God is Unequivocally on Our Side

Romans 8 it's big, you know it and it's interesting that we started out And I've got a chart to begin with As I always do but it we started out in Romans 1 and we're talking about the salvation of God from Romans 1 through Romans 8 and We started out in a very bad place and I was going to call this sermon, The Provision of God, Part 1 and Part 2. I changed that title, but this is good. The provision of God in salvation, or the declaration of His righteousness, and showing us all of His righteousness from Romans 1 through Romans 8. But we start here, way back, if you remember, in Romans 1.

We're under wrath. We're under the wrath of God. And then we're, a little later, we're given over by God in verse 24. We're under judgment in 2.2. And then we're storing up wrath or accumulating wrath, and that's worse, isn't it? There's none righteous in 3.10, not even one. So this is getting very bad. all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in 323. Finally we, or an unbeliever will fall into the basement and the worst thing, it's parenthetical but it says it there in Chapter 5, verse 10, we're deemed enemies of God, and that's a very bad place to be in.

But there's hope. There's the provision of God. And so we start here at the lower, is that your lower left too? Yeah, start here as enemies of God. And then the cross comes along, right? And we're saved, we're justified by faith in 5.1. then God makes peace with us later on in verse 1 of chapter 5.

It's great. It's getting better. We're reconciled in 510. We're saved by his life in 510b. We're identified in Romans chapter 6. We're given his life in 6-4. Then we're set free at the end of chapter seven, once we go through the chapter seven experience, which is, raise your hand if you know. And we're delivered, and there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ in 8.1.

Then we're adopted, and I wanted this, You can see I'm having difficulty fitting all this on one slide, and not tiny lettering. And I wanted it to go like this, but it was too hard. But it's just going up and up, glorified in 817. All things, God causing all things, working together for good. I should have put God in there, Jim. Working all things together for the good. We're called, we're conformed in 829, and then God is for us in 831. And then, a little later, we're made to overwhelmingly conquer. Wow, so, and we end up, end of chapter eight, with no separation.

And at first I had no separation, period, but then I said, all right, better put in from the love of God and Jesus Christ. And then I put the person of the two of them, too, because if there's no separation from the love, you're getting the love, but when you have the love, you also have the person, all right? So you can't have someone's love without having them, owning them as a person, and we have the person of Jesus Christ and the person of God. There are no separation, that's pretty That's pretty high stuff from where we started, down in the dumps, right?

So our verses today, 33 and 34, who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. And then 34, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, and moreover, he was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. So Paul, you'll see that these are, we're gonna look at these two rhetorical questions at the beginning of 33 and 34. You see them, who will bring a charge against God's elect, and who is the one who condemns?

And why do you think Paul uses the rhetorical here? Well, a rhetorical question is, according to Merriam-Webster, I don't know if Merriam-Webster was a man or a woman, but I think, who knows, but a rhetorical question is a question used for dramatic effect. It doesn't expect an answer, but it starts a dialogue, and that's what Paul is doing here. It's a question, that is asked to elicit a response or for information.

Paul is here in, it's as if he's in a courtroom, and he's asking these rhetorical questions of the other side, or the forum is how it's described, you know, the Greek forum, where they do this Aristotelian method, and Aristotle used this rhetorical question form when they sat around and they discussed all the things of life. back in the meaning of life, way before the time of Christ. But he uses this to bring a dramatic magnification of the previous facts that he stayed in in 6, 7, and 8. And a brief refresher again of those facts We've established, he's established, Paul has, that we have no condemnation. We're set free from the sin nature.

We live by the Holy Spirit. We have life in Christ Jesus. We have the adoption of sons. We are now the children of God. We yearn for our glorification with him. We have that groaning inside of us, right? We have the Holy Spirit's interceding, Him groaning for us. We don't know what to pray, but He does the interceding for us. We are foreknown, predestined, chosen, elected, justified.

And this is, This is all in Romans 8 here, except 5, or justified is back in 3, but it appears again in Romans chapter 8. We are heirs, we're conformed to Christ's image, and then once again we have its glory. So in light of, in view of all these facts, that he's presented, as in a courtroom. He then asks, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? How will he not freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who is the one who condemns? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

So there's seven rhetorical questions there. that, and we've seen some of them, and I have two of them today, and then there's another one next week, but he's using that Aristotelian method to get you to think about all that God has done for us. Kelly says, he's, the, Paul is He interrogates and challenges all adversaries in the presence, like a courtroom, in the presence of the rich and varied provisions of redemption. And those are the provisions that we saw in that second slide there.

When I was looking at these two verses, there's the who. So I wanted to know, well, who is the who? So I did this exercise. Let's try to answer who the who is, who is able to bring a charge against God's elect and who will condemn. And I could only think of first guy that came to my mind was Satan, right? And that makes sense. Perhaps he is able to bring a charge or to condemn. But let's see if he is able. It's a good exercise. Satan always accuses. He's always the accuser. In Job, he accuses Job. He says to God, you know, God says, have you considered my servant Job?

He's righteous and, you know, I love him to death. And Satan goes, well, that's because you've put a hedge about him. So remove the hedge, and he won't be that guy anymore. So God allows him to do that, and Job comes through. All of his family and wealth is taken from him, and he doesn't curse God. And then later on, Satan, after that, Satan goes, however, put forth your hand now, in 2-5, and touch his bone in his flesh.

You know, get right to his person. And then he'll curse you to your faith. Those two things are accusational. Those are accusations that he's using there. So God allows him to do that. The second body or people that Satan is always accusing is Israel.

And in this Zechariah 3.1, he's accusing Israel through Joshua. Not Joshua of Jericho, but there was a man called Joshua who was a high priest.

And in 3.1, Zechariah 3.1, it said, then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan was standing at his right hand to accuse him. So there we have Satan personally accusing Israel.

And then all of us, he accuses us day and night in Revelation 12, 10. The kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ has come down, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. So he's up there day and night. wash, rinse, and repeat, accusing the brethren of all sorts of things. Maybe he gets around to you or me. I doubt he knows who we even are, but he will accuse the whole church on whole all the time. But what we have here is God. He defends. He defends Job and Israel, and he defends us believers. How he defends Job is...

God comes back, God first states to Satan, before Job has been affected by anything, he goes, God says of Job, for there's none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. That's a defense of Job's character, before anything ever happened. Then when Satan takes away his family and all of his livestock and wealth. God makes another defense for Job, and he still holds fast his integrity, he says in 2.3 of Job, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.

And then, secondly, we have God defending Israel. In the same passage, Zechariah, in the next verse, 3-2, the Lord says to Satan, the Lord rebuke you. Satan, indeed the Lord has chosen Jerusalem. rebuke you. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire or is not Israel a brand that I plucked out of the fire? You know, why are you trying to throw it back in the fire? And so even more, God takes away Israel's iniquity. He says in verse 4, and again he said to him, see I have taken away your iniquity from you and will clothe you with festal robes.

And then thirdly, God's defense for the believers, us believers, is our verses today. Romans 8, 33 and 34, and also 37. It is God, the one who justifies, and Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, and moreover, he was raised, and now he intercedes for us. And those two statements at the end of 33 and 34 are statements of defense.

He's coming to our defense. In 37 he says, but in all things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loves us. So there you have Satan kind of removed out of the way. He's a who, but he's brushed aside, so it's not him. He isn't able to bring any accusation or charge against us.

And another, and keep in mind I'm only in the Old Testament here, so when we get into the church age and regarding us as believers, then it's all the more God defending us. And we have the Lord Jesus Christ who is our intercessor. But a really good illustration of the same thing is the Lord Jesus Christ with the woman caught in adultery, right, in John chapter eight, one through 11. So the accusation is from the scribes and Pharisees. So here's another group, here's another who. We have Satan, we have scribes and Pharisees. Many have tried. Everyone has failed. But they say to the Lord Jesus Christ, Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act. Now in the law of Moses, he commands us to stone such a woman.

What then do you say? And that's not really a question, that's a trap. It's like in Star Wars, or is it Empire Strikes Back or something, the general, what's his name who says it's a trap. Yeah, so Jesus' defense of the woman is, so he stooped down and with his finger he writes on the ground, And he straightens up and he says to them, he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. So this is a defense. And keep in mind, this woman was caught dead to rights. She is guilty. So yet Jesus is defending this woman. And he says to her, the woman, this is the closing argument, he says, woman, where are they?

Does no one condemn you? And she said, no, Lord, I'm looking around, everyone's gone. And he said, neither do I condemn you either. Go, from now on, sin no more. So who is able to condemn? Keep in mind, the Lord Jesus Christ is there personally. on the earth, defending this woman. No one is able to condemn even the woman caught in adultery. So you can see how we're building up here to our heavenly position. I'll give you the answer up front. There's no one who can bring any charges or condemn us.

God in the Old Testament, and I thought of this because he asked this question several times in the Old Testament, and it's basically, who is like me? So let's look at God's viewpoint about whether there's anyone who can challenge him or his sovereignty.

And we have Jeremiah 49.19, where God says, who is like me? and who will summon me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against me?"

Kind of the same questions Paul is asking in 33 and 34, very, very similar. God is saying, who can bring me into court? And there's no one. Isaiah 44, six, seven, and eight, and this is a general blessing towards Israel, that he's talking, and it's thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts says, I am the first and the last, and there is no God besides me. He goes on to say, who is like me?

Let him come up here and proclaim it, lay out his case, declare it. Yes, let him recount it to me in order. And then there's some that I omitted there about Israel. And he ends chapter 44 of Isaiah here in verse eight at this section. Is there any God besides me? Or is there any other rock?

And then look what he says, I know of none. So he's up. He's actually on top, it's not a carpenter song, he's on top of the world, looking down on creation, and he sees no other gods. He has full view of all the angels, dominions, powers, principalities, and he created everything, as Jim said. There's just no one who's stepping up to the plate, as I see in the heading of this slide, to take him on.

And so whether it's Job or Israel or the adulteress in John chapter 8, or he's defended so many Old Testament men and women over, you know, Esther and Samuel, all these people, Moses. So how much more Are we able to be represented by our Savior Christ? Because we're His heavenly bride. We're the Beloved Son's heavenly bride. And what this is, it's just the Lord Jesus Christ's moral glory, and His character demands that He does that. He is now for us. we're just looking at, we just looked at who could be any who, and we found no one. And we just kind of proved it out here in Scripture. Now let's go on to the B side of these two verses, the statement that's in answer to the question. And Paul says in 33b, God is the one who justifies.

And the first verse that comes to mind, came to my mind, was Romans 3.26.

For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And I always put both in there. I always say, so that he would be both the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Because, being freely justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that's 324 of Romans, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of law. 328. So there's our justification there. It's in the work of Christ and we learn in 326 that God is both the just and And the justifier. The just, God is just, that's an adjective.

So it's describing his intrinsic character, that's what an adjective does, or his quality. In his intrinsic character, or essence, he is just. And I learned from Paul and Pat Giles, in junior church, down the hall and to the right, for many years that God is holy, righteous, and just. He's omniscient, omnipresent, He's sovereign, He's grace, all of His, all of His, all of who and what he is, his glory, his intrinsic attributes.

So that's what we mean, or Paul means when he says that he would be the just and the justifier. Now the justifier, that's, is one who justifies. So that's a verb in the present active, in the present active cases there. Present tense, active voice. And it's a verb. So he's justifying here in the present.

And we've observed before that no true prosecuting attorneys can bring a charge or level any condemnation against us. Because standing in our place is as defendant is Christ Jesus himself, who went to the cross. And he died and was buried and was risen again. And he also defends us. And he acts as, now, and we'll see this in just a few moments, he acts as our intercessory counsel and our advocate up there at the right hand of God. And the judge and the justifier are one and the same. That's God himself.

So we're in good shape as far as anyone who is able to bring any accusation against us. Let's look at 34, and the B statement of verse 34, and that's Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, rather, he was also raised, and who is at the right hand of God.

And it ties in very beautifully. dovetails right into John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, And this is tying into 33 and 34, where in judgment and condemnation here, that he might save, that the world might be saved through him. Simple gospel. In 318, he says, he who believes in him is not judged.

That's our topic for today. He who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ has been judged already. And I think this was one of my dad's favorite verses, this 318. And if you're judged already, you're sitting, unfortunately, we have to kick you back to the back of the plane into Romans 1.18 through Romans 2.16. And that's where the wrath of God has been revealed. So you're judged and you have wrath. who has not been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." So very simple gospel statement is what 34b is giving us as the defense for who is the one who condemns us.

It's William Kelly who says, all is measured by God's gift, the gift of God's own Son, a bold answer to every doubt, and to every doubt of both the reality of His love and the extent to which He loves us. And this I really like. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the measureless measure of His love for us.

And that is what John 3.16 is saying right there, that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's measureless measure of His love for us. He says, the enemy had better beware of meddling with God's elect. We learned that we're God's elect here in Romans 8. God is for us. He is superior to all that would hurt us. And this leads to the question, Kelly says, who dare be against us? There's one of the rhetorical questions. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who is the one condemning?

Now if we move on to 34C, he has this little, I'd say it's a prepositional phrase, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, who also intercedes for us. And my mind came up with his intercessory ministry of Christ. And we learn in Hebrews 1.3 that he is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of God's nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power.

And then The writer of Hebrews, Paul, goes on to say, when he made purification for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, Hebrews 1.3.

So Jesus lives for us up there at the right hand of God for us, right now, in the present moment. His active intervention on our behalf never ceases for a single moment. He has passed through the heavens in virtue of His accomplished atonement, and there He ever carries on His perfect advocacy for us before God. He is there as our subsisting righteousness.

I like that, subsisting righteousness, which ties back to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. and he maintains us ever in the divine integrity of the position and relationship into which his atoning death has introduced us. He ever lives to make intercession for us, and because he ever lives, he is able to save to the uttermost, right through to the very end, them that come to God by him.

And Kelly also says that he has this theory that even when you sin, before you get around to confessing, maybe like me, I'll wait the day and then forget about it, and then at night, Boy Lord, I I said that was a sin. I just realized that I'm so you confess your sins at night Before you go to bed. Let's say but he's Kelly says I The Lord Jesus Christ has already been to the Father about that, and He's already done that intercessory work, that advocacy work before, you know, because I'm slow and I don't get around to it. But He does it before you even Think about it, which is encouraging for us slow people.

I guess spiritually So he Mac and oh, this is Macintosh, I'm sorry, this is all CH Macintosh I've I've missed I've missed ascribed the wrong quotes to the wrong guy. I'm sorry for that, but they're in glory. They don't care now. So he ends up by saying, he lives to keep us always right in heaven and to set us right when we've gone wrong on earth. He is the divine and indissoluble link between our souls and God. And that's from Macintosh's The All-Sufficiency of Christ, in that paper that he wrote. And that's just great. I couldn't resist putting this in here because it's wonderful stuff.

Finally, regarding Christ's intercessory ministry in Hebrews, I have it Hebrews 1.3, but it's actually, I'll correct that. Does anyone know, by the way, what chapter that is that I have up there? I forgot to change the, is it eight? Eight? OK, so think in your mind eight when we read these. But Hebrews chapter 8, verses 24 through 26.

But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, he holds his priesthood permanently. And he had gone before, and he was talking about the Melchizedek and the order of Melchizedek. Therefore, He is able to save forever those who draw near to Him, through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

And that's Hebrew something 24 through 26. But that's homework for this week. Come back and let's see what chapter it is. You're all looking. Seven, okay, seven. If I had a Sharpie, I could go up and make that a seven. I just forgot to change that whole reference, scripture reference, didn't I? Miles Stanford in None But the Hungry Heart, quoting John Butler Stoney, I think it is. John Butler Stoney.

He says, I do not find that it is adequately apprehended by saints that the benefit conferred by the Father is far beyond the need of the sinner. You think of all these benefits that we have in Romans chapter 8. Yeah, and you'll go through a lifetime. adequately apprehending all the blessings we have in Christ. And what he's saying, a lot of the blessings here are in Romans 8, in a nutshell. He says, you cannot measure the benefit by the need. So the benefit conferred to us is much greater than our need. It's way, way beyond. It's super abounding. in the benefit that we get from Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. I found this note that my dad made in one of his None But the Hungry Heart booklets.

And he says, the Lord Jesus Christ confirms us. He guarantees our vindication to the end for the purpose so that he will be our guarantor against all accusation or indictment, and we will be found guiltless and irreproachable." And just a little, he always wrote in red, so it was in red. And I found that, I thought, oh, that's good, too. That works into Christ's intercessory ministry very well. We are also, in closing, unassailable, and I like that word, which means immune to attack, incapable of being tampered with. by any enemies, and we'll learn this in the next couple of verses, that we're in a very good place in Romans chapter 8.

We thank God for it. I'll thank him right now and we'll close. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for all our blessings in Christ and that salvation has been accomplished by your Son and that we can never be taken out or cut down in any way against angels, principalities, powers, anyone here on earth, any events here on earth that may happen. We are safely in Christ Jesus, in you, held by the grip of your hand, and you've got the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a double security there. And we thank you so much for our salvation in Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.