Our Security in Christ | Romans 8:31-39
Brian Hedges | September 18, 2016
Thank you, worship team. Well, good morning. It’s good to see all of you this morning. I’m just coming back off of kind of a whirlwind trip down to Texas. My grandmother is 89 years old and a wonderful Christian woman and someone I’ve been very close to throughout my whole life, and the last several weeks has had a lot of health problems, and twice we thought we were about to lose her. My dad called me on Wednesday. She was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, wasn’t sure how she would be doing. And so I just decided to fly down there Thursday, possibly to say goodbye. And thankfully, in God’s wonderful mercy, she’s doing much, much better. It turned out there had been a medical mistake in her treatment at a rehab center, and they’ve corrected that now, and there’s a good prognosis. So she’s doing much better. So those of you who knew and were praying, I appreciate that, am grateful for that.
I did get home last night about 11:30, and that was after only about four hours of sleep the night before. So if I fall asleep during the service this morning, you’ll forgive me! But I wanted to be back with you. I love to be here with you for worship and just relish these Sunday mornings together, where we worship the Lord together and we dig into his word and we celebrate the table.
So I’m thrilled to dig into Romans 8 with you one more time this morning. So if you would turn in your Bibles, that’s where we’re going to be. Romans chapter 8. For the past six weeks we’ve been working through this wonderful chapter, and today we come to the final paragraph. Commentators have called these verses "a hymn of assurance" and "a triumph song" and "the highest plateau in the whole of divine revelation." It is like the highest peak in a magnificent range of glorious, majestic mountains.
Or, if you want to change the metaphor, it’s like the final, fullest movement of a symphony that gathers together all the musical themes of earlier movements, and then builds into a climactic crescendo. That’s what we have in these verses. We really have here the poetry of the gospel. And you may remember when we started this series that we said you really have to work through the logic of the gospel, the theology of the gospel, in order to get to the poetry. Well, here we get to the poetry, having looked at Paul’s careful argument through Romans chapter 8 over the past several weeks. Today we come to this final paragraph.
Let’s read it. Romans chapter 8, we’re looking at verses 31 through 39 (by the way, it’s page 944 in your pew Bibles). Romans 8, beginning in verse 31:
31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 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? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.”
This is God’s word.
The last five words of Romans 8 are the key to this passage and the unifying thread that weaves it together with the rest of the chapter: “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8 ends as it begins, by declaring the believer’s security in Christ Jesus. In Romans 8:1 we read that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And now at the end of the chapter we read that nothing can separate us “from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Those two references to being “in Christ” are the bookends to this passage.
And everything in between is written to show us the unassailable security of the believer’s salvation in Christ. This passage is written to assure us that all who are chosen and called and justified by God’s grace will persevere through suffering and difficulty and will become more than conquerors through him who loved us.
So, our theme this morning is “Our Security in Christ.” And this final paragraph in Romans 8 gives us no less than five reasons for our security in Christ.
And maybe you noticed this as we read that the end of this chapter: this paragraph this kind of built around questions. Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions. John Stott calls them “five unanswerable questions.” There’s actually about seven question marks in the passage, but you can group them into five unanswerable questions. So my approach this morning is going to be to take those questions and use them to explore, but more than just explore, to rejoice in, to exult in, to celebrate, our security in Christ.
I’m going to give you five reasons for our security in Christ. Here’s the first:
1. If we are in Christ, then God is for us.
And therefore we’re secure. We are secure because, if we’re in Christ, then God is for us. You see that in verse 31: “What then shall we say to these things?” Paul is, of course, looking back to what he’s just said in the previous passage, but he’s also looking back to the whole of the book of Romans. So everything he’s argued so far in this chapter, he’s now bringing it to its conclusion.
“What shall we say to these things?” What shall we say to the fact that God works all things together for good? He works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. What shall we say to these things, that God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son? What shall we say to the fact that those whom God foreknew he predestined, those whom he predestined he called, and those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified he glorified? What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Now notice that Paul does not say that there is nothing against us. If we only asked what is against us, we could actually list many things. There are a lot of things that are against us. Just take verse 35. There’s tribulation, there’s distress, there’s hardship, there’s persecution, there’s famine, there’s nakedness, there’s danger, there’s sword.
When we survey the dangers and threats against us, they are many: there’s the suffering and injustice of this world; there’s the brokenness of our own hearts and lives; there is death itself, which Scripture says is “the last enemy to be destroyed.” There’s Satan, the enemy of our souls, one that Hebrews chapter 2 says “has the power of death.” Someone once said that, “Sometimes under calamity the whole universe seems to be against us.”
There’s a lot of things against us. The great reformer Martin Luther said: “We are molested not by puny foes but by mighty ones, foes who never grow tired of warring against us. These, our enemies, are many: our own flesh, the world, the Law, sin, death, the wrath and judgment of God, and the devil himself.”
There’s a lot of things against us. The passage isn’t recounting the things against us. It’s saying, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And you see that that first question changes the equation. If God is for us, then none of these things can be against us. They will not work for our ill, they will work for our good. And again, everything we’ve seen in this passage so far, in Romans 8, is meant to assure us that God is indeed for us. He’s for us. And if he is for us no one can be against us. And that means that God’s position on our side outweighs everything else that’s on the other side.
The great Presbyterian preacher James Montgomery Boice used a great illustration. He said if you took a balancing scale, an old fashioned balancing scale, and you piled all of things against us on one side, it would be like a pile of peanuts. But then if you put on the other side “God is for us” it’s like an anvil. And it outweighs all the peanuts of the things that are against us.
The fourth-century church father John Chrysostom actually took it further. He said: “Yet those that be against us, so far are they from thwarting us at all, that even without their will they become to us the causes of crowns, and procurers of countless blessings, in that God's wisdom turneth their plots unto our salvation and glory. See how really no one is against us!”
In other words, it’s not just that God on our side outweighs everything else. It’s that God on our side means that everything else that looks like it’s against us is actually turned for our good. The plots of our enemies are turned to our salvation and our glory.
Now beloved fellow believer, this is for you this morning. There are some of you who may feel as I’ve felt somewhat this last week. Things that threaten grief, things that bring sadness, threats to the people we love. You’re going through trials, you’re going through difficulties, you’re suffering in some kind of way, and sometimes you’re just holding on to your faith by your fingernails. Aren’t you? But I want to tell you that the good news assures us that God is for us in Christ. And if God is for you, then nothing can be against you. He promises to bless you, to keep you, and to take you to glory.
I love the way John Rippon put it in that great old hymn How Firm the Foundation: “When through the deep waters I call thee to go,” he’s speaking in the voice of God. Promises from Isaiah, right?
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”
If God is for you, who can be against you? That’s the first thing. That’s the first reason why we’re secure in Christ. Here’s the second:
2. If we are in Christ, then God Gives Us Everything We Need
And we see that in verse 32: “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?”
Now notice Paul’s logic here. He assures us that God will give us everything we need. Why? Because he has already given us the greatest of all gifts. He spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all. And if he’s done that, won’t he graciously give you everything else? You see, it’s an argument from the greater to the lesser. If he’s already given us the greatest gift won’t he give us everything else we need? Now what does that include? What does it include when Paul says, “How will he not also with Him graciously give us all things?” What do the “all things” include?
Well, first of all, it includes all of our spiritual needs. It includes all of the blessings of salvation. So, for example, in Ephesians 1:3, which we used in our call to worship this morning, Paul says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…” Right? It’s not that just he gives us some spiritual blessings, he gives us ALL spiritual blessings. Every spiritual blessing comes to us in Christ. If God has given us Christ, he will give us everything else we need.
Peter says much the same thing in 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…”
So God gives us all the blessings of salvation in Christ. He gives not only grace to justify, he gives us grace to sanctify. He not only saves us, he keeps us. He sustains us. He gives us his Son to believe in, and he gives us the faith to believe in his Son! He not offers salvation and invites us to repentance, he gives us the will to repent, and he turns our hearts. He gives us all the blessings of salvation. He not only saves us, he keeps us saved.
His love is an effectual love. He loves into us the things that we need. The great Puritan theologian John Owen said, “A man may love another as his own soul, yet perhaps that love of his cannot help him. He may thereby pity him in prison, but not relieve him; bemoan him in misery, but not help him; suffer with him in trouble, but not ease him. We cannot love grace into a child, nor mercy into a friend; we cannot love them into heaven, though it may be the greatest desire of our soul. … But now the love of Christ, being the love of God, is effectual and fruitful in producing all the good things which he wills unto his beloved. He loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he loves us also into covenant; he loves us into heaven.”
If he loved us so much as to give us his Son, he’s going to give us everything we need. He loves into us the spiritual blessings that he has purchased for us. So “all things” includes everything we need spiritually.
But there is also a real practical dimension to this. There’s a hard-edged, everyday-life, practical application to this verse. Because it’s not just that God gives us everything we need spiritually, it’s that He gives us everything that is good for us. Everything that is good for us. You know that Psalm, Psalm 84, in verse 11, the psalmist says,
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.”
No good thing! Every good thing that you need, that you really need, everything that God knows is really going to be good for you, that’s what he gives you. I saw a beautiful illustration of this recently. I was reading a short biographical sketch of George Müller. George Müller was that 19th century pastor in Bristol, England, who founded an orphanage and literally prayed in thousands and thousands of dollars (well, I guess it would be pounds, because it was England), thousands and thousands of pounds to feed thousands of orphans over this long history, just decades and decades of faithfulness to God. Well, George Müller was married. His first wife, Mary, he was married to her for 39 years, and when he was 64 years old he, she passed away. Now he had such great faith in God! He prayed in milk. Like with the cupboards empty, there’s no milk, there’s no bread, he prayed it in! And there would be the milkman with a broken down truck outside the door. Milk for the orphans. He had such faith in God. And then Mary got sick, and he prayed for her to be made well, but God didn’t heal her; she passed away. And so in this little biographical sketch I was reading (John Piper wrote this), he quotes something Müller said that he said was the key to his life and ministry. And I want to quote it to you. I think it’s so helpful. These are Müller’s words. He said,
“The last portion of Scripture which I read to my precious wife [this was before she died] was this, ‘The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.’ Now, if we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace, we are partakers of grace, and to all such he will give glory also. I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, ‘no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly’— I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.”
Now that is a wonderful example of practical, everyday confidence that we can have in God, if we believe this promise. That if God has already given us his Son, if he’s given us the best gift of all, if he’s given us that, won’t he graciously give us all things? Won’t he give us every good thing we need?
Now that means that if there are some things that we want that we don’t have, God in his inscrutable wisdom, in ways we can’t understand, knows that that’s not the best thing for us. Because no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. And so, we take God at his word. We believe him. We believe that our Father will give us the good things we need. And, in the same way, sometimes we will deny some temporary pleasure to our children because we have a better purpose in mind, there’s something better for them. There’s a lesson for them to learn, something for them to grow in, and yet oftentimes we just lavish goodness on them. We act with love towards them. All right? We act with love towards them. In the same way our Father, in infinite perfection, so much better than we are toward our children, our Father loves us. And he loves you this morning. He loves you. And whatever he has allowed in your life, whatever he has brought into your life, and whatever he has withheld, he does it with good intention. He does it with the eyes of love.
Another one of the old hymns expresses it so well,
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
We are secure in Christ, because God is for us. And we’re secure in Christ because God gives us everything we need. He gives us everything we need because he’s already given us Christ.
And then thirdly, here’s the third reason we are secure in Christ.
3. If we are in Christ, then no accusation can stand against us.
You see this in the question raised in verse 33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” And so this question brings us into God’s court of law, it brings us into the tribunal of God’s justice. And Paul asks, “Who can bring a charge against us? Who can bring an accusation against us?”
And again there’s lots of ways we could answer the question. You could say, “Well, people sometimes accuse me.” David said that in Psalm 3, “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.” Sometimes people accuse us.
Sometimes my own conscience accuses me. Your conscience accuses you. Remember how Shakespeare wrote, “My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain”? You’ve got this accusing conscience whispering in your ears, reminding you of all the bad things you’ve done.
And then the devil accuses us. Revelation 12 calls him the “accuser of the brothers.”
But Paul says, “Who can accuse us? Who can bring any charge against us?” It’s a rhetorical question, and the understood answer is, “No one!” And the reason is because it is God who justifies. It is God who justifies. No one can bring any charge against us, no accusation can stand against us because it is God who justifies.
Now what does that mean? It means that God pardons our sins. He forgives us of our sins and he counts us as right in his sight. It means that God looks on us and he sees us covered in the perfect righteousness of his Son, and he declares us “Not guilty” in the eyes of the court.
Martin Luther one time, there’s a story told about Martin Luther, he used to have these intense personal battles with the evil one, with the enemy. He’d have these bouts with Satan. And there’s this story about this where Satan came accusing him of his sins and Luther would ask this question, “Is that all?” He’d have this list of sins in his head. The devil’s accusing him and he says, “Is that all?” And the devil would say, no there’s many more. So Luther would say “Get the entire list, get the full list.” And the enemy would respond “The list is so long it would wrap around the world twice. Look at how black they are, look at how vile they are, look at how often you repeat them.” And Luther finally said “Is that all?” And the devil responded, “Yes, that’s all.” And Luther says write at the bottom of the list “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin.”
No one can accuse us. Why? Because it is God who justifies.
And again the hymn writers get it right, don’t they? The hymn writers, they’re following Paul, they give us poetry to express these things. There’s a great old hymn, I think of this often. It goes like this:
“Well, may the accuser roar
Of sins that I have done
I know them all and thousands more
Jehovah knoweth none!”
No one can accuse us. No charge can be laid against us. Why? Because it is God who justifies.
And then number 4:
4. If we are in Christ, no one can condemn us.
He’s almost saying the same thing, isn’t he? He’s actually asking the same question in a different way in verse 34, “Who is to condemn?” He’s asked, “Who can lay any charge against God’s elect, it is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” But then notice his answer, because now he gives us a fuller answer. He doesn’t only say it is God who justifies, it gives us the whole basis of it.
Romans 8:34: “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.
And right there you have the very essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel in four steps. In four events in the history of redemption or the history of salvation.
Let’s break this down, I want you to see this. “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died?” There’s crucifixion, the crucifixion of Christ. He died for us,and that’s why no one can condemn us.
But not only that, Paul says, “More than that, he was raised.” There’s the resurrection. The cross, then resurrection. Paul’s already said in this book that he was raised for our justification. We can’t be condemned, because Jesus was raised from the dead. When he was raised from the dead God was, as it were, pronouncing the verdict on him. “Here is my righteous Son!” And you see if we’re in him, then we are also declared righteous because we’re raised with him. We are righteous in him.
It’s not just that, he is also exalted. So you have his exaltation. “Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that the one who was raised, who is at the right hand of God.” He’s at the right hand of God, exalted to the right hand of God. This is the place of honor. Do you remember that Jesus, weeks after his resurrection from the dead, he was appearing to his disciples, and then he ascended into heaven; he ascended into glory. And in Acts chapter 2, when Peter is describing this, he says that Jesus is exalted at the right hand of God. He’s at the place of honor, the place of authority. The place of power, the exaltation of Christ. And he was exalted as one of us. He was exalted as the head of a new humanity, the second Adam, exalted in our place. Our flesh enthroned in the heavens.
And then Paul says one more thing. He says, not only that he is exalted at the right hand of God, he says “Who is, indeed, interceding for us.” He’s interceding for us. And you see, when you put these together, you’ve got the historical basis of the gospel and the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, and then you have the ongoing personal application of the gospel to us as Christ intercedes for us at the right hand of God.
What does that mean? What does it meant that Christ intercedes for us? Well, to intercede means to pray; it means to pray. It means to plead on the behalf of another. It’s what an attorney might do in court as he intercedes with the jury on behalf of the defendant. Or it’s what the priest does for the people as he intercedes on behalf of God’s people. And this is Christ, our advocate, Christ, our high priest, and he intercedes for us. He prays for us.
I love the way the church father Ambrose described the intercession of Christ. He said, “A child that is willing to present his father with a bouquet, goes into the garden, and there gathers some flowers and weeds together; but, coming to his mother, she picks out the weeds and binds the flowers, and so it is presented to the father.” Thus when we when we have put up our prayers, Christ comes and picks away the weeds, the sin of our prayers, and presents nothing but flowers to His Father, which are a sweet-smelling savour.”
He prays for us. He intercedes for us. He picks out the sins of our prayers and he presents to the Father the good that is in us without any of the sin. He present us to the Father clothed in his own righteousness and renewed by his gracious spirit.
A few minutes ago I referenced John Owen, a puritan, and Owen wrote the greatest book on assurance perhaps ever written in the English language. And there’s a place in that book where he’s try to help the doubting Christian, the Christian who feels doubts about his salvation because of his sins, and Owen said to this doubting Christian, he said, “God remembers the duties we forget, and he forgets the sins we remember.”
See this is good news folks. The gospel is not, “If you will live a good enough life, God will save you.” That’s not good news, that’s bad news. The gospel is not, “If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, then God will save you.” That’s bad news, because your bad outweighs your good. So does mine. The gospel is that Christ died for you and he rose on the third day and he was exalted to the right hand of God and now he’s at the right hand of the Father and he’s pleading everything he’s done on your behalf. And he’s not pleading it to an angry Father who doesn’t want to forgive you. He’s pleading it to his loving Father who sent him in the first place. He’s pleading the terms of the covenant. The Father sent the Son, the Son died for us to secure for us everything we need, he purchased redemption for us, and now Jesus takes it and says, “Father, look what I’ve done. Forgive them,” and he does.
I love the way Charles Wesley put it. This is another hymn for us. Wesley said,
“Five bleeding wounds He bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers,
They ever plead for me;
‘Forgive him, O forgive,’ they cry,
‘Don’t let that ransomed sinner die!’”
The wounds of Christ, there before the throne of the Father, are pleading for us. He’s interceding for us. Therefore, no one can condemn us.
So, we’ve seen four reasons so far for our security in Christ, and here’s is the fifth, and we’re nearly to the end.
5. If we are in Christ, nothing can separate us from his love.
We see this in verse 35 to the end of the chapter. Look at verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
And Paul’s now reaching the very height of his argument. Lloyd Jones says it’s like we are ascending a staircase, and we get to the top step right here. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
And then Paul gives a litany of possibilities. I’ve already read them to you, tribulation and distress and so on. Shall these separate us from the love of Christ? And remember that Paul’s the one who suffered all these things. He suffered persecution. He was threatened by the sword. He was eventually even killed by the sword. Now, does that mean that somehow Paul was separated from the love of Christ? After all he was beheaded. No, not at all.
Because look at Paul’s conclusion in verse 37, he says, “No, in all these things [not from, but IN all these things] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Nothing can separate us. Not even death. I mean that’s the ultimate assurance, isn’t it? Death itself cannot separate you from the love of Christ. Ever feel afraid to die? Every time I get on an airplane like I did the last couple of days... And I had just seen a movie by the way, I had just seen Sully here, a week ago, which is the movie about the guy that landed the plane in the Hudson River. I was like, "Man, now I’m flying after seeing that movie!" And every time I get on a plane I’m like “Lord, if we crash, take me to glory.” I want to be ready, I’m trusting in Christ.
Our confidence that we will not be separated from Christ in death is that we’re in him! We’re in him. And we cannot be separated from him. Spurgeon one time was asked a question, “Of what persuasion are you?” This is kind of old Victorian English, “Of what persuasion…?” I think someone was trying to figure out which sect he belonged to. “Of what persuasion are you?” And Spurgeon answered, “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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
This is why we’re secure. We’re secure because we’re in Christ and nothing can separate us from his love. I know I’ve leaned on the hymn writers this morning, but I want to give us the poetry that so beautifully expresses this confidence.
One time a preacher asked the Southern Gospel singer Bill Gaither, “What are the greatest hymn lyrics ever written?” What are the greatest hymn lyrics ever written? Gaither thought for a moment, and then he began to quote or maybe even sing these words…
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
You get the picture? The whole sky is a parchment to write on. Every drop of water in the ocean is ink. Every blade of grass on the planet is a quill, every person on the planet is a scribe, and for all of us to try to write the love of God above, it’s going to drain the ocean dry! You can’t describe it. You can’t explain it. And nothing can separate us from it.
So why are we secure in Christ? Why are you believers secure in Christ? What confidence can you have that you will never be lost? Well, God is for you, that’s first. God has given his Son for you and therefore he will give you everything you need, that’s second. And no accusation against you can stand, that’s third. No one can condemn you because of what Christ has done for you, that’s fourth. And nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ.
Now I want to end in this way. The key to it all is being “in Christ.” That’s the key. If you’re in Christ, these things are true of you. And if you’re not in Christ, these things are not true.
But I want you to know this morning that if you are a sinner and you know that you need forgiveness, if you’re someone who wants salvation, you want to know God, you want a personal relationship with God, you can have that, and you can have it in Christ. All you need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus, confess your sins, ask him to redeem you, to save you. He will do it. You will be a new creation in Christ.
Spurgeon one time said (I’ll end with this) he one time said he was so sure of his salvation that he could grab onto a cornstalk, and swing out over the fires of hell, singing, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”
You can have that kind of assurance. We do have that kind of assurance. We may not feel it subjectively all of the time but it is there. We are secure in Christ. We will not be lost.
Let’s pray.
Gracious Father, how we thank you for your love and mercy and grace that you have shown us in your Son. Thank you that you have not only chosen us in Christ, you have called us to faith in Christ, you have justified us through his blood, you have sanctified us by your Spirit, we are assured that you will glorify us, making us like Jesus himself in glory. Thank you for these truths this morning. Thank you for these “unanswerable questions.” Thank you for the assurance we have, that if we are in Christ we can never be lost. May we rest in it this morning. May this help us spiritually and emotionally. May it give us confidence, no matter what we’re facing right now. Some of us are facing great difficulty. There are struggles. There’s suffering. There are hardships, there’s trials going on in our lives. Father, I pray that the truths of your word and the glories of the gospel that we’ve looked at today would help us and carry us and sustain us through our trials. So we thank you.
And as we come now to the Lord’s table, we come to celebrate what Christ has done for us. We come to celebrate the new covenant, that brings us into this undying relationship with the Lord Jesus. So as we eat bread, as we drink juice, may we do so mindful of what Christ our Lord has done for us. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
