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AUSTIN—The ironclad, irrevocable love of God described at the close of Romans 8 served as the text for Gregg Matte Nov. 15 as he closed out the 2016 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting. The pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church spoke of Paul “loading the bases” of verses 1-30 with promises to believers, then turned his attention to the intimacy with God made possible through victory over death.
“We have a God who has given us victory. He’s proven it and provided it by the cross,” Matte told the audience. Working through the series of rhetorical questions of verses 31-35, he celebrated Paul’s assurance that nothing can prevail against those whom God has saved.
“For Jesus to be given to us in salvation on the cross was a tremendously difficult thing for God to give,” Matte said, describing the pain of his death. “If Jesus Christ didn’t give you or me one other thing in our lives, he’s already given us too much,” he said. “Therefore, I walk in gratitude with God, not with arrogance, but submission and say, ‘I give you my life.’”
With the question of who can bring a charge to God’s elect, Paul points to the protection God provides, Matte said. “There is no accusation that can come because of justification through Jesus Christ. It’s not because I’m without sin that I have no accusation. It’s because I’m with Jesus,” he reminded.
In answering the question of who can condemn, Matte pointed to Paul’s testimony that Christ died, was raised and makes intercession for believers. “I’ve got a church, friends, a wife and a mom who are praying for me. But the fact that Jesus is interceding for me and for you is amazing. That’s incredible. That’s tremendous power,” he added, reiterating that “no condemnation can come upon you because Jesus has stepped in the middle.”
Matte said the intimacy of God’s love is revealed as Paul states that nothing can separate a believer from God’s love. “In all of these things we are more than super-duper, hyper, completely victorious through him,” he explained, emphasizing the extent of the secure relationship. “It is not through works, religion, a certain church or baptism. It’s through him who loved us.”
The final verses of the chapter provide “the home run over the fence and the fireworks go off,” Matte said. “There is intimacy that comes through Jesus Christ, and it comes through the victory we have in him. Nothing can prevail against us, and nothing can stop God’s love for us.”
God’s love is based on his character, Matte explained. “If it were based on my actions, there’s plenty of things that can separate us,” he said. While disobedience through sin can hinder intimacy, it will never change the believer’s proximity to God, he insisted.
Using the account of the prodigal son as an illustration of God’s irrevocable love, Matte said, “God has given us victory in the cross and that victory is to bring intimacy so that you and I, the elder brother or the prodigal, can come into the embrace of the father and realize on bended knee that we can put our head against the breast of the father and hear God’s heartbeat for our lives and for the world.”
