The Quantum Leap
Romans 8:31-39[31] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36] As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Prior to coming to Immanuel Church last year, Meghan and I worked for Young Life in Wheaton, IL. Every summer, we’d take buses of kids to camp for the best week of their lives. Every third year, we’d go to a camp called Sharptop Cove in Jasper, Georgia. It’s a beautiful place. It has everything: waterslides, a lake, basketball courts, the BLOB, a frisbee golf course, horseback riding, mountain biking, etc. But it has one thing that I wish it didn’t have. It is called “The Quantum Leap.” “The Quantum Leap” is a 40 ft. phone pole that you need to climb, stand on top of, and then jump off of to hit a bell that is positioned up and beyond. Not an ideal thing for someone terrified of heights… like me!
Now, picture this, my cabin of 10 sophomore guys (fearless, modern-day Bravehearts, Gladiators, etc.) are getting on their harnesses and helmets and lining up for their turn at the base of the telephone pole. While they’re talking about what they’re going to do after “The Quantum Leap” is over, I’m about 10 feet away, having a heart to heart conversation with the college-aged staff person that was in charge of this death trap.
Now, as you look at the line of high school students on the right side of your screen and then the heart to heart conversation that was ensuing between me and the staff guy on the left side of your screen, we’re going to double-click on me and the staff guy so that you can ‘hear’ what I had to say. “Have their been any accidents this summer? Have you heard of any accidents in past summers? How long have you been doing this job? Will you double, triple check my harness? If I fall, you’ve got me, right?” You see I was about to entrust my LIFE to this person. I wanted him to convince me that he wasn’t going to let me die!
In a parallel way, all of life is like “The Quantum Leap.” Everyone is depending on someone or something to keep them safe, to make them feel okay. If you are a Christian, the one you are depending on to keep you safe, to make you feel okay is God – He is the one holding the rope. And although you know he is totally reliable to keep you, you have your questions. You aren’t totally convinced. For example, when you are looking for a job and can’t find one, when you are feeling overwhelmed with the demands of being a mom, or when you are waiting for the results of some blood tests, or when you are experiencing suffering of various kinds, we inevitably question the reliability of God’s love for us. Deep down, we fear that he might drop us (or even that he is dropping us).
In Romans 8:31-39, it’s as though Paul is giving us God’s response to the questions of our heart! In these verses, God is out to CONVINCE us that he’s got us and he’s never letting go. God wants us to know that his love for us can be trusted NO MATTER WHAT! My hope for you is that you will be increasingly convinced that God’s love for you can be trusted!
God addresses the following questions: 1) Are you sure my enemies won’t succeed against me? (v. 31) 2) Will you really give me all things? (v. 32) 3) Are you positive that you will never charge or condemn me? (v. 33-34) 4) Is there really NOTHING that can separate me from your love? (v. 35-39).
In short-form, here’s his reply:
- Our enemies will never succeed against us because Jesus willingly allowed them to succeed against himself on the cross in our place.
- We can be sure that we will receive ‘all things’ because Jesus willingly experienced the loss of all things on the cross in our place.
- We can be sure that God will never charge or condemn us because Jesus was willingly charged and condemned by God in our place.
- We can be sure that NOTHING will separate us from the love of God because Jesus was willingly separated from the love of God on the cross in our place.
That We May Believe
I came across the following quote by Augustine in Moo’s Commentary on Romans (NICNT, p. 588):
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God does not choose us because we believe, but that we may believe.
No Mercy, Comfort, Or Privilege Withheld In Christ!
HT: Joseph Randall (I love this guy’s blog… he doesn’t write too often, but when he does it is always helpful.)
Surely if He would not spare his own Son one stroke, one tear, one groan, one sigh, one circumstance of misery, it can never be imagined that ever He should, after this, deny or withhold from His people, for whose sakes all this was suffered, any mercies, any comforts, any privilege, spiritual or temporal, which is good for them.
Tell Me Again
A couple of days ago, I was putting my little beautiful Lily to bed and I whispered into her ear, “I love you beautiful Lily.” She smiled and quietly said, “Tell me again.” That happened about 5x. I would have told her 2,000 times if she had asked.
Like my beautiful Lily, we also need to hear from our perfect heavenly Father these same words… and we need to hear him again and again and again!
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Romans 8:14-15 says,
[14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [15] For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Mark 1:11 says,
[11] And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
If you are in Christ, he is pleased indeed. He’s telling you all the time that you are his beautiful son or daughter. May your heart be touched by this truth and experience the joy of belonging to Him.
The Pivotal Factor
The following quote comes from Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace (p. 13):
Agape is not a mere emotional by-product of action but a supernatural outpouring of the grace of God infusing all our behavior with the life of Christ. It is the love of God which “has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5 NASB). This kind of love, as Augustine never tired of insisting, is the pivotal factor in the church’s life.”
I Cannot Pray Without Sin
The following quote by George Whitefield comes from Redeemer Presbyterian’s Bible Study on Romans (p. 45):
Before [you can be sure you are at peace with God] you must not only be troubled for the sins… of your nature, but likewise for the sins of your best duties and performances. When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord, then the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works, flies directly to a covenant of words again. And as Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden, and sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner, when awakened, flies to his duties and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes to patch up a righteousness of his own. Says he, “I will be mighty good now — I will reform — I will do all I can; and then certainly Jesus Christ will have mercy on me. But before you can [know you are at peace with God] you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all your duties — all your righteousness — as the prophet elegantly expresses it–put them all together, are so far from recommending you to God, are so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have mercy on your poor soul, that he will see them to be filthy rags, a menstrous cloth — that God hates them, and cannot but away with them, if you bring them to him in order to recommend you to his favor. My dear friends, what is there in our performances to recommend us to God?
I can say that I cannot pray without sin — I cannot preach without sin — I can do nothing without sin; and as one expresses it: my repentance needs to be repented of, and my very tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins. Before you can know you are at peace with God, you must not only be made sick of your original and actual sin, but you must be sick of your righteousness, of all your duties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of your heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had no righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come to Jesus Christ. There are a great many now who may say, “well we believe all this,” but there is a great difference between talking and feeling. Did you ever feel the need of a dear Redeemer? Did you ever feel the want of Jesus Christ, upon the account of the deficiency of your own righteousness? And can you now say from your heart, “Lord, thou mayst justly damn me for the best duties that ever I did perform?” If you are not thus brought out of yourself, you may say to your heart “Peace! Peace!” but there is no peace.”
Build Yourself on the Work of Christ
If you do not build yourself on the work of Christ you must build your life on your own work and effort. On this truth and only on this truth the church is built and has its being.
Nothing Gives Peace Like This…
Doesn’t get better than this quote by Martin Luther (per Redeemer Presbyterian Church – Gospel 101 Study Guide):
“There is a righteousness which Paul calls “the righteousness of faith.” God imputes it to us apart from our works – in other words, it is passive righteousness… So then, have we nothing to do to obtain this righteousness? No, nothing at all! For this righteousness comes by doing nothing, hearing nothing, knowing nothing, but rather in knowing and believing this only – that Christ has gone to the right hand of the Father, not to become our judge, but to become for us our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, our salvation! Now God sees no sin in us, for in this heavenly righteousness sin has no place. So now we may certainly think, “Although I still sin, I don’t despair, because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my eternal life.” In that righteousness I have no sin, no fear, no guilty conscience, no fear of death. I am indeed a sinner in this life of mine and in my own righteousness, but I have another life, another righteousness above this life, which is in Christ, the Son of God.
Christians never completely understand (this) themselves, and thus do not take advantage of it when they are troubled and tempted. So we have to constantly teach it, repeat it, and work it out in practice. Anyone who does not understand this righteousness or cherish it in the heart and conscience will continually be buffeted by fears and depression. Nothing gives peace like this passive righteousness. The troubled conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of charge in Jesus Christ, which is this passive or Christian righteousness… Once you are in Christ, the Law is the greatest guide for your life, but until you have Christian righteousness, all the law can do is to show you how sinful and condemned you are. But if we first receive Christian righteousness, then we can use the law, not for our salvation, but for his honor and glory, and to lovingly show our gratitude.
Objective AND Subjective
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
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In Growing Up in Grace, Murray Brett says,
“It’s easy to see the basis for the subjective experience of God’s love in Romans 5:5. The Holy Spirit is its source! And it’s just as easy to see the objective basis for faith in the promise of God’s love in verses 6 through 10. The Son of God and His death in the place of sinners is its source! But we may easily overlook that both the Spirit’s work and Christ’s work have their origin in the love of the Father. God the Father is the source of love for His people. Eph. 2:4-5 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.”"
I often forget that our subjective experience of God is also entirely dependent on His gracious activity towards us. In a subtle way, I slip into a mindset that focuses on what I must do to experience God’s love. He is good and we should both wait and trust. His love will surely come. Both the objective and subjective aspects of our faith are graciously given by His mercy alone.
God Comes to Us
The following quote comes from Donald Grey Barnhouse (per Romans, An Expositional Commentary by James Montgomery Boice, p. 436)
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