The Omnipotent Love of God
Pastor Marty Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 1:36PM Romans 8:31-39. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2021.
It is perhaps a bit crass to call the Bible God’s Valentine’s Card to us. If there is anything good about Valentine’s Day, it has its roots in the foundation of God’s love for us. The Bible is indeed the truth about God’s love for us.
Last week we looked at our duty of love to others, but today we are going to look at the omnipotent love of God for us. It is not common to speak of God’s love as omnipotent, but I believe this will make perfect sense by the end of this article.
Our God is for us
Before we break into Romans 8:31-39, I need to remind us that the 3 verses leading up to this passage contain a powerful statement about those who truly love God. In general, it says that God is working all things in this life to their good. Specifically, God has foreknown those who would respond to His love and has predestined them in eternity past to be conformed to the image of His Son (in short, to end up being like Jesus). Because of these decisions in eternity past, God has called us and justified us within time. I hope you can recall that time when you heard the call of God in your heart, believed upon Jesus and were justified in that moment. Lastly, Paul reminds us in our current moment that there is one more action that lies ahead in our future. He will glorify those who truly love God at the resurrection. He is the God who foreknew us, predestined us to become like Jesus, called us, justified us, and will glorify us.
It is important for us as believers to understand this eternal and wonderful love of God that began even before the worlds were created. Now it is time to make this personal. God foreknew you, predestined you, called you, justified you, and will complete His promise to glorify you with a resurrected, immortal body. Wow! How much He loves you.
Of course, verse 31 starts out with the conditional “if.” This conditional reminds us that we can pretend before others, or even delude ourselves on this point. Many who reject the Son of God claim that God is for them, and many who pretend love for Christ claim it too. It is those who truly love God who find that His love for them began in eternity past and will not end even into eternity future.
All of this glorious declaration is summed up in the phrase, “If God is for us.” The preposition translated “for” metaphorically translates a word that primarily means “over.” Thus, the picture is that God has taken His stand over us. He is not just rooting for us in our corner, but He has stepped forth over us and declared us to be His.
This picture is over and against the idea of someone trying to be against us. Again, the preposition translated “against” has the sense of something that is coming down on top of us. If God is standing over us, then who can come down on top of us? This begins the picture that Paul wants us to see. The omnipotent God omnipotently loves us. Even if something tries to be against that, what can they do? Absolutely nothing.
I’m reminded of the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-11). The forces arrayed against her were many and mighty: the religious leaders who wanted to stone her, the spiritual forces who were stirring up the crowd, and even her own sin. She knew she was guilty and had no defense. It could not be said of her that she loved God, but Jesus took his stand by or over her and against those forces. He saved her physical life that day to show her, and to show us, what could be, if we would just love God.
This God who has from eternity past been working for you up to this moment, and has a future eternity in mind for you, who or what in all of creation that might choose to be against us matters anymore? Of course, all of hell can be against us, and the whole world can reject us, but God is over us. So, what of it? Yes, it might be a hard path, but it is always working to our good and to our victory, if we love Him, because He loves us.
Do you still doubt God’s love for you after that? Paul then gives us evidence that was done on earth and in full view of men, that was witnessed and testified. God did not spare His Son for us! Let us dispense with the juvenile notion that somehow the cross represents cosmic child abuse. Please. Jesus was the eternal Son of God who had stepped into time in order to pay the price for whosoever would believe. He may be the Son, but He is not a child. He is not helpless and has actually chosen to do this thing; he is not forced. However, he is also performing the Father’s will. They are united in this action, and they are both choosing the grief and the suffering of such an unthinkable love. Knowing that the one thing that could save us was the death of His Son, the Father did not hold back. The most valuable thing in all of the cosmos was His relationship with His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet, He did not hold back. Yes, Jesus suffered on the cross, but the Father suffered too. He had to allow the unthinkable to happen in order to demonstrate His love for us.
In light of this, Paul asks, “How shall He not give us all things with Jesus?” This verse should never be used to somehow teach that we can have anything we want in this life, if we just believe for it. First of all, it is qualified with the phrase “with Jesus.” We will have everything with Jesus, not before him. Second of all, Paul has God’s eternal plan that ends in our glorification in mind. He is not thinking of how we can get a better bank account, house, car, job, spouse, etc. If God has planned for us for an eternity past, and then sent His Son to pay such an awful price, then can you not believe that we really will inherit all things with Jesus when we are glorified in the resurrection? If I stand to inherit all things then it does not matter if I do not have all things now. They will be given to me at the proper time along with all who have believed in Him!
In verses 33 and 34, Paul brings in another issue, Justification. Here, we see that the picture of the woman caught in adultery is even more appropriate. He brings up the specific case of someone laying a charge of guilt against us. There are people that do this. Yet, even more, the accuser of the saints, Satan himself, is our ultimate opponent. Jesus did not justify the woman that day. She was not a lover of God and could not be justified yet. However, the one who is the justifier shows us that justification is a two-edged sword. Even when the accusations of our enemy are true, it does not mean that they are justified to accuse us. Jesus most likely wrote in the dirt that day something like, Mene Mene Tikal Upharsin (from Daniel 5). In Daniel’s day, the finger of God wrote on the wall that the King of Babylon was judged and found lacking. His kingdom would be lost and divided between others. Somehow, Jesus writing with his finger in the dirt reminded these men of their sinfulness and unworthiness to execute justice. Jesus tells the woman to “go and sin no more.” In short, she should turn towards God in love, the God who saved her when she didn’t deserve it. God stood against her enemies, not because they were wrong in their judgments, but because they were wrong in their hearts.
When you are loved by the One who is the Justifier, there is no being in all of the universe who can successfully charge us with anything that would rescind his justification. Remember, Jesus will only justify those who love him and through faith are following him. If God has justified us then who can condemn us? No one of any matter.
Let’s end with verses 35-39. Here, Paul ends with the declaration that nothing on earth and in heaven can separate us from God’s love. The omnipotent love of God cannot be overwhelmed by anyone and anything. He loves us, He loves you, that much! Of course, it is a mystery. You could spend the rest of your life asking why and never find the answer. It is just who He is. He is the One who has loved us and nothing can come between us, except your own heart and choices.
Paul lists a host of things that could threaten to separate us from God’s love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword. He even quotes Psalm 44:22, where the Psalmist is struggling with the difficult things they are experiencing and the love of God. “For your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Then the psalmist would next say, “Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever!” It is easy to believe that God does not love us when we face the circumstances above, but these things cannot separate us from God’s love even when our mind tells us that they have.
Paul interrupts his list to make the statement that we are called to be conquerors, or overcomers, over these adversities. Rather than separating us from God’s love, they are making us victorious warriors who are made to be more like Jesus through them. Our faith in God and our love for Him conquers all that our enemy may throw at us, and even any discipline that may come our way due to our own sin. Jesus conquered the cross, the hatred of death spewed out by his enemy, by trusting the Father and embracing it. No matter how hideous it was, it was being worked to the good for him because He loved God!
The list then becomes almost poetic in nature. Not even death or life, angels, principalities or powers, nor things in our present, or things to come, nothing in the highest place, or nothing in the lowest place, not any created thing can separate us from God’s love. That is, unless we let it rob us of our faith. Nothing can take your faith in God’s love away from you, but you can surrender to lies and deception and lay it down of your own accord. Everything is created, but God Himself. This categorically states that absolutely nothing that happens to us, or comes against us, can thwart God’s love for you and for me. This is the amazing love of an all-powerful God.
Let us live this week, and ever onward, secure in the knowledge of His love for us, and give Him great love in return!