Romans 8:35-39: Inseparable, Ubercertain, Superconquerors
Nick describes the sense of ever-increasing momentum built up through Romans 8, as if Paul has launched his readers into deep space and is now bringing them in for a landing. Closing the chapter at Romans 8:35-39, he shows believers to be inseparable from Christ’s love, certain of their standing, and more than conquerors through him who loved them.
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Romans 8:34: Christ’s Heavenly Session
Nick notes that when Christians think of Christ’s work for them they usually stop at Good Friday and Easter Sunday, overlooking one of the most neglected parts of his ministry. Preaching Romans 8:34 on Christ’s heavenly session, he shows the significance of Christ’s seating at God’s right hand and his ongoing work of intercession for his people.
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Romans 8:33-34: Uncondemnable
Nick contrasts the Reformers’ view of justification, a once-for-all irreversible verdict, with the Roman Catholic view that justification could be lost through mortal sin and had to be renewed through penance. Preaching Romans 8:33-34, he shows that no one can bring a charge against God’s elect because it is God himself who justifies and Christ who intercedes.
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Romans 8:31-32: The Unanswerable Questions That Seal our Salvation
Nick recalls Paul’s confidence in the gospel as God’s power for salvation, first declared back in Romans 1:16, as he opens Romans 8:31-32 on the unanswerable questions that seal our salvation. He shows that if God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, no accusation of power or love can ever be raised against us that God has not already answered.
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Romans 8:30: Glorified
Nick calls glorification the final link in the unbreakable chain of redemption, admitting that it can feel like an anticlimax after the high point of justification. Preaching Romans 8:30, he shows that glorification means both a final freedom from sin and the completion of our conformity to Christ, worth every bit as much wonder as anything earlier in the chain.
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Romans 8:30: Objections: The doctrine of election creates pride and a lack of assurance
In this evening message continuing the series of objections to election preached alongside Romans 8:30, Nick takes up the charge that the doctrine breeds pride in some and a lack of assurance in others. He shows that a right understanding of God’s free and sovereign grace actually produces the opposite of both, humbling those who receive it and settling their confidence entirely on God rather than themselves.
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Romans 8:30: God enabled Perseverance
Nick lists the familiar objections raised against the perseverance of the saints, from people who once claimed faith and fell away to the examples of Judas and Saul. Preaching Romans 8:30 on God-enabled perseverance, he shows where it is taught, how it works, and what cannot ultimately break the grip of God’s keeping power.
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Romans 8:30: Justified by God
Nick describes the typical doubt-filled thoughts of a young believer, pouring anxiety into their own salvation like water into a balloon to see if it will leak. Preaching Romans 8:30 on being justified, he shows the declaration, imputation, and gift of righteousness that settles every one of those anxious questions.
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Romans 8:30: Objections: Once saved always saved leads to antinomianism
In this evening message, Nick answers an objection to election that he himself once raised, that teaching ‘once saved always saved’ will breed carelessness and antinomianism. He shows from Romans 8:30 that the same unbreakable chain which guarantees final glory is also what most powerfully motivates a life of holiness.
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Romans 8:28a: God’s Working is the Ground of our Assurance
Nick surveys the many grounds of assurance Paul has already given, from propitiation to the ongoing ministries of the Spirit, before arriving at what he calls the bedrock in Romans 8:28a. He shows that our assurance rests not on our feelings but on knowing God’s unchanging character, his ways, and his purpose for those who love him.
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Romans 8:24-25: Hope the Helmet of our Salvation
Nick walks through Paul’s list of spiritual armour in Ephesians 6, noting that none of it covers the back because Christians are meant to stand and face the enemy, before opening Romans 8:24-25 on hope as our helmet. He explores the nature and the behaviour of Christian hope, a hope that waits patiently because it is certain of what it does not yet see.
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Romans 8:17a: Our inheritance
Nick paints the picture of discovering that a long-lost, immensely wealthy uncle has died and left you his entire estate, then tells his congregation that something far greater is already theirs in Christ. Preaching Romans 8:17a, he traces the background, present possession, content, and ethical implications of the Christian’s inheritance.
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Romans 8:16: The Witness of the Spirit
Nick insists that Christianity is a supernatural religion, though not in the sense the modern signs-and-wonders movement means by that word, as he opens Romans 8:16 on the witness of the Spirit. He works through the objective and subjective proofs that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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Romans 8:1: No Condemnation
Nick raises the natural question that follows Romans 7’s dark description of ongoing sin: if I still sin and God is holy, can I really expect to dwell with him forever? Opening Romans 8:1, he shows that the answer is the great banner over the whole chapter, that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Romans 5:20-21: The triumph of Grace
Nick asks how important assurance really is for a Christian, quoting older writers on the value of knowing that one stands in a right relationship with a holy God. He preaches through Romans 5:20-21, showing how sin’s increase only served to display grace reigning all the more triumphantly through righteousness.
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Romans 5:9-11: The Greatest Gift
Nick imagines a philosophy classroom where a professor tries to trap a young Christian with the old riddle about a rock too heavy for God to lift, using it to set up the far greater questions Paul is really answering in Romans 5:9-11. He shows that if God did the hardest thing already, justifying us through Christ’s blood, then our final salvation from wrath is guaranteed.
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