DAY EIGHTY-ONE:
More Than Conquerors
Things change, and, alas, not always for the better. We don't write letters much any more. It's so easy to make a phone call or send an email or text. Now video chatting allows us to visit as if we're face to face even when we're on opposite sides of the world. I think we've lost something very precious. John Adams, our second president, and his wife Abigail exchanged over 1,100 letters between 1762 (the beginning of their courtship) and 1801 (when John left office and public life). Here is just one of those letters, from Abigail to John. This was at a time when there wasn't a mailbox on the corner and a well-organized post office to deliver them. Letters could take months to reach the recipients. Letters didn't just share information. The writer's heart was also in that envelope. That's something emails don't do very well.
Paul was perhaps the greatest letter-writer of all time. He wrote letters to keep in touch with the churches he had founded and with individuals who meant a lot to him. Thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are his letters. Nine of them were to churches (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians Philippians, Colossians 1 and 2 Thessalonians) and four to individuals (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon). Some scholars believe that Paul also authored the Letter to the Hebrews. This week we'll look at letters to churches and next week we'll look at the letters to individuals.
Today we look at chapter 8 of Paul's letter to the Romans. It's virtually certain that Jews from Rome were in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and that some of them were among the 3,000 new believers born that day. The Gospel message went home with them. A common expression of the day, "All roads lead to Rome," was not much of an exaggeration. Commerce and governance brought people from all over the Empire to Rome. A vibrant church grew up very quickly. Paul heard the reports and wanted to check it out. He was providentially delayed from visiting Rome, so he wrote this letter. This 16-chapter letter divides neatly into two parts. Chapters 1-7 deal theological subjects, most notably the doctrine of justification (how we are saved from our sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ). Chapters 8 through 16 deal with how we live our lives based on what we learn in the first 7 chapters.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The word "therefore" marks a transition, a shifting of gears. The great and lofty theological lectures have very practical applications for everyday life. Let's follow Paul's logic in these first verses:
- It wasn't our own efforts that delivered us from sin and death;
- It was in fact Christ, who was born in the likeness of sinful flesh, who redeemed us through His death for us on the cross;
- Since our own efforts in the flesh did not justify us, we must live by the Spirit;
- If you are in the Spirit, you have died to the things of the flesh;
- "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (8:11)
Our redemption goes far beyond justification. Yes, our sins are forgiven and we bear the very righteousness of Christ. God also adopts us as His children. We are His heirs, named as beneficiaries in the Last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ. "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." (8:16-17) Welcome to God's great big family!!!! We've already received part of the estate that Jesus left us, and there's more to come.
Ultimately God will set everything right that was ruined in the Garden of Eden. The whole creation was a victim of Adam and Eve's sin. "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." In fact the creation "groans," waiting for its own deliverance from death. We think of heaven as some place up in the sky, with its residents walking on clouds. The Bible gives us a very different picture of heaven. In fact, the day will come when heaven and earth will be one, and we'll enjoy eternity on a restored planet. (Revelation 21)
What do we do in the meantime? We live in a world where the curse of sin and death is very much in evidence. We suffer from illness, injury and violence, things that are beyond our control. God is always in control, and He helps us in our weakness. When we don't know how we should pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us "with groanings too deep for words." And God brings good out of our ills. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." What an inexpressible comfort! God makes all the bad things work out for good- for our blessing or the blessing of others, and above all the glory of God.
Paul shows how our salvation comes to us in stages in verses 29-30:
- For those whom he foreknew- God knew us not just before we were born but before He created anything!
- he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.- He predestined, chose us to be His, before the foundation of the world, before we did anything.
- And those whom he predestined he also called,- there came a day when the Holy Spirit spoke to our hearts and irresistibly drew us to our Lord
- and those whom he called he also justified,- think of justified as "just as if" I'd never sinned. Jesus pleads for us before the Father's judgment, and we've been found not just not guilty (which merely means that the case wasn't proven) but innocent (absolutely cleared of any wrongdoing whatsoever)
- and those whom he justified he also glorified.- When we go to be with the Lord we'll be like Jesus in His resurrected state. The Book of Revelation tells us that the saints are dressed in white garments which signify their purity and perfection.
Our redemption, then, is a past, present and future thing. God foreknew and predestined us before the foundation of the world; He calls and justifies us in the present; and we look forward in the future to being glorified in Christ.
Paul ties it all together in the last verses of this chapter. Since we live and walk in the Spirit, and since God promises great things in the future, and since God helps us in our weaknesses, what more do we need? "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?" (31-32) No one has a right to accuse us, especially not Satan, because Jesus died for us and lives to intercede for us. In fact, nothing can separate us from our Savior. Nothing on or beyond this earth can sever our bond with Christ. They may take away our things, they may torture and even kill us, but no one can ever take our real treasure from us because it's stored in heaven. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." The phrase more than conquerors is just one word in Greek, hupernikao. You recognized a couple of English words in the first part- hyper and super. We are super-conquerors through Christ! We don't just win, we win BIG!!! We can handle anything that comes our way because Christ is in us. This picture sums it up beautifully:
Satan's greatest deception is to make us think that we're alone in our times of trials and temptations. Nothing could be further from the truth! Christ is with us always. More than that, the Body of Christ ministers to its hurting members. There's someone in the Body who has gone through what you're experiencing, whose experiences can help you in your time of need.
After you listen to this jaunty number from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir you'll be ready to take on the whole world!
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