“HE WHO, YEA, HAS NOT SPARED HIS OWN SON”
Alistair M Brown
Romans 8: 31-39
This passage was before us last week, and there was an inquiry into verse 32: “He who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all”. It was an affecting inquiry that brought before us something of the feelings of God as to Christ and as to us. I would seek the Spirit’s help to say something about what these words convey to my heart, and I am sure to all of us. The passage comes towards the end of a very important line of teaching that Paul follows in the epistle to the Romans. He starts with the moral character of man as away from God, showing what a terrible case man is in, in his sins and away from God; then the apostle brings in God's righteousness, established in Christ, and held forth to men as a mercy-seat. That is our Lord Jesus, the One in whom God's righteousness is established. Then the apostle explains that, by faith in Him, that righteousness can be reckoned to you, friend, and reckoned to me. He speaks of sins and the forgiveness of sins through the redemption that has been worked out by Christ in the shedding of His blood. How foundational and important Paul's teaching is in the Roman epistle.
Then mid-way through chapter 5, he speaks about sin in the flesh, pointing out that as people after nature we are in bondage to sin, but that God does not intend us to be in bondage but to be set free, again through faith in Christ. Paul teaches us that we are set free through knowing what it is to die with Him, to put to death these deeds of the body. Then he tells us that it is impossible to do that in our own power. God knows that as well, and He has provided the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that takes us on to chapter 8. At the end of that line of teaching, the apostle speaks about God foreknowing us and predestinating us. Then he speaks about being called and justified and glorified.
That brings you up to this passage that we read, and I suggest that is all included in the apostle’s expression, “What shall we then say to these things?”. He has been teaching the Romans, and he comes through to the glorious things in chapter 8, the glorious things that God has in mind. God has in mind “that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim. 2: 4. He certainly does. It is with a view that men - I mean mankind, men and women, and young people - might come into the blessing that God has in mind for them. That is nothing short of conformity to Christ, and the enjoyment of sonship. The expression “these things” includes that. Romans is a fundamental epistle and what is moral is emphasised; its teaching is essential. But the teaching of Romans also includes the greatest blessings that God has in mind for man. These blessings are available for those that come to Christ in faith and repentance, and they include being conformed to the image of His Son. Is that not wonderful? Does it touch your heart? It would touch the heart, I am sure, of every believer.
The apostle raises the question, ‘What are we going to say to these things?’. Do you want to enjoy them? I want to enjoy them, and I want to enjoy them more. I would encourage the hearts of everyone here to enjoy the greatness of the blessings that God has in mind for us. The apostle goes on to say, “If God be for us, who against us?”. The whole power of God is on your side in taking up the blessings that God has purposed for you. In writing to the Romans, the apostle brings assurance into the hearts of those who were reading his epistle. If God is for us, then there cannot be any effective power that is against us. There will be things to be overcome, but it is impossible that the thoughts of God for His own should fail, or that we should be separated from the love of Christ, or that we should be separated from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. As the proof of that, Paul says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him grant us all things?”. That is the proof that the apostle provides to assure our hearts: the disposition of God in not sparing His Son, but delivering Him up for us all. What an encapsulation of the gospel that is! “He who, yea, has not spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all”. What an affecting matter, and Paul brings it in to provide assurance in the hearts of the Roman Christians. If God's disposition towards us is like that, in not sparing Christ, but in delivering Him up for us all, how shall He not with Christ grant us all things?
I would like to say a little about what these words as to God not sparing His own Son convey to me, and I trust to us all. They suggest something of the feelings of God, His feelings as to Christ, His Son; and also His feelings as to you and me. There is what God did in not sparing Him, His well-beloved Son. You will remember that He is the One upon whom the heavens opened when He was baptised, and that when He came up from the waters of baptism a voice was heard, “This is my beloved Son”, and the Spirit came upon Him, Matt 3: 16, 17. It was the only time that had ever happened, that a man on the earth was marked out by the Holy Spirit descending upon Him as a dove, and abiding upon Him. He is the One who was marked out Son of God in power by the resurrection of dead persons, Rom 1: 4 (see footnote). He was marked out on the mount of transfiguration also, as we know: “they saw no one but Jesus alone” (Matt 17: 8), but they had heard that voice out of the bright cloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him”, v 5. How God loves to mark out His beloved Son! What feelings God had towards that One! There are suggestions of it in Genesis in relation to Abraham's feelings for Isaac (chap 22: 2) - suggestions of what it meant for God not to spare His Son. Abraham was told, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac … and there offer him up for a burnt-offering”. That is what Abraham was told to do. There is the thought of a beloved and only son being offered up, not being spared. In contrast, there is a reference in Malachi to God through the prophet speaking of His people as a peculiar treasure: “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”, chap 3: 17. Every feeling of a father towards a son would be to spare him. And how outstandingly so in one as delightful to the Father as the Lord Jesus was.
The thought of not sparing would also make us think of the words of the hymn that we have sung, ‘Unsparing judgment’, Hymn 123. There was no qualification, no mitigation, no amelioration, nothing that stood between that blessed One, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, and the righteous wrath and judgment of a holy God. It would remind us powerfully of these three hours of darkness of the forsaking on the cross, when He was made sin. It has been said that He could never become sin, because of what He was; in all His sinless perfection He could never become sin. But the scripture says that God has made Him sin for us, 2 Cor 5: 21. He did that for me. I trust each of us can say that for ourselves; it was for me. Sin was what He hated, that He abhorred, and He was alone in being made sin. The sweet and blessed communion, that as a Man He had enjoyed all through His life, was broken. He did not have the Father to turn to. “My God”, He said on the cross, quoting Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”, v 1. He was not spared there. The Father did not spare Him. Think of the feelings of the Father, and the feelings of the Son as forsaken and bearing the judgment. We can take up the scriptures that speak of these things and marvel at them.
It is also significant that “the sun was darkened”, Luke 23: 45. Men could not see what happened there on the cross. God looked down upon that scene, upon Christ suffering there, suffering for us. It says, “for Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust”, 1 Pet 3: 18. He was the just One, and He was suffering as though He was unjust because God had made Him sin. But He was not consumed by that suffering. The judgment of God came upon Him, and what compression there was in these three hours, which we cannot fathom nor compass. But the Lord Jesus did; He fathomed these three hours: what it meant for One who was holy and sinless to be made sin! He fathomed that, and He bore it. At the end of these three hours, the judgment was complete. He delivered up His spirit to the Father, “into thy hands I commit my spirit”, Luke 23: 46. What it meant, what divine feelings were involved, what a transaction there was on the cross when God “yea, … spared not his own Son”! And, as I have said, that was for you and me. I desire that the consideration of these words would have a deepening and sobering effect on my soul. That fathomless suffering, endured there by Christ as not spared by the Father, was necessary because of what I am and what I have done. It was necessary for both, for He bore my sins during these three hours, He bore my sins in His body on the tree; and He endured God's righteous wrath and judgment upon sin. In doing so, He has opened the way for my blessing. We have never, ever to stop being conscious of that and thankful for it. While I do not think we will be occupied with the fact that we are forgiven sinners in the eternal day, we will never cease to give thanks to the One who bore the wrath and the judgment for us. All that enters into the fact that God did not spare His own Son.
We have spoken about God's feelings as to Christ. But He felt as to you and me, too, and He feels as to mankind. It was because of His love for man that He did not spare His Son. He desired your blessing, and the only way that God could in righteousness and holiness bring about His thoughts of blessing for you and me was to give His Son, and not to spare Him. That is what He did. He chose not to spare Christ in order to bring in blessing for poor souls like you and me. We thank God for that. We also thank God that He then received Christ from among the dead. What a victory that was. A great righteous basis had been established by that One, who so pleased God that He raised Him the third day; as it says here, “It is Christ who has died, but rather has been also raised up; who is also at the right hand of God”. What a wonderful matter that is. It demonstrates the delight that God has in that blessed One, and it also demonstrates and reminds us that Christ is now ascended and is glorified. That One who was not spared has now taken up His life again in glory; but, as we were reminded, He remains a real Man. That is a condition that He took up, and He took it up to maintain everything for the delight of God, and, as the One who is to have the first place in all things, to be the Firstborn of a heavenly race. What results there are from this, that God did not spare His own Son. The scripture says of Him: “he shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”. It adds, “He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul”, Isa 53: 10,11. This One who was once forsaken, who was not spared in that period of darkness and forsaking on the cross, is now established at God's right hand in glory as Lord and Saviour. God is righteous to have done that.
Now God has a righteous basis, as the apostle Paul has already said in this epistle, to bless men and to reckon righteousness to you. God reckons righteousness to you as you have faith in the One whom He did not spare. Praise His Name! It also says that He delivered Him up for us all. “Has not spared” and “delivered him up” run together. It would remind us of what is said in the Acts: “him, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the hand of lawless men, have crucified and slain”, Acts 2: 23. That would affect us too, that God gave Him up into the hands of men. Christ in His blessed perfection accepted that, “but then, not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22:42. The Lord knew that He was to be delivered up, and His holy soul recoiled from it. In His dependence on the Father in the garden, He asks, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matt 26: 39. Friend, it was not possible that that cup should pass from Him: if you and I were to find blessing, if my sins and yours were to be forgiven, then it was not possible that that cup should pass from Him, but He must be delivered up. He could say later to those who came to take Him, “but this is your hour and the power of darkness”, Luke 22: 53. We also read, “When therefore he said to them, I am he, they went away backward and fell to the ground”, John 18: 6. The Lord in a sense delivered Himself up, in subjection to the will of the Father. What a One He is! All this to secure your blessing and mine.
And then consider what men did. What a commentary on the depravity and hatred infecting man as under the power of sin. Those who took the Lord and so maltreated Him, and who meted out to Him the mockery of a trial, and nailed Him to the tree and pierced Him did that as under the power of the devil. That is what sin does: it brings people under the power of the devil. People under that power do things that they never thought they would be capable of. How God feels that. He felt that scene at Golgotha as men - Jews and Romans - collaborated to bring about the crucifixion of the Lord. God allowed that: He delivered Him up for us all. Christ was delivered up for all men. While the “all” that Paul refers to here is believers, the work of Christ is available for everyone to put their faith in. What a God we have to do with! What a heart He has! The scope of His love is boundless. God desires to bless every person in the universe, every soul. He “is preserver of all men, specially of those that believe”, 1 Tim 4: 10. He desires their salvation. He “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim 2: 4. Does that bring assurance into your heart? The God that you know, who was prepared to deliver up His Son for us all, is surely able to bless.
The apostle appeals to those he is writing to. In effect he asks, ‘If God does this, could He withhold from you anything of the blessings that He has in His mind for you?’ Could He, dear friend? Paul has been telling those to whom he is writing about the activities of the Holy Spirit - the One who is the Spirit of adoption, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father”, Rom 8: 15. Paul has also written about conformity to the image of God’s Son, v 29. If you thought that was too blessed to be possible, Paul says as it were: ‘You think about the God, who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but has delivered Him up for us all; will He withhold any of these things from you? No, He will grant us all things with Christ. And that is what God has in mind, that we should be ready and thankful recipients of every blessing that He has in mind for us in Christ; nothing less than that. God wants to bring us to enjoy that, to create in our hearts affections and desires towards Him as the Giver, the One who has done these things that we have been speaking of; and affections and desires towards Christ, by whom and in whom all these blessings are ours.
God also desires us to know the love of the Christ. In another place, the apostle speaks about knowing “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Eph 3: 19. Here He is speaking about the impossibility of anything separating us from the love of Christ. He goes through a list of sufferings of which we know very little, but Paul knew about them all. He knew about tribulation and distress and persecution. He gives a list of these things in 2 Corinthians 12, which is well worth looking at. Paul knew what he was talking about, and he said that it is impossible that any of these things could separate us from the love of Christ. He quotes from the Psalms as to being put to death all the day long, reckoned as sheep for slaughter, and so on: he knew about that. We know very little of the persecutions that the apostle knew about. He remained steadfast, faithful to his Lord and Master. He knew what it was not to be separated from the love of Christ.
At the end of verse 39 he writes about none of these things being able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have been occupied with how God, in love for us, has not spared our Lord Jesus, and has delivered Him up for us all. If God was to have objects for His love who were suitable to be in His presence, it was a necessity of both His love and His righteousness that He should deliver Christ up for us. That love, the love of God, was expressed in Christ in an unsurpassable way; there was never love expressed in such a way as at the cross. The results are eternal. What God did at the cross in not sparing His Son has a wonderful, all-encompassing and eternal effect. It means that the future of your never-dying soul as a believer in Christ is completely secure, because God is satisfied. You do not need to worry about whether you are satisfied - although you will be - because it does not depend on how I feel or how you feel: it depends on how God takes account of things. God is satisfied with that One. He delivered Him up for us all. Why? Because He loved us. And nothing can separate us from the love of Christ or the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. As a believer, you are surrounded by love, you are supported by it, and you are enfolded by it. Your outlook is the eternal enjoyment of the love of God, from which we will never be separated. It is not just for time: in eternity believers will enjoy the rest of God, nearness to God, and His love for us in Christ Jesus. It is an eternal, wonderful love that cannot be compared with anything down here.
I commend this to my dear friends and brethren, for His Name’s sake.
Loanhead
17th December 2023