Context
John Wesley wrote the following
letter from his deathbed, six days before his death, to William Wilberforce to
encourage him in his prolonged fight against slavery in England: “Unless the
divine power has raised you up.... I see not how you can go through your
glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal
of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up
for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and
devils. But if God be for you, who
can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O
be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of His
might, till even American Slavery shall vanish away before it!”[1]
Sometimes today’s passage, Romans
8:31-39, is taken out of context and misapplied: “God is for you. God promises
to freely give you all things! Do you need a nicer house or a new car? Claim it
by faith! Do you want a better job and a successful career? Claim it by faith!”
But unfortunately, that is not what today’s passage promises. The context is,
“Do you want to endure faithfully tribulation, distress, persecution, famine,
nakedness, danger, and sword for Jesus’ sake (8:35)? God, who loved you so much
that He sent His own Son to die for your sins, will give you the grace and
strength to keep going. God, who has done the most for you by giving His own
Son, will help you endure every trial, every opposition, that you go through
for Christ’s sake. God’s love for us does not promise escape from all trials
and tribulations. But it promises triumph
in these things. God’s love for us does not promise earthly comfort or ease
from our sufferings, but it promises freedom,
joy, and courage in the midst of these things.
Jesus Christ: Four Truths
So who can be against us? Who can
condemn us? Sometimes our own heart condemns us. Oftentimes our critics, our
detractors, our enemies, and all the demons of hell condemn us. But their
condemnations will all fail. No one will be successfully
against us. Why? Because of Christ Jesus! (v. 34) Christ Jesus our Lord rescues
us from condemnation, in particular by
his death, resurrection, exaltation and intercession. Jesus is our eternal
security. He is our No-condemnation.
First, Christ Jesus died. He gave his life for you. He was not just
killed, but he chose to die. Jesus said, “No one takes it (my life) from me,
but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18a). He also said, “For even the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.” Then, why did he choose to die? Because of “love.” Octavius
Winslow rightly said, “Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not
Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy — but the Father, for love!” [2]
(cf. Isa 53:10; Rom 8:32) Father God made Jesus, His own Son, who had no sin to
be sin for us, so we could be put right with God (2 Cor 5:21). Because of love,
by his death Jesus has become our sin, and we have become his righteousness.
Secondly, Christ Jesus was raised to life. Not just he “rose,” but he was “raised”
(the verb is passive in v. 34!) by the Father. God the Father vindicated the
suffering of his Son by raising him from the dead. God demonstrated his
acceptance of the sacrifice of his Son as the only satisfactory basis for our
justification by raising him from the dead. In Romans 4:25 Paul says, “He was
handed over to die because of our sins, and he
was raised to life to make us right with God” (NLT). By his resurrection
Jesus set us right with God.
Thirdly, Christ Jesus reigns. He is now at the right hand of God. For
first-century Christians, this little phrase “right hand of God” was a very
well-known idiom. This phrase refers to “full of power and authority.” In Psalm
110:1 God says to the Messiah, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies
your footstool.” Jesus Christ our Lord reigns. He rules over all authority and
power and dominion and angels and all the universe until all his enemies are
put under his feet! Jesus Christ is our unshakable security.
Fourthly, Christ Jesus is interceding for us. John Murray rightly said, “the
children of God have two divine intercessors. Christ is their intercessor in
the court of heaven… while the Holy Spirit is their intercessor in the theatre
of their own hearts.”[3] Jesus is
our heavenly advocate and high priest. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore he is able
to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (NIV). What a wonderful
truth and promise of God! So every time we pray “in Jesus’ name” by faith, we experience
this glorious intercession. Jesus is our intercessor every time we pray!
With these four truths of who
Christ Jesus is, we know that there is no condemnation for those who are in
him. So now, in Christ Jesus, we can challenge the enemy and bid him go with
confidence, “Satan! Who are you that condemn me? Christ died for me. Christ was
raised from the dead for me. Christ reigns at the right hand of God for me, and
Christ is interceding for me. Be gone little, defeated devil!”
Jesus Christ: The Lion and the Lamb
In the Book of Revelation the
Apostle John sees Jesus and knows him in two different images. These two images
of Jesus are very important to understand the second half of today’s passage,
particularly verse 36 and 37. In Revelation 5:5 one of the elders says to John,
“Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll
and its seven seals.” So now, John is expecting to see a triumphant lion. But,
in verse 6, he sees a Lamb instead,
looking as if it has been slain. Here it is crucial that we recognize the
contrast between what John hears (“the Lion”) and what he sees (“the Lamb”). Both
images are the “true face of Christ.” Christ
Jesus is indeed the Lion of Judah. He is the Messiah and God Almighty. He
is able to save us with his almighty power. He reigns with God and is equally worthy
of our praise and worship. But how
has Jesus saved us? He has saved us, not
by his almighty power, but by his
sacrificial, substitutionary death! Christ
Jesus is the Lamb of God, who was slain to take away the sin of the world. Jesus
was pierced for our rebellion, he was crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we
could be whole He was whipped so we could be healed (Isa 53:5). In verse 9 four
living creatures give praises to Jesus, “You are worthy to take the scroll and
to open its seals, because you were
slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God.” When we say ‘Jesus
is the Lamb of God,’ we tend to think that this Lamb is weak and powerless. No!
In fact, the reverse is true. In verse 6 the Lamb is described as follows: “He
has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out
into all the earth.” The slaughtered Lamb is indeed God Almighty. But, Jesus has overcome the world not through a
show of force, but through his suffering and death. Here Jesus redefines
the nature of power. This power of love transforms the world and us.
Christians: Sheep and Conquerors
We, as followers of Jesus Christ,
must pursue this path. In Paul’s term, we
Christians are sheep and conquerors. In verse 36 and 37 Paul says, “As it
is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.” These two seemingly contradictory images tell us who
we are as Christians and how we can endure opposition and overcome the world
for Jesus’ sake.
We can find a good example of this
truth from North Korean underground Christians. For the past 14 years, Open
Doors USA has listed North Korea at the top of its list of countries where
Christians are persecuted. North Korea's rulers see Christianity not only as
"opium for the people" but also as "deeply Western and
despicable." In North Korea Christians are treated like terrorists and
that Bibles, churches, and prayer meetings are all strictly banned. Many
Christians have either been executed or taken to concentration camps. One time
Eric Foley, director of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, met some of Christians defectors
from North Korea. And he asked, “How may we pray for you?” One of the them
answered, “You pray for us? We pray for you!" That's the problem with you
American Christians and South Korean Christians! You have so much, you put your
faith in your money and in your freedom. In North Korea we have neither money
nor freedom, but we have Christ and we've found He's sufficient.” After the
meeting, Foley said, “They don't pray for a regime change. They don't pray for
freedom and money. They pray for more of
Christ and to mirror more of Christ in their life.”[4] Not for
freedom, but for more of Jesus – that's what we should be praying for ourselves
today.
In fact, this prayer is not new. We
can find the exactly same kind of prayer in the early church Christians’ prayer.
Some of them were arrested, interrogated, and tortured. Some were killed,
slaughtered as sheep. When tribulation, opposition, persecution came, they didn’t
pray that God would remove these things. Instead, they prayed that God would
give them strength to stand firm, strength to love those who persecute them, strength
to continue to speak the gospel of Christ Jesus with boldness. In Acts 4:29-30,
they prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to
speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform
miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Let
this be our prayer! Let us look to Christ Jesus, who died for us, who was raised
to life for us, who reigns for us, and who is interceding for us. Let us pray
for more of Christ and to mirror more of Christ in our lives. Yes, we will face
challenges and opposition along the way. But be encouraged! Take heart! God is for us.
No one can be successfully against us, nor successfully condemn us. No one,
nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!
[1]
“Wesley to Wilberforce,” Christianity Today, http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-2/wesley-to-wilberforce.html
[2]
John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s
Good News for the World (InterVarsity: Downers Grove, IL, 1994), 255.
[3]
Ibid., 244.
[4]
“The Surprising Prayers of North Korea’s
Christians”
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2016/october/the-surprising-prayers-of-north-koreas-christians
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