GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #397

GOD FREELY GIVES HIS PEOPLE ALL THINGS Romans 8:32

Pastor Don Fortner

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Listen to this blessed word from God. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

“He that spared not his own Son” - We are told that the Lord God spared not the angels that sinned. He spared not the old world, which was full of wickedness. God spared not Sodom and Gomorrah, whose homosexual perverseness called forth fire and brimstone from heaven. He spared not the Egyptians and their firstborn, because Pharaoh refused to let his people go. Indeed, he spared not the nation of Israel, when they transgressed his laws, but cast them off. We are told plainly that God will not spare hardened, impenitent sinners in the day of his wrath. None of those things surprise me. I am not at all astonished that the holy Lord God punishes sin. But this is astonishing.

God spared not his own Son! He spared not his darling Son, that One who is of the same nature with him, and equal to him, the Son of his love, and who never sinned against him. This is amazing! He spares the sons of men in a providence, and spares many in a grace. But he did not spare his own Son, or abate him anything in any respect. All that was agreed upon in the covenant of grace with regard to the salvation of his people God demanded of his dear Son.

Christ was required to assume our human nature, with all its weaknesses and infirmities. The Father laid upon his Son all the iniquities of all his people. God poured out upon him all the punishment due unto us. He inflicted on him all the fulness of his infinite, inflexible wrath, without the least abatement. God the Father demanded from his Son a full satisfaction for all our sins. He required the whole payment of our debt to the uttermost. All that was done at Calvary was done according to the utmost strictness of divine justice. Why did God pour out such wrath on his Son? He did so that his law and justice might be fully satisfied, and that his people might thereby be completely saved.

“But delivered him up for us all” - God the Father delivered Christ, according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, into the hands of wicked men; into the hands of justice, and to death itself. This he did for us all, all his elect, all who are loved, chosen in Christ, and predestined to eternal salvation in Christ. He delivered him up for us all, all whom he foreknew, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified in his eternal purpose of grace. God the Father delivered up his darling Son to die in our place, as our Surety and Substitute.

It is in the light of this that Paul asked, “How shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Christ is God's free gift to his elect. He is given to be a covenant to his people, to be our head, our Savior, and as the bread of life for us to live upon. :He is freely given. God could never have been compelled to have given him. Christ could never have been merited by us. Nothing we could give or do could have laid the almighty God under obligation to bestow on us the gift of his Son. Indeed, such were the persons, and such their characters, for whom he delivered him up, that he might have justly stirred up all his wrath against us. Yet such was his grace, that he gave his own Son to us! Not only that, but he gave us "all things" with him: all temporal good things, needful and convenient; all spiritual blessings, justifying righteousness, the pardon of sin, sanctifying grace, adoption, and eternal life. All this he has done "freely", in a sovereign way, according to his own good will and pleasure, without any obligation or compulsion; not grudgingly nor niggardly, but cheerfully and bountifully, absolutely, and without any conditions.

In the light of all these things, listen to Romans 8:32 again. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

If this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one promise, it is a conglomeration of promises. It is a mass of precious jewels, of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. The inspired Apostle raised a question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart in the believing soul. What can the Lord deny us after giving us his own dear Son? If we need all things in Heaven and earth, He will grant them to us. If there could be a limit anywhere, surely he would have kept back His own Son.

What do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly; but I do not have to use pressure and twist God’s arm, as it were, to extort an unwilling gift from his hand. He will give me all things freely. Of His own will, He gave us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous. He freely gave his only-begotten So. O my soul, can you not trust your heavenly Father to give you anything and everything you need?

Child of God, your poor prayers and mine would have no power with Omnipotence if force were needed to compel our God to give. But his love, like an artesian well, rises of itself, and overflows for the supply of all our needs.

Take this word from God with you through the day. Squeeze every drop of wine from this rich cluster of grapes for the joy of your soul. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

AMEN.