“Always One, Never Apart”

Scripture: Romans 8:28-39

We had a great vacation last week. We had some family pictures taken (Yes, I have a copy of one to show after worship!), we had a snow ball fight on Mount Rainier while clothed in short sleeve shirts and sun glasses, we “lunched” on the Space Needle, we made a few runs to the landfill, and attended worship several times with Nate and Bev. Their church is a little larger than ours are, even if you add them together! Their sanctuary holds about 600 and at a couple of services it was nearly full, they have 3 preaching pastors, a 6-7 piece band, and about 45 in the choir. The pastors, as well as the people, were very friendly and welcoming to us, but to tell you the truth, I missed my church family here.
As Nathan was introducing us to a number of the folks at his church, many commented on the family resemblance and how obvious it was that Diane and I were his parents. Sometimes family likeness is in appearance, sometimes in laughter or voice or mannerisms, and sometimes in attitude. But when it comes to family, there is always some characteristic that says “we belong to each other”!

Read Romans 8:28-30

No wonder Christians are said to bear a family resemblance to the Savior! We have been conformed to the image of Christ, and in that, we have been called and justified and glorified, just as Christ is glorified. But note that this predestination isn’t due to some random or indiscriminate decision. Verse 29 tells us that God “foreknew” us, and that is a very important distinction. Many people seem to settle on the predestined part, and claim that God has chosen them over everyone else, but it is always for some unknown reason. The truth is that the choice is all about “knowing”, and the “knowing” must work both ways.
In Matthew 7:15-23, Jesus warns us that just because we cry out “Lord, Lord, haven’t we prophesied in your name, and driven out demons in your name?”, that is no guarantee that we will be allowed to enter through the gates of heaven! Jesus will tell many that he never knew them, regardless of how well they may have lived in this life! So how does God decide who he is going to “know” and who he is not going to “know”? It seems that scripture tells us that we must also know him – not know about him, not know of him, but truly and fully know him. We read several times in scripture that even the demons know who Jesus is Mark 5:1-20, Luke 4:31-41, James 2:18-19). And while Jesus knows who the demons are in return, he also knows them for whose they are, and that they are not of him! In John 10:1-10, Jesus says that his “sheep”, those who he “knows”, also know his voice and listen to his words. It isn’t enough to know who Jesus is, it isn’t enough to make proclamations in his name, it isn’t even enough to do apparent miracles in his name. If we want Jesus to know us, if we want to be conformed in his likeness, if we want others to see the family resemblance that we have to God, then we must listen to the Savior’s voice and do his will, not our own.
God knows us, and predestines us, and conforms us, and calls us, and
justifies us, and glorifies us, but only when we surrender our lives to his Son, who, incidentally, the Father has given to us for this very purpose.

And when we listen, and when we follow, and when we fully and truly know Jesus, what will come of it?

Read Romans 8:31-36

If we are for Jesus, then God will be for us. If we claim Jesus as our own, then God will claim us as his own. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That doesn’t mean, however, that everyone is going to love us and respect us. As a matter of fact it means quite the opposite. But when we read down a couple of verses, we discover the meaning of those words - that in the final judgment, the deciding question will be “Whose family resemblance do we bear?”
If it is that of Christ, then no one can bring any charge of failure, any charge of inadequacy, any charge of unworthiness except Jesus Christ Himself. Only Christ can condemn, and only Christ can raise us up to eternal life! And it is Christ alone who will present our case before the judgment seat. Not our friends, not the pastor (Thank you Lord!), and definitely not Satan or his minions! It will be Christ in and of and through his grace! Period!

The American writer and theologian Frederick Buechner writes:
Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universes. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.
--Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper&Row, 1973), 33-34.

Grace is a gift. Justification and glory are gifts of God’s grace. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. Being conformed to the image of Christ is also a gift of that same grace. But all too often, we miss the gift. Our eyes are glossed over by the trials of the world, and all we can focus on is the failures of this life, or the attacks that come from others, or the impending finality of our earthly flesh. There are some days when nothing seems to be going our way.
The words that we read in verse 36 – “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” – these can all too easily become our watch words, our focal point in this existence. Those words are from Psalm 44:22, and the verses that follows read (:23-24) “Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?”
Some might even think that this life is the end! Our judgment!

Read Romans 8:37-39

Do we really think that the Lord is vindictive? Egocentric? That he is that insensitive to our plight? God is not asleep! He has not rejected us! He has not hidden himself from us!
What he has done is that he made us to be conquerors in the image of Jesus Christ! But not a conqueror in the earthly sense – we are actually a conqueror of the earthly sense, a victor in eternal life and in Godly grace and Divine mercy that flows to all who claim salvation in Christ Jesus. And these last 2 verses are our shout of victory. Paul writes that the end of this life in physical death cannot break the bond that unites us with the eternal God, and nothing in our physical life can cause the Lord to turn his back on us; that all the angels of God nor all the demons of Satan can ever convince the Glory to cast us aside, that our situation today, as painful and disappointing as it may be, is not in the least way justification for God to hate us, and the life that may turn against us tomorrow will never mean that we have been deserted by Almighty God; that there is no power in all of creation – not the power in heaven and definitely not the power of hell, not on our best days and never on our worse days, not the power of salvation and not the threat of condemnation – nothing – nothing! - can ever make God turn away from those who are in Christ Jesus!

It’s about family. Our human families are fallible, and sometimes our love for each other wobbles and stumbles and breaks. And when that happens, it usually takes a lot of time and a great amount of personal effort to repair the damage. But the family resemblance must prevail, otherwise it is just a coincidence and not a family at all.

It’s about family. We are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ – not by some arbitrary standard, not by our worthiness, and certainly not because we have earned it – but because we simply claim the offer is described in John 3:12-19; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the save the world through him.” Not through us or anything about us – it's through him.

Family sticks together through thick and thin, and God’s family is no different. God will never break the relationship – nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that is our promise for eternity.
Never forgotten, never forsaken, always one in him.