By Mark D. Proctor
Pastor, Highland Park Baptist Church, Columbia
Focal Passage: Romans 8:31-39
When my children were small I took them to the animal shelter to pick out a puppy. They chose a small terrier named “Bambi.” Bambi needed shots and a bath so we promised to return later to take her home. By the time the children went back someone else had already adopted Bambi and they were heartbroken. But my 7-year-old son called to put my mind at ease. “Don’t worry, Dad, we got a llama instead!” Before I could have a cardiac event, I heard his older sister in the background say, “it’s a Lhaso Apso!” I was scared, but one word made a difference.
Paul knew this. In Romans, he wrote to those “called to be saints …” He wrote with passion and punch, masterfully delineating the gospel in his most doctrinal letter. In the focal passage of this study, we find one of the most encouraging of those words is the two-letter, personal pronoun “us.” Understanding who is included is the key to living in victory over fear. We will see why as we examine the key verses in the passage.
“If God is for us, who can be against us,” (Romans 8:31). And God’s son, Paul says, was delivered for “us” all (v. 32) and Christ makes intercession for “us” (v. 34). No one shall separate “us” from the love of God. (vv. 35, 38-39). The heartiest hope of this passage belongs to “us.” So, the wary Christian, on guard against the devil (I Peter 5:8), looks for the ways the devil can cause people to doubt they are one of the “us.” God is against you, Satan says; God’s Son wasn’t delivered to someone as corrupt as you. You are separated from God’s love now; your sins have found you out. Soon the defeated, fearful Christian surrenders the victory and decides he or she is no longer included.
Yet Romans 8:28 assures us who is included: lovers of God and hearers of God. Those who love God and hear God’s call are foreknown by God and “predestined to be conformed to the image of His son” (v. 29). Then Paul closes by saying that these, the called, the foreknown, the predestined, are justified and glorified by God. That’s rich language and we can see why Satan would want us to think we were excluded from it. But nothing — nothing! — can separate us from it.
Church, our job is to make sure those who sit in our pews and in our classes are included and understand they always will be. Once Satan can convince them they aren’t included, they begin to believe they aren’t conquerors in all things which by its very definition means they are conquered. And Christians, we aren’t conquered in anything. When Paul wrote to Timothy and said “… endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (II Timothy 2:3), he meant a good, victorious soldier!
