April 20, 2008
Pastor David Kuhnle

       Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
       Have you ever received one of those envelopes saying, "You may already be a winner of $10,000,000"? I heard of a guy who, after receiving one of these in the mail, went down to his place of employment and quit his job. He didn't just quit, he also told his boss, using a lot of adjectives and verbs, just what he could do with that job. That was a bad idea.
       In Romans 8:31-39 Paul pens a hymn of triumph. In this hymn Paul's theme resounds: You are already a winner. No "may be" about it; in fact, you are more than winners. Paul says that those who are in Christ are super winners. In spite of the conflict between Christians and the world, in spite of persecution, in spite of the Devil and his angels, in spite of death itself, Paul says that in all these things you have already won! More than that he says, "You are Super Winners!"
       Paul says, "God is for you." The Gospel means that God is for you! Luther called the Gospel "that friendly message from God." It is good news to us that rather than being angry and vengeful, God is for you and loves you with a love that cannot die. He is for you; he wears a button on his lapel with your picture on it. He keeps your picture close to his heart. Do you need proof? Read verse 32: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
       Do you see it? The proof is in the cross. Since God has done the greater thing in giving Jesus to suffer and die for your salvation, won't he all the more do the lesser things of caring for your every need? The cross reveals the immensity of God's love for you.
       National television recently spotlighted twin brothers about eight or nine years old. One, because of kidney disease, was considerably smaller than the other. Once he had been weak and sickly, but now before the cameras, he played and chattered away. Why the improvement? Because his brother had given him his kidney and saved his life. His brother was asked what kidney he gave. He replied, "My right one…because I am right-handed and I figured that my right kidney was my best kidney." What an example of love! His parents said that it was his own idea to give his kidney and that his love was free and generous toward his brother.
       It is one thing to give a body part for someone you love, but what about giving our own son? I don't love either of my brothers enough to do that, but God loves you that much and more.
       And if God is for you, who can be against you? Not the Devil. Paul asks, "who can bring a charge against God's elect?" The Devil is the accuser of the brethren. He loves to frighten you with all kinds of accusations that burden you and cause you grief. He is like the prosecutor who is relentless in making his case against the accused. But in Christ, he has no grounds to accuse you.
       Here Paul is returning to the opening statement of Romans 8: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." [Romans 8:1,2] There is no one to accuse you because Jesus has removed all grounds for a case against you.
       Christ died and rose again for your justification. Your sins are removed from you completely. Even more, Jesus intercedes for us. He speaks for you as your defense attorney. The Devil makes his accusations, but they fall on deaf ears because Jesus has already made intercession for you.
       No one and nothing can separate you from God's love. Paul does not deny the suffering that we face as God's people. He quotes from the Psalms: "As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'" In the world we are treated like losers. We are slandered; we are persecuted; we and our values are constantly belittled. There are many Christians in the world today who face prison and even death because of Christ. Here on earth we may be treated like losers, but in eternity we are super winners. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
       But what is a super winner? Don't think of this in the same way as Joel Osteen would think of it. When we talk about Christians being super winners, we are not talking about them driving BMWs and living in mansions as so many of these TV preachers would suggest. No, instead think of Pastor Paul Schneider, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany. Because of his preaching against Hitler's policies, the Nazis put him in Buchenwald concentration camp. Schneider continually encouraged the other inmates, organizing prayer groups and Bible studies and preaching the Word. He often went without food so the weaker inmates could get something to eat. The Nazis considered him to be dangerous, so they continually put him in isolation. But even in isolation he would pull himself up to his window and call out Bible verses to the others as they stood at attention for hours in front of their barracks. He would usually get out a few lines like, "Jesus is Lord" or "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake" or "Who can separate us from the love of Christ?" The guards would rush into his cell and beat him senseless. Sometimes they would strap him to a metal table, pour water on him, and have electricity pumped through his body. But every day he pulled himself up to the window to preach the good news to his fellow prisoners. Eventually, the Nazis killed him, but they could not kill his spirit. His faith and courage served the other prisoners well.
       That is a super winner. In the world he received nothing but grief, but in heaven he receives the crown of life. God is greater than evil. God is greater than your sin, than your disease, than your fear, than persecution or famine or poverty. God is greater than death itself. The resurrection is proof of that. The grave could not hold Jesus, and nothing else can stand up against him.
       Because Christ is risen, nothing can separate us from his eternal, never-ending love for us. In him, in spite of all the evil in the world that may attack us, we are super winners.