If God Is for Us

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“The state of man: inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.”

~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and thinker

“Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.”

~Jodi Picoult in Sing You Home

“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”

~Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-born writer and artist

“The very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting of ourselves into His place, to do for Him that which we dream He either cannot or will not do!”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“The concept of substitution…lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone. God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.”

~John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), British pastor-theologian in The Cross of Christ

“God is wonderfully generous by nature; to give is His delight. His gifts are immeasurably precious and are given as freely as the light of the sun….”

~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; but the Father, for love!”

~Octavius Winslow (1808-1878), English clergyman

“[God] did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation!”

~The Letter to Diognetus, an early defense of Christianity (c. 150 AD)

SERMON PASSAGE

Romans 8:28-32 (NASB)

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 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?