Romans 8:31-39

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Lets begin from Romans 6.
Three Seasons - is a Vietnamese movie - it is a story of a cycle driver Hai and a
prostitute Lan.
Lan is taken to five star hotels by the rich americans who pay her for her services. She
hates herself and the people who pay her, but she still goes back to her profession.
Hai is a cycle rickshaw driver outside the five star hotel that Lan often comes with her
clients. He sees Lan often become friends and Lan tells Hai that her dream is to leave
this job and sleep in an air-conditioned room in that five star hotel, not as a prostitute,
but as Lan, with no one to bother her.
Hai cannot afford a coffee in the hotel, leave alone renting a room out, so he just feels
for her pain.
One day, unexpectedly, Hai wins $200 in a cycle race. He runs and books a room in
the five star hotel for Lan and treats her to her dream. Lan thinks that Hai wants to
sleep with her, but Hai refuses and says that he just wanted to treat her to her dream.
For the first time in her life, she experiences the true love of another person, the
experience of being loved in spite of who she is. And for the first time in her life, Lan
slept in the 5 star hotel bed, and she slept like a baby.
When she woke up in the morning, Hai is gone. But something changes in Lan, she
cannot make herself to go back to being a prostitute. Having experienced Hais love
in a very special way, she refuses to go back to being a prostitute.
That story in a nutshell is how the gospel works and that in a nutshell is the message
of Romans.
Romans can be divided into 3 sections:
1. Romans 1-3: what we have done. We have sinned miserably and we
are hopelessly lost and dead in our sin.
2. Romans 4-11: what God has done in Christ for us.
3. Romans 12-16: How what God has done is transforming our lives
into a life of obedience to God.

Romans 6: Sin is not our master, Christ is.

Romans 6 starts with this question: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in
sin that grace may about?
v2 - we died
v3 - do you not know, have been baptised
v4 - we were buried
v5 - we have been united
v6 - we know...was crucified
v7 - has been set free
v8 - we have died
Paul is not saying, christian - die to sin; christian - be buried; christian be united; christian - be crucified; christian - set yourself free.
Paul is informing/reminding us - christian - you have died, you were
buried, you are united, you were crucified with Christ, you have been set
free.
Do we see what is happening - the gospel is a glorious message of what has been done
for us, to us and in us. It is not primarily a message of what we must do. What we
must do is important, but if we jump to doing without continually being saturated
with the gospel of what Christ has done, we are preparing ourselves for frustration.
v11 - so, consider yourself dead to sin. It is the first time in more than 5
chapters that Paul is asking the roman christians to do something!
considering - it is something we do with our minds, not with our hands and feet
8v6 - for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life.
So, if I preach about all we have to do, without giving us the groundwork and the
foundation of the gospel of grace and the role of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification,
we are preparing for failure, frustration and pride.
Are we sinking ourselves into the ocean of grace? Our actions are primarily an
overflow of Gods grace - John 7:38, whoever believes in me, out of His heart
will flow rivers of living water.
We often think that if we live a decent life, it will qualify us for Gods grace. But the
bible teaches the exact opposite! The grace of God comes freely into our life and
thats what transforms our life.
But it is amazing how as we go on in our spiritual lives, we go back to our old thinking
- instead of drinking deep from the ocean of grace and allowing grace to overflow in
obedience, we are now extending all our energies in doing.

It is the riches of Gods grace that sustains us.

After a while in our christian walk, we think what we need is some deeper teaching,
some new teaching, secrets that people hadnt found earlier. 5 principles for this, 5
principles for that
But read Pauls letters and you will see that no matter what he is dealing with - in all
his letters, he spends majority of the time giving them gospel theology - what Christ
has done for us - and then He will say, therefore, go and live accordingly.
Do we constantly and daily drink deep from the gospel of His grace or have we
moved on to deeper things that is leaving us frustrated and tired?
v12 - do not sin reign in your moral body, to make you obey its passions,
so before we sin (obey its passions), we have already done something - we
have let sin reign in our moral body
v14 - sin will have no dominion over you, it is not a command, but a
promise. Yes, we should not let sin reign in our moral body - why? Because
sin is not your master (does not have dominion), so we do not need to let
it reign in our lives.
you cannot be a christian unless you are someone who is not under the dominion over
sin, but under grace.

Romans 7: Although Sin is not our Master, it is present and constantly

troubles us.
This is that famous passage about Paul writing about the wretched man that he is!
The Law is spiritual, v14 - the law shows its own spirituality - the Law is good.
And the Law still continues to show me that in my flesh, nothing good dwells in me.
But the individual is of the flesh. The christian is not IN the flesh (we are in the
Spirit), but as long as we live in this world, we are not in the flesh (flesh does not have
dominion), but we are of the flesh(it still troubles us). It is like a disease we had when
we were young, but has left us impaired all our life. The law is spiritual and it
continually shows me that in my flesh there is nothing worthwhile. 8v1 - The although
it is spiritual, cannot condemn me, but because it is spiritual the law exposes my sin.
The law shows sins depravity. v18 - I know that nothing good dwells in me - that
is in my flesh. This is the contradiction that resides in a christian. Sin dwells in me,

but does not have dominion over me. At the same time, Christ dwells in me and will
deliver me from this body of death. How can it be that both these things dwells in me
- that I love my Lord Jesus and yet there resides in me a remnant of my flesh that
loves to do what my Lord Jesus hates and I hate too. Sin is like a terrorist in our heart
and mind and indulges in guerrilla warfare. It is like the Naxals - they do not own the
land, but they know the land very well and therefore finds it easy to hide and fight.
Christ in me exposes my sin and increases my hatred towards it and my
flesh. When I was under sins dominion, there are no struggle about my sin and no
remorse over my sin, but Christ in me forces my heart to repentance and makes me
run to Christ, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me? Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:14-25 is not the account of a christian who is a failure, but the normal
christian experience of a growing christian. No wonder Paul calls himself the chief
of sinners in 1 Tim 1:15. As we keep growing in Christ, we see more and more our
sinfulness, in the light of Gods law and His standards. So, a mature Christian might
not be the most moral person around, but he is definitely one who is deeply aware of
his sin and clings to Christ with all his life for deliverance.

Romans 8: With the seal of the Spirit in our life, nothing can separate us
from the love of Christ.
8v1 - there is NOW no
v2 - has set you free
v3 - God has done
v4 - he condemned sin in the flesh
v9 - you are not in the flesh
v10 - the body is dead
v10 - the Spirit is alive.
v11 - he who raised Jesus, WILL also give life to your moral bodies.
v12 - So, then we are debtors, not to the flesh - but to Christ.
v14 - sons of God
v15 - received the Spirit of adoption
v16 - the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God
v17 - we are heirs and fellow heirs with Christ
v18-25 - we eagerly wait for the day when our adoption will be complete, the
redemption of our bodies will be complete. We hope together with all creation for
that day. Meanwhile, Romans 7:14-25 is our battle, our battle with sin.
v28 - we KNOW

v28 - called according to His purpose

v29 - he foreknew
v29 - he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son
v30 - he called, he justified, he glorified.
v31 - who can be against us?
v32 - He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
v33 - who shall bring any charge against His elect?
v34 - who is there to condemn?
v34 - Christ is at the right hand of God, interceding for us.
v35 - who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
v35-39 - NOTHING will separate us.
Romans 12:1,2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by
testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters - let us present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
With all that you have heard today, is present our bodies as a living sacrifice a painful
thing to do? No, we do it joyfully!
And according to v2 - the first part of our body that needs transforming is our mind which needs to be renewed by all the precious truths of the gospel.
In the movie, Three Season, the movie ends with Hai taking Lan to a garden full of
red blossom flowers, dressed in a beautiful white wedding dress - symbolising purity.
That is our hope in Christ. That we too, one day, will stand in front of Jesus, our
bridegroom, as the spotless bride of Christ - all our warring and fighting with sin will
be over, all the scars left by our sin will be removed - all by the love of God who did
not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all - He will, most certainly will, give
us ALL things as well and make us like His Son, our Lord and precious Saviour Jesus
Christ.
Now, church, go therefore, and live out this precious faith, in loving obedience to
Christ and loving each other.