Nothing Can Separate You

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, let's go now to the sermon. And our reading is Romans 8, 31 through 39. And so, again, we're in the middle of our Roman series. This is the halfway point. So at the end of Romans 8, we're halfway through the letter. I think the last eight chapters are probably a little shorter than the first eight chapters. So we're not really halfway by words. But this is the halfway point. And it really is a turning point. Because after this, the tenor and the tone of the letter change. And it gets more into the specifics. Of how exactly Jews and Gentiles are going to start building this beloved community together. And Paul gets into the details a little bit more. That's for future weeks. That's what's coming up. But I want to talk really quick about what we talked about last week. Last week, we were also in Romans 8. This is just to catch us up. The topic then was the flesh. It's that thing which is opposed to God's good plans for us. It's the seat of our appetites. Especially the appetites that can't be satisfied in God. And so these are all sorts of things. That we really don't want to be doing. But the flesh really wants them. And the Jewish people thought that the antidote to the flesh was the law. The law was this gift from God that could make them whole and good.

[1:11] And Paul says, you're absolutely wrong. The law actually just supercharges the flesh. It makes it want things that it didn't even know it wanted. So the law is not the antidote to the flesh. And thus he takes away a thing that really would divide Jews from Gentiles. Because the Jews would say of the Gentiles. Well, they don't have the law. Or even if they have the law. They don't care about keeping it the way we care about keeping it. And Paul is saying the law is good. Absolutely. It tells us that we're sinners. But the law is not able to stop the flesh. It's not able to do that. In fact, it just encourages the flesh. And so he's taking away this thing that divides them. And he says, instead of what divides you, the law. It doesn't have the power that you think it has. I'm going to talk about the thing that does have the power to combat the flesh. And that's the spirit. And the spirit is something. That both Jews and Gentiles alike can have. So it's a unifying thing for Jews and Gentiles. And so Paul is always hoping to bridge the gap between Jews and Gentiles. In the church in Rome. But I think in a larger picture. Everywhere Christianity is sprouting up. In the Mediterranean. It really actually does start in the synagogue.

[2:20] In most places. And the synagogue is often a mixture of Jews. Who are Orthodox Jews. And Jews who have become Christians. Who then proselytize Gentiles. And so you have this mix. And Paul is trying to help the church find its place in this. And understand it all. And so the general road map again. And every section that we are in gets us part of the way there. But the general road map for Romans. Is again that Paul is laying out the problem of our sin. And the solution that has something to do with the law. And Jesus. And Jesus' obedience. And our faith. And the faithfulness of Jesus. I know I'm stacking it all up on here. But this is Romans. It's not my fault. This is the content. This is all the stuff I've been given.

[3:09] Our faith. The faithfulness of Jesus. Justification and righteousness. Which are the same word. The work of the Holy Spirit. And how God puts that together. To rescue both Jews and Gentiles. Into a new beloved community of justice and shalom. Marked by right relationships with each other and with God. That's a mouthful. But it's really in the spirit of Romans. Because Paul would put a lot of sentences together like that too. So that's where we're going. This community of shalom. Of Jews and Gentiles together. That's marked by justice. And right relationships with each other. And with God. That's where Paul is driving us. And each section that we look at gets this part right there. Which is exciting. So today we're continuing Romans 8. And it's like a crescendo. Like if this was a musical piece. It would be like the part that really gets a little bit louder. And a little more exciting. Maybe the tempo comes up a bit. There's this celebration of all that has come. Before it. And there's a lot to celebrate in what has come before it. But there's also room for lament in it. As we'll see. And after this week there's a major shift. Right? Or a development in the tenor of the letter. But for today we're hearing already a reflection.

[4:13] That the church's current trials and tribulations. Both then and now. And there were trials and tribulations for the Roman church. There were. People were picking on them. Those tribulations are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. When all of creation is free from sin and decay. And God reigns supreme. So there's this future hope that Paul is pointing to. And says we are in a set of tribulations and trials right now. And those are painful. But there's this future glory coming. Which far outweighs anything that we're experiencing right now.

[4:54] See I'm having printer issues again. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Let's see here. Oh good. It's the same page. But all printed out. So I don't have to run to my office. Awesome. Good. All right.

[5:09] So and as we'll see. The spirit continues. So what we. This is kind of a recap of the first reading. That the spirit continues to help us by helping us to pray. And now. In our reading. We're going to get another set. Actually several. Of Paul's famous rhetorical questions. Just almost have like a trademark at the end of that. Paul's famous rhetorical questions. Just like mom used to make. Or something like that. Just new and improved. These are Paul's famous rhetorical questions. They're rather fun. And what I'm going to ask you to do is. When I read them. I'm going to pause a little bit. So read along with me. And we're going to stop after each rhetorical question. And try to answer them mentally. Like hmm. What is he going for here? Right. So we're going to do that. Well we're going to do it a little bit differently. Two weeks ago we had bingo. So that was fun. Who was here for bingo? I know. I know Craig won. Craig and Brian won everything. Yeah. The bingo was fun. So we're trying to do a little different today. So we're going to look at these rhetorical questions. And pause. And ask yourself.

[6:10] What his answer will be. And then we'll read of course. And so we're going to try to do this. All right. So here is Paul reading. Or Paul as I read Romans 8. 31 through 39. So already. We have a few questions. What then are we to do? What then are we to say about these things? And what are these things? Pretty much everything that's come before. Especially what's come before in Romans 8. The spirit. The flesh. The law. Our future suffering. Our present sufferings are nothing compared to our future glory. What should we say about these things? Now here's the first rhetorical question. If God is for us. Who is against us?

[6:50] Pause a second. Well. You could say nobody. Maybe you could say. Well all sorts of people. But it doesn't matter. Well here's the answer. 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? That's another rhetorical question.

[7:10] Verse 33. Who will bring any charge against God's elect? Hmm. Who's going to accuse God's elect? You could say nobody. Or you could say the accuser. But you could say maybe the accuser will. But it doesn't matter. Why?

[7:28] Because it is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Same question really. It is Jesus Christ who died. Yes. Who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God. Who intercedes for us. Okay. The final rhetorical question. Verse 35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

[7:54] Think about that one. You could say many people are not. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? nor rulers, nor things present, nor things 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word, and we pray that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, as you know, this is like a very famous passage of scriptures. The last verse is very good for memorizing. It's a great one to memorize. And so let's take, let's kind of go backwards and take a look at all this and ask, how should we interpret all of this? Even though this seems like a moment to just relish the victory that Paul is talking about, he's kind of doing something amazing here. He's calling on the story of Israel's long history to once again help his Jewish readers to see that Gentiles are now part of the family, because he wants them to understand that they are part of the family. And so he's calling on the story of that Gentiles are part of the family now. They have to stop treating them differently. They have to treat them as, so instead of Jews and Gentiles separate, both worshiping Christ, Paul's very

[9:34] interested in them understanding themselves as a new community together, a new, in a way, would be calling the renewed, the new or the renewed Israel that has room for Jews and Gentiles alike, but whose, which is centered around the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and not around the law and the covenants. So this is where Paul is hoping to get. And so Paul is actually makes three allusions or references to the Old Testament in this short passage that we saw. So we're going to take a look at each one of those because, and you might want to take notes, or this one's a little more of a sort of, I'm not going to say scholarly, because that would mean I was a scholar and I'm not really a scholar, but I would say this one's just a little bit more in-depth analysis of scripture today, if you want to call it that. That's the kind of sermon we're doing today. So he's calling on the story of Israel's long history to help his Jewish readers to see that Gentiles now need to be part of the family. And there are three appeals to the Old Testament. And the first one is the phrase, he who did not withhold his own son. Now, who is he talking about? He's talking about God, of course. But when he's talking about God in this way, he's really sort of reminding everybody

[10:46] about somebody else in the Old Testament, and that's Abraham. And you remember that Abraham figures prominently in the beginning of Romans. Abraham, faith is a model for those who should have faith like Abraham. Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. He believed what God said. He believed that God would do what God said he would do. And so Abraham is being sort of conjured up again in this passage, he who did not withhold his own son. And the question that's asked about this is this, if God is for us, who can be against us? Right? And the answer, is, well, there's somebody who's willing to give his own son to save us and is willing to fight against any other power in the world that would dare to attack his elect. Those are his chosen people that are now the Christians as well. And these are people who are adopted children by faith. And so who, who can be against us? The answer actually is, it doesn't matter. It could be a whole host of people. You can't really say, well, I don't know, I don't know. You can't really say nobody because there's all sorts of people that are against us. That's for sure. But the answer really is, in a way, it doesn't matter who's against us because the one who's for us is one who would, is willing to give up even his own son to be for us. So if

[12:09] he's willing to do that much to be for us, it doesn't matter who's against us. That's how, that's how much somebody is behind us, who's got our back, who's supporting us from behind, you know. So that's one answer. That's the answer to that rhetorical question. Second, we have a series of questions that call back to the servant songs in Isaiah 50 and on. And this is a different topic for another time. But here are the questions that, that Paul asks. Who will bring a charge against us? Or who will condemn us? Those are similar questions. And it sort of brings up the idea of a law court. Like somebody is in the dock and somebody says, well, let's call for witnesses. And so the witnesses come out and who's going to lay a charge against these people? Who's going to, who's going to, who's going to accuse them of something? And so what is the answer to this rhetorical question, right? Who will bring a charge against us? Who will condemn us? And the answer again, isn't nobody, although it seems like it should be nobody. The answer again, kind of is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who accuses us. The accuser probably will accuse us. The accuser, you know, Satan himself may accuse us in this law court, but it doesn't matter.

[13:20] The servant songs kind of deserve their own treatment, but they envision a servant of God who's willing to suffer to make other people righteous, right? So here are the verses from Isaiah 50 verses seven through nine that Paul is more or less connecting, quoting from. And I want you to notice some of the similar language. Isaiah 50 verse seven reads like this. The Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? I will not be put to shame. I will not be put to shame. I will not be put to shame. Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Do you see those very similar questions that Paul is kind of calling on from this servant song? This is this character in Isaiah 50 and beyond who suffers for the sake of making other people in the world righteous. And some people, and it seems like Paul, is not going to be able to do that. He's not going to be able to do that. He's not going to connect this servant to Jesus. That's a whole nother topic, but Paul is doing it. And so he's

[14:30] kind of drawing on Isaiah. So again, you see over and over again that he's writing for a Jewish audience. He's trying to help them make peace with the Gentiles in the church. So, you know, what's the answer? Who will make an accusation or lay a claim? The answer is it doesn't matter what anyone brings, what the accuser brings, because Jesus is the one who intercedes for the sake of making others righteous. And so he's trying to make peace with the Gentiles. Before the Father, he is on our side. If you want the best sort of intercede there is either, you know, he's in between us is the best way to maybe think of that. If you want the best lawyer in the world, you've got Jesus. So the day comes in court and the accuser comes and accuses you. And actually what the accuser says may be completely true, right? They may make a list of all the sins you've ever committed, and it would be a very embarrassing time up there. But Jesus will say, well, I'm on this guy's side or I'm on this person's side. And so Jesus intercedes for us before the Father. He's on our side. He makes the case for God to be merciful to us. And with such a powerful advocate like that, you know, it doesn't seem like we can go wrong. So what's the

[15:41] answer? It doesn't matter who accuses us. It doesn't matter what they say. And it doesn't matter if it's the truth because Jesus will advocate on our behalf. So we may remember then that Christians in this time, that Paul's writing to the people in Rome, they actually were being accused by pagans of all sorts of really horrible things. Like they misunderstood or purposely misunderstood the Christian practice of Holy Communion. And they would say things like, oh, they're eating, they're actually eating another person, like they're cannibals, you know. And they would accuse Christians of all sorts of deviant sexual practices, which they weren't doing. But it was a sort of accusation that kind of carried the day sometimes. And so the Roman Christians, the Christians in Rome, both Jews and Gentiles, were probably feeling very set upon by the community around them. And so you can find that this word is actually a real comfort to them. Who's going to bring a charge against you? It may be true. It may not be true. In a way, it doesn't matter because Jesus is on your side. So I think it did work it out, but it's answered by Jesus. So third, and then we have this challenging quote from Psalm 44 verse 22. And that one is, this is the part of Romans,

[17:07] this last part of Romans that kind of confused me for a long time, because it says, for your sake, we are being killed all day long. And doesn't that a bit dissonant, right? All this great stuff is happening. And here there's this passage that says, we are being killed all day long. We're reckoned as sheep for slaughters, for slaughter. That doesn't sound very uplifting in this sort of victorious type sounding thing, right? And so how does that belong in the song of victory? And Paul hopes his readers will recognize that this is from Psalm 44 verse 22. And Psalm 44, is a psalm of lament. And so Paul is bringing the concept of lament into this situation. He's not saying that because you are one of the elect or because you're adopted by God, that you will be slaughtered all day long and you'll be counted as sheep to be slaughtered. But he is saying that you might say that. You might feel that way. And indeed, Israel did feel that way when they wrote the psalm. The people of Israel wrote the psalm or the psalmist wrote the psalm to reflect the feelings of the people of Israel. And so he's saying that you might say that. Because all the nations around them were conspiring against them. And this is one of those cases

[18:22] actually where it wasn't punishment for their wrongdoing. It was just the consequence of them being faithful. And that's an important distinction. Sometimes they're suffering because they've been idolatrous. And so you've got psalms of not lament, but psalms of confession, like David's lament in Psalm 51. He says, I've been very sinful and I deserve all this. But in this case, if you read Psalm 44, it says, we've been on your side, God, you've been on our side, God. But then the tenor changes and it says, all the nations are conspiring against us. And God, will you be roused up and hear our cries and come to our rescue? So this sense of we've done the right thing and why are we being persecuted for it? But that's really, that's where we are in even this passage of Romans, where Paul is saying to the people he's writing to, he says, you don't have it easy. We know that. So he says, you may be saying to yourself or even feeling, oh, we're being picked on all day long. We're reckoned, for your sake, we're being killed all day long, for we're being reckoned as sheep to the slaughter. But that's, God will be roused from what seems like his slumber. God will hear, God will answer. And so this is what Paul is alluding to. And the question is, who will separate us from the love of God? Is it

[19:53] hardship or peril or sword? Will our enemies separate us from the love of God? And we may feel like the people in the Psalm of Lament that the world is closing in on us. And so Paul is actually saying, it's okay to lament. And we want to say that often here in our church, it's okay to lament. It's okay. You don't have to come here and act like everything's great all the time. You can say, this has been the worst week of my life. And hopefully we'll, you know, we will listen to you and we will sit with you. And we don't even have to say anything. We'll just be present with you, right? We have all these great things in Jesus. We have our adoption. We have the spirit. We have freedom. We have all sorts of victory and wonderful things. But that doesn't mean that hardship won't come our way. And in fact, it may be more likely to come our way. If we follow Jesus, we are inviting opposite. from the world. This is what Jesus says to the, to his disciples. He says, it's like, this is the most, the shortest and sweetest and most succinct thing he ever says. He says to his disciples, he says, in this world, you will have trouble. That's it. In this world, you will have trouble. Seven words, seven words, never so true a set of words were spoken. In this world, you will have trouble.

[21:10] It's true on account of me, on account of following him. So, what is the answer to this question? What will separate or who will separate us from the love of God? And the answer is now this beautiful, long answer. This is actually, he answers his own rhetorical question. And this is the whole, the high point of the whole letter, perhaps from the deepest depths of that lament, the answer is nothing. Finally, the answer is nothing. Everything before that was, it doesn't matter. But now the answer is actually nothing. Who will separate or actually nobody? And nothing. Who or what will separate us from the love of God? Nobody and nothing is the answer. And Paul isn't just content to say nobody or nothing. He gives us this long list of all the things that actually won't separate us from the love of God. And so, the answer is really complete. This is a complete answer, right? High or low, neither height nor depth. Dead or alive. And what's in between dead or alive? Nothing. That's the whole range, right? What's in between high or low? Nothing. That's the whole range. Angels above are rulers here on earth. That kind of covers the whole cosmos in essence, right? Not the past, not the present, not the future. He only talks about the present and the future

[22:27] because the past can't really do anything to us. So, that's the temporal. So, we've had the spatial, the temporal, right? Not the powers of darkness. That's what he means by powers, right? The powers are the powers of darkness. And if that list isn't enough, then nothing. Nothing else in all creation. Sort of this catch-all at the end. Nothing that's been created. Nothing that exists. All the things that have been created exist. Nothing that actually exists, perhaps even time itself, right? Simply nothing else that exists can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, praise God. Let's, you know, just like, you don't have to clap along. That's right. Praise God. I mean, this is such great stuff. And you really should memorize that one. You really should memorize that one. Maybe I'll give a candy bar in two weeks to anyone who's memorized. We'll see what happens.

[23:21] But not to the bingo winners. They've gotten, how was the bacon? How was the bacon? You haven't cooked it yet. You know, you could bring it back for treats. There you go. Okay. All right. Well, that's good. It's being used in evangelistic purpose. So, that's the good use of bacon. Okay. So, I'm going to ask not a rhetorical question, but a question. What should we make of all this? What should we make of, all this amazing news, both the highs and the lows, the victory and the lament?

[23:50] Paul's putting together these three allusions and references to Israel's history. And he's, by posing these rhetorical questions about what the Spirit does for us, Paul is telling us that the Gentiles and the Jews now have a shared identity as a renewed Israel. The Gentiles can fit into this story. And what's the renewed Israel? Well, we're going to develop that in future messages. That's where Paul, Paul is driving us. This renewed Israel, this community of shalom, community of the blessed community. But in short, the renewed Israel is the new covenant where God saves his people in and through Jesus, the Messiah. So, the old Israel is centered around the law and the prophets and the, and the word. But the new Israel is centered around Jesus as Messiah, the renewed Israel. And in that new Israel, there's still room for the law, the prophets, and the words. All that, all that is good. But there's also room for Gentiles. And there's the power of the Spirit moving through all of it. So, it's a different, it's, it's a progression of it, but it's a different thing altogether. It's the renewed Israel. Anyone can belong to Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike. All can receive the Spirit in the renewed Israel. And all are adopted into it, especially the Gentiles. We'll see this language of

[25:09] adopted or being grafted into it in the future. Everybody can join into it by one form or another. And then, Then all together then become this beloved community of shalom and justice that God intended for all people from the beginning of time. So the renewed Israel is also this thing that God is not just driving towards in Romans. It's the culmination of everything God has wanted the Earth to become since Adam and Eve fell. And it didn't work to do it with just the law. It didn't work just to do it with his people, his chosen people. He tried. God tried. It was humanity's inability to keep it all. Right? failed. So God says, I'm going to do it a different way. I'm going to put Jesus at the center of it. That's the renewed Israel. I'm going to invite everyone in the world into it, and the Spirit is going to help them with the problem of the flesh. It's really exciting. So we want to celebrate this and leave room for lament, right? The world can be tough on Christians. We don't have time to talk about it much more today, but nothing can separate us from God's love, and there's work to do. We're only halfway through Romans, which tells us that while we can make this large family, in theory, we will have a challenge making it happen in practice. So that Paul's going to get into the nitty-gritty

[26:24] of how Jews and Gentiles can get along in the church, and that's what our next sections are going to work on. So that's just kind of like a preview for what's coming in weeks to come. But that's it. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this really beautiful passage that you've given us as a gift, and we thank you that nothing can separate us from your love, nothing at all in all creation. We thank you that there's room for lament and brokenness in your kingdom. We thank you that you're driving us towards a community of shalom and hope in the future. Amen.