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Assurance of Victory! This article is the conclusion of our series on Spiritual Warfare. We have spent the last few months discussing the war Christians are in with the forces of evil. It is easy for believers to become overwhelmed with the battle as we have discussed. It is essential to realize that the battle has already been won. Romans 8 has been known, as the victory chapter of the hope and assurance believers can find in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. We will be following Dr. Ed Murphy’s outline of Romans 8, where he divides it into three sections: the ecstasy, the agony, and the agony within the ecstasy of the normal Christian life. The ecstasy of the normal Christian life is found in the foundational truth of the interdependent life found in a believer with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 begins, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” One of the most important words found in the New Testament is the word, “in.” Jesus is not only my Savior and Lord, He is our life. The Holy Spirit not only fills us with the person of God’s Son but He also empowers us for holy living and effective ministry. This is why Paul insists that we have the power to overcome the evil within and around us through our relationship with Jesus Christ according to the Holy Spirit. However, this does not come automatically. A believer needs to know and understand who they are in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Also, how Christ indwells in us by His Spirit, or else we will be defeated most of our Christian life. Our acceptance before God has nothing to do with our performance as Christians because of what Christ has already done for us on the cross. Our whole acceptance has to do with being “in Christ Jesus,” because there is no condemnation. This means that there is no personal merit that brings us to God and there is no personal demerit that can keep us from God. Paul then demonstrates how we are set free from the “law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2), by the power of the “law of the Spirit of life” (8:2). The Holy Spirit is the dominant person of the Trinity mentioned throughout Romans 8. The power the Holy Spirit offers is both commanding and authoritative, in its legislative authority. If we turn to an earlier passage in Romans, Paul describes the two opposing laws, “the law of sin” and the “law of the mind” (7:22,23), the law of sin operates in the flesh and the law of the mind, though it desires to live rightly can only do so by being energized by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Thus, the power of sin is no match for the power of the Spirit. This also demonstrates that the “no condemnation” of verse 1 is not just deliverance from sin’s guilt and penalty, but from sin’s power. The final choice rests in the hands of every believer, we can rely on the strength and help of the Holy Spirit by living according to the Spirit, or we can live according to what our sinful nature desires. It is essential for us to understand that the Holy Spirit is there ever ready to help and strengthen but He does not force Himself on anyone. The side we decide to choose is rather a constant decision we each have to make. The Holy Spirit calls all of us to do what we can, and all that we can, with the assurance that the Holy Spirit will do the rest. There is in essence a true love relationship that is developed between the two as we find ourselves not slaves to bondage as under sin, but rather sons and daughters who are free. “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (8:6). The next section of Romans 8 is the agony, found in verses 17-27. If Paul only referred to the ecstasy of the Christian life, he would have been less than realistic. Paul begins with a very dismal picture of our real status as believers. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (8:17). The main point, though, is not that being a Christian guarantees suffering, it is rather that faithful suffering with Christ guarantees that we will share in His glory. As in 2 Corinthians 4:17,18, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” The more we suffer in this life for the sake of the Lord, the greater will be our capacity for glory in heaven. Again, the one and only hope we have of enduring whatever comes our way is the help and strength of the Holy Spirit. In this section, it demonstrates that the way the Holy Spirit helps us is by interceding for us, “with groanings too deep for words” (8:26). The aid of the Holy Spirit is abundantly sufficient to overcome all difficulties. There is no reason for us to complain, that the bearing of the cross is beyond our own strength, since we are sustained by a celestial power, the Holy Spirit. It is clear also that there is a great force at work here where the Spirit takes on Himself a part of the burden so that He not only helps us but He also lifts us up as though He is under the burden with us. This should be a great assurance to us to know that no matter what comes our way we have the Holy Spirit by our side offering us the power and the strength to overcome. This leads us to the amazing conclusion of the Christian life that in the midst of our agonies we also have the ecstasy. The remainder of Romans 8, verses 28-39, is the agony within the ecstasy. Paul begins with showing God’s eternal sovereign purpose, which is to glorify God’s elect. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (8:28). It is important to note that in the following verses all the verbs are past tense because they are stated as if they have already been accomplished in order to show the certainty of their accomplishment. God has foreknown us, which is stating that He knew beforehand with a peculiar regard and love from before the foundation of the world. God has also predestined us “to be conformed to the image of His son,” it is the conformity “to the image of His Son” that He has predestined us, not just to escape hell and gain heaven. Those “He predestined, there He also called,” this is the meaning of the elect of God. God called us to His Son and to Himself, or we could not have come to Him at all. “Whom He called, these He also justified,” which is stating that God has fully assigned His righteousness to His elect. The last saying, “whom He justified, these He also glorified,” we can hold on to the knowledge that His Cross leads to our glorification. We do not have that glorification yet, only He does. The next set of verses (31-39) emphasizes the certainty of our calling by God. Paul begins with, “what, then, shall we say in response to this?” In other words, since we have been foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified, what more can God do for us to assure us that He is directing all the good, and also the evil, which comes to our life for our good and His purpose. Paul continues with a set of rhetorical questions to convince us of our certainty. “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? Who will bring any charge? Against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died, - more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or feminine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (8:32-35) What can Satan and his evil spirits really do against us? They can hassle, afflict, threaten, scare, bruise, but they cannot really hurt us. God uses them eventually to help us. We all become weary in the battle and complain at times, “I am tired of the pressure Satan continually brings against me.” When that happens, we can counter his attack by turning against Satan and his demons and declaring our acceptance by God in the beloved; their defeat by the King of Kings and the Lord or Lords; our authority in Christ’s power over them; and their destiny in hell, the eternal lake of fire. This is what it means by resisting the Devil, not “please leave me alone.” The only ones who can come with a charge against us is either from others, ourselves, and from Satan. Satan is the main one to charge or accuse us (Revelation 12:10). He not only does so before God but before our own damaged emotions and conscience, and he uses others to accuse us as well. Paul concludes this section with an awesome conclusion, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:37-39). It is important to understand that this assurance is conditional in the reality that it is based on the believer’s continual trust in God, which will always lie in the power of their own free choice. However, the believer’s abilities and decisions are not at issue here. Paul assumes that we want to stay within the love of Christ, and that we are going to make every effort to do so. The point and comfort is that there is no third party, no outside circumstance that can destroy the saving relationship between God and us. The relationship we have with God is between Him and us alone. Our ultimate salvation is God’s loving will and purpose for us, and it will surely come to pass as long as our faith continues to cling to its one and only hope, the cross of Christ. Hopefully the study of Romans 8 has encouraged all of us to hold true to our calling. We can rest assured that whatever comes our way amidst the battles found in our everyday lives whether the battle comes from within or without there is nothing to fear. A believer can stand firm that the victory has already been won. The one sure way to determine if we are truly basing our life in the Spirit or in the flesh is whether we are living in peace or not. This is not stating that if we are without peace we are doing something wrong but I have found for myself that the amount of peace I am able to sustain is the barometer to determine if I am running on my own power or the Spirit’s power. If I find that it is my own power, I then begin to pray and ask the Lord to reveal His truth. I then have to take the action necessary that He reveals to me, no matter what it is, changing my behavior, confession, praying on my own or with the help of someone else. The important thing however, is to always keep in mind that the ultimate victory is ours if only we will ask for our Father’s help and assistance. Resources used: The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare, Dr. Ed Murphy