I’ve been a Christian a really long time – since I was 15 –
and yet there are days when I feel alone, as if God has forgotten about me.
Maybe you feel that way sometimes, too.
For me, it’s not wise to trust my feelings when I feel this
way. Actually trusting one’s feelings isn’t so smart at any time. Our feelings
are a barometer for lots of things – what we ate for dinner, illness, the music
we’ve been listening to, the mood of others, even our own sin. But our feelings
are not a reliable indicator of what’s really true.
So as a Christian I’m better off to come to the Scriptures
to determine what’s true. If I feel God has somehow forgotten about me, it’s
just not true. He hasn’t. And His attention to my life is written all over the
Bible, practically on every page.
For example, the eighth chapter of the book of Romans. I’ve
looked into Romans 8 twice in two recent series of posts, and I’d like to do
another short series, based on the question Paul asks in Romans 8:31: What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Now to be honest, it might feel like plenty of things are “against
us.” Satan, evil people, a bad economy, even our own sin nature. But the point
of the question is, if the God of heaven is on our side, committed to our good,
then how can anything or anybody win? How can they be against us successfully? The answer is, they can’t!
The first way we know God is for us is An Unthinkable Sacrifice - He gave up His own Son. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us
all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
The sacrifice of Jesus is described two ways – negatively, what
the Father did not do: “He did not
spare his own Son.” And positively, what He did
do: “but gave him up for us all.”
Most fathers would do anything to protect their children. But
God did not hold back. He didn’t spare Jesus. And the wording here is
important: the Father did not spare His
own Son. Not a created son, not a subordinate, but God the Son, the One who
had always lived in a relationship of love and trust and intimacy and
fellowship with the Father.
Not only did He not spare His Son, but He also gave him
up. In the first century, to give up or deliver meant to hand over somebody to
the custody of the police. The same Greek word is used when Judas “betrayed”
Jesus.
The issue that precipitated this unthinkable sacrifice was
the redemption of fallen men and women like you and me. To bring sinful men and
women back to Himself required nothing less than the slaughter of His own Son.
When you consider what God has already done for us, can we really doubt His willingness and resolve to bring us safely home? If God was
willing to do the really hard thing, the unthinkable thing, to deliver up His
own Son, is there anything He would
withhold from us to accomplish His purpose?
He is for us, on our side, eternally and unbendingly
committed to doing whatever it takes to bring us to glory.
For next time, Part Two: Satisfying Justice
