Romans 8: 31
God Is For Us

The Christian who has good theology is continually aware of the good will of God toward him.  Now this is good news!  For the medieval Christian who did not understand justification, it would have been good news if he could have understood it.  To the ordinary, garden-variety of modern Christian for whom it is a truism, it would be good news if he understood the wrath of God and our gracious justification, which delivers us from wrath.  But to the person who understands both the wrath of God and our justification, it is astounding, gracious, wonderful news: "God is for us; who can be against us?"  And by way of legitimate application: What can be against us?  This is your inheritance if you have truly trusted Christ.  Are you like the person who has inherited 4 million dollars from a distant relative and are not yet aware of your wonderful inheritance?

This mentality then, is another of the elements of Normal Christianity, which we have in this chapter 8 of Romans.  Consider
what it means when it says that "God is for us:"

I. FIRST, AND MOST OBVIOUSLY, IT MEANS THAT GOD HAS CONSTRUCTIVE PLANS FOR OUR LIVES AND  EXISTENCE.

1. Much more will be said about this soon in Romans, but it is good to note here that we have become the private  possession of God.  As a result of our justification, we have been adopted into the  family of the God of all creation and enjoy immediate access to his presence.  God is for us!  Our lives are wrapped up in his glory, and all the activities of our lives are no longer done for self-gratification and self-glorification, but for God's gratification and glorification.  And he takes responsibility for the direction and blessing of our lives.  In this sense he is for us just as  we are for him.

2. It is not appropriate for us to live our lives as if there were no mission and no meaning to them and no eternal dimension to them.  We are for God and God is for us.  He is working in our lives and has a purpose and a delight in all of our activities.

Now, what about you and your life?  Is your life a boring repetition of the same things with no real significance to any aspect
of it? -- like that of the great mass of humanity?  It shouldn't be so.  As a justified, adopted  child of God, God is at work in your
life as to its general outlines and its fine details.  "God is for you!"  And responding to that in your daily experience ought to make
every day meaningful and every day satisfying to some degree.

At the end of the day, when seemingly nothing is accomplished and we have had a bad case of the "blaas," we should remedy the situation and offer up a prayer: "By thy grace, I have lived  my life for thee, O Lord."

II. THEN, TOO, IT MEANS THAT GOD WILL GIVE US EVERYTHING WISE AND GOOD.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up us all, will he not also give us all things with him?

1. Our practically-necessary concept of "good" (or "bad") luck, notwithstanding, we must remember that the supposed good and bad in our lives is a result of divine providence, not of capricious, good or bad fortune.

As we have seen, earlier in the passage, God works all things together for good to the justified person.  In the short run you may not think so, but as I have quoted William Cowper on other ocasions

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take
The clouds you so much dread
Are great with mercy and shall break
With blessings on your head!

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides his smiling face.

2. God -- as surely as he did not spare not his own Son for your welfare -- will give you everything -- Everything!  Everything that is ultimately good for you in his eternal plan for your exisence!

Is there some "root of bitterness" in your life that you almost-but-didn't-quite-make it? or that you are seemingly stuck in a
dreary and unproductive rut, or that things just don't seem to go your way like you perceive they go for everybody else?  Look up!  For God, who so loved you that he did not spare his own Son, will surely give you all things and is surely giving you all things -- all things that are ultimately good for you and for God's Kingdom.

And right now you may be experiencing the results of your stupidity, or your mismanagement of your life, or of your disobedience to the Lord and you may be experiencing the fruition of one of those things; for whatsoever we sow, we also reap -- unless God is pleased to graciously rule otherwise.  Even in these things, you are enjoying God's good and wise plans for your life that will turn out for your good and ultimate happiness.  Rejoice that it is so!

Oh, Give thanks to the Lord; for he is good!  And he "is for us" who are his children by faith in Jeus Christ.

III. IN THE THIRD PLACE, THIS "GOD IS FOR US" MEANS FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION.

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect.  It is God (the Father)  who justifies; who  is to condemn?  Is it Christ Jesus who died, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God (the Father) who, indeed, intercedes for us?"

1. We have seen this also in v.1 of this chapter, that God will not condemn our sins in wrathful judgment. "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."  There is no condemnation because of what these first 8 chapters are all about -- because Christ himself bore our sins and, in our justification, our sin was imputed to him and his righteousness was imputed to us who have accepted him.

2. Now God may treat you pretty roughly if you are disobedient and persist in that disobedience.  In the communion passage of I Corinthians 11 there were people in that age of spectacular miracles who disobeyed God and experienced sickness and, apparently, even death as a result of their disobedience.  And Paul says that it was in the mercy of God they were disciplined by God so that they "might not be condemned along with the world," it says.

And even this is the result of a gracious, loving and constructive watch-care of God over his loved ones for whom Christ died.  Even in this, "God is for us."

IV. AND THERE IS A HINT HERE THAT THE "GOD IS FOR US" INCLUDES PROTECTION FROM ALIEN HARM.

1. I say this because in the list -- this list that follows this passage of the things that will not separate us from the love of Christ -- is the mention of outside forces: (evil) "angels and principalities and powers" for sure, and perhaps other allusions to our spiritual enemies:

"(Not even) angels, nor principalities, nor powers nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!"

2. I am struck with the fact that we do not credit the unseen underworld with as much power and influence as our spiritual forebears did and as much as the Bible does.

Indeed, some of them -- particularly during the Middle Ages -- had an inaccurate view about the nature of the spiritual world because they were influenced in their thinking by a superstitious paganism.  But most of us, in our culture, are equally influenced -- yet in a different way -- by the effects of our scientific, materialistic culture to disbelieve in the spirit world.

But however much we are aware of the Devil and all his demons, we are assured of protection as justified persons:  for "God is for us; who can be against us?"  Nothing can harm us!  Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and the watch-care of the Heavenly Father.  As v.38 says: "(Not even) angels, or principalities, or anything else in all of creation" can do so.