GOD’S PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS
Part 20
Rom. 8:31-39
Morning Meditation 1/26/17
Verse 31-39 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
THE BIBLE OUR AUTHORITY
Paul was a Bible quoting preacher. After he asks and answers the questions of verse 35, he says, “As it is written . . .” Paul says there is a Bible explanation for what I have just said. And do you know that is true of us today? If something good is going on in your life, you can say “as it is written” and quote Psalm 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” We are truly blessed of God just like the Scriptures say. If we are having a time of difficulty we can quote 1 Peter 1:6-8, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:” There are times when these verses will comfort us in the pain of trial.
THE BIBLE OUR FOOD
Jesus told His disciples in John 6:54-58, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” Then Jesus explains how this takes place in verse 63 when He says, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto thee they are spirit, and they are life.” Jesus is the resurrection (experienced spiritually by every child of God), He is the eternal life within us and are nourished and fed off His life within us through His Word. It is through His Word (the promises 2 Pet. 1:4) that we partake of the divine nature. This is the reason Paul resorted to quoting the Scripture as a means to describe what happens to believers. We go to the Word for everything. It is our life-line to Jesus.
THE BIBLE GIVES US AN EXPLANATION
Paul says, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long . . .” This is a quote of Psalm 44:22. This Psalm does not have the title in the beginning “A Psalm of David.” We do not know who wrote this Psalm. But it is quoted by Paul here as an explanation of the experience of the believers to whom he is writing. This is a lesson on the inspiration of Scripture.. It does not make any difference who the human author is. The Bible was given by inspiration of God which means it is God’s Word. We do not accept it or reject it based on a human author. I come to the Bible with unquestioned confidence that it is the Word of God. The man who questions whether the Bible is the Word of God will find reasons to reject it. They will not be legitimate but they will satisfy his unbelieving mind. Satan has the power to make those in his family FEEL good about their unbelief.
The words “ . . . for thy sake we are killed all the day long . . .” give the reason for the unfriendly atmosphere of this world for the people of God. It is for the Lord’s sake that we are a threat and discomfort to people around us. If we live like the world, they will have no problem with us. But when we quit walking by their drum-beat and cease to listen to their music and live out the life of Christ, we will discover their hatred for God and His Son. The words “all the day long” mean that this is a continuos attitude and will not change as long as this world exists in its present state.
Then he says, “ . . . we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” The word “accounted” translates “logizomai” and means, “ to reckon, to count, to compute, to calculate.” It is an aorist passive indicative verb. The aorist tense in the indicative mood represents a once-for-all act in the past. We will have to go back to the Garden of Eden to find where this happened. From that time a person was either on God’s side or he was against Him. This is illustrated in the lives of Cain and Able. A lot of people in this world, because they do not want to admit that they hate God and His people, will try to take a neutral stand. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” What Jesus says here takes away the possibility of any legitimate claim to neutrality. He says that we are either for Him or against Him. The passive voice of this verb means that the subject (we) is acted upon. This means that because of our identification with Christ the world continuously reckons, calculates, computes us as “sheep for the slaughter..”
One of the difficult things we have to face as Christians is the separation that salvation brings to our lives. Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-36, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.”
I will never forget a lady that was saved in one of our morning services when I pastored in Southern California. She was one of those conversion that you get emotional about. It is such a thrill to see the joy and peace that God gives when He forgives. She couldn’t wait until she got home to tell the husband whom she loved about her new found faith in Jesus Christ. She came back in the evening service for baptism and I noted the joy was gone and hurt seemed to be on her countenance. She told her story. She had gone home that morning and gave her testimony of salvation to her husband. He greeted this news with anger. He said, “If I had known that going to church would make a fool out of you, I would not have let you go.” Her experience of salvation had put her immediately in a different family (family of God) from her husband. She discovered he didn’t like God and he wanted nothing to do with her new found faith. This is exactly what Jesus said would happen. Jesus knew what He was talking about. He tries to prepare us for the separation that salvation brings in our lives. But it is only after the fact that we begin to see the wisdom of Christ in this matter.
Paul says, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Paul says this describes the world’s attitude toward God’s people. We must accept it. We should not be surprised when those outside our new relationship to Christ act this way toward us. Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.”
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
