It is hard to believe that this Sunday will be the last in the "Lutheran Confidential" series! Through the previous weeks, we've unpacked Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 7 and 8 with the help of Martin Luther's lecture notes he prepared in the year 1515. As we continue to be "Renewed by Reformation", these notes give us some insight into the reform that was happening in Martin's heart before the 95 Theses helped reform the church.
FILE #5 - "MORE THAN CONQUERORS"
Certainty. Assurance. Rock solid faith with Jesus Christ as the sure foundation. This is what we discover here at the end of Romans chapter eight.
In his lecture notes, Martin Luther writes:
For if it were not the purpose of God, and if our salvation depended upon our will and works, it would depend on chance, a chance which - I do not say all of these evils together - but one of them might easily hinder or overturn! But now when he says: "Who will bring a charge? Who will condemn? Who will separate? (vv. 33-35), he is showing that the elect are not saved by chance but by necessity.
The Apostle asks a bold question. What will ever separate us from the love of God? "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" The sweet answer to that question is that nothing will separate us. Nothing in this world or the next. Nothing in the past or in the future. Nothing. We belong to God now and forever because nothing can change God's love for us in Jesus Christ.
This is a reassurance that everyone needs at all times, from the least to the greatest, the most experienced Christian to the newly baptized, from the missionary to the Sunday School student. We are all more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
No comments:
Post a Comment