Martin & Karine’s Wedding  (Romans 8:28-39)

Today we celebrate the marriage of Martin and Karine. You will remember that in the marriage ceremony, I asked them several questions. They may have been a little nervous but they answered the questions willingly and truthfully, and in doing so, married each other. Their relationship has changed as a result of the answers they gave to one another and before you their family and friends. Their answers were a public declaration, before God and you their family and friends, to commit their lives to each other, from this day forward….I also asked you a question and I am sure it will have encouraged Martin and Karine to know of your commitment to them. Now I have two more questions for you. I won't ask you to raise your hand or respond verbally. But you must answer these before God, today or one day soon. I invite you to give a quiet answer to God to each question. The reason I do this is because how you answer these questions determines whether the rest of this message is true of you now, or is only an invitation for you to respond to. The questions are based on Romans 8.28

This is one of the greatest assurances of God's love in all the Bible. But it has two qualifications attached to it. It is not true for everyone. It is true for people described in this verse: "We know that God causes all things to work together for good 1) to those who love God, 2) to those who are called according to His purpose." So here are my two questions:

Two Questions
Question #1: Do you love God? No one loves God perfectly in this life. That is not the question. We all know there can be a real uniting love with a wife or husband or mother or father or dear friend, without that love being perfect. In fact the greater and more authentic the love, the more keenly it feels its own imperfections. The question is not about perfection. The question is: Is God your treasure? Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Luke 12:34) That is, there will your love be. He was trying to persuade us to have our treasure in heaven, not earth. He was calling us to treasure God above all things. Because what you count as your treasure is what your heart embraces and loves. So "Do you love God?" means "Is he your treasure?" Is God the most important person, the most important reality in your life? Question #2: Have you been called by God according to his purpose? This does not mean, "Have you ever heard the good news of Jesus Christ?" Verse 30 makes plain what the call is we are talking about here: "[Those] whom [God] predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." All those who are called are justified. So this calling from God is not merely an invitation. It is a powerful and effective summons that woke you up from the slumber of ignorance and rebellion, so that you saw Jesus and gladly submitted to him.

Called By Christ: An Illustration
Picture it this way: before you were called by God, you were in real sense asleep in your bed. Into your bedroom came Jesus Christ. He stood there in the glory of his Calvary love and his resurrection power. But you were asleep. In fact you were dreaming. And in the dream (which is your ordinary life) you saw Jesus. Only in the dream he looked foolish. He wasn't attractive. You wondered why others made such a big deal out of him. In the dream your television was more exciting. Your boyfriend was more real, your job more satisfying. Then God's Spirit came into the bedroom. And the Spirit hovered over your dreaming head and called, in a voice, just loud enough, "Wake up!" And it shook you. And you opened your eyes. And there before you stood the real Jesus Christ. And his glory was unmistakable. And you knew that (all your life) up to that point, you'd been dreaming—that all your thoughts about his being foolish and unreal and unattractive were now mere fantasies and empty images of a sleeping mind. But now the veil of slumber was lifted and "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" was irresistibly true. That is what it means to be called. So I ask, "Have you been called by God?" Is Christ, wisdom and power to you? Or are you still asleep in the fantasy world of dreams and illusions where Jesus is unimportant, unexciting, unattractive? Can you honestly say this afternoon, as Paul does in Gal. 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Now, if you have honestly answered, Yes, to these two questions, then the rest of this message is gloriously true for you. And if you couldn't answer, Yes, then this message may be even more relevant.

No One and Nothing Can Separate Us from Christ's Love

The main point of this passage Martin and Karine chose is in verse 35. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The answer to that question is: No one and nothing. The aim of this statement is to remind you and to awaken you afresh to the unshakable love that Christ has for you. Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? "Shall tribulation [or any pressure or trouble], distress [or any difficulty or crisis], persecution [or any opposition or ridicule], famine [or any suffering or scarcity], nakedness [or any assault or shame], peril [or any danger or threat], sword [or any injury or violence or death]?" Shall any of that separate you from the love of Christ?”  Paul answers, No, on the contrary, as verse 37 says, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us."  Not only can we not be separated from the love that Christ has for us, but that love is so powerfully for us, at all times, that it turns every circumstance into a triumph. "In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us." So my aim is to remind you of this and show it to you, and pray with you that you will grasp it. And it will grasp you.

We Must First Be Gripped by Christ's Love for Us 

Our purpose in being here today is to witness this solemn act of lifelong commitment, Martin and Karine have made to one another. Our prayer is that they will grow in their love for one another and experience the deep, unshakable love God has for them, now as a married couple. And their prayer for us is that  we experience being loved by Christ with a deep, unshakable love—the love of Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We must be wonderstruck that the love of Christ holds us. That he holds us firmly in the grip of his love. The profound wonder—that Christ, the Son of God loves us—must grip us and hold us and fill our minds. We must put it before our minds at the beginning of the day (he loves me), and then again at midmorning (he loves me), and then at noon (he loves me), and then at mid-afternoon (he loves me), and then at supper time (he loves me), and then before bed (he loves me). The roots of our life are firmly held by the depths of Christ's love. And the foundation of our life is firmly supported by the rock of Christ's love. We cannot be plucked up or blown over.

That is the point of Romans 8:35, "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ." God is calling each one of us to new depths of love for each other and for those outside. [May God grant that we], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. Let us make it a matter of earnest prayer that Martin and Karine especially, but that each of us may grasp more and more what it is to be loved by Christ—that nothing can separate us from his love. Then the power to love others will flow freely and dramatically, and spill from us into a hurting world in great need of God’s love.

Adapted with grateful thanks, from John Piper. http://www.desiringgod.org