God did not spare His Son

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Rick Knarr

Grace Covenant Church Pottstown

Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago • 1:24:41

Romans 8:28–32

Hope

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God did not spare His Son

Hope for a New Year

Romans 8:28–32 (ESV)

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 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?

I. God Turns Bad Things to Good

Think of Christmas. Jesus is born into poverty. He’s born into danger. His family has to flee to Egypt to escape slaughter. There’s no room for him at the inn.

Out of Jesus’ poverty come the greatest spiritual riches.

Out of Jesus’ weakness comes the most incredible power and strength.

Out of Jesus’ isolation and rejection comes a people brought together, united in the deepest love unity.

Great good comes out of terrible things and through terrible things because those terrible things have happened.

Paul says in Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good in the lives of those who love God.”

All things, bad and good, small and little, big and momentous, all things work together for good to those who love God. So that’s the big question - Do I Love God?

1. This is not a superficial view of life that says, “Oh, behind every cloud there’s a silver lining.

Here are these bad things, but

They’re not really bad if you learn how to look at them with a certain perspective.”

At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend Lazarus is dead.

He goes to the tomb. People all around him are weeping.

Jesus is about to do exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:28.

Out of all this bad, he’s going to bring something good.

He’s going to bring glory and joy into the world that wouldn’t have been there if Lazarus hadn’t died.

So he’s going to bring good out of the bad. He’s going to make it work out for good.

But he’s not laughing at the tomb.

Jesus doesn’t come up to the tomb going, “Ha-ha, wait till you guys see what I’m about to do.” He’s not chuckling. He’s not saying, “Oh, I’m going to raise him from the dead.”

He’s weeping with those who weep. We’re told he’s angry at the tomb. He bellows in anger when he comes to the tomb.[1]

2. God is overruling, shaping, and mastering everything, so in the end, he defeats the bad.

that is what 2024 will be for every believer

He’s going to make all the bad and everything work together to bring about good results in your life.

Romans 8:29 (ESV)

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

The question you might ask is, “How?”

Of course, I think there’s one way in which God does this, which is relatively easy to grasp,

and there’s another way in which God does this, which is impossible to understand.

The one way that’s fairly easy to grasp is actually right here. Verse 28 says he works all things for good.

God’s whole plan for us is to conform us to the likeness of his Son. That’s the part we can grasp.

You may think your biggest problem is your circumstances. You may think, “My biggest problem is if I could just make more money

if I could just get the job

if this door would open …”

We think our problems are the circumstances, but circumstances cannot destroy your life like sin-filled character flaws. It’s our character that is our real problem. That’s what will destroy you really.

It’s our foolishness and pride and selfishness and denial about our sins and our flaws and hardness of heart and, most of all, the false delusion that we really can handle life without God.

All those things, those mistakes, and

Those flaws in character are the things that almost always take bad stuff to knock out of us.

Almost all of us have been alive for more than two or three decades or more; things have happened to us, and we have scars. They’re bad, and they still hurt.

Yet we wouldn't trade for anything the insight or the character or the strength we’ve gotten from it. That’s just a hint of what we’re being told here.

In 2024 and beyond all kinds of bad things are going to happen to you through which God is going to conform you to the likeness of his Son, and there’s no joy without that conformity.

You say, “Okay, does that exhaust it? Is that it? All the bad things are just going to make me a better person?”

No, it can’t, because there’s another

There is another sense in which God is obviously working all things together for good that will always escape us.

You have to know it if you’re going to be able to handle the troubles of life.

You have to know God is working all things together for good, and you couldn’t possibly grasp how.

To me, it's still the primary premier place where you can see this … I’ll speak for myself. I won’t confess your sins. I’ll confess mine.

3. An infinite God has reasons for why he’s allowing something you can’t consider that you can’t understand.

If I were at the foot of the cross that dark afternoon like a lot of people and I knew what everybody else knew and only what everybody else knew … Here was a really good man. Here was a powerful man.

Here was a man who had tremendous power to do good. He was healing people. He was feeding people.

He had enormous potential, and yet he’s cut off in the middle of his life, 33 years old, tragic death.

God had abandoned him. In fact God has forsaken him.

With all the facts everybody else had if I were there, I would’ve looked up, and I would’ve said, “I don’t see what good God could possibly be bringing out of this.” I would’ve gone home, losing my faith perhaps, at least shaken, maybe losing it, because I couldn’t fit how God was bringing enormous good.

The greatest thing God would ever do for the human race was deserting the Son of God on the cross.

but because it didn’t fit into my little brain patterns and my little categories, I would’ve said, “I don’t see what God could possibly be doing.”

An infinite God has reasons for why he’s allowing something you can’t consider that you can’t understand.

It’s the height of arrogance not to think about that.

If that’s what I would’ve done at the foot of the cross,

and my guess is that’s probably what you would’ve done at the foot of the cross,

when you feel abandoned,

when everything seems like it’s happening to you,

you can’t see any good reason why it would happen, don’t you dare make the same mistake.[2]

It's a moment forever captured, an inconic image that has come to define the horror and violence of the Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Kim Phuc running in agony moments after napalm bombs fell from the sky, bringing hellish fire that burned away her clothing and seared deep into her skin.

Fire Road is a story of both unrelenting horror and unexpected hope, a harrowing tale of a life changed in an instant. In this stunning first-hand account of struggling to find answers in a world that only seemed to bring anguish, Kim ultimately discovers strength in someone who had suffered himself, transforming her tragedy into unshakable faith.

What Shall We Say to These Things?

II. There is always Hope because God is For us.

God is for us; therefore, no one can be against us. Do you love God more than your understanding of any situation or circumstance of your life?

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

God is entirely for us, and never against us.

a. None of our sicknesses this year is a judgment from a condemning judge.

b. None of our broken cars or failed appliances is a punishment from God.

c. None of our marital strife is a sign of his wrath.

d. None of our lost jobs is a penalty for sin.

e. None of our wayward children is a crack of the whip of God’s retribution.

If you are in Christ God is for you, not against you, in and through all things—all ease and all pain.

III. Nobody Can Be Successfully Against You in 2024

The devil and sinful men can make you sick, can steal your car, can sow seeds of strife in your marriage, can take away your job, and rob you of a loved one.

But verse 28 says God works all those things together for your good if you love him. And if they finally work for your good, the designs of the adversary are thwarted, and his aim to be against you is turned into a Christ-exalting, soul-sanctifying, faith-deepening, painful benefit. John Piper

God is for you; he does not spare you these things. But he designs good where the adversary designs evil (Genesis 50:20; 45:7). He designs things against you to be for you. No one can be successful against you. John Piper [3]

IV. What impact should this have on our lives in 2024?

1. God will give you what you need. And what you lose or lack in the kingdom-ministry of love, sacrifice, and suffering will work for your good and come back to you, in some God-designed way, a hundredfold. [4]

Matthew 10:39 (ESV)

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jesus, the Lord says, Matthew 6:32–33 (ESV)

32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

not only promises no successful adversaries, but also promises total, overflowing, never-ending generosity from God.

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

How do you know that God will give you what you need in 2024?

a. Since God did not spare his own Son—that’s the great thing, the hard thing, the insurmountable obstacle to our salvation—delivering over his Son to torture and scorn and sin-bearing death.

If that can be done, then the lesser thing, the easy thing will surely be done: his freely giving to us all that Christ bought for us—all things! [5]

Would God the Father hand over the Son of his love?

Could God, would God, overcome his cherishing, admiring, treasuring, white-hot, affectionate bond with his Son and deliver him over to be lied about and betrayed and abandoned and mocked and flogged and beaten and spit on and nailed to a cross and pierced with a sword like an animal being butchered.

Would he really do that? Would he hand over the Son of his love? If he would, then whatever goal he is pursuing could never be stopped. If that obstacle were overcome in the pursuit of his good, every obstacle would be overcame.

Did he do it? Paul’s answer is yes, and he puts it negatively and positively: “He did not spare him, but he delivered him over.” In the words, “he did not spare him,” we hear the immensity of the difficulty and the obstacle.

God did not delight in the pain or the dishonor of his Son. This was an infinitely horrible thing for the Son of God to be treated this way. Sin reached its worst in those hours. It was exposed for what it really is—an attack on God.

All sin—our sin—is an attack on God. A rejection of God. An assault on his rights and his truth and his beauty. But God did not spare his Son this treatment.

God Delivered Him Over

God was delivering his Son to death.

“This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).

In Judas and Pilate and Herod and Jewish crowds and Gentile soldiers and our sin and Jesus’ lamblike submission,

God delivered over his Son. Nothing greater has ever happened.[6]

If God thus delivered over his own Son, then … What?

Answer: He shall with him surely and freely give us all things.

If God did not withhold his Son, he will not withhold any good thing from us.

This is the final purchase and fulfillment of

Psalm 84:11, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Surely if he would not spare this 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.

If you hear the call of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ;

if you come to God, loving him through Jesus Christ;

if you trust God for the forgiveness of your sins because of the death of Christ;

if you receive from him the free gift of righteousness by faith alone; then all things—from the sweetest to the most severe and bitter and painful—will work together for your good. God will be for you with all of his omnipotent wisdom and power.

And if God is for you, no one can successfully be against you.

Over and over in the Bible and in history the truth of Romans 8:28 is witnessed by the people of God.

Let’s look at some examples and pray as we do that God will put solid ground under our feet when the waves of trouble break over us and when we follow Jesus outside the gate of security and comfort.[7]

Examples of Romans 8:28 to consider.

Job

An example from the Old Testament is Job. Many terrible things happened to Job. He lost his wealth, his children, and his health. In every case, he acknowledged the sovereign hand of God, even though Satan was the servant of calamity in his life.

And in the last chapter, the writer of the book says his family and friends gathered

“and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).

The view of Job and the writer of Job is that God did not just bring good out of Job’s misery but that he purposed Job’s misery.

We can give an authoritative answer in

James 5:11 (ESV) 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James confirms that God is purposing, not just responding. And his purpose, as Romans 8:28 says, is Job’s good. In all of Job’s pain and loss, God was aiming at compassion and mercy. He planned and purposed and worked all things for Job’s good.

Paul

Paul’s thorn in the flesh? It tormented him and he pleaded for God to take it away. But the answer came from Jesus,

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And what about Paul’s imprisonments? Here’s the way Paul describes the effect of his Roman imprisonment. “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (Philippians 1:12–14). All things, including imprisonments, work for our good and God’s glory.

What Effect Should This Have on You?

As You Go into 2024

God always does what is good for you.

If you believe that he gave his own Son for you, this is what you believe. And all of the Christian life is simply the fruit of that faith.

Look to Christ. Look to the love of God. Live in love. And fear no more.

If you are not a believer in Jesus, I pray that the effect will be to make you long to trust him.

Having God on your side and not against you is infinitely important.

Remember the sign on the building: If God is for you, who can be against you. Trusting Christ is the only way to have God be for you. He is for all who trust in Jesus. He works everything for your good if you trust his Son.

If you are a believer, then you will not respond to this message and to the truth of Romans 8:28 with passivity toward the devil and resignation toward evil. Perhaps you have a casual attitude toward American consumerism and materialism.

What you will hear in Romans 8:28 is a battle cry.

If all things work together for my good, then I cannot be ultimately defeated in the cause of Christ. I am never a victim.

· This is a call to take risks to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

· This is a call to fully give yourself to Christ and his kingdom.

· This is a call to Move toward need and not comfort.

· This is a call to follow Jesus in the risks of love no matter what it costs. Because whatever it costs will work for your good.

[1]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [2]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [3]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [4]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [5]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [6]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [7]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God.

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