Download Romans 8:31-39 4If I would ask, “What are some things that are

Romans 8:31-39
4If I would ask, “What are some things that are wrong with this
world,” no one here would have any trouble answering, because there are
so many possible answers. – Some people are so poor that they can’t even
afford to put meals on their tables or clothes on their backs. People fight
one another. Natural disasters destroy homes and lives. Families are
broken, reputations are ruined, sickness and disease brings pain and
suffering. And you can’t go a day with out facing the reality of death.–
People suffer. That’s a fact. And this suffering reminds us that something
is terribly wrong with the world we live in. As we begin our journey down
the Lenten road, a road that takes us to the foot of the cross, we take a
look at suffering. We see how our spiritual enemies use our suffering to
try to keep us away from the cross. But we also see how God uses our
sufferings to bring us back to it.
Jesus was no stranger to suffering. As he lived on this earth, he
felt the effects of a world gone terribly wrong. When God finished
creating the world, he stepped back, looked at it, and said this is “very
good.” There was no fighting, there was no hunger, there was no pain and
crying. Suffering didn’t exist. God created Adam and Eve to live forever, to
fill the earth and rule over it. But when they broke God’s commandment,
that perfection was ruined. Sin infected the earth, and they felt the effects
of that sin. Like a virus that causes your computer malfunction, sin
corrupted God’s perfect world. Jesus purpose in coming to the world was
to be the antivirus. He came to destroy the power of sin. And to do so, he
had to become like us. God promised that he would send his only Son to
this earth to be the perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus came to do what no one
else could do. As a true man, Jesus placed himself under God’s law so he
could keep them perfectly. And since he became a human being just like
us, Jesus would also suffer as like we suffer. He would feel the pains of
hunger. He would feel the sorrow of the loss of loved ones. People would
laugh at him and mock him. His back would be bruised and bloodied.
Blood would drip from his hands and his feet. Jesus suffered. And every
time Jesus suffered, there was the devil standing by his side, trying to stop
him from accomplishing his goal.
In our Gospel lesson for today, we saw Jesus suffering in the
desert. There he was, all alone. As the hot sun beat against his body, he
suffered from exhaustion and hunger. As he suffered, there was the devil,
tempting Jesus, trying to get him to place his trust in someone other than
God, trying to get him to sin. “If you are truly God, then turn this rock into
a loaf of bread.” As he hung on the cross, the criminal shouted, “If you
really are God, save yourself and save us.” And then, as he bore the sins of
the world on his shoulders, he suffered the punishment of hell, when his
own heavenly Father turned his back on him. Jesus suffered in every way
imaginable, and every time he suffered, his enemies were there, trying to
get him to sin, trying to keep him from saving us.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he reminds us that the sufferings
and pains that we face are trying to keep us away from the cross as well.
Through a series of questions Paul implies that these things will try to
keep us away from God’s love and from believing that our sins are
forgiven, paid in full. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God
has chosen? Who is he that condemns? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ,” Paul asks. “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or
famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”
One of the cruelest tactics our spiritual enemies use against us is
to cause us to doubt and to drag us to despair. Have you ever prayed to
God for help, and he didn’t seem to answer it the way you thought he
should answer it? I’ve been there, and every time the devil is right there,
ready to attack. “Where was God’s love then,” he whispers in your ear.
“God didn’t answer your prayer, so he must not love you.” And he implants
the seed of doubt in your heart, just as he implanted it into the heart of
Eve. “If God really loved you, he wouldn’t have told you not to eat from this
tree.”
And then there’s the other side of the coin. When your conscience
is so bogged down by sin that you feel there is no way God could love you.
When you keep committing the same sins over and over and over. When
those sins lead to other sins. When you don’t do the things you know God
expects you to do. When we stare only at the mirror of God’s laws and see
how much we have failed, we feel miserable. And then the devil takes our
suffering, and uses it to bring us into the pit of despair even further. The
devil makes God out to be a boss, who rewards people who have earned it
by their hard work, and those who haven’t get punished. And so if you
are suffering, that must mean that you haven’t been good enough to
make a holy God happy. You must not be good enough to earn God’s
respect and his love. He accuses you, and leaves you to rot and decay in
your loneliness and despair.
And when we doubt God’s love, when we sit in despair, we aren’t
putting our complete faith in Jesus. When we feel like we could have done
more to make our heavenly Father love us more, we place our trust in
ourselves, and not on God’s promises. That, my friends, is sin. That, my
friends, is breaking the 1st commandment, and that my friends is worthy
of eternal punishment. I’m guilty of it, and so are you. And that’s exactly
what our spiritual enemies want.
the instant replay to see if the player shot the ball before the time expired.
Until the ref counts the basket, there is a moment of uncertainty. When it
comes to salvation, Paul reassures us that there is absolutely no
uncertainty. No instant replay is needed. We aren’t just victorious; Paul
says we are more than victorious! Through faith, you can’t be more
certain about anything in life. Jesus lives, and because he lives, you too
will live!
But thankfully, Jesus never gave into doubt or despair. As hard as
the devil tried to turn Jesus away from the cross, he couldn’t win. Instead
of doubting God’s promises, Jesus embraced his suffering in love, all the
way to the cross. In Romans 8:32, Paul tells us that God did not spare his
own Son, but gave him up for us all. Jesus willingly became a human
being just like us, with the full knowledge that he would suffer and die,
because he loved us. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy, that his body
would ache, that his own disciples would reject him. But as Jesus suffered,
he had each and every person who ever would step foot on this earth in
mind. He knew we couldn’t save ourselves, and that if he sat around doing
nothing, we would be lost forever. But he took action! Jesus kept God’s
laws perfectly, he suffered, he died, and Paul says, more than that he was
raised to life. Through his sacrifice we’re set free from sin. When God
asks you why he should let you into heaven, you can confidently say, “I’m
perfect, because Jesus gave me his perfection.”
Adam and Eve suffered from the effects of sin in their lives, as
they labored in the fields, and suffered the pains of childbirth, and as their
children, we also suffer in this problem-filled world. Things won’t always
go the way we planned. Tears will fill our eyes; nerves will be struck with
pain. But as we face our suffering, Paul reminds us of the words of Psalm
44, “For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep
for the slaughter.” Because we live in this imperfect world, we are going to
suffer. We’re going to have those days where we feel completely helpless,
like a helpless lamb, who can’t escape his death. But the psalmist says that
it’s for God’s sake that we suffer. Instead of listening to the serpent’s lies,
God’s Word leads us to see that in love he uses suffering for our good. God
allows us to suffer to remind us that we aren’t perfect. He uses our
suffering to remind us that this isn’t how he intended the world to be,
that the virus of sin brings death and destruction. He uses our suffering to
remind us that we can’t save ourselves, and through our suffering he
brings us to the foot of the cross where we find the help and the comfort
we need. There, at the cross, we see Jesus our Savior—the perfect lamb,
who suffered in our place and stood victorious as he crushed the
serpent’s head. There at the cross, that victory over sin, death, and the
devil is made ours. Paul says it is WE, who are completely victorious.
Through Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life is made
certain. Through Jesus, we are declared not guilty, and we receive the free
pass into the pearly gates of heaven, where there will be no more
suffering, no more pain, no more death. It is these promises of Jesus that
give us strength to bear our earthly sufferings. Because you see—our
present suffering is only temporary. But living in the arms of God’s love—
that is something that will last forever. And nothing can pull you away
from that love.
Paul then paints for us a beautiful courtroom scene: “Who will
bring charge against those whom God has chosen?” Paul says NO ONE—
because it’s God who justifies. Through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection,
it is “just-as-if” we had never sinned. God smacks down the gavel and says
you are not guilty. “Who is he that condemns?” NO ONE. “Christ Jesus,
who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of
God and is also interceding for us." Like a soldier taking a bullet for his
friend, Jesus continues to stand between us and God, taking the brunt of
God’s anger for the sins we commit every day. “Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?” Paul says, NO ONE! “No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present
nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In the game of basketball, sometimes it takes a
last second miracle shot for a team to win the game. But instead of being
able to celebrate, the team has to sit and wait, while the referee checks
Amen.