Paul himself would be killed by a sword and his readers were men and women whose blood would soak the sands of the great Roman amphitheaters under the massive Roman persecution. But the honor of Christ was safe in their keeping because they were safe in His love and He would never let them go. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When you're playing a sport, applying for college, or interviewing for a job, you do everything you can to show your value, to highlight what you can contribute to the team or to the student body or to the company. But when it comes to your salvation, there's nothing you contribute, nothing you can do to earn salvation. Now, you might already know that, but the natural follow-up question is, can you do anything to lose your salvation? Answering that question is John MacArthur's focus in his current series on Grace to You, a study he calls The Grip of God.
Now with a lesson, here's John. Open your Bible to Romans chapter 8 as we come to the final portion of this great chapter. In Jeremiah 31, 3, God said to His people, I have loved you with an everlasting love, and that is the kind of love that God places upon those who belong to Him eternally, and that's what we've been learning in this great chapter. We remember the wonderful promise that God is able to complete what He begins in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is an everlasting work of salvation that God does. Scripture is filled with promises about the eternality of our salvation, that whom the Lord saves He secures forever. And, of course, that is what we've been seeing in this great chapter. It all began in verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ, if you've been placed into Christ, into union with Christ through faith in Him, there will never be any condemnation. The rest of the chapter goes on to demonstrate why that is true and culminates at the very end in verses 31 to 31 by answering any possible objections. Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things?
What could we expect as a response? Well, this anticipates that some will object. Some are going to say, well, in spite of all that we've learned, we could lose our salvation.
It is possible. And so Paul takes the conceivable objections and answers them as he closes this chapter. We are God's elect. God has justified us, made us righteous. He's not about to turn us loose. God cannot let go of us of His own will because He has predetermined that we should be His forever and He is for us. Satan cannot somehow rest us, as it were, from the hands of God because God will not let it happen. He has given us the greater gift.
He will do the lesser work to hold on to us. Christ won't let us go either. He already died for us, rose for us, and now is at the right hand of God, interceding for us, and we saw that all in our last study. So it is not possible that we should be taken from the hand of God. There is not a person or persons who can cause us to lose our salvation.
Then we come to verse 35, and we come to the matter of circumstances. If persons cannot cause us to lose our salvation, if we can't do it ourselves, if other people can't do it as we saw, if God won't let go of us, if Satan can't cause it to happen, if Christ won't because He is ever living to intercede for us, is it possible that some circumstance could do it? In other words, some circumstance could so effect us as to destroy our salvation. What if under the pressure of temptation we would fall and reject Christ? What if under the pressure of temptation we would abandon our faith and remove ourselves, as it were? What if the cost of discipleship is so high and the price to pay for following Christ so great that we're no longer willing to do that? Well, that's taking us into verses 35 to 37. What shall separate us from the love of Christ from our standpoint?
Nothing outside of us, no person outside of us, not God, not Satan, not Christ can do it. But what about something that happens to us that separates us from the love of Christ from our side? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sort, just as it is written, for Thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. What is really what...is really the appropriate word to start verse 35?
The context makes this better than who, although the Greek could go either way. Can we stand the pressure without forsaking Christ? And Paul says, yes, absolutely. There isn't anything that can separate us from the love of Christ. And though that implies our love to Him, it most notably speaks of His love for us. Verse 37, Him who loved us. Verse 39, the love of God, which obviously in that context He has for us. So those verses would lead us to believe that the primary issue here is His love for us, though certainly it brings into thought our love for Him.
Is there anything that can cause us to lose our love for Him and therefore have Him cease loving us? Well, the answer to that could come from John 13. Listen to what it says in verse 1. This is a wonderful, wonderful statement.
John 13, 1 says, the Feast of Passover was about to happen and Jesus was very much aware that He was going to die. And it says at the end of verse 1, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. He loved them eis talos, He loved them to the max.
That's what it means. He loved them supremely. He loved them perfectly. He loved them completely. He loved them ultimately. And what that is saying is that God loves His own who are in the world, listen to this one, to the complete extent of His capability of loving.
That is a remarkable thing. He loves His own in the world to the max, to the fullness of the capacity that He has to love. And I might add that it has nothing to do with whether we are lovable because there was hardly a time when the disciples were less lovable than at the very moment of John 13. They were in the upper room. It was the night that Judas was going to betray Jesus. They were having the final supper, the last supper, the Passover meal. Judas was about to be dismissed from that gathering and he would go immediately and sell Jesus who then the next day would be taken captive and crucified. The disciples were not only disinterested in what was going on with regard to Jesus and more concerned about themselves, but they were actually demonstrating their carnality by being in the middle of a debate about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom, which seemed to have been a constant subject for them. And they were at it again, according to comparative passages we know that is the case. Jesus had told them He was going to die. He had told them what was coming.
They literally let it run off like water on a duck's back. They were indifferent to that whole scenario, that unbelievably horrible sin-bearing which He was anticipating never captured their compassion at all, not at all. Instead, they were arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom. They were really very unlovable at that moment. And isn't it wonderful that the text of Scripture chooses that very moment in which to tell us that Jesus loved them to the max? And the bottom line is, His love for us is an eternal love set upon us never due to anything worthy in us or anything that we've achieved and consequently it was not gained by us, nor is it to be lost by us.
He loved His own who were in the world to the max. And then it goes on to tell you something else about these typical believers. They were sitting at dinner already eating and nobody had washed feet. Now, that's not a big issue in your house because you keep your feet covered all day.
It's a big issue there because the roads are either muddy or dusty, nothing is paved except some stone streets, but those were only thoroughfares and most people would walk on dirt all day. They wore sandals and supper like this, a Passover meal like this was hours together and it was more than sitting in a chair, it was reclining and if your head reclined, you tended to recline towards somebody's feet. Common courtesy indicated that there should be a foot washing and it was the lowest slave on the social totem pole who had that job. And since they rented the upper room, probably no slave came with it and none of the disciples was about to volunteer since they were all arguing about who was the greatest and none of them wanted to disqualify himself from such consideration by taking the role of a servant.
They were exhibiting selfishness, indifference and pride and Jesus Himself had to get up, take off His outer garment, leaving only His inner cloak, put towel around His waist and do the dirty work Himself. I say all of that to say there's nothing to indicate that they were worth loving at this moment but the love of God is not dependent on how we act in any given circumstance in life. It is an unending love.
At that very time, He loved them to the very max. That is just a profound and profound truth. So the question is then, back to Romans, is there anything that can separate us from Him loving us to the max? He loves us to the fullest extent that it is possible for Him to love His creature. He cannot love any creature more than He loves His own.
That's just incredible. Is there anything that can come into our lives and affect us in such a way as to cause us the forfeiture of that love? Well the answer is here. Is it tribulation? Is it distress? Is it persecution, famine, misperil, sword?
Can any of those things do it? Tribulation is from the Greek word flipsis which means pressure, literally the word for pressure. Outward difficulty could be bodily harm, accusation, rejection. And then the word distress, really two words, stenokorea, probably means not outward difficulty but inward difficulty. This is an interesting word, distress means to be hemmed into a narrow way from which there is no escape. Are there temptations that are so inescapable, external pressures, internal temptations so inescapable that we just can't sustain our faith?
Can they cause us to totally collapse so that there's absolutely no way out? What about persecution, diogmus? What about abuse for the cause of Christ which can get very wearying, physical, mental suffering at the hands of Christ's rejectors and God haters?
Can that break the back of our faith? What about famine, not even having necessary food, not being deprived? What about nakedness? That means you don't have any clothes, nothing to wear.
You're so bereft, you're so poor, you're so impoverished, you don't have any food and you don't have the necessary clothing. What about peril? That simply means being exposed to danger that you can't identify. Fear is what's involved there, the dread of potential impending disaster.
What about Micaiah, the sword? What's that talking about? Execution. What about all that?
Can that do it? Is that a powerful enough catalog of circumstances as to destroy true faith? Well, we know one thing, it'll destroy shallow, illegitimate faith, won't it?
Because in the parable that Jesus told of the soil and the seeds, He talked about seed that went into the stony ground and it came up for a little while, but as soon as there was persecution, it died and never bore any fruit. We know false faith can be destroyed by persecution. False faith, according to the rest of that parable and that thorny, weedy ground, can even be destroyed just by the love of the world, the love of riches, which is a form of temptation. But the question is, can the real stuff, real true faith, genuine salvation be devastated by these things? Can they drive us to doubt if we're genuinely gods? Can they drive us to sin? Can they drive us to the rejection of Jesus Christ and the abandonment of our faith and hope and trust in Him? Well, this is not theory with Paul.
This is not theory. Ask yourself the question, did Paul suffer external pressure all the time? Did he suffer internal pressure? Yes. Was he depressed? Yes. Was he fearful? Yes.
Did he suffer persecution? Yes. Did he go without food? Yes. Did he go without clothing? Was he in danger of death? Yes. Was he facing execution? Yes.
So we're not talking theory here, folks. Paul is literally giving you a recitation of things parallel. Listen to 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23, I've been in far more labors, far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've spent in the deep. I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, robbers, countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles in the city, in the wilderness, on the sea, among false brethren, been in labor, hardship, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, without food, and clothed in exposure, no clothes. I've had it all. And I'm not alone.
Listen to some other folks who had that. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, Hebrews 11, 20, 11, 32, David, Samuel, the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, became mighty in war, put armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others experienced mocking, scourgings, chains, imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in half, tempted, put to death with the sword, went about in sheepskins, goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. Not only Paul, but a lot of other folks, great heroes of the faith, have endured these kinds of things. Does that break the bond of Christ's love for His own? When we struggle with those kinds of things, does He stop loving us?
No. In fact, verse 36 says, we expect it. This stuff is supposed to come just as it is written. I mean, Jesus said it, didn't He, in this world you shall have...what?...tribulation. In John 16, He says they're going to take you prisoner, they're going to bring you before the councils, they're going to take your life. This is what it says, and Paul quotes from Psalm 44 22, for Thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. All the saints have endured that.
That's not surprising. That just kind of goes along with belonging to God because the hating world is going to persecute the Lord's own. Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 10, 37 to 39. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life shall lose it and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it.
It could cost you your family, it could cost you your life. And all the saints through all the ages have endured this. Let me tell you something. If that drives someone to reject Christ, they were never His. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out from us that it might be made manifest they were not of us, 1 John 2 19. For Thy sake, back to verse 36, expresses a willingness. God's people for His sake, Christ's own for His sake, are willing to suffer. Listen to Luke 9 57. As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, I'll follow You wherever You go. And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.
That's interesting, isn't it? Somebody comes along as some would-be disciple and says, Oh, I'm impressed with you. I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus doesn't say to him, Well, I'm headed to a kingdom and glory and power and riches. He says, Well, I probably ought to tell you, I'm homeless.
I can't offer you anything. This is really basic in discipleship. He offers us in this world persecution, tribulation, suffering, alienation.
We are the off-scouring in that sense. It is a willingness that Christians have, a willingness to go all the way to death. Listen to Matthew 16, verse 24, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. You come to Christ acknowledging a sacrifice, a willingness to suffer. When true Christians face these things, they don't abandon their salvation, it's just part of it. True believers persevere.
It's a great truth. And Paul says that. Look at verse 37. No, he says, but in all these things we overwhelmingly...what?...conquer through Him who loved us. In all our trials, in all our persecutions, in all our temptations, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, in all of that we don't just barely eke by, we are triumphant, we are victorious. The trial works to our greater good, as we've seen. Those kind of trials in our lives make us humble, drive us to God, expose us to greater grace, break our self-confidence and make us powerful.
They enable us to strengthen others. And so he says, we overwhelmingly conquer, not in our own strength, but through Him who...what?...loved us. See, when we're going through all of that, He never lets go. He loves us all the way through that and He holds on to that.
It is an unbreakable bond. Paul wrote this during a winter in Corinth and neither Paul, I think, nor the Romans could know how short a time would elapse before they would stand in need of this very comforting truth. Paul himself would be killed by a sword, a Roman sword.
And his readers were men and women whose blood would soak the sands of the great Roman amphitheaters under the massive Roman persecution. But the honor of Christ was safe in their keeping because they were safe in His love and He would never let them go. And He would give them the strength to endure and to persevere and He would give them the faith to be sustained through whatever came and an undying love for Him. They didn't need to fear to die. They didn't need to fear being mauled by wild beasts. They didn't need to fear being soaked in tar and then told to deny Christ or they would be lit as torches in the gardens of Caesar. They didn't need to fear fighting with gladiators. They didn't need to fear fighting beasts and they didn't need to fear conflict with hell's demons. They were safe in the undying love of Christ. Those who abandoned their faith never belonged to Him.
Never. His love is an everlasting love. He loves to the max and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can separate them from that love. It's John MacArthur showing you from Scripture that God never revokes the salvation He grants. Today's lesson is part of his current study on Grace to You, titled The Grip of God.
Along with teaching here on radio, John also serves as chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. So John, we're 11 days into this study from Romans 8, and think about this, we've worked through only about 10 verses. So what statement does that make about the book of Romans? I don't know, but it makes a statement about me. It takes me a while to get traction. It is rich material.
No, yeah. What it says about the book of Romans is that slow is better than fast and deep is better than shallow. This is one of the most rich and encouraging, maybe the most encouraging chapter in all of the Bible because of the security of the believer's salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the Father and the Son to bring us to eternal glory. So, yeah, you can't go fast and really hear the word of the Lord in this particular chapter.
And that would be true in every passage. I think too many Christians look at the Bible superficially and think there's some kind of surface message, but everywhere in Scripture there's a depth, there's a, you know, the Apostle Paul would say there's a milk level and there's a meat level, and we're digging into the stake in Romans 8. And I would just encourage people, if you haven't studied the Bible like this, let me suggest a good place to start in the New Testament commentary series that I've written which has 34 volumes. There's a two-volume commentary on Romans.
This would be a great experience. This would be an absolutely life-transforming experience for any believer to read the two-volume commentary that takes you word by word, verse by verse through the book of Romans. It deals with all kinds of critical themes like man's depravity, how to be right with God, how Christ died for God, God's promises to Israel, the issue of sin, freedom from sin, life in the Spirit, God's sovereignty and salvation, the security of the believer, the Christian and government. Just endless critical issues are dealt with in the book of Romans. A great tool for personal study, Sunday School teaching, preparation, pastors, Bible students. Pick up the two commentaries on Romans, or the entire MacArthur New Testament commentary series, 34 volumes total.
And as always, the cost is reasonable. As John said, Romans is such a rich book and so powerful. In fact, it's the book that opened Martin Luther's eyes to the essential doctrine of justification by faith alone.
So you could say that Romans set off the Protestant Reformation. To glean all you can from this critical portion of Scripture, pick up John's two-volume commentary on Romans today. Call toll-free 800-55-GRACE or log on to gty.org. Each volume of the MacArthur New Testament commentary series is available for the same affordable price, or if you'd like to purchase all 34 volumes, you'll get a discount on each one. Again, to order the two-volume Romans commentary or the entire MacArthur New Testament commentary series, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And remember, at gty.org you'll find thousands of free Bible study resources. If there's a passage in the New Testament that has always confused you, or is something that you simply want to know more about, John has a sermon on it.
You can download the MP3s or the transcripts. And check out our blog. You'll find articles on compelling topics like glorifying God in the gray areas of life, or true worship, or purity, or many others. And if you've benefited from John's current radio series, perhaps let a friend know about it and encourage him or her to tune in to Grace To You on this station. That said, this is Phil Johnson on behalf of John MacArthur encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John continues his study, The Grip of God, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
