I have been thinking today about our victory in Jesus and how we get to share in a victory that we did nothing to win. We just get to enjoy all the spoils of victory. All we did was believe in the One who won it all!

Below is some commentary on Romans chapter 8. I inserted some annotations throughout. The point that hits home is that we do not have to be wrapped up in what is going on in the world. We don’t have to be uninformed, but we definitely do not have to allow the news that we hear from friends, family, newscasts, social media, and the internet to become cares of this life! I want to remind you this day of His victory that has become your victory! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Romans 8:28-39 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

We know that the new covenant commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength, but in 1 John 3:23, he refers to “loving God with your heart,” and interprets it this way: “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 

So, when he says “all things work together for good to those who love God,” that is for all of us that believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ — just believing who He is and what He accomplished for us.”

Verse 29) 

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

We have been ultimately glorified with the very glory (Spirit) of God, and all we have done is believed in Jesus!

Verse 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 delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God…

That last verse says that no one can condemn you, since Christ was already condemned! That made sense, but then he says, “Furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God.” The question is, why is it so important to note that He is risen and at the right hand of God? I was thinking about that and then it was clear:

He was condemned for me, so no one can condemn me now or forever.  The fact that He is risen and at the right hand of God is important though, because He lives forever to be our intercessor. As Hebrews 7:25 says, “…He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Then I kept reading in Romans 8, and he said it!

Verse 34 again)

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God,who also makes intercession for us. 

(God confirmed what He said in Hebrews 7)

Verse 35) 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 

The love of Christ was clearly expressed to us in His sacrifice on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:14). So this verse can actually be correctly interpreted, “Who can separate us from what Jesus Christ finished for us?”

Continuing in verse 35) 

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is nothing seen or unseen, no created being, earthly or heavenly, that can separate us from the reality of what Jesus has done, and the victory that His act of love has purchased for us. No matter what is happening in this world, no matter what men do, nothing can separate us from this ‘aftermath of blessedness’ that we live in because of Jesus!

1 John 5:4-5 (NKJV) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 Corinthians 15:57 (NKJV) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Great stuff!

Pastor Jose