Let’s Go Back to Rome
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 22 Aug 2010 in From Steve's Study ::
Today, in our morning services, we go back to our series in the book of Romans. In case you’ve forgotten, Paul has spent the first eight chapters giving us a summary of the gospel and its implications.
We have been reminded of our sin and our desperate state before God, but also of his never-ending love and mercy as he offers us the chance of a new start – a chance for eternal life – and all we have to do is have faith. It is by faith that we are saved, which Paul describes as an incredible gift of grace.
When we left off (at the end of chapter 8), it was so encouraging to hear that we are so secure in God’s love. Paul writes: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38,9)
But how can we be sure this is true? After all, God may love us, but I am very capable of turning away from him. My feelings can rise and fall like the tides, so how can I know God won’t take his love from me? Of course, we know because he has told us that he won’t (and God cannot lie). We know because he has demonstrated the eternal breadth of his love by sacrificing his only Son for us. And in chapter 9 Paul tells us there is another reason we can be assured that our salvation will never be taken away… God has chosen us. Before the beginning of time, God chose to place his love on us. “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy”. (Rom 9:16)
Now, of course, there are many questions that this may arouse in us, questions that are worth thinking through and debating over, but let us at the very least accept the great comfort of knowing that our salvation is totally in the hands of the one who will never let go. We can have full assurance that what he has chosen, what he has begun in us, will be brought to its conclusion when Jesus returns.
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