Sermon - New Year's Eve - Romans 8:31-39

Sermon – New Year's Eve
Romans 8:31-39
December 31st, 2017
“Inseparable”

We Christians live in a world of many dangers, troubles, and trials. We saw them this year, as we do every year. Natural disasters like Hurricane Michael in Florida, wildfires in California, even a volcano in Hawaii. There's been violence: school shootings continue. Persecution of Christians has continued, even if in our part of the world it's only the soft persecution that disguises itself as tolerance. Maybe we should count our blessings that we've been free from famine and nakedness and war. But your mileage may vary. We've lost some loved ones here this year, it seems more than most years for our congregation. Marriages have fallen to pieces. Children have rebelled. Jobs have been lost. Sickness has taken its toll.

Someone looking at Christians from the outside might observe that we are just as miserable and that we suffer just as much as anyone else, and maybe in some cases more. Someone looking at the Christian life as it truly is, not the cartoon caricature of it created by those selling books and DVDs, but someone seeing the true laundry list of troubles we still go through, of griefs and sorrows we bear, that person might wonder what's in it for us? Why waste your Sundays? Why write your checks? Why pray when it surely appears so many prayers fall on deaf ears, or that no one's listening at all? And it's year in and year out. It's young and old, rich and poor, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Where is this God you Christians worship, and why isn't he doing a better job in your life? Maybe these questions are asked out loud, maybe they are implied, or perhaps they're just rhetorical.

But even the Christian can ask them – usually when we're in the thick of such trouble. For when we suffer, we are perhaps most tempted to think God has abandoned us. We are most vulnerable to the thought that he's angry with us. That we are separated from him, and that all the world may as well be against us.

But St. Paul has some rhetorical questions of his own in Romans 8. We'll get to those in a minute. First let's recall the context of Romans 1-7. Paul is writing here to a church – the Christians in Rome – whom he's not yet met. And so he doesn't address their particular problems and issues like he does with the Corinthians, for example. Rather, this letter to the Romans is more like a systematic explanation of the Christian faith. It's a basic primer in doctrine, with an appeal wide and generic enough to include the early Christians in Rome and all Christians everywhere.

He begins in chapter 1 by building a case how no one can be declared righteous by following the law. And by chapter 3 he makes the turn to show that the righteousness of God comes to us by grace, through faith in Christ. He then shows what it means to live by faith – extols the blessings of baptism, and discusses the struggle between our sinful flesh and the new man, the “inner being” of the Christian. By chapter 8 he's showing how the Christian life is truly a life of freedom from the law. The law is no longer a terror to us who are in Christ. We have become heirs of the glory that will be revealed when Christ returns.

And then we arrive at today's text. What shall we say to these things? In other words, what is our response, our conclusion, indeed our confession when we are challenged by our conscience, or by the accusations of the law or the devil? How do we answer when it seems like God might still be holding our sins against us? What do we say, in response to all of this, when it seems like God has abandoned us? The questions here are meant to challenge us to respond in faith. And so we can, and so we do. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Answer: No one, of course. I mean, the enemies are always against us, but do they really matter? If God is on our side, who can hope to have success against us, overpower us, or win the contest? No one.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not graciously give us all things? Answer: He will graciously give us all good things, even as he already has – faith, hope, peace, and a promise of even more blessings to come. All in Christ, his own son, given up for us. Look at the lengths he's already gone to! Look at the extreme measures he's already taken! If he gives us his best, why wouldn't he make sure we have everything else we need? And so in Christ, we do.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Answer: No one. Again, Satan will try. In the cosmic courtroom, the accusing attorney wants to hold us accountable to the law and see us condemned. He wants us to buy his argument and be left in despair. To think we stand guilty. But our advocate, our champion, our sure defense Jesus Christ has seen to it that no charge can stand against us. He has elected us, chosen us. He has taken all accusations and punishments upon himself, and given us his perfect righteousness. No charge can now stand, for “it is finished.”

It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Answer: No one. The condemnation was on Christ, and now it is gone. Not only did he absorb and endure it then, indeed he died and was raised, but he intercedes for us now. He is our connection to the Father. He is the way. Any sin that would have disconnected us from God, put us outside of the paradise of his eternal presence, all is cast off in Christ. Sin is separated from us, as far as east is from west. And we are made one with God, dwelling in unity through Christ, who has united us with himself.

And so, who shall separate us from the love of God? Answer: No one.

But what about tribulation? No.

Distress: No.

Persecution? Negative.

Famine? Nope.

Nakedness? Uh-uh.

Danger? Never.

Sword? Not even that. Not even death. The answer is nothing.... Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. No situation or circumstance, no plan or accident. No lack or want or poverty of body or possessions or reputation. No enemy from this world or any other. Not Satan or our sin or anyone else's can overshadow, overpower, overturn, outlast or outshine, limit or deny, or in any way get the better of the love of Christ for his people. Nothing that happened this year, last year or any year that may come.

We can face it all. We are being killed all the day long anyway. The world thinks of us as sheep ready to be slaughtered. And we say, bring it on. I have the love of Christ. What can man do to me? Let Satan slobber and squeal and scowl fierce as he may. I stand under the cross, under the protection of the blood of Christ. I carry the shield of faith, that quenches the devil's flaming darts of doubt.

The outsider might look in on us and say we're pitiful. Losers at life wasting our days chasing the shadows of a God that doesn't exist, has no power, and doesn't even care about us if he does. Look at everything that gets the best of us in this world. What advantage do we have? But Paul knows we're not lost. In Christ, we've already one the day. The victory is ours. We are more than conquerors. Not just winning, but even better than a triumphant conquering force. Our wagon is hitched to Christ. And he's already conquered all. Even death. And through his power and love, we are inseparable. All that the Father has is his. And all that is his he gives to us.

And it can't be changed by death, and it can't be destroyed by life.

No angelic being or worldly ruler can pull us apart from Christ.

Nothing now and nothing yet to be. No power, human or otherwise can do it. Not the highest height or the deepest depth, nor anything, anything else in the entirety of creation – nothing – can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So put the troubles of the past behind you and fear not the darkening shadows that loom ahead. You have Jesus. And he has you. Inseparable in all things. Thanks be to God.