If God is For Us

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39 ESV)

Please pay attention to the wording of this section of Scripture from the beginning where it begins with the phrase, “If God is for us…” for everything which follows is dependent on those five words being true. So, how do we know whether or not God is for us? We go back and we read the whole chapter of Romans 8, and we include Romans 6, as well. For the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk (in conduct, in practice) not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For in Romans 6 we read that those of us who are of true faith in Jesus Christ are all those who have been crucified and buried with Christ in death to sin and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. We, therefore, are to not let sin reign any longer in our mortal bodies to make us obey its passions (lusts), for if sin is what we obey, it will lead to death. But obedience leads to life eternal with God.

And those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, and to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. For if we live according to the flesh we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the body, we will live. For it is all who are being led by the Spirit who are the sons of God.

For we are not saved from our sins so that we can go on living in sin guilt free. Those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Jesus Christ). And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. And what is God’s purpose? It is that we die with him to sin, not just once, but daily, and that we walk in obedience to his commands, in practice, in holy living, in moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, and in surrender to God.

And there is a reason that Paul then said, “If God is for us,” because what he just said prior to this lets us know the ones God is for and the ones he is not for. It is only those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and those who are putting sin to death daily, by the Spirit, and who are now being led by the Spirit of God in how we are to walk (live, conduct our lives), who God is for. And to love God is to obey him. In fact faith in our Lord is obedience. Disobedience is unbelief.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]  

Therefore, if God is for us, because we are for him, which is evident by our walks of obedience to him in holy living, in his power, which can only come about because of God’s grace to us, and because he persuades us to forsake our sins and to follow him in obedience, then he will provide for us all that we need. He will take care of those of us who are his own possession. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ if we are those who are walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

Now this is not teaching that bad things won’t happen to us. They will. If we are the Lord’s servants and witnesses, we will face persecution and rejection and we will be cast out of groups and gatherings because we obey the Lord and we no longer live according to the flesh, and because we take God and his word seriously and we believe what he says, and so we obey him, in his power and strength. But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. Nothing will separate us from God’s love.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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