Divine Covering, Part 2

If you would, take your Bibles
and turn to the Book of Romans. Back to the Book of Romans, I
should say, and back to that great section at the end of Romans,
where Paul begins to really apply and drive home the fact that
we are cared for by God. There is a divine covering over
us, that God has provided for us not only through the foundation
established on the Lord Jesus Christ, not only through the
sustenance of the Holy Spirit, but also through the ordinance
of God, that God has ordained our lives, and Paul basically
looks back to those things, and to much greater, as we looked,
and he rejoices before God, and takes, as it were, a spiritual
inventory, and he takes us on that same journey. From time
to time, we need that, don’t we? Just like the prayer that
Barry read in Deuteronomy, we often have our thinking go astray,
and we have often the need to pause and take a spiritual inventory,
and to remind ourselves, be reminded by God Himself, what are the
facts of the case? And that’s what Paul’s doing.
There are four questions that he asks in the course of this
passage. He essentially asks, where is
the Christian’s enemy? He then asks, where is the Christian’s
grace? That’s essentially what the Israelites
were doing there in Deuteronomy. Surely God has led us out here
and is going to kill us. We often fall into that trap,
don’t we? The third question he asks is,
where is the Christian’s accuser? And the fourth is, where is the
Christian’s God? We’ll get there. Pick up with
me, though, in verse 31 as we review these incredible words
of encouragement. What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who is against
us? He who did not spare his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also,
with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge
against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies,
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died,
yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death
all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But
in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved
us, for I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall
be able to separate us. from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus. We tackled the first question
last Wednesday. Where is the Christian’s enemy?
And we used as an image, the overarching image over all of
these verses, the fact that we are under a divine covering,
and what a great way to start. that if we are under a divine
covering, and that image from Psalm 91, where God is said to
cover us with His pinions, and we were reminded that a pinion
is a feather, you say, well, what good is a feather going
to do against earthly enemies, even spiritual enemies? What
good is a feather going to do? Well, if it’s God’s feather,
If it’s God’s covering, if it’s God’s shadow under which we find
ourselves, then we are covered. There is no enemy that can approach
us, there is no enemy that can attack and molest us, because
we are under God’s covering. That’s what Paul’s saying here
in Romans 8, as he closes out this great chapter. Where is
the Christian’s enemy? in different words when he says,
what then should we say to these things? And we notice that as
we look back into Romans, it not only addressed verses 28
through 30, but this phrase addressed when Paul says, what should we
say to these things? It takes Paul all the way back
to Romans chapter 1, didn’t it? All of those great highlight
moments of the book of Romans are seen in that passage. Those are the things that Paul
refers to when he says these things. If God is for us, who
can be against us? That’s his great conclusion that
Paul begins to draw. If God is for us, who, indeed,
is against us? But there’s a second question
that we want to begin to consider this morning. Not only where
is the Christian’s enemy, that if we are covered by God, there
are no enemies, truly. Everything that ever occurs to
us is sifted through God’s loving fingers for a divine purpose. Where is the Christian’s enemy?
But secondly, where is the Christian’s grace? As I indicated, we often
fall into this trap. We often fall into this trap
that Maybe God has run out. Maybe I have fallen into disfavor
with God, and that God is not going to equip me, not going
to provide for me, not going to care for me as He has in the
past. Maybe God is out of resources. Maybe God is off watch. Maybe
God has forgotten about little old me. That’s who we all can
fall into, isn’t it? That’s what Paul hints at when
he says, “…he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how will he not also freely…” Check that. “…how will he not
also with him freely give us all things?” If God has done
the great thing, the greatest thing, in sending us Jesus Christ
as a Savior, how will God begin to hold back further grace, additional
grace? This argument, as we began to
hear it last week, is from the classic greater to the lesser
line of reasoning. God has already done the greatest
thing for us in sending Christ, how would He begin to hold back?
How would He begin to run out? How would He begin to not care
for us if He set His love upon us in the first place, and loved
us enough to send us His Son? It’s really an absurd thought,
isn’t it? That God sent us the Lord Jesus
Christ, and yet He’s going to forget us. And we begin to wonder,
don’t we? What if God doesn’t give me the
grace of perseverance? What if I can’t hang on to God
through the fiery storms that life dishes out? What if God
doesn’t give me the grace to overcome this sin in which I’m
currently in battle? What if God leaves me in this
state? What if God never gives me the grace that I know victory
over this particular thing? What if God doesn’t give me the
grace of comfort? What if God doesn’t comfort my
pain, physical or spiritual? What if? What if God doesn’t give the
grace of steadfastness, standing firm on the truth, standing firm
on somebody else? drop by the wayside, or lose
sight of Christ, or leave off of following Him, or lower their
principles to the point where they can’t even be called such,
what if? What if God doesn’t sustain His
blessing and fellowship? Walking with those who love the
Lord Jesus Christ, walking in fellowship, what if I should
lose my friends? What if have become stranded,
alone as it were on an island, away and apart from all Christian
fellowship? What if? What if God doesn’t give the
grace of endurance? What if I just burn out? What
if I just run dry, and this spiritual dry season elongates and encompasses
my entire life? What if? What if God does not give the
grace of joy? We all have moments, don’t we?
We know that to come in to worship is a joyful thing. It’s a joyful
experience, and ought to be. But sometimes, due to life’s
difficulties, we walk out and that joy quickly fades, doesn’t
it? What if that joy never came back? What if that joy isn’t
sustained over time? What if we don’t have moments
of rejoicing? What if God doesn’t give the
grace of protection? What if God drops his guard,
and the earthly foes that we face have their way with us?
What if God drops his guard, or essentially hands us over
to the devil himself, and we suffer the gravest spiritual
attacks? What if? What about some positive things?
What if God doesn’t make me to be fruitful as a Christian? What
if God doesn’t make me ever to be used in another person’s life?
What if God doesn’t ever allow me to see the great privilege
of a convert? What if God doesn’t ever seem
to allow me to be used? What if God doesn’t give me any
kind of evangelistic zeal? What if God doesn’t give me the
grace of a passionate pursuit of Christ? Those are the questions
we wrestle with as a Christian, and those are the questions that
Paul essentially zeroes in to deal with. Where is the Christian’s
grace? Can the Christian run dry? Can
God’s supply run dry? Paul wants to address it. And
he does address it here in verse 32. Look at it. He who did not spare his own
son. And I want to pause A lot of
translations, they overlook a tiny little word here. The word is
get, it’s what is referred to as an intensive particle. And whenever you lose these little
subtleties, I think you do lose, this is the jot and the tittle,
if you will. When you do set those aside,
you do lose some of the subtle nuance. So, what are we missing
in some of our translations? It could be translated as, really,
indeed, surely, absolutely, he who surely did not spare his
own son, he who indeed did not spare his son, He who absolutely
did not spare his own son. It’s a little word, but it has
a powerful influence on this passage. And to lose it is a
pity, it’s a shame. Paul’s making a point here, that
what God did, if God surely, if God actually did this thing,
and He had us, then there’s a point to be made.
Note also, it refers to not just his son, but his own son. And
that little word is also emphatic, that word own, and what Paul
is using it for is to heighten the moment. It wasn’t just a
son, it wasn’t one of many, it wasn’t just any son, a son of
some great saint of history. It was God’s own Son. God vested
in this. God sent His own Son. It’s there for a reason. And
it’s powerful. Because there was no other person
that stood in that relationship with the Heavenly Father. It
was only the Son. And God’s own Son, He says, was
taken. Genesis 22, it echoes that passage
where Abraham took his son, his own son. And at the culmination
of that, God said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad
and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God since
you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. John 3.16 echoes that same great
truth, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have
eternal life. It was His own Son. God invested
in this. God put His heart and soul into
this by sending His own Son. look down again, if you would,
he who did not spare his own son. I want to pause and look
at that word, spare. To spare someone in our culture,
sometimes out of mercy, we spare someone of a penalty that’s due
them. As parents, we certainly know
that. We certainly haven’t doled out all of the punishment
that children perhaps have deserved. And that is probably borne out
to our own loss. Teaching my son about tickets
one day. Traffic tickets. And I’ve had
a few over my lifetime. Not many, but enough. And I was
sharing with him that when I get a ticket, I don’t argue with
it. I’m polite to the policeman, because I know that there’s a
whole lot more than I should have gotten. I don’t know. Is my wife nodding? We don’t get near what we deserve. That’s why whenever there’s some
terrible thing, I remember preaching on, just after the Oklahoma City
bombing, these cries for justice. Do we really want justice? How
badly do we want justice? when we have been spared such
a great, great amount. And so this sparing here refers
to that very act. A judge often will spare a prisoner. A parent will spare a child.
We often spare others of some penalty that is indeed deserved. This isn’t just unkindness. This
isn’t harshness. This is something that we brought
down on our own heads. We deserved it! We deserved the
penalty, we deserved the ticket, we deserved the punishment, and
yet we received mercy. Time and again. Well, God didn’t. God didn’t spare His Son. God
didn’t spare His Son of all that punishment that was to be inflicted.
God didn’t do that. Instead, it says that He did
not spare His Son. He did not. lighten it, he didn’t
mitigate it, he didn’t reduce it. When Jesus Christ stepped
into that role by the Father’s design, God didn’t hold back
one bit of the punishment that was due, not to him, but to sin. But when Jesus Christ took on
that sin, God gave him the full measure of wrath that was due
that sin. It’s a beautiful word, this sparing. It’s a merciful word. Acts 20, 28 uses it. When Paul
called the elders to himself from Ephesus, Paul said, Be on
guard for yourselves and all the flock, among which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God
which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure,
savage wolves will come in not sparing the flock. They will
give their full measure. They will destroy, if possible,
the flock. Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians
also, in verses 22 of chapter 1, speaking of God who sealed
us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. But I
call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come
again. This is Paul the pastor. This
is Paul being merciful. And he tells them at Corinth
that he spared them. And this is a guy who, when he
came, I’m sure that he had everyone in the church’s attention. But
you know, his heart, as a pastor, loved them enough
that that sparing wouldn’t always be the case. And at the end of
that same book, at the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul says in chapter
13, verses 1 and 2, this is the third time I am coming. Every fact is to be confirmed
by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I have previously
said that when present the second time, and thou now though absent,
I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past, and
to all the rest as well, that if I come, I will not spare anyone. Solemn words. Solemn words. It means to extend mercy, that
word spared, and Paul here says that there was a time to show
it, and there’s a time not to. And in God’s case, the sending
of the Lord Jesus Christ was not a time to hold back on punishment. It was not a time to show mercy.
It was a time to deal with sin as sin. And that’s to our gain. all the humiliation that came,
all the anguish, all the pain, the beatings, the degradation,
the utter shame from the whole scene from beginning to end.
God didn’t hold back. He didn’t spare His Son from
that. Psalm 22-1 says, My God, My God, why have you forsaken
Me? in the Gospels. Jesus felt the
full fury of God’s wrath. God didn’t spare a bit. From the testimony of the suffering
servant in Isaiah 53, Isaiah reports, all of us like sheep
have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way, but the
Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. God didn’t spare Jesus. from
taking on the full weight of our sin. In verse 10 it says,
that the Lord was pleased to crush him. Are you gathering
in what he’s saying? That Paul is saying, God did
this to Christ. God sent him, and God did not
spare him. The Lord was pleased to crush
him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as
a guilt offering, Matthew, in Matthew’s Gospel,
there’s a short little passage that points to this scene where
Christ is not being spared. He said to them, to his disciples,
My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here
and keep watching. And he went a little beyond them
and fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And the solemn truth was that
it was God’s will. It was God’s will for him to
go through this. It was God’s will for him to endure this wrath
for the sake of us. And even if we had endured this
wrath, all it would have done is kill us. We would have been
dead, and there would have been no blessing or boon in any way. God spared not His Son, just
as Abraham spared not his own son. God didn’t hold back from
the Lord Jesus anything that was part of the entire act that
saved us. Everything that we needed, every
part of what we needed in our salvation was done through Christ. God held nothing back. Again, from Isaiah’s chapter,
surely our griefs He Himself bore. God held not back that
grief. Our sorrows He carried. God didn’t
hold back on the sorrow that we ourselves esteem Him stricken. God didn’t hold back on the shame
that came with the cross, smitten of God and afflicted. He was
pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging
we are healed.” Look at this. Paul paints the whole picture
for us. Not only did he not spare his own son, but delivered him
up for us all. And when it says that he delivered
him up, that is, that’s the positive side of what he’s saying. Now
it has a horrible inference, doesn’t it? That God did this. God delivered up the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Jews didn’t deliver up Jesus. They certainly had their hand
in it. They certainly were culpable, but ultimately they weren’t the
ones to blame, not really. Judas didn’t do it for money,
even though it’s recorded as such, and certainly Judas was
culpable, but ultimately Judas didn’t do it alone, not even
Pilate, out of this slavish fear of offending God. God delivered up Jesus. God did
it. God is the one that delivered
up the Lord Jesus Christ, and He did it for us. He did it out
of love. He did it in order to accomplish
His great plan of redemption. Jesus Christ was delivered over
for our sin by His loving Heavenly Father. And in so doing, it secured
that penalty, our penalty on the cross. I want you to note
how this word is used, just a couple of passages, this word delivered.
You begin to get a picture of the significance of this word.
The first occasion that I would point to is Matthew chapter 5.
Just listen briefly. where Jesus, there in the Sermon
on the Mount, says, therefore, if you are presenting your offering
at the altar, remember that your brother has something against
you. This is a great call to dealing with what we need to
deal with. Forgiving one another, dealing with one another, confronting
one another. Leave your offering there before
the altar and go! First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly
with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way.”
In other words, he says, you know, take care of those things
in your life, those breaches in relationship, those offenses,
yours and your brother’s. Make friends quickly with your
opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your
opponent may not hand you over. It’s a graphic word. so that
your opponent may not hand you over to the judge. It’s something
with which you are completely powerless. You have been given
over to the legal system, and now you are the legal system’s
charge. Matthew 17, the word is used
again there, in Matthew 17 verse 22, they were gathering together
in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is going to be
delivered into the hands of men. He just doesn’t indicate there
that it was God who was doing it. Ultimately. Remember the parable that we
considered a few weeks ago, the parable of the unmerciful slave?
One slave asks the king to forgive him, then he goes out and chokes
his fellow slave for a far less amount of money. The king hears
about it, calls him, summons him in. back into his throne
room, and it says that his Lord moved with anger, handed him
over, delivered him over to the torturers until he should repay.
He was completely powerless. Matthew 24-9 says of Christ,
they will deliver you to tribulation, they will hand you over to difficulty,
and they will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations
because of my name. He says that kind of persecution
is in the offing. In Acts chapter 21, Paul knew
this kind of persecution personally. It says that Agonist took Paul’s
belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said, This is what
the Holy Spirit says. In this way the Jews of Jerusalem
will bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him, hand him
over to the hands of the Gentiles. You say, well, Paul no doubt
heard that. There’s no doubt Paul heard that.
Paul heard that word, and Paul used that word. In fact, he’s
already used it in the book of Romans. You begin to say, well,
maybe we’re embellishing a little bit on the meaning of that word
that God handed Christ over to suffering and difficulty. Paul
knew exactly what he was talking about, because in Romans 1, remember
there in Romans 1, the wrath of God reveals from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth
in their unrighteousness, and then he begins to go on and list
all of these things, all of these sins, all of these evil corruptions,
and it says in verse 4, therefore God gave them over. He handed
them over, he delivered them up, First of all, to the lust
of their hearts, to impurity. Then in verse 26, for this reason,
God gave them over to their degrading passions. Verse 28, just as they
did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them
over to a depraved mind. Paul knew exactly what this word
meant. Paul knew exactly the significance, the power of it. In Romans 4.25, he applies it
to Christ. Romans 4.25, he says, He who
was delivered up because of our transgressions. He was delivered up. He doesn’t
say it there, but he says it here in Romans 8. He was delivered
up by God. God did this. The Lord has caused the iniquity
of us all to fall on Him. The Lord in that passage is not
the Lord Jesus. That is talking about God Himself.
God has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. One pastor
wrote, Jesus Christ, in dying, bore the sins of His people,
enduring all the punishment that was due them by becoming for
them the curse that the law demanded. It pleased the Lord God to set
him forth, and to bruise him for this purpose, for in so doing
he gained, by his meritorious death, forgiveness, righteousness,
sanctification, and eternal glory for a large number of people,
all of whom he burned, and to whom he was joined before the
foundation of the world.” Look again at the passage. He who
did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”
Now, there’s a couple of things to be noted here. It wasn’t merely
just for our good, just for our benefit, but He was in our place. We should have been there. We
should have been on the place of the cross. We should have
taken God’s full wrath. When Jesus Christ stepped in,
God delivered him up in our place, just as God provided to Abraham
the sacrifice. But there’s another thing to
be noted here. As one said, there’s no restriction
or limitation to be put on the word all in this verse. No restriction. Other than that, let me finish
this sentence, other than that which the context and the analogy
of Scripture imposes. Well, what does the context say
about this word, all? Well, let’s look at the context.
Let’s back, if you would, to verse 28. In verse 28, Paul says,
we know that God causes all things to work together. To those who
love God, that’s that helps begin to define the All, to those who
are called according to His purpose, as we spent so many days and
weeks, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, they are those who love
God, they are those who are called according to His purpose, they
are those who He foreknew, they are those who He predestined
and called and justified and glorified. And Paul says in verse 32, he’s picking up a train of thought
that carries him right into verse 31. If God is for us, who can
be against us? He who did not spare his own
son, but delivered him, that is Jesus, up for us all? Who is the all referring to?
It’s referring to God’s elect. That’s what exactly he points
to in verse 33. This passage not only does not give support
to the idea of a universal atonement, but it destroys it completely.
From time to time, what I prefer to refer to as particular redemption
is suggested by a number of passages, that there’s a core group of
people for whom Christ died. Speaking of Christ at His birth,
she will bear a son who will call His name Jesus, for He will
save His people from their sins. John 10, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. John 15, greater love
has no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. And Acts 20, 28 again. be on
guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God,
which He purchased with His own blood.” This idea of particular redemption,
that God had a set and specific people in mind in the death of
Christ and the sacrifice In the delivering over of Christ, it
is a difficult doctrine. One of the most difficult in
all of Scripture. And some would say that as soon as you begin
to say that, that the free offer of the gospel is denied. And
that’s not the case. Jesus Christ died for sinners. That’s all we need to tell anybody.
And that is the truth. We give you a little bit of theological
context for this particular doctrine. It’s just part of the greater
system of understanding the greater doctrine of salvation, and beginning
to put various parts and pieces together. And there are basically
two different approaches to this problem. From Steele and Thomas,
who I know a number of you are familiar with from the Institute,
One of the classic definitions goes like this, Christ’s redeeming
work made it possible, possible for everyone to be saved, but
it did not actually secure the salvation of anyone. In other words, his death enabled
God to pardon sinners on the condition that they believed,
but it did not actually put away anyone’s sins. Christ’s redemption
becomes effective only if man chooses to accept it, which puts,
essentially, your ultimate fate in your own hands. Well, the other approach to this
has been quite simply described this way, that Christ’s death
was substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the
place of specified sinners. In addition to putting away the
sins of his people, Christ’s redemption secured everything
necessary for their salvation. Now, terminology aside, I told
you I prefer to refer to this as particular redemption. Anyone,
any one of us, who is not a Universalist. And a Universalist means, you
know, we’re all going to Heaven. Even the biggest heathen out
there, the most Godless, God-hating sinner out there is going to
Heaven eventually anyway. That’s what Universalism is.
Any one of us who is not a Universalist, anyone who doesn’t believe that
all people who Anyone who does not believe that
all people will be saved believes in a limited atonement, a particular
redemption. We all limit it. Some people
believe that the atonement is limited by the sinner’s free
will choice. And so they limit the effectiveness
of that sacrifice. Others believe that the atonement
is limited by God’s design. and thus they limit the extent
of the atonement. But the real question is not
whether that atonement is limited, but it’s how. And that’s why
I prefer to refer to it as particular redemption. God had a people
in mind. They were those on whom he had
sent his love from eternity past. They were those whom he had predestined. They are those whom He had called
to Himself, and He had justified in time, and He will glorify
in time as well. They’re God’s people. Because if, as one said, the
Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty for the sins of every man in
particular, to the satisfaction of God the Father, then every
man in particular, regardless of his attitude toward the payment,
And whether he believes or does not believe in the Savior, he
is rid of his debt. He is rid of his debt. Christ
paid a penalty for you. If you have placed your faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you can take great confidence. That’s
what Paul is building here. This is not an evangelistic message
he’s preaching. This is a God-confidence message. that, look, if God has already
delivered up the Lord Jesus Christ for you, how will He not also
with Him freely give us all things? If God sent the Lord Jesus Christ
to be born in a manger, born in a difficult life situation,
born in flesh, Born as a man when he’s God himself, if God
designed that Jesus Christ would live and walk the earth 30 plus
years before his ministry started, with the same heartaches and
difficulties that you and I face, the same sins with which he was
tempted, if God sent him, even through incredible miracles,
and glorious testimony if God sent him persecution after persecution,
ultimately leading to his arrest, and beatings, and false trial,
and did I mention the cross? If God did all that for you and
I, How can we even begin to conceive
that He will not also freely… God wasn’t prompted, God wasn’t
forced to do this for us in the first place. God wasn’t forced
to send Christ, God wasn’t forced to provide a Savior, God wasn’t
forced to provide anything by way of salvation for any of us.
How will He not also freely give us all things? How will He not
also freely give us all necessary grace? The question is almost
absurd. If God has done for us this great
thing, the greatest of all things, in sending the Lord Jesus Christ
to pay our penalty on the cross, to suffer God’s wrath, how will
he not give us the grace to get through another week, to endure
the pain of life, to endure difficulty, and difficult people, and difficult
situations, and uncertainty, and heartache. How will God not
see us through that? 2 Peter 1.3 says that His divine
power is granted to us everything pertaining to life and Godliness.
That’s an echo of what Paul’s saying here. Remember, is confidence. He’s
building our confidence. We’re taking spiritual inventory,
and we’re looking at our lives, and we’re looking at the facts,
spiritual facts, what God has done, and what confidence we
should have in Him because of it. It comes to the point where
nothing is more crucial than that. Nothing is more crucial
than we should know the facts, that we should not have any doubts,
that we should have confidence in Him, Consider, Romans were in a tight spot. They were in a sinful culture,
worldly, probably not unlike living in any one of the major
cities. Worldly values, worldly attitudes,
ungodly behavior. And the persecution was, it wasn’t
just possible, it was eventual. The Roman Christians knew it
was coming. Paul writes to them to comfort
them, to give them confidence. To say, look, you can’t be worried,
you can’t be wondering whether God has run out of grace. God
will sustain you. Remember Matthew chapter 11,
or chapter 7 rather? ask, and it will be given. Seek, and you
will find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. Everyone who
asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. To him who
knocks, it will be opened. For what man among you, who when
his son asks for a loaf, bread, will he give him stone? And he’s
not looking at the Heavenly Father, not yet. He says, look at the
dad, the mummy. Your child needs food. Are you
going to give him a rock? Don’t be absurd. If He asked
for a fish, would He give him a snake? If you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Heavenly Father who is in Heaven give what is good
to those who ask Him? God has the grace. God has the
resources. His divine power, as Peter said,
has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
the Bible, communicated, compiled, and preserved over centuries,
a Savior and salvation, His own Holy Spirit to indwell, teach
us, convict us, lead us, fellowship of like-minded believers, gifts
for service in the body of Christ, His Church. He’s given us all
of those things. And if God has given all of that,
how will He not continue to lavish us with grace to overcome sin? How will He not continue to lavish
us with the necessary grace of comfort, of steadfastness, of
endurance, of even fruitfulness, of a passionate pursuit of Christ? Paul says, look around. Don’t wonder where the grace
of God is. The grace is there. That if God has begun the work,
if God sent His own Son to be your payment for sin, to endure
His wrath, God will come through. God will provide you everything
that you need. All the grace is there. Let’s rejoice before Him. O merciful King, we humble ourselves
at your feet, where Paul here just seeks to passionately infuse
us with confidence, confidence in you for all that you have
done on our behalf, not the least of which is the provision of
your own Son to be our penalty on the cross. Lord God, we rejoice
and we take confidence that you are watching over us, that you
will provide us with what we need, that you will see this
through to the end, you will sustain us. Lord God, we rejoice
and we go out with confidence, waiting eagerly to continue our
inventory. We thank you and praise you in
Jesus’ name.