Living Understanding Pt 18: If God is for us

Romans 8:31-35                    31What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Isaiah 50:8-9                          8He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! 9It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.

Who can be against us?

If we stop for a moment in our hectic lives and think about what God has done fore us surely a sense of bewilderment and astonishment should come upon us.  One thing any sinner needs is to have right standing with God, and this condition is utterly independent upon any action the sinner might take.  We all know what we are like inside, in that place we keep hidden even from our spouse or closest friends.  Those hidden things keep us distant from God until that spectacularly blissful moment when we accept his Son as our Savior.  But that wonderful moment has nothing to do with our own abilities—we can’t earn it—except in one area.  We must make the choice.  Our free gift of salvation came because Yeshua made his choice.  He willingly went to the cross and made a substitutionary death.  He shed his blood to wash us clean; he took our sins and left them in the grave.  He intercedes on our behalf in the throne room of his Father against the incessant accusations of Satan.

So considering all this, who can be against us?  The obvious answer in no one.  But that is difficult to comprehend.  After all our struggles and difficulties have not just vanished.  Consider why we have troubles:  Yes, it is true we have a mortal enemy in Satan, and we should not for a second dismiss his strength and power.  He does author some of the things that come our way, but most of our struggles come as a result of our own sinful decisions or those of others.  We do live in a fallen world after all.

Nonetheless, even though these unpleasant things occur they are of no avail.  Even though Satan tries to take advantage of these struggles, to use them to take us down, he will be ineffective because God is on our side.

He did not spare his own Son

Here’s the proof:  In his inestimable love for us God did not spare even his own beloved Son.  Jesus is God’s only Son, the Precious One.  He never sinned and always did things pleasing to his Father.  We are the exact opposite.  Yet the thing naturally due us because of our sin—death—this Jesus did.  This magnificent thing—far beyond any gift we can imagine—proves that God will provide all our needs.  But remember ‘all our needs’ is not the same as ‘all our wants’.

It is God who justifies

Justification is a legal term which refers to the declaration of innocence for the one being accused.  If it is God himself who is for us, if it is God who justifies us, then there is no validity in any of Satan’s charges.  His condemnations amount to nothing.  Satan can jabber away all he wants and no condemnation will come of it because the angel of the Lord (Jesus) is our defense.

1Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” 5Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by. (Zechariah 3:1-5)

Who shall separate?

The love of Christ—the love from Christ, not the love for Christ—is not stoppable.  No matter where we go, what we do, who we are with, it is certain.  When Paul listed those seven things in v35, he was speaking from experience.  When such things happen, we have a choice: we can draw near to God or we can fall away.  Choosing the former is the solution because drawing close means entering into intimate conversation with God.  Have you ever been having a difficult time, discussed it with a good friends, and felt better after the conversation?  It’s the same with God, only he knows the intimate details of your life and can help and guide you through the problem.

What about me?

It is easy to think, “Nobody understands what’s going on in my life!”  In some ways that is true because we all have our individual attributes, successes, and failures.  Also, our stuff is our own and no one else’s; what’s important to us is not so much to the other guy and visa versa.  But of course that is exactly what Satan wants us to think.  He wants us depressed, ineffective, and down-trodden.  In such a condition, we can barely get off our couch, or out of our own way, and are certainly of no help in furthering the Kingdom.  That’s why it is so important to remember that those things are lies.  If God loves us why should we be worried about what Satan thinks.  He has already lost; he knows it; he’s in a panic.  He will do anything to get out of the jam he’s in.

Believer, remember God loves you no matter what, has declared you innocent (Romans 8:1), and is by your side.  Life’s struggles can seem overwhelming, but really they aren’t.  They are just bumps in the road.