Sermon for July 30, 2023 – Proper 12

Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 128 • Genesis 29:15-28 • Romans 8:26-39 • Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

This week’s theme is assurance of God’s fidelity. The call to worship Psalm celebrates God’s faithfulness to Israel in his covenant with them. The Old Testament reading from Genesis recounts the story of Jacob’s persistence to marry Rachel despite Laban’s deception. The epistolary text from Romans records Paul’s assurance of God’s divine help and faithfulness in the face of all opposition. The Gospel reading from Matthew presents six parables to disclose the nature and life of God’s kingdom.

God Is For Us

Romans 8:26-39 (ESV)

It has been said that Romans 8 is the Gospel in a nutshell. Paul is bringing the first part of his letter to a climatic conclusion in chapter 8, before dealing with the topic that was heavy on his heart, the rejection of Jesus by his own Jewish people. Side by side, these two themes paint a heart-breaking picture for Paul. Considering the astounding good news given in Jesus Christ, why on earth would anyone reject it? And for Paul, the Jews rejection of Christ amounts to a rejection of himself. If you remember, they sought to kill Paul on several occasions. For Paul, the rejection of Christ by his own people was extremely personal.

Maybe you can relate! As Christians, our heart aches for those – especially our beloved friends and family – who do not seem interested in the least about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, you may have experienced their rejection personally when trying to share the incredible good news that Paul has laid out in Romans 8. Perhaps you have said what so many Christians say when observing all the pain and suffering in the world: “How does anyone make it through this world without knowing who God is?” That question only comes from those who experientially know the difference between knowing the God revealed in Jesus Christ and the scriptures, and not knowing him while living in this broken, distorted, and evil age. How does one deal with the incredible tragic losses so many must endure? How do people face the threat of war, disease, and crime, especially when it appears in your own backyard? How does one cope with one’s own weaknesses, shortcomings, failings, and heartbreak, and especially, one’s own inevitable death, without the abiding hope that only comes in Christ? These are all questions that can come up when we see the gospel in all its beauty, alongside the visceral rejection of it.

But these are not the questions Paul puts to us in our selection of Romans for today. Paul has been filling nearly every sentence in Romans 8, one way or another, with the good news that God is for us. Perhaps that is the simplest conclusion we can state about what we see in Jesus Christ. God is for us! And that reality prompts Paul to ask a set of rhetorical questions that are all essentially asking, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That’s a good question for us to answer today as we find ourselves swimming upstream against the currents of rejection on account of our faith in Jesus. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Paul seems to anticipate one answer to that question that we may not think to consider:

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27 ESV)

Here we find that God is for us in such a way that we cannot even be against ourselves. Our weakness is not taken away from us. However, our lack of understanding what to pray for does not hinder us from our relationship with God. Prayer can be viewed as the pinnacle of our relationship with the Father, a participation in a real communion that is taking place between the Father and his Son in the Spirit. This is what we are brought into, and since God is for us, he gives us his Spirit, who will help us in our weakness, so it does not work against us. We may all experience times when we struggle to articulate a prayer or find the words to express what we are feeling. The Spirit helps with that as well, but it seems Paul has something deeper in mind. Paul is pointing to a groaning that we can’t express. We do not even know what our deepest needs and wants are, so we groan. These groanings bear witness to a deeper reality of God’s will for us. We can’t possibly fathom what God has in store for us, what he ultimately created us for. If we only received what we asked for, we would get far less than God is willing to give. So, God sends the Spirit to translate our groanings into a sanctified prayer that matches what God aims to give us in Christ Jesus. Our heavenly Father is so for us that he will not even let us be against us.

He goes further in the next three verses to expand his point:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30 ESV)

Paul gives a sweeping statement that “all things work together for good.” That “all” means we can include all our trials and suffering, all our weaknesses and shortcomings. Paul does not mean that God causes all things, but rather he works in all things to bring about his good purposes for us. Yes, our decisions do have real consequences, and our resistance to God is not a path to the abiding relationship with him that God intends. However, even in our shortcomings we can trust the Father to still work towards our good. So, for clarification, sin is not a good ingredient God uses for our good. No, sin is our rejection of God, and we can trust that God will reject our rejection. That is how God is working for our good, even when we are working against it.

The promise Paul is stating is that when we consider all the suffering that comes our way, regardless of its cause, we can face it knowing that God is working in it to add it all up to something good, namely our becoming more like Christ. This is how the Christian can face a world full of suffering and pain in hope. Our sufferings are not in vain. That is one huge difference the believer has over the unbeliever when facing suffering. We know our sufferings now can serve a purpose so grand that the sufferings pale by comparison. We no longer suffer for suffering’s sake; our sufferings are bent into an instrument to further God’s work of bringing us into his glory. We will never look back on our sufferings, no matter how deep the scars or searing the loss, and be disappointed in what God did in them. It will be completely worth it. And we should add, that in the end, our losses are redeemed. So, not only does God work in our sufferings and losses to bring us closer to his good purposes, but he also restores to us all that was lost. Paul is not justifying our suffering with God’s good purposes. He is reminding us of the redemptive love of the Father to restore us, including all that we have lost and suffered.

These verses have fueled theological debate for centuries over concepts such as foreknowledge and predestination. But that is not Paul’s concern here. His focus is not on these words here or elsewhere for that matter. Paul’s aim is to assure us that there is no reason to worry or doubt our salvation. These verses move from Paul’s previous encouragement of the Spirit’s involvement in our present lives, to God’s purposeful involvement in the past. It was his plan to bring us into glory long before we ever appeared on the scene. Paul here is even speaking about our being “glorified” in the past tense. Paul is not raising the question about whether people can or cannot refuse the glory God offers. So, we need not concern ourselves with such debates here. Rather, we can take encouragement that our glorification, our becoming like Christ, was God’s plan from the beginning. Basically, if we want God’s salvation and good purposes, we are assured God will bring us into it.

As we move into the remaining verses of Romans 8, we will see that God not only works in our present and our past for his good purposes for us, but he also does not allow anything in the future to prevent his plans for us.

Paul wants to encourage his readers, including us, in light of the fact that our immediate future will always pose the threat of hardships, especially for those who are in Christ. It is here that he gives expression to the rhetorical question we have been working from—“If God is for us, who can be against 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? (Romans 8:31-32 ESV)

The answer of course is quite obvious. If God is for us, then no one can be against us. Meaning that no one can succeed in their opposition to what God is doing in us. But Paul does not give us this direct answer. He will continue to point to who God is to answer the question. He reminds us here that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. That is the God we see in Jesus Christ. A God who does not hold back his very best from us. He is not stingy or reluctant to give us all things. We will never find a place in God’s character that will allow for us to claim that his promise of glory is held back from us. The Father intends to keep his word because of who he is. And we see that he already has. In giving us his own Son, he has already graciously given us all things.

Paul now has another rhetorical question for our encouragement.

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33 ESV)

As Paul looks to the future, he can assure us that on the final day of judgment, there will be no one who can accuse us because God has already secured a not-guilty verdict. As we anticipate this final pronouncement in the future, we can live into this reality in the present. Even when we fail, we can resist the evil one’s accusations that we are beyond God’s saving work. Again, if God is for us, who can be against us? Even the evil one will have to hold his tongue.

But the evil one may get others to do his dirty work. How often do we accuse ourselves or fall prey to the accusations from others? In response, we often attempt to justify ourselves. But it is God who justifies. We have not been given that authority. The next time someone accuses you of something, no matter how heinous, you can rightly tell them, “Your accusation falls woefully short of my actual sin. However, Jesus has stooped low enough to forgive it.” There is no need to justify yourself. God already has in Jesus Christ. And there is no need to receive an accusation that runs counter to God’s word. As we trust in God’s word to us, that word can shield us from the darts of accusations hurled our way.

Paul continues…

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. (Romans 8:34 ESV)

The death of Christ took on all our condemnation and nailed it to the cross. Not only do we have Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, but we have Jesus, raised and alive, interceding for us for all eternity. If Jesus doesn’t condemn you, everyone else must drop their rocks.

One final question from Paul…

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. (Romans 8:35-37 ESV)

Paul lists various difficulties, most which he personally experienced, that can tempt us to think God does not love us. Paul even includes the reference of Psalm 44:22 to graphically portray the problem. Paul’s list here not only covers everyday hardships that may come our way, but it also covers suffering that may come because of having faith in Christ. Neither cause of suffering is elevated over the other. And neither can separate us from God’s love. Paul does not leave this question unanswered. He gives us a bold and firm “no.” And he goes further to claim that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” How does one become “more” than a conqueror? The victory is not confined to simply conquering the suffering. It’s not just that we got over the present trial or persecution that was once afflicting us. It is that we have been given a share in Christ own victory in our sufferings. The prize adds up to the eternal glory God has for us. There is more for us than just being conquerors; we are given the prize of eternal glory that Christ has conquered for us.

Paul now concludes by exhausting the ink in his pen to answer the question, “If God is for us, who can be against 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 8:38-39 ESV)

Paul leaves no rock unturned in these two concluding verses. You can sense his search to cover every possible objection we may raise to counter God’s love for us. He ultimately provides a catch all “nor anything else in all creation” just in case he left something out. This is God’s word for you today. He wants us to know that the God we see in Jesus Christ is the God who loves you to the very end. Nothing will ever come between you and his love for you. Absolutely nothing. Amen!

---

---

Small Group Discussion Questions