Suffering and the Glory of God – Part VII
Part 7 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 7 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:31-39 addressing the question of whether the presence of evil and suffering in the world means that an all-powerful and all-loving God can really exist. This sermon was originally preached March 2nd, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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March 2nd, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Suffering and the Glory of God – Part VI
Romans 8:31-39
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.
Introduction
Good morning everyone. Today we start to look at the last 8 verses of Romans 8, we’ll take two weeks on them and then that will conclude our “Suffering and the Glory of God” series dealing with this latter half of Romans 8.
We started this current series “Suffering and the Glory of God” back in mid-January. As we study through the book of Romans it helps to break things up by following the themes that present themselves and the theme of the second half of Romans 8 is all about suffering. Suffering is a huge issue for everyone in the whole world no matter what your religion or race…what do you do with the presence of evil and suffering in the world? People everywhere experience massive pain and tragedy and hardships…things like floods, fires, earthquakes and hurricanes and things like cancer, aids, and the flu.
One of our community groups is going through a video series based on a book called “Jesus Among Other Gods” by Ravi Zacharias. In a few weeks they’ll come to the chapter on suffering. The beginning of that chapter starts with a letter from a man who sought counsel from Ravi, here’s a part of that letter, “On August 4, 1997 at 3:15pm, my son, Adam Mark Triplett, died in an airplane accident. It happened in the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin. Adam was a flight instructor for a local flight school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Adam was a respected student, fine musician, professional pilot, devoted friend, and dedicated Christian man. He was also a delightful brother, husband, and son. My only son. Adam died at the age of 23, after only three months of marriage. I can’t imagine life without him…” The letter goes on to explain this father, agony and turmoil and questions that arose dealing with guilt and why God would do such a thing if there is a God.
For so many, this an extremely difficult question. If there is a God then how can he really be both all-powerful and all-good at the same time. If he was really all-good then why wouldn’t he use his power to stop it? Evil and pain and suffering and tragedy is an issue for everyone. What do you do about it and the answer to that question so often ends up determining the course of someone’s life. For some it is simply too painful, so they turn to the answer of eastern religion, that evil is ultimately not really real, and the way to deal with it is to become one with the universe…so you separate yourself from it and just accept it.
For others that answer will not suffice, they are simply too angry and hurt. Right now, the number 9 on the New York Times best seller list is a book called, “God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer” written by a man named Bart D. Ehrman. Here is an excerpt from the very first paragraph of the book,
“If there is an all-powerful and loving God in this world, why is there so much excruciating pain and unspeakable suffering? The problem of suffering has haunted me for a very long time. It was what made me begin to think about religion when I was young, and it was what led me to question my faith when I was older. Ultimately it was the reason why I lost my faith.”
The rest of the book goes on to describe how he thinks the Bible contradicts itself and does not provide an adequate answer. I’ll leave you the judge of that today after we look into this text because I think it speaks directly to that question.
I’ve given you this extended introduction today, just to try and paint a picture for you of how big this issue is, why we’ll have spent about two months talking about it on Sunday mornings and then hopefully sort of set up the verses that we’ll look at today, so that they will just shine like a massive beacon of light into your soul and you will see and hear about how good God is shown to be by giving us His Son to conquer suffering. So let’s read the text and pray.
God these words are beautiful and massive and I pray that you would somehow enable me in these moments to work with them in a way that points to the beautiful massiveness of who you are and what you have done in Jesus Christ to provide an answer and not just answer but an eternal solution to the great difficulty of suffering. I pray that for some today, the light of the gospel would come on for them of what happened on that cross Jesus died upon and three days later came back to life. I pray that for some today, you would put a rock under their feet so that when the suffering storms come, they can know they are on a sure foundation and be convinced that you are not against them. I pray that for some today who are hurting or sick or have ones they love who are suffering, that you would console and comfort their hearts with the loving and sure arms of Jesus Christ our Lord. In his name, Amen.
What Shall We Say to These Things
This passage of Scripture is built and designed to give you a massive assurance in the face of suffering! It’s mood is like the drum beat of an army sergeant marshaling forward, “If God is for us who is against us! Will he not give us all things! Who will bring a charge! Who will condemn! Who will separate us from Christ!” No one. That is the resounding answer to the rhetorical exclamations. The overall tenor begins militant and ends in a kiss. This passage combines the elements of beautiful sweet sweet song with a brilliant line of reasoning, and then concocts them together in a poetic connection of words.
Saint Paul begins with a series of questions, “what then shall we say to these things?” These things, is an encompassing statement. Surely it refers things he just said and then so much more because of the scope of things he mentions. What shall we say about God’s plan, what shall we say about suffering, what shall we say about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, what shall we say about these things?
Paul has used that phrase, “what shall we say” a few times before. He used it in Romans 7 when he talked about the law and it’s role in our lives (7:7) and he used it in Romans 6 when he talked about us abusing God’s grace (6:1), and now he uses it to talk about suffering.
God is Not Against Us
Here is the big question. When we suffer, it seems like God is against us in some way. It’s what we read a moment ago from the letter to Ravi. What is Paul’s answer? “If God is for us, who can be against us?” He answers the question with a question. But you say, isn’t that the issue. If God is God and is all-powerful, then the fact there’s suffering means he must not be good and he must be against us. So how do you know, Mr. Paul that God is for us?
Look at how he first responds 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?” This is a monumental verse. There is some big things at work here. Let me unpack them for us.
First, who is the Son? Notice the word “own” do you see it there? In Romans, Paul says Jesus is the Son of God, here he is God’s own son. Here he is differentiating Jesus to all the other sons and daughters of God of humanity. There is something different and unique and special to Jesus, namely that he is God. He is fully God and fully man at the same time, how presses us beyond the ability of our human understanding but the Bible is clear on this and we learn why it is a joy to us in a moment. For right now, just recognize this word “own,” Jesus is God’s own unique son.
In the gospel of John, one of the four books of the Bible that tell the events of Jesus life and ministry, in John 3:16, the apostle John says something similar, he says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” Those two words, only son is one word in Greek, monogenes. Mono is one, genes is where we get the English word “gene.” Monogenes, one gene, one kind, one unique Son of God. There is only one like Jesus.
Then look what Romans says about God’s only unique son, back to vs.32, God “did not spare him,” but “gave him up for us all.” What does he mean “not spare” and “gave him up” or “Delivered him up” (which is probably how I would translate this here)? Let try to illuminate the meaning here by re-reading a verse I read two weeks ago for us all from the first sermon ever preached in Jesus’ church. Acts 2:32 “…this Jesus, (was) delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, (whom) you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
What Paul is pointing to and what Peter says is the shocking truth that it was not mainly Judas who gave Jesus up for money, it was not mainly Pilate who gave Jesus up out of fear, it was not mainly the Jewish leaders who gave Jesus up out of envy, and it was not mainly the soldiers who nailed him up because of their orders…but it was God. God deliberately plan and orchestrated every single event that took place surround the birth and life and death of Jesus, his Son. As Isaiah 53:10 says, “it was the will of the LORD to crush him.” God killed Jesus.
It is shocking. This is horrible. Why or how could God do such a thing? Is this some demented form of cosmic child abuse or something? I means, seriously. I think of my little three month old daughter, there is no situation where I would ever think it right or okay, to plan to have her killed. Can this really be so and why would God do it, why?
The answer is in the second part of verse 32, God did this, delivered up his own unique Son, so that we would know that “he will graciously give us all things.” Do you see those words? God did it for us, so that we would know that we have a God who is not far off somewhere who has no clue about what we are going through and does not care about our suffering. We have a God who entered right into the middle of it! God knows what it feels like to us. Jesus experienced the whole gamut of human emotions. He knows what it feels like to be poor, to be homeless, to be hungry, to be alone, to feel abandoned, to be betrayed, to have his bodily organs break down and suffer immensely. God knows our suffering.
And if God did that, if he gave his only son and subjected him to the dishonor of being treated like a poor homeless bum while he walked the earth, though he was the king of the universe. If God endured people breathing out lies and hatred because Jesus did miracles and healed people and loved them, making them so angry to the point that he is arrested and whipped and beaten and nailed to a bloody cross…if God did all that for you what won’t he do! He didn’t spare his own son, the most valuable and high and precious possession in existence, but he gave him up. If God is that committed to saving his children, you can know God is not against you. He loves you more than you could ever dream.
The Accuser, The Elect and The Justifier
This brings us to verse 33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” I haven’t said anything about it yet but some of you might have picked up on it and noticed that we went into a courtroom today. Suffering is on the stand and Paul is marshalling question after question. He is in peak form showing what a masterful lawyer he was. It becomes crystal clear in this verse, “What charge are you going to bring now!” Defendant, he’s your witness. And the defendant’s lawyer is silenced and has nothing to say.
There are three people brought up in these verses, the accuser, the elect and the justifier. First the accuser, the one who would bring charge. Many do. There’s the charge of Mr. Bart Ehrman, that suffering is “God’s Problem” and that the “Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer.” There’s that charge.
But I think there is even a deeper charge, one that comes up speaks doubts and lies into our head. The Bible has many names for Satan, the evil one who attempts to do everything he can to draw us away from loving and trust God. One of his names comes both from the book of Zechariah and the book of Revelation and the name is “the accuser of the brothers (Zech 3:1 and Rev. 12:10).
What does he accuse of? I think it goes like this, at least it goes like this for me. It that voice which brings up past faults and failures and sins and says that I blew it. I had my chance, but I screwed up, bad, and God does not want me and is not going to bless me. There’s just not any hope for me. Sometimes it comes out like that for me. That’s an accusation. I know you experience it too.
One of you whom I love dearly asked me a couple months back, “Duane, why don’t give up on me? Don’t you think your just wasting your time, I’m a mess bro.” That’s an accusation of the devil from the pit of hell because we have a God who gave up his only son for us and will stop at nothing to see us come to know his love for us in Jesus. God is continually taking the bad things of our life and turning them and working them for good and forming us more and more into the image of his son Jesus.
That’s one accusation, that we are a lost cause. Here’s another one. Sometimes it comes out like this for me, nothing is free Duane, you will only experience blessing in your life if you work really hard and do things right. And so I start to try and try and try and I can never seem to do it right, God’s standard of perfection is just too high, and so I start to feel there is no hope for me. The accusation says Duane you have to earn your salvation but your never going to make it so why don’t you just give up.
I know you guys know this one too. I had a conversation with one of you not too long ago and we were talking about the challenges of life and living for God and you asked me if I remember the words correctly, “Well of course we have to earn our salvation don’t we, isn’t that is what it is about, improving ourselves spiritually?” That’s the trap and the lie of the accuser that tries to tell me that I have to do something on top of what Jesus has already done. It’s one that says I have to earn my salvation by working real hard on my spiritual life and do things just right. It’s an accusation that says Jesus was not enough when he is. Jesus lived the life I couldn’t and can’t, his life is sufficient for me, the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, not trusting in my own works and ability. You have to hit a point when you surrender and just give up and turn your life over and quit trying and embrace Jesus as your all.
There are many accusations, whether they are intellectual doubts that are thrown in from the outside or whether they are internal turmoil from the lies of the enemy who wants to try and tell us that God does not love us and there is no hope for us.
Have you noticed how much I have used the word “us” today? That’s been intentional because that’s what this passage of Scripture we’re working with does. “God is for us.” So no one can be “against us.” God gave up his son “for us all.” And God will “graciously give us all things.” Us. He says it four times and then he changes the word us in verse 33 and does use “us” but says we are “God’s elect.” What’s that about?
We’ll talk extensively about this word “elect” in our next sermon series when we get into Romans 9. So for now I’ll just say this, it has to do with God’s plan. God planned to send his son into the world to die and God also planned to save people, that as we learned a couple week ago in verse 29, people that he foreknew or foreloved. Jesus took names to the cross with him. The cross wasn’t just some chance half court hail Mary shot to see if something might work. No God planned to save his children and gather together his family by delivering Jesus up for them. So how do you know if you’re one of the “us” or one of the “elect”? It’s simple, Jesus and his death and resurrection is everything to you.
Let me tell you about my personal faith my friends. I’m a smart dude. I used to say that or rather think that with a lot of pride and gusto, thinking that I was great and better than so many people because I’ve been through a lot of school and have three degrees and I know what words like theanthropos and supralapsarianism mean and I like reading stuff that is really hard to read and uses 9 plus letter words. My faith was very much wrapped up in my head knowledge and thinking that I was right and I had it figured out. You know what my faith looks like a lot these days? A whimper. A pathetic cry for help. So many of my prayers these days are the most simple, childlike pleas…”Jesus help me,” “Jesus save me,” “Jesus change my heart,” “Jesus I need you.”
So I say this to you. I’ve been a real Christian now for almost 12 years and you know what brings me to my knees and causes me to fall apart and love God more than anything else in the whole world? I said it to my wife over dinner two nights ago, “That Jesus died for me.” That’s how you know.
Well, we’ve talked about the accuser and we’ve talked about the elect, now there’s this one last person, the “God who justifies.” Paul here names justification as the very character of God. It’s not the first time, back in Romans 3:26 he said that God did what he did in Jesus so that “he might be both just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” What’s that about? Just and justifier, what’s that mean?
It has to do with justice. For those of you who know who C.S. Lewis is, he was not always a Christian. He was a man who had rejected the idea of God because of the suffering and cruelty of life, much like Mr. Ehrman who we’ve talked about today. But C.S. Lewis became a Christian and God being both just and justifier was where the light went on for him. In his book “Mere Christianity” he writes, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of ‘just’ and ‘unjust’?”
He then goes one to describe how he realized that rejecting the existence of God because of suffering was based on a sense of fair play and justice, that suffering “ought” not to be. So in a great irony, the very sense of not liking suffering and having a sense that it is somehow wrong and evil turns out to be a great evidence for the existence of God, that there is a moral ground and source and that everything is not just meaningless, there must be a good God behind it all upholding this sense of moral law and justice.
But if that is true, then we are in deep trouble, because everyone of us has done things we know we ought not to do. That’s how the book of James in the Bible describes sin, when one “knows the good they ought to do and don’t do it.” And if morality is not just some vague principle but has it’s ground and it’s source in God, then when we sin, we don’t just violate a code we violate a person, God himself. And that puts us in a huge predicament, because if God is going to uphold morality he must punish sin or he’s not just, he’s not good, he would be an immoral judge if he let sin go unpunished and just sweep it under the rug like it never happened.
A man was caught and arrested three days ago up in Encinitas for raping several women. If a judge just let the man go, and said don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal, the public would cry out…that judge is not a good judge.
So what does God do? He sends his own divine son Jesus into the world. Jesus never sins, always does the good he ought to do, so he deserves no punishment and therefore can be a substitute for sinners who deserve punishment. So he goes to the cross in our place and receives the punishment we deserve and satisfies the debt sinners owe to God. Because Jesus is God, his life is has an eternal or infinite value, so that death on the cross was not just an event of human suffering. You have eternity on the cross! And because of that, all who embrace Jesus person and work as their own, receive it’s benefits and escape eternal punishment for violating God’s just moral law.
This is the great exchange. This is an amazing plan of God that through becoming a man in Jesus and living the life we couldn’t and then dying the eternal death we deserve in our place, he is able to still uphold his justice and yet provide mercy so that we might not suffer forever. That is amazing plan and provision of God! God is a God who justifies.
Jesus on the Throne
Well let’s conclude this morning’s message with verse 34. “Who is it 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.” Here we move from the courtroom to the throneroom.
Jesus’ resurrection is the stamp of God’s approval that what Jesus did worked. The transaction, the great exchange worked. God is both just and justifier. It brings reality to everything that I’ve said this morning. If Jesus had just died and was still dead, it would just be another sad tragedy in the course of sad tragedies in the human history of suffering. But when Jesus rose, he was vindicated! He was shown to be who he was all along, the king of glory! The Lord of the universe! In Romans 1:4, one of the first verses of this book we are studying, Paul says Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead!
Now Jesus lives! He hung out with several hundred people for a period of 40 days before ascended up into the air to go sit on his throne in heaven! The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection was and is undeniable. It’s why when Peter preached the first sermon of the church 3,000 people became Christians. Because many saw Jesus crucified and then saw him after he came back to life. The immediate implication is, Jesus really is who he said he was and can really save our souls and solves the eternal problem of human pain and suffering! There’s resurrection! It’s good news.
Now for some of you maybe that just seems like fantasy. Like some crazy religious fanatics story. Like something you would only see in the movies. Maybe you are like Bart Ehrman. He says, if God really enters into our world and our suffering in Jesus, then where is he now, why doesn’t he enter into world today, so that I can know and be convinced and have hope as well?
My answer is this, if God repeated those sacred events in every generation it would demean the significance of the grand scope of what Jesus did that makes salvation possible for people across all different places and time periods. Jesus did not leave himself without witness. There is overwhelming external witness. So much so that Paul said if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then our preaching is useless and our faith is in vain, Christianity is done with.
But God has also left witness in our hearts. We could talk all day long about reasons to believe that God exists that that the Bible is true and that Jesus really lived and died and rose. But when it comes down to it…in our heart we all know God really exists. We know there is one true God and we know that Jesus lives and is the hero and the savior. That’s why every movie has a Christ figure, someone who saves the day or is delivered out of some dilemma. We know we need a Jesus. And we know he lives today. I can tell you from the depths of my soul, “I’ve never seen him with my eyes, but I know my redeemer lives.”
Conclusion
So here’s my conclusion today as we go to the table and eat the bread and the wine, receiving and remembering the life and the death of Jesus for us… Meditate on these things: You have a God who loves you immensely. He is not against you, he gave his son for you and no matter what anyone says, no matter what thoughts might enter your head when you face suffering, you can know that God loves you because he came into the world and died for you. He knows your suffering, your heartache, your pain, and he walks with you through the valley of the shadow of death.
If you are hurting today, allow pastor Jesus to minister to you, to wrap his loving arms around you. If you have been afflicted with accusing thoughts, allow pastor Jesus to tell you that he is enough and he all you need. If you have harbored resentment and hatred and anger toward God because you haven’t known or understood your suffering, lay it down at the table today. If you have been trying to make your life work and trying so hard to get it right, give up today, and let Jesus be your justifier. Above, know today that Jesus is real and he present here in this room and he is so worthy of all our love and praise and adoration and worship. Let’s pray and thank him for being such a great God and savior.
