TOPIC:“And Whose Side is God On?”
“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
If there is one person that has been left out of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, it has been the great German scholar, Philip Melanchthon. We are quick to remember the rough, boisterous, stormy, warlike nature of Martin Luther, but often we forget the sweet, gentle, soft-spoken spirit of Philip Melanchthon. Together they made a winning combination. Luther was the preacher. Melanchthon was the theologian.
Though Melanchthon was some fourteen years younger than Luther, he was by far the more brilliant scholar and student. At twenty-one years of age he was the most popular professor at the University of Wittenberg. I mention all of this only for you to catch this point: the text which Melanchthon lived and labored under was inscribed in bold letters above his study door: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
There, clear as a lighthouse on a dark night, is the truth I want you to catch. If worst comes to worst, if there seems to be no reason for living, by all means don't give up hope, but clothe yourself with the words that flowed from the lips of the Apostle Paul here in our text. For in all of the uncertainties that lie ahead, in all of the disappointments that will come our way, in all of those things that are against us, which are impossible for us to escape, it is good to know that God is still on our side. He is still for us.
What a magnificent thought! What a triumphant thought! The God who created the universe and sustains it by His omnipotent power, is on our side and fighting for us in the person of His Son and by the presence of His Holy Spirit. And there is no area of living that this Almighty God cannot defeat Satan and the vicious attacks that he makes upon us. The victory is ours because of what God accomplished for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, at the cross. Is it any wonder that Paul cries out there in verse 31: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Now the question is raised: What proof do we have that God is on our side? Let me endeavor under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to answer how I believe God is for us.
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