More Than Conquerors - Romans 8:28-39
How do you explain why bad things happen to nice people?
What causes people to lose their faith in God?
How does God work in all the situations and events of a person’s life? (8:28)
For whom does God promise to work all things for good? (8:28)
Who is our ultimate example? (8:29)
How does God seek to change His people? (8:29)
What does God want each person to become? (8:29)
What has God done to make people what He wants them to be? (8:30)
What made Paul confident that God takes care of His people? (8:31-32)
Why should we feel confident that God is not against us or condemning us? (8:31-34)
Where is Jesus Christ right now? (8:34)
What possible tragedies or hardships are unable to separate us from the love of Christ? (8:35-39)
What kind of persecutions have God’s people often faced? (8:36)
How are God’s people to respond to persecutions and tragedies? (8:37)
What gives God’s people the ability to respond in triumph to persecution? (8:37)
How can a person be sure that bad times aren’t a signal of God’s displeasure with him or her?
What gives Christians confidence as they go through hard times?
How can you commit your difficult circumstances to God this week?
How can you show trust in God to work out your circumstances for good?
THE BIBLE IS CLEAR THAT GOD'S LOVE FOR US IS ALWAYS PREVIOUS TO OUR LOVE FOR HIM.
"IN THIS IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD. BUT THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON TO BE
THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS" (1 JOHN 4:10). THE INFINITE AND UNCHANGING SOURCE OF
LOVE REACHED DOWN TO US EVEN WHEN WE WERE HIS ENEMIES IN OUR FOOLISH REBELLION
AGAINST HIS PERSON AND PURPOSES. "BUT GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS OWN LOVE TOWARD US,
IN THAT WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US" (ROMANS 5:8).
Someone once put it this way: "I asked Jesus how much He loved me. He stretched out His arms and said,
'This much' and died.
" Jesus loved us when we were unlovable and unworthy of His attention and
care. Because of His agonizing work as our sin bearer, the way has been opened for
those who were "formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds" (Colossians 1:21)
to become God's beloved children, members of His royal family for-ever. This love humbles us because
it is undeserved, but it elevates us because it means that when we come to God by entrusting ourselves
to His Son, nothing we do can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). The more we come to
grasp and enter into this divine love, the more we will want to reciprocate by loving and honoring the eternal
lover of our souls. As the Apostle John writes, "We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
The security and significance of God's unquenchable love gives us a basis for responding with love for God
and expressing that love in tangible ways through acts of loving service to others. In His Upper Room discourse
Jesus said, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My
commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and
abide in His love" (John 15:9-10). There is a mutual relationship between abiding in the love of Christ and
keeping His commandments.
When we dwell in the sphere of His unmerited love, we begin to see that His commandments are not burdensome
but liberating. Abiding in His love, we become more inclined to obey Him not only because it is in our own best
interests but because it is pleasing to Him. Thus the Apostle Paul wrote, "We also have as our ambition,
whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9). The ambitions of this world
are directly or indirectly tied to self-aggrandizement, but the ambition of a true disciple is not exaltation of
the self but exaltation of Christ. As we grow in discipleship, our motivational structure is shaped more and more
by Christ's love for us and our developing love for Him. "For the love of Christ controls us"
(2 Corinthians 5:14). This relationship is reciprocal: The more we love Him, the more we will desire to obey Him;
the more we obey Him, the more we will grow in our personal knowledge and love for Him.
Let me offer two questions that can help you assess where you are in this spiritual journey:
1. Do you love God more for Himself than for His gifts and benefits?
2. Are you more motivated to seek His glory and honor than you are to seek your own?
These questions are pivotal, not trivial, and I would encourage you to make them a matter of prayerful reflection
rather than casual notice. If you cannot honestly answer yes to either of them, do not be disheartened, but ask
yourself a third question: Do you want your answer to be yes?
If so, offer this intention to the Lord as the desire of your heart, for with such offerings He is pleased.
But there is a fourth question that follows hard on the heels of the third:
Since this level of commitment always costs, are you willing to pay the price?
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. ... He who has My commandments and keeps them
is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him,
and will disclose Myself to him.
... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words" (John 14:15,21,23-24).
The cost of obedience will take many forms, but if we commit ourselves to loving Jesus, He will give us
the needed grace.