A Believer’s Response to God’s Amazing Grace | A Verse By Verse Exposition Of Romans 8:31-39

Scripture

• Romans 8:31–39

About this sermon

Introduction: Last Lord’s Day evening I mentioned how the doctrines of grace, after troubling our hearts initially, can become sweet to our hearts. Some of this transformation can be explained by maturity, but it is also explained by humble submission. To speculate in the realm of theology is neither productive nor safe. Pride is not only willing to disagree with Scripture; it finds it very hard to confine itself to Scripture. “Well, here is what I think.” “Here is what I believe.” “Here is my take on that.” That is the language of pride whenever it finds itself at odds with Scripture. To tell me what you think when Scripture hasn’t spoken to something is one thing, to tell me what you think IN OPPOSITION to Scripture, is another. To stop short of believing all that God has revealed about Himself, and about what He has done, is sinful, and it is self-destructive. Humility not only disciplines itself to think in terms of what God has revealed, it chooses to delight in all that God has revealed. It chooses to delight because it knows that God is good, and all that He has done is good. It is humility that digs down deep and to takes full account of what God has made known to His people. It is humility that not only values the word of God; it believes every word of God. Until we humble ourselves to embrace all that God has revealed about salvation, we will not know the joys, the comforts, the sweetness, the satisfaction, and the confidence in salvation that God wants His people to know. Many people have argued against the sovereignty of God in salvation. Many people who claim that they believe everything that Scripture has to say, will do everything in their power to avoid what is very clear in Scripture about salvation’s ultimate explanation being found in God alone. It is only when we humble ourselves to listen to what God tells us about what He has done in our own case, to believe it with all of our hearts, that we will ever be able to grasp and identify with the passage that we have before us. Paul, in Romans chapter 8, tells us the truth of the amazing grace of God in salvation, and then he tells us how we should respond to it. He tells us what we should know because of it. And so, this is what we do today. We consider how the believer is to respond to the truth that God has revealed about His saving work in our lives. The things to which we respond (2) The conclusion with which we respond (3) The obstacles contemplated in our response THE THINGS TO WHICH WE RESPOND (vs.31) What shall we say to these things? Who are the responders envisioned in this statement? Well, it is those who have been saved by God in and through His Son Jesus. It is all of us whose salvation has been described in the previous verses. And, what are the things that he has in mind? The things, as these verses make plain, are all those things that speak of the unassailable, impregnable, eternally secure position of the believer. He is referring to the things that Paul has just expounded with respect to election, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. In some sense, everything that he has declared in this entire letter up to this point, but in a special sense, that which he has just finished teaching us. What shall we say to these truths? How does the believer respond to such amazing grace? THE CONCLUSION WITH WHICH WE RESPOND THE PROPER RESPONSE IS TO DRAW THE RIGHT CONCLUSION. The proper way to respond to God’s words of assurance, is to consider them, and then to believe them. If this is God’s plan, then it is unassailable. It is certain. We are safe. God’s plan for us is invincible. There is nothing to fear. There is every reason to celebrate and to rejoice. We rejoice in the knowledge of God’s love for us. We rest in the knowledge of God’s powerful protections of us. We reverence our God in the knowledge of His grace to us. If God is for us who can be against us? THE OBSTACLES CONTEMPLATED IN OUR RESPONSE This response is something far removed from any kind of empty hope. Having seen and having understood that our salvation is the result of God’s own eternal choice, is accomplished by God’s own powerful working, and is headed toward God’s own glorious predetermined outcomes, then WORSHIPFUL, GRATEFUL, ASSURANCE is the only reasonable response. This is thought out, this is thought through. And we can divide it into three parts. THERE IS NO PERSON WHO WILL CHANGE GOD’S PLAN (vs.31-34) HUMANS WON’T DO IT (vs.31) Not individuals Not religious groups – Think about the threats to protestants Not secular powers

Topics

• Faith
• Grace
• Bible Study