Text: Romans 8:31-39
Subject: How are we more than conquerors?
Introduction
I. We experience many trials.
A. Opposition from Others.
1. People who do evil deeds.
2. The evil one.
B. Opposition from our own sin.
C. Opposition from worldly trials.
II. God’s love conquers all.
A. God is for us.
B. God’s love for us cannot be hindered.
Conclusion
Most of you know that just over a year ago I became a dad. One of my favorite things to do with Isaiah is to put him on my lap and read to him. And although he is too young to say so, I know Isaiah loves it too. One of the stories I read to him is called, “Guess How Much I Love You” by Sam McBratney. It’s the story of how much little nutbrown hare loves big nutbrown hare. In the beginning little nutbrown hare stretches his arms as wide as they can go and he says, “I love you this much.” But big nubrown hare stretches his arms even farther and says, “But I love you this much.” On the story goes with little nutbrown hare jumping, stretching, reaching, running, and saying “I love you this much.” But big nutbrown hare always jumps, stretches, reaches, or runs further and he says, “But I love you this much.” Finally, as he is drifting off to sleep little nutbrown hare sees the moon and says, “Big nutbrown hare, I love you as far as the moon.” Big nutbrown hare tucks him in and tells him, “I love you to the moon and back.”
We long to hear that that don’t we? We long to feel loved and cared for. No, it’s more than that. We need to know we are loved and cared for. Although it doesn’t appear at the in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, all of us have a deep need for love and affection. We need to know that someone loves us and cares for us “to the moon and back.” But much of the time we don’t feel very loved. Sometimes we feel like no one will go to the corner store for us, much less to the moon and back. Often we feel beaten down and discouraged by the troubles of this world. It seams as if our trials will get the best of us. Those trials and those challenges can cause us question if God is really in control, and to question if he loves us. Pain, trials, and hardships are part of the human condition and they can cause us to question God’s love for us. This evening, our text describes three types of trials, three sources of opposition to God’s love. It also show us how God overcomes all of that opposition.
The first type of opposition comes from others. Note what the text says in verse 31. It asks us, “who can be against us?” Then again it says in verse 33, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” The text says that we will face opposition from others. We regularly experience pain because of other people’s evil deeds, because of their sin. And it doesn’t take many years of living before we experience that kind of pain. Most of us can clearly remember times early in our childhood when someone else hurt us. Let me illustrate with a story from my own childhood. I remember in my early childhood playing on a YMCA soccer team. It was one of those “kiddy” leagues. We didn’t have practices, and we didn’t really have positions, we just showed up a few minutes before each game and chased the ball around. It was a bunch of little girls and little boys, yelling and running round the field chasing the ball. As it happened, I was the only child from my neighborhood on the team, so I didn’t know any of the other kids. Because all of the other kids knew each other and because I wasn’t very good – even by preschool standards – my teammates never passed the ball my way. Most of the time I jogged up and down the field hoping I could get the ball. Then it happened. It’s the moment I won’t forget. The ball came my way and I had my chance to shine. I wound up to kick the ball with all my might. And it was a beautiful kick, my best kick ever, but somehow I had gotten turned around so the ball went toward my own goal. Immediately the taunts came, my own teammates called me “dummy” and “stupid head” and the other players laughed at my mistake. That was the last time I ever got the ball. That was the last season I ever signed up for soccer. Although that childhood pain is a rather innocent example in the scheme of things, I still remember the pain of those children calling me names and ostracizing me. Sadly, all of us experience much worse in the course of our lives. People not only call us names, but they hurt us, and discriminate against us. People steal from us, cheat us, and take advantage of us. And we are all too familiar with stories about people who have been beaten, abused, and murdered by sinful people. Others’ sinful actions are a serious opposition to love.
But lest we forget other people are not the only ones who oppose us. The text reminds us that serious opposition also comes from the evil spiritual realm. Notice that verses 33 and 34 have a spiritual court scene in mind. It asks, who will bring a charge? Who is he who condemns? Again later in verse 38 Paul mentions angels and demons. When we think of opposition from others the text reminds us that the devil and his minions also oppose us. Daily, we face his all-too appealing temptations to give in to sinful desires. He regularly tempts us to do things that are unhealthy, unwise, and ungodly. He might say, “That little-white-lie doesn’t matter it’s just a way to impress people.” Or “Go ahead buy that new Kate Spade handbag. What’s $400 matter? You deserve it. It will make you happy.” Or, “Just look at that hot girl. Isn’t she something. You can fantasize about her all day.” He might tempt you to gossip, or cheat on your taxes, or waste your time, or in hundreds of other ways. But the devil is not satisfied with only tempting us. He doesn’t stop there. Satan lies to us. He whispers in our mind’s ear, “You are worthless. You are hopeless. You are useless.” He accuses us and tells us that we are unlovable, unworthy, and unforgivable. The devil and his minions are hell bent on our destruction. When we experience trials from other people and from spiritual forces, it is a real challenge to God’s love. It makes us question if God really cares, if He really loves us.
Unfortunately, opposition from others is only the first source of our trials. The second is our own sin. Now this is a bit more implicit in the text. Look again at verses 33 and 34, where we see a courtroom. We are on trial. The devil is bringing charges against you and me, he is seeking the death penalty against us because we have sinned. And because of our sin we experience trials and pain. Think about how that little white lie damages your reputation. Think about how that ill spoken word destroys a relationship. Think about how your sin causes you pain. Even though we receive forgiveness from our sins, we still often have to live with the consequences of our actions. And those consequences can be painful. They can become obstacles to feeling love. By our own sinful actions, we oppose God’s love. Our sin brings pain and trials to our own lives and the lives of others.
Third the text says that we experience serious opposition when we face difficult times. Look at verse 35. What are the things that might separate us from God’s Love? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Danger? Sword?” Although sin is the cause of much of the suffering in the world, and although sin is ultimately the cause of our fallen world, many of the trials we face are not a direct result of sin. To Paul’s list we might as well throw in tornadoes, inflation, and global warming. We could add the threat of terrorism, or our concern about the unrest in the middle East. When we check the internet, watch the news, or read the newspaper we see that the world is full of trials of all kinds.
But the most difficult opposition does not just come from the culture, the political situation, or the weather. The most challenging trials are our personal losses. We could easily add to Paul’s list our own personal experiences of cancer, depression, suicide, eating disorders, infertility, and substance abuse. It is often these personal trials that are so devastating and cause the deepest pain. When I was in seminary in Boston, Jenny and I were friends with Dave and Linda [not their real names]. They had been married for several years and did not have any children because Dave had some health issues which the doctors said made it impossible for them to have children. Toward the end of their time in seminary Linda discovered that she was pregnant. They hadn’t asked for it, they hadn’t even dared to hope for it, but they were filled with joy and excitement that God had done a miracle and they were going to be parents. They told all of their family and many of their good friends. But less than two weeks later Linda had a miscarriage. What they thought had been a miracle suddenly became a nightmare. They felt the deep pain of trying to live through heartache.
The pain that we experience from others, from our own sin, and from the troubles of this world are difficult indeed. How are we able to overcome these trials and challenges? How can we conquer? We need something we can hold on to. Our text gives us the answer. Paul says that God’s love conquers all. He says that God’s love for us cannot be hindered, thwarted, or diverted by anything. God wants us to know that no matter what we face in life, nothing can change God’s love for us. My friends, God’s love conquers all. God’s love for you enables you to overcome every challenge, every trial you face. Because of God’s unfailing love we are conquers.
This text tells us that God is for us. God is our advocate, our defender, and our friend. Look at verse 31. It says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” At first glance this looks like a hypothetical question. It sounds like Paul is saying, “Suppose that God is for us.” But Paul is not supposing at all. He is saying, “If God is for us, and we know that He is, then who is able to stand against us?” Eugene Peterson puts it this way, “With God on our side like this, how can we lose?” God is for us and nothing else is powerful enough to stand in His way. The text teaches us the kind of radical love God has for us. Verse 32 says, “He who did not spare his own son but gave him us for us.” God demonstrates that He is for us by sending us His Son to die for our sins and through his death and resurrection adopt us as his children. And the text goes on. Since He gave us His precious Son, He will give us everything else we need to live and thrive. That’s what it says, “how will he not also…graciously give us all things?” In fact, He has given us His Spirit to live in us. It is the Spirit of the Lord who protects us from the schemes of others who seek to harm us. It is the Spirit who empowers us to say no to temptation. And it is the Spirit who comforts us in times of trial. The Scripture says, that no one, not even the devil himself can bring a charge against those God has chosen, because God has already justified us. No one will condemn us for our own sins because Christ alone has the right to condemn and instead of condemning us, He has died, has risen, and is interceding on our behalf. No my friends, although it may feel that the whole world is against us, God is for us. God is on your side. God loves you in Christ Jesus.
God’s love for you in Christ Jesus conquers all. God’s love cannot be stopped by anything, not by troubles, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or danger, or sword. None of those things is strong enough to separate us from God’s love for us. God’s love will not shield us from hardship and trials. God’s love will not prevent us from facing serious opposition. But in the midst of trials God’s love for you in Christ Jesus is stronger than everything else. Through God’s love for us in Christ Jesus, we will continually overcome the trials we face, because God’s love conquers all.
Paul tells us from personal experience. In verses 38-39, he says, I am convinced, that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. In this context when Paul says that he is “convinced” he is speaking of personal experience. He isn’t just intellectually persuaded, that somehow God’s love will make him more than a conquer. No, he is convinced, he is sure of it because He has experienced God’s love in his own trials. Elsewhere in Scripture we learn that Paul endured persecution, beatings, nakedness, imprisonment, and suffering, but here he says he is more than a conquer. He knew with the certainty of personal experience that God’s love in Christ Jesus conquers all.
That was not true only in Paul’s day, but it is true for us as well. The Heidelberg Catechism says that because of God’s providential care for us, “We can be patient when things go against us … and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love.” When we know God loves us, when we experience His love, we are “more than conquers” in any trial, no matter how difficult. God is for you. He tells you today, “I love you, I love you, I love you, and nothing will ever change that. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does to you, it doesn’t matter what you do, and it doesn’t matter what happens to you. No matter what I love you.”
Remember our friends Big nutbrown hare and little nutbrown hare? Big nutbrown hare’s love for little nutbrown hare stretched from the moon and back, that’s a lot of love. But God’s love is bigger than that, much bigger. His love stretches beyond the edges of the universe and back. When we remember His love, when we experience his love God will bring us through.
I want to finish telling you about my friends Dave and Linda from Boston. When Linda miscarried, they felt a lot of things. But they didn’t expect to feel so much love. Tom told me that although they were mourning, they both felt God’s love carry them through. They were confused and even angry at God, but even in the darkest times, especially then, somehow they knew that God loved them, they knew that their families loved them, and they knew that the body of Christ loved them. It was that inexhaustible, unexplainable, unassailable love of God that carried them through. That’s the same love that God has for you. His love will conquer all you face in your life.
My friends, I don’t know what trials you are facing in your life right now. I don’t know what opposition, heartache, and pain you will face in the future. But God loves you and God’s love in Christ Jesus conquers all. It is my prayer that we will follow the lead of little nutbrown hare. When we are tired, when night surrounds us, when we are facing trials, I hope that you will look up and see the moon. I hope that the moon will remind you of little nutbrown hare and how much his daddy loved him. But most importantly I pray that you’ll remember our loving Father. He loves you beyond the moon, to beyond the edges of the universe and back. His love conquers all.