Join Colin Cook in examining the essence of faith as described by Paul in Romans. This narrative challenges modern misconceptions of faith versus works and emphasizes the boldness required to navigate divine disciplines. As we delve into the deeper context of God’s judgments, learn why they are extensions of His love rather than rejections. Experience the freedom and assurance that comes from knowing God’s steadfast intention to save and uplift His elect.
As you explore this passage in Romans chapter 8, if God is for us, who can be against us, you get the sense, well, I must say, you get the sense after lots of thinking and pondering and studying, because I must say I was blind to this for quite some time, that Paul is getting his evidence from the Old Testament. You know, I said last time, how did Paul come up with, well, I asked that last time, how did Paul come up with all of this great and wonderful truth? Was it out of the top of his head? Did he simply give his own opinion? No, this man was a deep student of the Word of God, and he must have known what Ezekiel said, that is rather what God said through Ezekiel, In chapter 36, verse 9 of Ezekiel, I am for you. Now, you remember that just as Americans study their own history and British people study their history and we develop a great sense of identity from our history, Paul obviously studied Israel’s history too. But it was a very bleak history, wasn’t it? It was a history of disasters and disobedience towards God and failure of their mission. So Paul is very, very concerned about what God thinks about Israel. And you can imagine him reading the scrolls of Ezekiel and asking himself, What do all these judgments mean? The Babylonian captivity, God allowing Israel to be taken into captivity, the judgments that came upon Israel, the sword and the famine, and all of these terrible things that hit them. Does this mean that God has rejected them? No. And yet when Paul was reading Ezekiel, he would read chapter 37, which said that God will raise the whole house of Israel, the whole house of Israel from the dead. And he must have asked himself, this is astonishing. God has just brought these judgments upon Israel and yet he is saying, I am for you. How can that be? And then he would read chapter 16 of Ezekiel, which revealed that God had made an atonement so that he will or God will make an atonement in order to forgive Israel for all that they have done. And of course, before his belief in Jesus, he would wonder what that atonement was. And then it would dawn upon him, well, it would more than dawn, it would crash upon him like a ton of bricks, that Christ was that atonement, that Jesus, his contemporary, was this atonement. And it would just blow his mind, of course, which is why we have such a mind-blowing revelation of God in the book of Romans. Paul had looked at these scriptures, seen these judgments, and then seen the fact that God was providing an atonement and would raise Israel as a consequence, all Israel from the dead, and then realized that that atonement was Jesus Christ. All of that came to him, and he saw the statement of I am for you, Ezekiel 36, verse 9. And this would lead Paul to say, what then, in Romans 8, verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? My goodness, it’s just, to me, it’s astonishing. I… I’m an old Christian, and yet this is new to me, relatively, a year or three or four years of study in it. God is for us. You do not interpret God’s favor by the judgments that come upon you. Yes, certainly you recognize those judgments as coming from God, but not as God rejecting you, not as God turning away from you and sending you to hell, not as God annihilating you, rather disciplining you. And he said, I brought these things upon Israel to make them desolate, so that they might know that I am the Lord. My, this means that you and I have to, as I’ve said so many times, reinterpret our history. We do not look upon our history of disaster and things going wrong and goals not being fulfilled and disappointments and a divorce maybe or a death in the family that was terribly tragic and unexpected or a loss of a job or a loss of a fortune. We do not look upon these things as God’s rejection. We look upon them as God’s discipline, but he loves us still. Paul is persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God. And you remember last time I mentioned, I more than mentioned, we explored it, that this statement, if God is for us, is an astonishing truth because he has been spending all the time bringing up the evidence for Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. that Christ is God’s gift to the world. And therefore, we would expect Paul to say, if Christ is for us, who can be against us? But no, you see, Paul concludes that all of this is finally wrapped up in the sovereignty of God and the fatherhood of God for the human race, because God’s gift of his Son, is God’s gift of himself. And if Christ is for us, then God is for us, because all that Christ revealed to us came from the heart of God. Jesus made that very clear, the words that I speak unto you, I don’t speak of myself. They come from the Father. And so you and I have to realize what an enormous affront faith is to our mind. I get so tired sometimes of people talking about us who believe that we are saved by faith alone as when they say, well, only faith, there’s more to it than that, it’s faith and works. No, it’s not. It’s faith alone. Paul makes that very, very clear in Romans chapter 3, do you remember? Therefore, verse 28, 328, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. The works that follow are not contributing to salvation, but resulting from salvation. And that needs to be very, very clear. And so, Yet when we talk about faith, do we talk about something small and trivial? Well, it’s certainly something small in the sense that Jesus said even a grain of mustard seed is enough. But let me tell you, that grain of mustard seed is like an injection of something completely foreign into the mind, because you and I need to start believing that God is for us, even though the judgments and the troubles in the world come upon us. We might look at our life and say, well, I’m in the soup today. I’m in the situation I’m in because I disobeyed God, because I didn’t do this right and that right, and he brought judgments upon me. Yes, true enough, but you don’t stop there. You say that these judgments have led me to know that God is the Lord. These judgments do not separate me from the love of God. In fact, they draw me close to Him. This is why faith is such an alien force to the mind. It is why you and I need to be tough, courageous, and brave in regard to the exercise of our faith. We cannot be timid in regard to faith. Faith gives us boldness. Have you forgotten that? Look at, read the book of Hebrews all over again and notice how many times Paul, or rather the author of Hebrews, whether it’s Paul or not, we don’t really know, how many times the author of Hebrews refers to boldness. We come boldly before the throne of grace and so on. Yes, we do. Why? Because God has given us his Son. He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things? And that doesn’t mean you get your Lamborghini, that doesn’t mean you get your seven-bedroomed house. It means that God’s favor is upon you, and you receive all that you need in this life from our God. And if we walk with him, then many of our desires will become his, or rather, many of his desires will be ours, and we will be asking in accordance with his will. Then Paul says, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? Now, I want you to think of that. Why does he say it that way? Because he’s thinking in terms of a law court. He’s thinking in terms of a judgment. He’s thinking that somebody is judging you. Who is it? Is it God? No. Then who is it? It’s Satan. Satan is the accuser. Remember, that’s the meaning of the word Satan, the accuser. and it is God who is defending us against the accuser. Now, that takes a complete turnaround in regard to our faith sometimes, because we tend to think that God, since he brings judgments, is against us. On the contrary, you and I have a death wish. We are against ourselves. We do things that are self-destructive because we’ve been inspired by Satan from the days of our youth. And we, therefore, are working against our own best interests and God saying, I’m going to save you from yourself. I’m going to defend you from yourself. You are accusing your own self and I’m not going to let you do it anymore because I love you and I want you to have peace. And furthermore, Satan is accusing you and he wants to bring you down. Well, I don’t want to bring you down. I want to bring you up. I want to save you. I want to rescue you. I want to give you confidence. This is what the gospel is all about. So who shall bring, this is verse 33 of chapter 8, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? You say, ah, but Colin, it says elect. I don’t know whether I’m one of the elect. Look, Everybody is elected. That’s what we’re going to see in Romans chapters 9 through 11. God has determined, elected the world for salvation, that he might have mercy on all. That’s Romans 11 verse 32. All are elected. But different ones are called at different times. And we all get the message at different times. And those of us who got the message share that message with others to let them know that they are elected too. That’s how it happens. So then, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? When trouble comes upon you and you are inclined to think that God is angry with you and has rejected you and is punishing you and terminating you or sending you to hell, Your faith must rise up and say, Lord, I accept your judgment. I accept the correction you have put upon me, but I thank you that you are not rejecting me. I praise you that I am accounted righteous in Christ and that I am reconciled to him and that you have atoned for all my sins and that you are for me and not against me, even in all of these judgments. Thanks for listening today. Colin Cook here, and you’ve been listening to my broadcast, How It Happens. You can hear this broadcast any time of the day or night on your smartphone. 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