The One Who Is for Us
The One Who Is for Us by Rev. L. John Gable
May 13, 2018
One Sunday morning the pastor invited the children down for the children’s message and asked them, “Who loves you?” Now, these kids were children’s sermon veterans, so almost in one voice they all said, “God”. It reminds me of the pastor who said, “I’m thinking of something that is grey, has a bushy tail, lives in a tree and eats nuts.” One little boy raised his hand and said, “Sounds like a squirrel to me, but I know the answer is Jesus.”
The pastor that morning was intending to go in a slightly different direction, so asked the children again, “Point to someone who loves you”, and immediately the children stood up and began pointing to their mothers and fathers and grandparents and Sunday school teachers and childcare workers seated around the sanctuary.
If you were asked this very same question, “Who loves you?”, whether it is Mother’s Day or not, many of us would immediately think of our mothers, I know I would. Mothers, in general, have a remarkable track record of loving, supporting, encouraging, being there with and for, and never giving up on their children. Where does that come from? I can’t help but think it has something to do with the birth process. Despite their waywardness and rebellion every mother knows that their children were born of them and are a part of them. There is a special bond between mothers and their children even when that bond is strained by heartache and brokenness. How many of us could, or would like to, thank our mothers for loving us and hanging in there with us particularly when we weren’t being very loveable?
The children during the children’s sermon that morning were on to something, though. In answer to the question, “Who loves you?” they innately spoke a truth when they answered “God.” This is exactly the point Paul is making when he makes this remarkable claim in our lesson this morning: “If God is for us, who is against us?” He appears to be asking a question, “IF” God is for us, when in fact he is making a statement, “SINCE” God is for us, who could possibly be against us, and even if they are, what could it possibly matter, SINCE God is for us?”
Chapter 8 in Romans is truly one of the great chapters in all of Scripture. It is beautiful, convicting, convincing and compelling. We have now spent three weeks in chapter 8 alone and I know we have only scratched the surface of its teaching. We pick up today at verse 31 where Paul asks, “What then are we to say to these things?” To what “things” is he referring? Look in chapter 8 alone where he reminds us of these great promises of our faith. Verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Verses 14 and following: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. When we cry “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Verse 28: “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” “What then are we to say to these things”, and so many other promises which we have been given? Paul summarizes his response rather simply by stating, “If God is for us, who could be against us?”
But how do we really know this about God? How do we really know that God is for us, particularly when we live in such a hostile environment? What proof do we have that God loves us? The Psalmist states it plainly as he calls us to “Bless the Lord, o my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and do not forget all His benefits”, for God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” How do we know that about God? The greatest proof of God’s love is this: “He who did not withhold His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also give us everything else?”
What loving parent wouldn’t do anything for the sake and well-being of their children? What loving parent wouldn’t go to any extreme to make sure that their children are safe from harm and well-taken care of? This is what God has done for us, His children, in Jesus Christ. God has gone to the greatest possible extent to show the depth of His love: the sacrifice of His own Son for us and our salvation. And what did we do to deserve it? Nothing, absolutely nothing. We are rebellious, unruly, self-centered little beings, defiant or at least oblivious to God’s love, yet that doesn’t dissuade God from loving us, rather it makes Him love us all the more, because we are His children whether we acknowledge that relationship or not. So, to prove His love for us He sent His one and only Son to die for us and our salvation. That act alone is sufficient proof of God’s loving grace.
That understanding of God’s unconditional love is, I believe, the greatest argument for infant baptism. This morning we baptize Rachel Jean McClelland and Jackson James Flanagan. I think it is safe to say that neither of them will ever remember anything that happened to them today. They won’t remember the sermon or the prayers said over them or the water that was sprinkled on their foreheads with the sign of the cross, but their parents will, and their grandparents will, and we will as their church family, because we, like their parents and grandparents have made promises to help love and support and encourage them in the love of the Lord; but most importantly, God will remember what we have done here today, because God has loved these children even before we have. And hard as it may be to believe, God loves these little ones even more than we do. Like a parent’s love for their children, long before they know it; long before they recognize their parent’s faces or ever call them “mommy and daddy”; long before they ever come to realize how dearly they are loved, they are loved. They grow up in that love and nurture and one day they come to understand and accept it. Friends, that’s how it is with God’s love for us. God’s love for us has nothing to do with what we have done and everything to do with what God has done for us; it is not about who we are, but who God is!
So, “If God is for us, who could be against us?” One answer to that question could be “No one!”, but Paul answers his own question in a slightly different way. “Who could be against us? Who is in a position to condemn us? Only Christ Jesus!” Only Jesus is in a position to judge and condemn us, no one else, so don’t listen to the voices of those who try to put you down, who try to put you in your place, saying you’re not good enough, not smart enough, not good looking enough, not capable enough, not loveable enough because those voices don’t matter, even when they are your own voice speaking those untruths to you. The only voice that matters is the voice of the One who made you and who tells you that He loves you. The only One who is in a position to judge and condemn is Jesus and He died for you, He was raised for you, He is now seated at the right hand of God praying for you.
We claim that great promise of our faith every time we say the Apostles’ Creed except for one slight variation. In the creed we say, “He was crucified, dead and buried, and on the third day He arose again from dead. He ascended in to heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the quick (living) and the dead”, but in our teaching this morning, Paul emphases not Jesus as “judge”, but Jesus as “prayer, intercessor”. He writes, “Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.” How much does God love us? So much so that He sent His Son for us and our salvation, so the One who is now in the very presence of God is not there to judge you or condemn you but is praying for you and for me, that’s how much He loves us. Jesus came in to the world in a way that we could see and know and understand, not because He is out to get us, to punish us, to condemn us, but in order to seek us and find us, to restore and redeem us because He is for us.
So given all of this, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship (no), or distress (no), or persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword? These are all things our ancestors in the faith had to face and endure at the hands of the Roman Empire and many of our brothers and sisters face still today under oppressive regimes around the globe. So, will any of these be able to separate us from the love of Christ? “No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things yet to come, nor powers, 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.”
Look again at a baby resting comfortably in their parent’s arms. They aren’t hanging on, they are being held. This is promise of the Gospel. We don’t have to hang on to God with all our might when things go against us, as surely they have or do or will. We are being held. We don’t have to wonder if God has forgotten us or abandoned us or given up on us. All we need do is lay hold of this promise that nothing, no thing, no one, can separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I have used this passage of Scripture in countless funeral services, most often as we stand at the graveside. Friends, if even death itself can’t separate us from God’s love, then we have nothing else to fear in this life.
I’m not sure how many of you have ever tried memorizing Scripture, but these short verses we have looked at today are surely worth the effort. When you lie awake at night worrying, when you are faced with a difficulty or a difficult decision or a difficult person, when you feel alone and defeated, unloved or unlovable, claim the promises we are given in Romans 8.
We all need someone who we know, no matter what, is on our side, who loves us and will never stop loving us. Those kids were on to something that morning when the pastor asked them, “Who loves you?” God does!
“And if God is for us, who could be against us? He who did not withhold His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not with Him also give us everything else? Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us, was raised for us, is even now in the presence of God praying for us. So who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword? No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things yet to come, nor powers, 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.” That’s who loves you. Amen.