CAN YOU FALL AWAY FROM CHRIST’S LOVE?
By Nick Bibile
(Romans 8:31-39)

If the there is any chapter in the Bible that gives security and comfort to the Christian it would be Romans 8.  What an awesome chapter, and he have been in dwelling in Romans 8 for months,  feasting on scripture,  and today we are coming to an end of this chapter. This awesome chapter has  an awesome ending . Before we begin to study the conclusion of the chapter let us re-cap what we have been studying.

· It begins with that comforting scripture; "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ."  (1-4)  He ends with the same topic,  this is a key issue in our salvation.
· Why? Because the Holy Spirit has regenerated  us, sanctified, renewed us in God. (5-11)
· Before we were the children of the Devil and now we have become the children of God, and have a relationship to the Father through adoption, and we are fellow heirs with Christ. (12-17)
· We will identify with the suffering of Christ and but we will not sink as the Spirit will help us and give us hope of the glory that is reserved for us. (18-28)
· Before we were conformed to this world, but now we realize that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. (29-30)
· Salvation began with God, he is the author of salvation.  He gave his Son to die for us, therefore who is to condemn us? (31-34)
· God loved us eternity past and he sent his Son to die for us and no one can separate us from the unchangeable love of God in Christ Jesus! ( 35-39)
Paul has made a triumphant presentation of the position of the believer.

Let us read together verses 31 to 39.

31.)  Now Paul has reached the climax of his presentation,  if God is with us who can be against us?  The almighty, all powerful infinitely loving God is for us,  what a comfort,  This is security for the believer
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1. It takes away fear.

2. It adds to us security, it adds to us confidence that  God who will never leave us nor forsake us and will at all times be for us.

32.) There is an infinite love relationship between the Father and the Son. We will do almost anything for our children because we love them.  But the Father and Son relationship is infinitely higher than our earthly parent  and children relationship, as we have an evil nature. But how incredible for us to realize that the Father loved us so much that he did not spare his Son to die for us. It was the greatest sacrifice and the greatest love demonstrated for us.

33.)  Who is going to lay any charges against God’s elect? It is a forensic term of impeaching.  (a court word that accuse in a crime, see Acts 26:2) It is God who justifies. He made us righteous by imputing us the righteousness of Christ.

34.) The emnemy is a bold accuser, condemn, means to pronounce that you are utterly wrong and guilty.

35.) He wants to make  a distance between Christ’s love for us,  so the love of Christ will decrease.

36.) Same idea of continues martyrdom. This is a quote from Psalm 44:22.

37.) We shall never be separated  with Chris’s love,  we will be more than conquerors. We will overcome the enemy.

38.) Because of the evidence I am convinced and satisfied that absolutely nothing can separates us from God’s love. ( John 6:37-39)

39.) Here Paul has reached the mountain top, as God’s love is victorious over our enemies! What a climatic way to affirm the certainty of the believer's salvation.

As we have come to the end of the chapter we realize that we have been chosen and elected by God. We did not rescue ourselves from the wrath of God that was going to come against us,  but it was God who rescued us because of his grace and his great mercy. So God is for us,  then who can come against us in condemnation? Apostle Paul has every right to say this as he was the greatest enemy of the Church of God. He begins to rest in the comfort of our savior’s hands, as tells in  verse 32,  it was his Son who died for us.
 

  We were
  In Adam     =         Sin    =    Condemnation   =  Death  =  Eternal Death
 

 We are               Sin               Justified             
  In Christ     =      Forgiven   =    Righteous      =       Eternal Life

There are three enemies that will accuse and condemn us. Now let us see the picture of the courtroom where these three enemies will bring the accusations and condemnations to the judge.

The first accuser of the believers is Satan.  He is called the accuser of the believers. (Revelation 12:10)  He will appear before God against you and like a lawyer bringing your guilt with exaggeration  which appears worse than you thought,  It may sound and look true. He will bring the facts of your sin and will bring a great accusation, so that you will be condemned.

You can resist the arch enemy and have victory over him, as you would say to him,  "Yes it is true that my heart is very evil that led me to sin, but I asked forgiveness and help from God to overcome my failures and it is a fact that Christ died for me. This will defeat the great adversary.  We can overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 12:11) Resist the enemy he will flee from you.

Christ has died,  he can pardon the most deadliest sins ever committed by men.  Sin is great but Christ is greater.  His precious blood takes away every stain and guilt. Remember do not answer Satan with any other answer, other than, "It is Christ who died for me."  Christ defeated him on the cross. You can have victory over the enemy this way, resist him and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

The second enemy that will come to attack you is the world. Remember as long as you will follow the ways of the world with your sinful friends they will love you. (John 15:19) But when you give up their ways, their habits of sin,  you no longer fits into their society or to their group.  When they know that you are following Christ and you obey your Master, they will make fun at you.  They may say, "Are you born again now?"  "You are holy now?"  The world will throw all the past sins at you and say you are not different than us. Tell the world that Christ died for you, you are pardoned and justified in Christ. Yes, tell them there is forgiveness at the cross, and before long some of your worldly friends can be saved when they realize Christ can forgive their sin and guilt.

The third and the final most terrible enemy is your conscience.  This enemy is fierce and terrible.  The worst thing is to condemn yourself.  When you condemn yourself you are really condemned.  You go to sleep and your conscience is there and go on vacation to escape the pressure your conscience goes with you. Yes! There is victory over your conscience, tell the same thing that you told your former enemies, "It is Christ that died for me, the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world."  God loved you so much that he willed to forgive your sins. Your sins deserved death and eternal punishment but Christ took that place belonged to you, and he willingly took the punishment.  The justice for your sin was poured on Jesus. The Father was greatly pleased and satisfied of the death of Jesus,  how much more that we should be satisfied.

The accusers, our enemies bring the case to the court,  the adversaries hurl their accusations against us. Yes, sin must be punished because God is a righteous Judge. The Judge looks through the cross, sees the great volume of sins that no weighing scale can weigh have been poured on Jesus, even the Father hid his face from him as the sins we have committed is so gross,  utterly dirty and the eyes of the Lord is too pure to look on sin. Now who ever who comes to Christ is forgiven, pardoned and have become righteous before God.

Then who else is there to condemn us?  There is no one else left,  except the Judge.  But the praise be to God as the Judge is on our side. The Father has appointed Jesus to be the Judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:42)  There is only one Judge, Jesus Christ and he is the one who died for us. The full settlement against our sins were brought into justice upon him, and the receipt of that justice is his own hands, feet of the nail prints. So my loved ones the only one who can condemn us is the Judge,  but he is the very Person who paid the debt for us, forgave our sins and made us righteous.

We are still in our flesh we are still weak, and when we do sin (not practicing in pleasure of sin) Christ is there speaking to the Father in our defense and he is the one who is interceding for us in our weaknesses. As intercessor, His work has to do with the weaknesses, the helplessness, and the immaturity of the saints who are on the earth--things over which we have no control.  Satan is extremely mad at you,  he will try with all his power to break your trust in God,  but Christ is interceding on your behalf.  Remember Jesus said to Peter,  "Simon,  Simon,  Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail…." (Luke 22:31) The effectiveness of this intercession of Christ in the preservation of each believer is declared to be absolute. He is able to save to the uttermost. (Hebrews 7:25). That is, to save, to keep saved forever those who come unto God by Him and this on the ground of His ministry of intercession.   John 17:4-24.

We love God because he loved us first, he loved you before eternity past, he chose you eternity past. (Ephesians 1:4)  He thought of you before you were born,  and he loved you infinitely,  when Adam sinned you too sinned in Adam.  You deserved judgment, but praise be to God for his gift of salvation.

Now let us read from verses 35-39.  Yes, my beloved, if you are a true Christian God grace is sufficient for you as he will secure you in your salvation. He has chosen the true believers absolutely and unconditionally to eternal life,  you are kept by his power and nothing can separate you from the love of Christ Jesus.

The only way we can see the love of Christ for us when he was crucified on the cross.  Let us picture him on the cross.

He received the lashes on his back,  and his back was cut open with flesh hanging out, he never opened his mouth when he was accused.

Our sins were exceedingly sinful and our sins stabbed his heart, stabbed him to death. Nails were driven through his hand and feet.

We never realized how filthy and grievous our sins are until we see his bloody sweat for us.

The blood that trickled from his hands and feet cleanses our sins,  the torture and the agony removed our guilt.

No painter can paint the true picture on the cross as their hands will tremble  when they see his true love,  No speaker can express the love of Jesus for us. Yes he did it for you,  he loved you unconditionally and infinitely that he opened the gates of heaven for you to enter!

You received this free of charge,  freely give.
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