I've found that recently too much time Christians spend with each other in Church is spent dwelling on negative things. I.e. 'You shouldn't do this', 'Look at all the bad in the world, and even on our door steps'.
So, I've decided to write a talk that is (hopefully) uplifting.
As Christians I feel it's important we encourage and energise each other and where best to look for inspiration than Romans.
This will be in no way an in depth Bible study, just a collection of some thoughts I had that will hopefully strengthen and excite you.
Verse 32.
The first verse is pretty self explanatory so lets jump in at verse 32.
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all."
God didn't just give his Son - Jesus to us while he was on Earth. This verse says he literally gave him up forever so that Jesus could be our link to God by dying for us and that through him we can have eternal life in Heaven with God. God gave Jesus up not for just the good people, the people who give to the poor or who sing Hillsong songs in the shower. God gave Jesus up for us all.
Verse 35 and 36.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
"For your sake we face death all day long."
Paul, the author of Romans isn't saying in these verses that 'if your a Christian and if you love God everything will be fine and dandy'. The Bible makes it very clear in these verses that Christians aren't exempt from hardship or troubles. Paul goes as far as to say that as Christians we face death all day long. This obviously doesn't mean people want to literally kill us (although this isn't the case for the whole World) but it means every day we wake up and live lives surrounded by evil and corruption, in school or work we could be around people who are totally against God. And that is a dangerous place to be. The difference is that even though Christians still go through all this, Paul makes a very definite point of emphasising the fact that no person can separate God from us. He is ours and he helps us get through these troubles.
Verse 37.
"We are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
The definition of conquerors is:
"To overcome by physical, mental or force."
As Christians we are more than conquerors. We have more than overcome sin and death. We are living lives for so much more than sin and death, and that is amazing. What is more amazing is that we haven't more than overcome death and sin on our own. If we tried on our own there's no doubt that we would fail miserably. The verse says that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. It's by what God has done for us.
Verse 38.
"Nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the Love of the Lord God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Paul lists a lot of things that can't separate us from God. These aren't little things either. He says that no angel, no daemon, nothing in the past, nothing in the future and he even says that nothing in the whole of creation can separate us from God. People can take away things we own, our houses can burn down. We can get to a state in our lives where we have literally nothing left in the whole world, but we will always have God. God is the only thing in our lives that a constant source of hope, love and guidance.
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