Reading:
Romans 8:31-39
Our
hearts have been directed to the glorified Lord Jesus, as
the object and as the inspiration of Christian life,
endurance, and service. We have looked at Him on the
Mount of Transfiguration, and have seen a little of what
that meant, for the rest of their lives, to the men who
were with Him, and what Christ glorified meant to all the
others who, at different times, and in different ways,
and at different places, saw Him in glory - Stephen, and
Paul, and later still, John.
John, in
speaking many, many years afterward of the sole
impression that remained with him from the time spent
with the Lord Jesus, summed it all up in one marvellous
phrase: a parenthesis it is in his gospel, but was there
ever a more important and wonderful parenthesis?
"The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten of
the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
What they saw, when they saw the Lord Jesus in His glory,
was the manifestation of the grace of God.
This
portion of Paul's Roman letter, which we have just read,
seems to me to be Paul's way of stating what he saw in
the face of Jesus Christ. After dwelling much upon this
part of the Word, the impression has come to me, at this
point, that this is what the apostle was working toward
all the way through; this is his release. He has been
doing a piece of very laborious work; he has set himself
to a great treatise - and it is that - it has defeated
all the greatest minds, ever since, in their efforts to
fathom this letter and to interpret it. But you have a
feeling as you read, and arrive at this point, that now
the apostle said, 'Now that is that; let me say what I am
after all the time, what I have really had in mind; let
me unburden my heart'. And he does so here. 'These
things' to which he refers - 'What shall we say to THESE
THINGS?' - all THESE THINGS that he has been
saying, what is the upshot? What do they all point to?
'What is the supreme significance and implication of all
that I have been saying?' And he goes on to answer his
own question, and to release from his heart this thing
that has been there, prompting all his effort and
undertaking. It is this mighty, mighty revelation of THE
LOVE OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST.
I say he
was working toward that. It is a painful process. The
first stage of the letter, as you know, is occupied with
that painful necessity, that so unpleasant necessity -
the exposing of sin. He does it very thoroughly; he goes
through the whole Gentile world, and gives, not an
exaggerated picture, but a very terrible picture, of sin.
There is no place in the whole Bible where sin in its
awfulness is more exposed than in the early part of this
letter. It is a terrible picture of human sin in its
natural state. And he proceeds from the Gentile world to
the Jewish world, the world of Israel. Although elect,
chosen, called, separated, and given so much of Divine
deposit and trust and revelation, Israel had to have the
Law. You do not need a police force in a perfect State;
you do not need law if there is no lawlessness. The very
giving of the Law, Paul says, is only another proof that
in this matter of sin Jews are no better than other
people. 'By the law sin is manifested.' I have spoken of
the Police Force: the very presence of a policeman says
that there is wrong in the world; the very presence of
the law means that there must be lawlessness. And so
Israel is no better than the rest. Sin is universal; sin
is in every creature; sin is the state of the whole
creation. It is a terrible exposure, uncovering, but very
necessary. I am quite sure that, when Paul got to the end
of it, he sighed a sigh of relief, he was glad to get
past that, to get on to something better than that -
really what he was after.
You see
the point: THIS is what he is after! he must do
that - and God must make us know sin, the reality of sin,
the awfulness of sin; sin must become a terrible thing
with us, before ever we can appreciate the grace of God.
No one ever appreciates Divine grace who has seen little
or nothing of the sinfulness of sin in their own heart.
Great pains, then, are taken in this letter to expose the
reality and the nature of sin, and its effects; not in
order to bring condemnation, not to make people
miserable, but just to lead to the grace of God - to
enhance Divine grace. So, the apostle says, 'where sin
abounded' - bounded over Gentile and Jew, over the race,
over the whole world; a great wave has passed over and
inundated the whole creation - where sin, like a great
ocean, spread itself, ABOUNDED, grace did SUPER-ABOUND!
Grace was greater than the greatness of sin!
So he
comes to this at last: "What then shall we say to
these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"
It is a marvellous thing: and, as you can well see, the
apostle is speaking much out of his own experience and
history here, when he catalogues these things which are a
real threat to hope and to life and to prospect. Very
real and terrible things they are that he catalogues
here. 'Shall tribulation...?' Paul knew something about
tribulation; tribulation in his experience was a very
real thing indeed. 'Or anguish...?' - yes, we find Paul
more than once in anguish; anguish over the spiritual
state of his beloved converts, and the churches. To the
Thessalonians he speaks twice of his 'travail' for them -
his anguish. 'Or persecution...?' Paul knew quite a bit
about that! 'Famine...' - he tells us he was in hunger;
'nakedness...' - yes, in nakedness; 'or peril, or
sword...' And if that is not enough, 'death... life...
angels... principalities... things present... things to
come... powers... height... depth...', 'and', he says, 'I
cannot go on enumerating and analysing any more' - '...or
any other creation' - that covers everything! 'I am
persuaded that there is nothing in creation - all these
things and anything else that you would like to gather
into that - I am persuaded that none of these things
shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus.' That is GRACE!
Sin need
not separate us from the love of God! Do you believe
that? Sin need not separate you from the love of God,
because of Romans 8: 'One died...'; 'it is Christ Who
died, yes, rather, that is risen'; and, further, He is
'at the right hand of God making intercession'.
Therefore, sin need not, and, on that ground, cannot
separate us from the love of God.
Now,
whether we individually experience all the things that
are mentioned here, or not, the fact is that there are a
great many things that are given a complexion by the
forces of evil, with the object of separating us from the
love of God. Suffering, anguish, persecution, death, and
even life - for life can be a terrible thing for some
people - many things that come into our experience, are
just played upon by these forces of evil everywhere, to
tell us that the love of God is not a reality; that God
does not love us - this is proof positive; this is the
evidence! In this storm, when the winds blow from every
quarter, when all the elements are against us, we need an
anchorage; we need something that will hold.
There is
no question about Paul's devotion to the Lord; he knew in
his own heart that there was no controversy between him
and the Lord; he was not aware of being in revolt against
the Lord, or being contrary to the known will of God; his
whole being was poised and focused upon the pleasure of
his Lord, to be well-pleasing unto Him - he knew it. And
yet, with that in his heart, he is meeting all these
things: his ministry is being discredited; his name is
being defamed; he is suspect wherever he goes; he moves
all over the world in an atmosphere of suspicion and
ostracism, and not only in the world, but amongst
Christians; he is not universally loved even in the
churches that had their existence through his ministry.
No, this thing has spread, like an awful vapour,
everywhere, to somehow destroy this man and his ministry;
and there were not a few who would be glad if he were
dead. He knew it. And in these many forms of expression
he met it almost every day of his life.
A man,
or a Christian, meeting things like that, needs an
anchorage. When things beat on you, and sorrow overwhelms
you, you need an anchorage. Your anchorage will not be
self-vindication - or self-justification - you will not
get anywhere along that line; your anchorage will not
even be your own sense of rightness. The only anchor that
will hold in all this is God's love for you. You may make
mistakes - and we are always wrong when we think of Paul
or any other apostle as being faultless. I used to feel,
in younger days, that it was a terrible thing to allow
myself to think that Paul could be wrong, or that any
other apostle could be wrong, or make a mistake. I
thought these men must be infallible. Oh, no, it is we
who are wrong when we take that attitude. Paul made
mistakes, and he let himself in for difficulties by his
mistakes; but what he came out with was this. The love of
God is not changed when I make mistakes; the love of God
does not let me go when I make mistakes. When I default,
make wrong decisions, take wrong directions, perhaps say
wrong things - that does not break the cable between my
soul and the anchor of His love; it holds! 'I am
persuaded... persuaded that none of these things -
anything in the creation that you can mention' -
"shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
That is
what Paul saw in the face of Jesus Christ. John's word
for it was: "full of grace and truth". Paul
would have endorsed that; indeed, this is his great
endorsement. Sin - yes, horrible, awful, despicable,
wicked, cruel; unfaithfulness, on the part of Israel;
departure from Divine intention - yes (for you know he
throws in a section immediately after chapter 8; the next
two or three chapters are a section by themselves to
illustrate his point). But it does not make any
difference to the Divine love. Let us think about that
just for a moment - this section that he puts in to
illustrate his point. Israel: 'Hath God cast off His
people? God forbid!' (11:1) - it is one of his nine 'God
forbids' in this letter. Yes, but look what Israel has
done! Look at Calvary - look at their work; look at
Stephen - look at their work; look at what they are doing
everywhere - ISRAEL!
Yes,
they may be under judgment; they may be suffering for
their sin, their wickedness, their iniquity; they may
have been set aside for the dispensation as God's
instrument because of their unfaithfulness. 'But', says
the apostle, 'that has not ended God's love for them'.
Judgment in this world, and in this life, is never a
proof that God's love is at an end; it may be the very
proof of His love. It is better for us to suffer when we
do wrong, in order to discover something new of His love
through suffering. I venture to say that many of us have
come to what little we do apprehend of the Divine love,
through the realization of our own faultiness, and what
it leads to. But Israel is a great illustration; and even
yet, a spiritual company from the natural Israel will be
found in the Kingdom, and in the Church. God has not
washed His hands of them eternally as a people, and said,
No Jew, no Israelite, will ever again have a chance. Not
at all! Bad as they have been, and done what they have
done, He has set His love upon them, and His love will
keep the door open.
But you
see the message. 'Who shall separate us from the love of
God?' 'What shall we say to these things? If God is for
us' - and this is how He is for us, and where He is for
us, and when He is for us, and through everything His
love - what shall we say? Well, after making this
tremendous sweep of Divine love, and then illustrating it
with Israel in this most impressive way, he answers his
question, his interrogation, by saying: "I beseech
you therefore... by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service" (12:1). What shall we
say? The answer must be not in words, but in an act -
'present your bodies, by the mercies of God'. That 'love
so amazing, so Divine, demands our souls, our life, our
all.'
'Sirs,
we would see Jesus.'
What are
you looking for? This is what you ought to see when you
see Jesus - the Love of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.