The last few times I have preached we have been working on the concept of living worthy in the Spirit.   We have worked a lot in Romans chapter 8; the premiere chapter on the subject of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.   I want to go back to 8 to bring these sermons on the Spirit to its logical and amazing conclusion.  At the end of Romans 8 there are 7 rhetorical questions which build to a fascinating and empowering conclusion.

Romans 8:31-35  (1) What, then, shall we say in response to this? (2) If God is for us, who can be against us?  (3) He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (4)  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. (5) Who is he that condemns? 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. (6)   Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (7) Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Let’s quickly work through these 7 questions. 

QUESTION ONE: What, then, shall we say in response to this? What do we say in response to?

 

QUESTION TWO: If God is for us, who can be against us?

The thirteen year old boy came home from his Mississippi Junior High one day busted up and bleeding.  A gang of boys had put their belief system into action.  The gang was a bunch of White Supremacists, the boy was not white.  The family did not know what to do.  Did they send their child back to school where he would continue to be abused for his race?  Did they withdraw their child from the school system?  They decided to pray. 

A knock on their door a few days later provided the answer.  It was Mike.  Mike was the biggest kid in the school, one that no one else would mess with.  He offered this solution.  "I am a Christian.  I know that you are Christians, so I went to every kid in the school and told them if they messed with your son, they would have to answer to me.  I think it will be safe for him to come back to school.

As long as their son stayed with Mike.  As long as Mike was for him, no one could stand against him.  That is the point that Paul is making.  As long as God is for us.  As long as God is on our side.  As long as we can call God, "Abba, Father," there is no one who can stand against us!  There is nobody who can defeat us!  Since God is for us, it doesn’t make any difference who is against us! But the evidence of this is in question three.
         
QUESTION THREE: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God has already given his most precious gift to us. How could anyone think he would withhold any other thing; some lesser thing; we might need? This thought is overwhelming.  God gave us his son to die on the cross, is he going to deny us anything else that would be good for us?  He gave us his son, is he going to let Satan have us?  Anything we need, anything that is good for us, anything that will help us to become more like his Son, particularly anything that would help us to reach who we really are, he will give us, guaranteed or your money back.

I used to have a friend who, whenever he would take us out to eat or get something for us at the store, would say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”  That is what Paul is saying!  Since God has given us so much in the death of his son and declaring us righteous, don’t sweat the small stuff.  God will freely give us all things as long as he is for us.

Well, OK, God is willing to give us anything as long as he is for us. I got that.  But what if something happened that suddenly made God not for us anymore?  Is there anything that would make him not for us? Hey, that is the next question.

QUESTION FOUR: Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

Nothing would make Satan happier than to turn God against us.  Nothing would tickle Satan's fancy more than causing God to punish us for something we have done.  Nothing would delight Satan more than driving the wedge of sin between us and God.  God cannot have anything to do with sin.  He is a holy and just God.  “So,” Satan says, “If I can get them to sin God would have to quit being for them and punish them instead.”
         
Is this a possibility?  Can Satan tempt us to sin and then use that sin to force God to turn against us?  Paul says simply, "It is God who justifies."  God, himself, is the one who has declared us justified.  God is the one who has revealed a righteous that is by faith.  When we respond to God’s gift in faith, we are declared righteous and God, himself, bangs the gavel and says, "Not guilty."  It is God, himself, who gave up his son to be able to forgive our sins.  So that strategy doesn’t work.  No one can bring a charge against God’s elect. At least one that God will listen to.

Just as there is no double jeopardy under American law, so there is no double jeopardy against someone God has declared righteous. He has already declared us justified. Since the penalty for our sin has been paid already by Jesus Christ, there is no double jeopardy.

“That’s not fair,” objects Satan. We need a different judge.  Can we get a judge who isn’t biased?”  That is the next question. 

QUESTION FIVE: Who is he that condemns?

Well maybe Satan can change judges.  That happens in our judicial system.  If a lawyer thinks a judge or a jury is prejudiced in a case, he can get a change of venue.  If God won't entertain any charges against us, then maybe Satan can get someone else to judge us.  Well, there is really only one other person who has the right to judge us, that one is Jesus.  He is the only other one who can condemn us because he is the only one who lived a perfect life.  Since he did it, lived a sinless life, he could point his finger in accusation at us and condemn us. 

"Well, Jesus, will you condemn us?"  "No, I died for you that you may have forgiveness, and more than that, I was raised from the dead to give you life.  No, I am at the right hand of God and I am on your side too."

"That is really, really not fair!” Satan screeches, “The only two beings who can serve as judges are both prejudiced towards mankind!"  God and Jesus in harmony say, "Sorry."

It must be somewhat frustrating to Satan, to attempt to get a conviction against God's children!  It is almost enough to make you feel sorry for him.  “Not!” Well, if God or Jesus can’t be changed is there anyone who could separate us from God’s love?
         
QUESTION SIX: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

I remember my first true love.  I was a 10th grader and she was a freshman.  She was a cute little blond thing.  Maybe there is a pattern here.  Life was sweet and so… vivid. Almost as good as it is every morning to wake up beside Tanya. ( I digress)  I had my first car, a 64 Pontiac and she was sweet too.  I would pick her up - that is the girl - on the way to school and sit in the parking lot and fog up the windows.  Life was good. But then, this other guy came into the picture.  Sure he was good looking.  Sure he was rich.  Sure he was charming.  Sure he was everything I wasn’t. But that was no reason for her to dump me.  He came between us and separated her love from me.

Can that happen with God?  Can someone he likes better come between us?  Can something happen that will cause him to give up on us?  Can there be some catastrophe that will change our relationship and God will quit being for us?  Paul asks this question then he lists a series of possibilities in question seven.

QUESTION SEVEN:

Romans 8:35-36   Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

Paul asks if things like trouble or hardships or all kinds of bad things show that God doesn’t love us. Even if we felt like sheep headed for the slaughter house, it won’t change anything.  Have you heard the phrase, “Anything that doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”  That is the thought.  Only, we can go one better, “Anything, including killing me, including being sheep in the slaughter pens, makes me stronger

And that is the awesome conclusion Paul reaches within his seven questions.

Romans 8:37-39  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.

The phrase "more than conquerors" comes from one Greek word; hypernikomen.  This is a great word.  Does any one have on any Nike shoes?  The word Nikeo means victory.  Hyper means super, unless you are talking about kids; then it means noisy.  So we are Super victors - more than conquerors!

Such things as problems, hardships, danger all those kind of things make us more like Jesus.  God, through our prayers which are connected by the Spirit across to eternity, turns suffering into the very thing that makes us stronger and holier.  So, we don't just have victory over problems.  That would mean we just lived through them, or we outlasted them.  We have super victory over them.  We use the bad to make us better.  We turn our enemies into allies.  We turn our calamities into remedies.  We turn disaster into blessing.  We shake it off and step up as super victors!
 
Even death, which our society thinks is the worst possible thing that could happen, only seals our victory.  You can make me better or you can give me victory.  But there is nothing that can happen that will cause God to give up on us, in fact all that happens makes us more like him.
 
But what about evil?  God is not the only force in our world.  What about those rulers and authorities, those powers of the dark world, those spiritual forces in heavenly realms, that you talk about in Ephesians 6?  Aren't Satan and his host of demons more powerful than mankind?

No evil power can force God to let go of the hand of one of his children.  Like the mother bear whose cub is threatened, God protects his children with a power unequaled in the universe!  Nothing can separate us from God’s love!
 
That is not exactly true.  There is one person who can separate you from God.  That is you.  You can turn your back on him.  You can give up your relationship with God.  You can walk away from him and he loves you so much he is not going to force himself on you.  But why would you, when you would have so much to loose?

Life, at times, can be a real challenge.  Sometimes it seems as if everything is just stacked on top of us.  Sometimes it is a real chore just to turn off your brain and go to sleep at night.  People make demands on you.  Others have criticized you unmercifully.  You see no end to your problems.  And it seems that no one cares.  Life is not always, in fact it is rarely, a piece of cake.  You may even, at times, feel like the sheep Paul was talking about being lead to the slaughter. Where do you turn?  What do you do?  Who can help? Where is hope?
         
Our God is for us.  Nothing in the universe can cause him to change his allegiance to us or his love for us.  He will be in our corner, when the fight gets tough.  He will be there to lead us when we have lost our way.  He will be a friend when the whole world seems friendless.  He has promised to give us all the things we need, because we are his children.  We are more than conquerors, not because we have achieved great things in this life, but because there is a God who loves us and is anxious to give us all the recognition and all the glory and all the praise and all the love we can stand, from now until forever.  And that is what it means to live worthy in the Spirit.