GOD'S EVERLASTING LOVE The passage before us is addressed to those who are in Christ Jesus. All of the glorious affirmations of their situation made previously in this book are taken to be true. They form the spiritual context in which our text is placed. Allow me to reaffirm some of them. – Tomorrow:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39, NKJV)
01. We have peace with God (5:1).
02. Faith has given us access into the grace wherein we stand (5:2).
03. We are rejoicing in hope of the glory of God (5:2).
04. We glory in tribulations, knowing the effectual work they accomplish in us (5:3-4).
05. We are not ashamed of our hope, because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (5:5).
06. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ (5:11).
07. We are dead to sin (6:2).
08. We were baptized into Jesus Christ (6:3a).
09. We were baptized in Christ's death (6:3b).
10. We were raised by the Father to walk in the newness of life (6:4).
11. We were planted together with Christ in the likeness of His death (6:5).
12. Our old man is crucified with Him (6:6).
13. We have been freed from sin (6:7).
14. We are not under law, but under grace (6:14).
15. We obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to us (6:17).
16. We have become the servants of righteousness (6:18).
17. We experience a struggle with inner influences we hate, and do not desire (7:15-20).
18. We have a law within, that when we would do good, evil is present with us (7:21).
19. We delight in the law of God in the inner man (7:22).
20. A contrary law exists in us that wars against the law of our mind (7:23).
21. With our minds we ourselves serve the law of God (7:25).
22. We are not condemned (8:1).
23. The law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death (8:2).
24. The Spirit of God dwells within us (8:9).
25. Our bodies are dead because of sin (8:10).
26. The Spirit quickens our mortal bodies (8:11).
27. As the sons of God, we are led by the Spirit of God to mortify the deeds of the body
(8:13-14).
28. We have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear (8:125a).
29. We have received the Spirit of adoption (8:15b).
30. The Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are the children of God (8:16).
31. We are heirs of God (8:17a).
32. We are joint heirs with Christ (8:17b).
33. We have the first fruits of the Spirit (8:23a).
34. We are groaning in anticipation of the redemption of our bodies (8:23).
35. The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought (8:26).
36. God is working everything together for our good (8:28).
37. God has predetermined the glorification of those who are justified (8:29-30).
38. God is for us, not against us (8:31).
39. Through Christ, God will freely give us all things (8:32).
40. No one can effectively accuse us (8:33).
41. No one can condemn us (8:34a.
42. From God's right hand, Christ is making intercession for us (8:34b).
There are FORTY-TWO affirmations of the condition of the children of God – those who are in Christ Jesus. Our text is a further elaboration of their status. It is not a cold and calculating doctrine to be propagated as a lifeless dogma. Further, it is not intended to build confidence, or promote assurance within those who are living in the flesh, or neglecting "so great salvation" (Heb 2:3). Those who approach this section of Scripture to justify themselves in sin or slothfulness are wicked. The use the words of a holy God to justify unholy behavior is the expression of a heart that is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9). We have no time to hear their miserable explanations of this passage.
The affirmations of our text are for those who are fighting the good fight of faith, endeavoring to lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim 6:12). These are words addressed to those who are living in hope, in anxious anticipation of being forever with the Lord (Rom 5:24-25). They are words for those who are patiently running the race that has been set before them (Heb 12:1-2), resisting the devil (1 Pet 5:8-9), and have put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:10). They will offer no "everlasting consolation" to anyone else!
To the degree we are able to identify with the declarations of the status of the redeemed, we will receive great comfort and encouragement from the promises of the text before us. The Holy Spirit freely declares who we are in Christ, and the provisions that are made for us. There is no revealed limit to the involvement with God that is possible through our faith.
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You through Jesus Christ for revealing so much about who I am and what I have in Him. Help me to live with an acute awareness of these benefits.