“Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” – Romans 8:34
“Who is he that condemns?” A beautiful picture of this is the woman caught in adultery. Surrounded by her accusers before Jesus, she must feel overwhelmed by judgment and condemnation. Then with a simple question, she and Jesus are all alone. Now the question in her mind must be, “Will this man also accuse and condemn me?” She knows she is guilty according to the law, but this man does not condemn her! He sends her with a mandate, “Go and sin no more.”
When all the accusers have left and we are all alone with Christ, who is it that condemns? Jesus has every right, but He settled that question when He took upon Himself the sin of the whole world. He defeated sin, rose from the grave, and is sitting at the right hand of God. Yes, if anyone has the right to condemn us Jesus does. What does He do, though? In the climax of the moment when our judgment should be death? He forgives.
Now who is left to condemn? The accusers, who have sin themselves, cannot cast the stone. Jesus, who has every right, forgives us. Shouldn’t we be rejoicing, embracing this forgiveness and walking in it? Though this is true, sadly there is one more condemner with a voice sometimes louder than all the rest, ourselves.
We are forgiven, but doubt, shame, and pity, put upon by ourselves do not allow us to walk in the truth of that forgiveness. We let self rise up and completely overwhelm our soul. We become weighted down and become completely occupied with ourselves. Andrew Murray puts it th
is way:
“It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God’s holy redeeming love in the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit-who cannot be anything but humble. Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self.”
When Jesus gives the mandate to the woman caught in adultery to, “sin no more.” He then addresses the crowd saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
How do we become completely free from the last condemner, ourselves? Go and be “occupied” with God.
~Abby Swanson
“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”
-Romans 8:33
“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?”
This sounds more like a challenge than a question. Who would dare to contradict God and say that His elect, His saints (the very ones He has declared pure and holy) are guilty. Would you dare to stand and correct God? To claim that He has overlooked some detail, but you with your ever watchful eye understand the REAL truth? “Sit God, and get wisdom from me”. How utterly absurd. He could respond to you in much the same way He responded to Job “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you will instruct Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements? Tell me, sense you know… Who enclosed the sea with doors…’thus far you shall come, but 
no further; here your proud waves shall stop’…Have you ever in your life commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know it place? Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?”
One very important aspect of the Christan walk is to AGREE with God. To always say ‘ You are right; I am wrong”. Most of us think that we do this, and it is true that we would never be stupid enough to think of correcting God to His face; however, we often bring a charge against what God has declared as Holy: ourselves.
Paul is pointing out that there are no charges; God is the One who justifies.
By the blood of Christ we are CLEAN. What a beautiful thing. We can boldly go through life knowing it is by His word that we are justified; not by what we feel like. Sometimes we don’t feel like we are justified; we are acutely aware of our shortcomings and our sinful flesh; however, if He says we are clean then we must humble ourselves and agree that He is right. What He says is truth. He alone justifies. Whenever our feelings contradict the word of God we must go with what He says to be the truth. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Praise God that He is merciful, and that He has made us free.
To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever!
~Madison Knight
”He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
-Romans 8:32
The secret of the Christian’s success and joy in life is a b
urning desire to thank Jesus for what He has done for us and to tell others about Him.
When we put our faith in Jesus as our Saviour, what do we receive from God?
The answer is ALL THINGS!
1) GOD GIVES US HIMSELF.
• The gift of God is God himself Jesus. Our grace is brought to us by God himself, paying the price, delivering the gift. The gift and the Giver are the same.
2) GOD GIVES US RELEASE FROM OUR SINS.
• The Son is the sin-bearer.
. . .gave him up for us all
Our sins and their consequences were taken up and dealt with by Jesus personally and in a costly way.
3) GOD GIVES US THE GUARANTEE OF ALL HIS OTHER GIFTS.
Since God did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? (Rom. 8:32, NLT)
This reminds me… My mom shares that shortly after she was born again that God began to convict her about a relationship she had developed with a certain young man, who was not a Christian. A wise Christian counselor asked her, “Michelle, have you trusted Christ to take you to Heaven?” She replied, “Yes!” then he responded, “Don’t you think you can trust Him with your love life?”
That day she prayed & gave that area of her life to God! Shortly after that God miraculously brought my Father into her life!
God cares about every area of our life. He loves us and wants to lovingly guide us.
We receive the gift of new life through Christ, by receiving Christ as our Saviour and Lord – we put our trust in him.
. . . along with him
The grace of God and his other gifts do not come to people apart from faith in Christ – ie. relationship with him.
Since God has done the greater, greatest thing (given up his Son for us), he will surely give us lesser and other things along with Christ!
What are these other things? All things?
Romans 8 is a summary of the many gifts that come with the grace of God in Christ:
• No condemnation
• No guilt
• No weakness
• No defeat
• No despair
• No want
• No separation from God.
Our calling every day of our lives is to appreciate the benefits of Christ’s saving death for us.
“God the Father had but two grand gifts to bestow; and when once they were given, He had left then nothing that was great (comparatively) to give, for they contained all good in them. These two gifts were his Son, who was his promise in the Old Testament, and his Spirit, the promise of the New. “ (Thomas Goodwin)
Main Point: The gift of Christ to us includes all the other gifts of God.
~Jana Dugger
“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called: whom he called, these He also justified: and whom He justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”-Romans 8:30-31
I really appreciate what Abby shared yesterday. I recently finished reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and though of the section Abby mentioned as I was meditating these verses. In these next two verses God gives us kind of an outline for how He wants to conform us to the image of His Son.
God called the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt to bring them into the Promised Land. He wanted them to live in freedom – freedom from bondage, freedom from oppression from a cruel master. Christ has also called each of us out of bondage, out of slavery to the law of sin and 
death. As it says in verse two, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Even though God called Israel out of Egypt, they could have chosen to stay where they had been for so long, and we all have been given the same choice. But when we choose to answer His call, He justifies us.
Now we are made righteous, but not with our righteousness because our righteousness is still as filthy rags. However, in Christ we have become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). But sometimes we go back to our old ways, our old habits. Why? Why did some of the Israelites want to return to Egypt? How silly can they be?! Didn’t they remember the wonderful promises God gave them? Well, shouldn’t we remember the same promises God has given us? Promises to be glorified with Christ, promises of hope and help from the Spirit, promises that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called. The very next line says, “whom He justified, these He also glorified.” So what’s my problem? I don’t walk in the Spirit! Isn’t that what we started with in this chapter?! “If Christ is in you… the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (v. 10). And the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God – joint heirs with Christ that we may be glorified with Him.
Last week a few of the verses mentioned suffering and groaning. What’s this all about? What about jumping and leaping and praising God because we are justified? The question isn’t whether I am suffering for Christ’s sake. The question is, “Is Christ being glorified in all my actions, attitudes, and words?” Because when Christ is glorified, you and I are glorified! “Christ in you, the hope of glory!”
For “if God be for us, who can be against us?” We certainly will go through trials, floods, rivers, and the wilderness. We will face giants and seemingly innumerable enemies. Israel faced all of these things and we will too. We do go through suffering and groaning. But God has given us another promise. What do you think David thought when he went face to face (or face to knee cap) with Goliath? What about the decision Daniel had to make when praying to Almighty God was outlawed? How about Elijah vs. 450 prophets of Baal? There are countless examples of people in Scripture and throughout history who have faced incredible challenges because they believed God’s Word and claimed His promises. It’s not that nobody is against us if God is for us, but it doesn’t matter who is against us.
We are children of the King of kings. He has called us out, justified us, and glorified us even now but He will so much more when we go home from the battles we face today. Do you think people in the early church who were persecuted mercilessly continued in the faith just because they were being martyred? I don’t think so. They knew God’s Word to be true and stood on His promises despite their torments; it didn’t matter what they suffered. Christ alone was their hope of glory, and that is far greater than any challenge they could ever face.
By the grace of God, what am I going to do today to bring glory to God?
~Ian Boyes
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” -Romans 8:29
The first thought that came when I was reading this verse in preparat
ion of writing something was, “Oh, no. I have the predestination word. The one that causes an endless amount of debate and the question, so what do you believe about predestination? If God already had everything predestined from the beginning what about free-will?” Well, I took a deep breath, sent a plea up to God for enlightenment, and forged ahead.
Many times I believe we get our misconceptions from looking at things from our very small narrow perspective. Such as looking at words like, “foreknew, and predestined.” What about God’s perspective on things such as this? Our minds cannot even begin to fathom the ways of God.What are some things that would make a difference on how these words would apply to Him? One would be time. While we are limited by this, He is not. Here I am going to step out and let an excerpt from Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis take over:
“Another difficulty we get if we believe God to be in time is this. Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the timeline like us, (His example of a time line: if we picture time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all).: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. but suppose God is outside and above the timeline. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today’. All the days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; he simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow’s actions in just the same way—because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already ‘Now’ for Him. This idea has helped me a good deal. If it does not help you, leave it alone. It is a ‘Christian idea’ in the sense that great and wise Christians have held it and there is nothing in it contrary to Christianity. But it is not in the Bible or any of the creeds. You can be a perfectly good Christian without accepting it or indeed without thinking of the matter at all.”
Yes, we have the choice, but because God is not limited to time He foreknew each one of those who would come to a saving knowledge of Him.
“He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,”- this is beautiful to me. God placed in all of us who know Him that seed of desire to become more and more like His Son. He didn’t just save us and leave us there. No, like the clay in the potter’s hand, He desires to fashion us into the image He has predestined us to be!
~Abby
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
-Romans 8:28
To those who love God, to those who have responded to his call for
salvation: they are the ones for whom God promises to work all things
together for their good. It is not anyone or even we ourselves that can do
this working: it is God.
In previous verses, we are assured of the Holy Spirit’s intercession on our
behalf, interpreting our prayers and needs, asking according to the will of
God. If we, who don’t even know how to ask or pray, need the Holy Spirit to
help then why cannot we trust the who One who sees in entirety the whole
procedure and happenings of our life? He certainly will not fail to leave
out or overlook a single detail that is needed to work all things for good.
It’s like making a cake, ingredient by ingredient things change and blend,
come together, but to us (who represent the cake), the batter seems runny.
We are poured out into a new mold that is all greased and unfamiliar. Yuck!
Picked up and moved by the bakers hands and set inside heat for a period of
time, things seem to be going in the wrong direction. Things are happening,
and we become uncomfortable, rising –expanding into a weird texture. The
moisture that we were discontent with is now mostly gone and the heat is
become unbearable. Just when it seems we will dry out, we are pulled out of
the oven. Finally, everything seems like it is going to be just fine, then
we are set aside. We have to cool-settle. At just the right time the baker
will come back and remove the form. And again we are left…something is
being prepared for us. When the time is right, He adorns us with the
confection of frosti
ng. Then we are presented to the guests. We are placed for our use, then cut and served. We are delicious and filling. We bring
pleasure to our maker and glorify Him through what we are, because we are His. All has worked together for good.
The same can be true in our lives as we allow the “ingredients” to come
together, being formed into something which can and will bring glory only
to Christ. This working in us allows us to become a representation of the
Creator, spreading His love into the lives of those who need a Savior.
~Tiffany Martens
