, eternal, and unchanging in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. He’s your heavenly Father who adopted you into His family. If this God is for you, if He is your strength and shield, or as David describes our God in Psalms 18:1-2, “I love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” If this God is for you, who could possibly be against you?
For David, God was his safe place. He believed God was for Him. There’s one safe place in this world of sin and evil – that is in the arms of Almighty God, in God’s love, in God’s Son. God assures you nothing can get past His sovereign purposes and those purposes are only for your good. That doesn’t mean no suffering, but in the suffering you know God is for you and with you. Psalm 23 says, “I will fear no evil for I am with you.” Psalm 46 guarantees, “God is our refuge and strength, abundantly available for help in trouble, in tight places.”
What shall we say then? Since God is with us and for us, who can possibly be against us? It doesn’t make the slightest particle of difference who is against us. Daniel, was God for you down in that lions’ den? You three Hebrew youths, was God for you in the furnace? John, was God for you when they came to fetch your head for Herod’s wicked wife? David, when you approached the giant, was God for you? Listen to his confidence in God.
1 Samuel 17:44-47, The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. 46 “This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
I think David would have liked to add, “So there, you big old ugly giant!” When they were feeding Christians to the lions, stretching Christians on the rack, burning them, drowning them, whipping them, spreading lies about them, “God is for you.” Even when you are weak and feel powerless and perhaps, like Peter, you’ve even denied your Lord, God is for you, so who can be against you. You and God make a majority anywhere. You may have cancer, be facing surgery, living with chronic pain, family trouble, job insecurity, you’ve failed, been betrayed by a friend, forgotten or overlooked, aging, developing wrinkles, you’re struggling with stuff no one else knows about. But if God is for you, working everything in your life for your good, loving you, if God be for you, who can possibly be against you? No devil nor demon nor evil government has more power than your omnipotent God. No wonder while sitting in prison, Paul tells the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.”
#2 REASON: GOD GAVE HIS BEST FOR YOU.
Romans 8:32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
This verse begins emphasizing His own Son, “Who indeed His own Son He did not spare.” We can’t begin to grasp what it meant for God to send His beloved Son out of the glories of eternity into this filthy, evil world to die for sinners, for His enemies. God couldn’t have shown us His love any greater way. He called Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son, and in obedient faith and love for his God, Abraham was willing. But then Abraham heard that blessed voice from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham, do not stretch out your hand against the lad.” God provided a substitute sacrifice for Abraham. But when Judas and the Jews and Pilate delivered Jesus over to be crucified, there was no voice from heaven, “Do not do this.” No, the Father delivered His Son over to be crucified for all of us.
God didn’t spare Him. God gave us His best. God had already shown us His love in giving us food and water and health and joints – yes, joints. I’m thankful for God’s gift of joints. Imagine if you didn’t have those hinge-jointed knees! But the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us is this. Romans 5:8, “God demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Plus, to watch His Son abused, ridiculed, scourged, hit, slapped, spit on, the mockery, and then, far worse, to plunge His holy Son into the filth and pollution and corruption and guilt of sin, to be made sin, to be made a curse, to be condemned as a sinner, to bear the full wrath of His holy hatred of sin – this we simply cannot grasp. It was like God took the lake of fire and poured it out on His own Son. He spared not His own Son for us.
If God did this, if God gave us His best, then He’ll be sure to give us the rest. How will He not with Him freely give us all things? He’ll give us everything we need to live our lives for Him. All the grace, all the forgiveness, all the power, all the love, all the patience, all the humility we need to love and serve Him. Will your spiritual resources ever run dry? Not a chance. We’ll never complain that God hasn’t provided for our needs. “My God shall provide all your needs through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Though here on earth we’re in enemy territory, He’ll freely give us all we need to get from here to our heavenly home, glorified with Jesus.
#3 REASON: GOD HAS ALREADY JUSTIFIED YOU.
Romans 8:33-34, Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
“Yes, but I often feel guilty, condemned. I’m afraid my sin will take me straight to hell.” That’s a good fear if it pushes you to Christ. You want to be sure your trust is in Christ alone. But if you are trusting in Christ, no one can bring a condemning charge against you. To charge means to drag into court with accusations. Remember, one of Satan’s fulltime activities is to accuse the brethren – Revelation 12:10. He is the great deceiver and the accuser of the brethren and “he accuses us before God day and night.” Satan works hard doing opposition research to find something to accuse you. When Luther was in the Wartburg Castle, Satan kept charging him with sins. They say Luther threw an inkwell at the devil to drive him away, but that’s probably a legend. However, Luther did say when Satan was reminding him of his sins, “Get out of here Satan. I have sins you don’t even know about.”
We have an evil prosecutor who keeps on leveling indictments against us. Paul says if you are a believer in Christ and are one of God’s elect or chosen ones, no charge leveled against you will stick. Why? Because the highest Judge in the universe, the Supreme Judge of all flesh, has already justified you and declared you righteous. True, we stood guilty before God. And what an awful judgment to hear from the mouth of the Highest Judge of the Universe, “I find you guilty!” But praise God for accepting His Son’s work, and instead of walking out of court with your head bowed down doomed and damned, God has already declared you perfectly righteous in His Son forever.
And friends, once God has declared you righteous you are fully and eternally forgiven and clothed with the righteousness of His Son and there is no higher judge in the universe who can override God’s verdict.
This is the absolute security of God’s people. How important is it to understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This is the basis of our blessed assurance.
Think of this, though. If you are a lost man, woman, teenager, God is not for you. He’s against you. God has a charge against you. You are under condemnation. You have never come into God’s love. Your sin will forever separate you from God’s saving love. That’s why we pray for lost people. That’s why we present the gospel over and over. Now is the day of salvation. Once you die, there is no second chance.
Right along with the fact that God has justified and accepted His people, no one can condemn or lay a charge against a child of God. Paul has already told us this in verse one – “No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Paul in verse 34 points out four things Christ has done that absolutely prohibit the slightest hint of condemnation. He died for you – condemned in your place. He was raised for you – conquering death for you. He ascended to the Father’s right hand – God has been fully satisfied with His Son’s work for you. The right hand is the place of acceptance. And He intercedes for you. This is absolutely beautiful. Christ right now is aware of what you need, what you’re dealing with, how you’re suffering, how you’re tempted. We have a man at God’s right hand who thoroughly understands us. He’s there as the incarnate but glorified God-man, representing us forever. The only way a genuine child of God could ever be condemned is if Christ Himself were condemned, and, as they say, “It ain’t going to happen.”
#4 REASON: NO HUMAN CIRCUMSTANCE CAN EVER SEPARATE YOU FROM CHRIST’S LOVE.
Romans 8:35-37, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Have you heard the story behind, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so?” Anna Bartlett Warner wrote it in 1860. Her sister had written a novel and she needed a song for her story that included a dying boy. So, she wrote this simple but comforting song. The sisters lived in West Point, New York, along the Hudson River and held Bible studies with West Point cadets. These cadets learned the song and would sing it, “Jesus loves me this I know,” for solace on the battlefields of the Civil War. Due to their contribution to the spiritual welfare of the cadets, both sisters were buried in the West Point Cemetery, the only civilians buried there.
So, Paul fires off a powerful challenge, “Who will separate us from Christ’s love?” Is there anything in any human circumstance that could possibly tear us out of Christ’s love. First, let’s see what God says about Christ loving us. John 13:1, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” John 15:9, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you.” Galatians 2:20, “The Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Ephesians 5:25, “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Revelation 1:5, “To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.” Revelation 3:9, “I have loved you.” No question, Christ loves His people.
Let’s ask again. What human circumstances could possibly rip you out of Christ’s love? Paul piles up one human affliction after another. These are afflictions that God’s people go through. Don’t these afflictions prove that Christ no longer loves you? What about tribulations? Inner pressure, pressed down by circumstances. What about distress? Tight places, outer opposition. What about persecution? Being pursued with the intent to harm. Christians become targets. Famine, shortage of food? Nakedness, so poor you can’t afford clothes. Will these separate us from Christ’s love? What about peril? The many dangers believers encounter? What about the sword, the furthest extremity?
Then Paul quotes the Old Testament, “Like sheep for the slaughter.” This is what the world thinks of Christians. The fact is God’s people have not been physically safe in this world. Somewhere I read 70 million believers in Christ have been martyred since Jesus was on earth. Think back to all the people in Foxes Book of Martyrs. History is red with the blood of God’s people. Our times of peace for God’s people are unusual, although don’t get too heady about it. Anti-Christianity is heating up in various quarters. We’re not in the millennium and though we won’t go through the tribulation period, Paul assured us through many tribulations we’ll enter the kingdom (Acts 14:22). Satan is still roaring around, and God’s people should expect nothing less than these kinds of troubles. The time will come when it will be open season on Christians in our own neo-pagan, godless, Marxist culture. Many people taking a stand for God and truth have already felt the heat of Christian persecution. If we lived in Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, or Yemen, the most dangerous countries for Christians, this passage would take on a whole new meaning.
Rather than evidence of being separated from God’s love, afflictions and troubles are the kisses of His love to His people. These are often times we come to know God more deeply. We saw and heard that happen in the Essential Church movie. When Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, he wrote, “I did meet my God sweetly in prison.”
What does Paul assure us of? Regardless of the trouble, we are super-conquerors in Christ. Notice, “in all these things.” It is through the trials and sufferings that God proves Himself strong on our behalf! Paul calls us “more than conquerors” or “super-conquerors.” The Greek word is hypernikao – super victors. Not to puff us up, but in all these things we are Super Champions, Heaven’s Warriors, Eternal Winners, God’s spiritual heroes.
Are we more than conquerors through Him whom we loved? No! It is through Him who loved us. He loved us in eternity past when He foreknew us and chose us. He loved us as He ruled history to bring in His Son and deliver Him up for us on the cross. He loved us as He sent the gospel messenger into our life, to open the Scripture. He loved us as He effectually called us, gave us new hearts to believe His gospel. He loved us as He justified us. He is loving us now as He is at work in us to do His will. And He will love us forever. Christian, you are an overwhelming conqueror through Christ. Remember that!
#5 REASON: NOTHING IN ALL GOD’S UNIVERSE COULD EVER SEPARATE YOU FROM GOD’S LOVE IN CHRIST.
Romans 8:38-39, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Finally, from the very summit of this glorious mountain of truth, Paul scans the entire universe from end to end, from the heights to the depths, and concludes that for every child of God to deepen our love for Him who loved us and to strengthen our hearts with courage in the face of the greatest evil the world can throw at us – there is nothing, nothing, nothing in all God’s universe that can destroy, separate, or rip you out of God’s love for you in His Son. Nothing! Not death, life, angels, demons, anything present or future things, evil powers, human tyrants, the highest heavens or the deepest hell, not a weapon or power, not an extraterrestrial or UFO can rip us out of God’s love for us in our Savior and His Son.
Steve Lawson preached a message entitled “More Than Conquerors.” He ended with this: “How anyone can believe you can lose your salvation is reading his Bible upside down in a dark room at midnight with his eyes closed and a veil over his eyes.”
God has called you and made you His own and now there’s no condemnation and no separation from God’s love for you in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! That’s the one place of absolute safety and security in this world. And the only way to know you are in this great love and place of eternal security is to repent of going your own way and put your faith firmly in Jesus Christ alone for taking your due punishment for sin when He died on the cross. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).