There is a glorious aria in Handel’s Messiah, perhaps the finest of the whole glorious piece of music, in which the question of this text is asked and answered in a sonorous, alto melody; and, finally, an exclamation point is placed on the whole question and answer with the glorious appearance of Jesus Christ and the final Amen! If that is heavenly, imagine what the reality will be when the Lord appears again.

What shall we say to these things? Oh, that we would at all times stand at the height of faith on which the apostle here stands as he gives the glorious response of faith to these things: “If God be for us, who can be against us!” A triumphant shout this is really. Nothing can be against us!

But the Christian as he walks in this life, which is nothing but a continual death, and lives in this valley of tears is more like a little child who is afraid of the dark and terrified of phantoms and monsters conjured up by his fertile imagination. The things that the Christian faces are painful and troublesome and frequently extort from him a cry of anguish and deep sorrow. The believer lives his life in a universe that labors and travails under the power of God’s anger, in which the evil is sufficient for every day, in a creation that moves relentlessly forward to its fiery end, and in which man is quickly cut off and flies away. And in his journey through this life, the believer can suppose that he is overwhelmed with life. One thing after another comes to him. And as he experiences these various things, he gives each a very large place in his life, in his mind, and in the universe itself. The believer is like the little child in a dark and shadowy room who sees everything out of proportion, so that what is familiar seems to have a different shape and becomes a cause for fear. But when the light is turned on, then the little child sees again, and everything is back in its proper place.

The apostle turns on the light of Jesus Christ and his salvation to faith and shows us the things that we must face in that light of Jesus Christ. And in the face of our fears, our experiences, and the things that threaten us—the things present and things to come—the apostle confronts us with the powerful and all-encompassing question: What shall we say to these things? To that question the apostle gives the powerful and all-encompassing answer: “If God be for us, who can be against us!”

The viewpoint of the text is the viewpoint of the elect church of God in the world, and it is the viewpoint of the beloved brethren and sisters of their eldest brother, Jesus Christ. “These things” in the text are a reference to the believer’s whole situation in the world. So the viewpoint of the text is of the child of God in a sin-cursed world that groans and travails under the bondage of corruption. The viewpoint of the text is first of the child of God in his suffering and especially in his suffering for the gospel’s sake. There is no comforting word in the text for the false Christian who carefully calculates to save his life and to spare himself the suffering that invariably comes on those who confess Christ. If the false Christian saves his position, his name, his family and friends, there is no word for him, except that he who saves his life shall lose it in the world to come.

There is no word in the text for the wicked evildoer, that false Christian or lying officebearer who takes the side of evil in this life. How does such a one not love to quote Romans 8:31 in his distress and to read it at funerals. With the text the evildoer seeks to strengthen the hands of the wicked, so that they do not repent, and to assure them in their opposition to and hatred of the gospel that all will be well with them. But there is no word in the text for those who hate the gospel, slander it, and oppose it. The word for them is to repent or perish.

The viewpoint of the text is the children of God who live in this sin-cursed and groaning world and who suffer the loss of their lives for Christ’s sake. They are the ones who possess a glory that will one day be revealed in the resurrection. Their glory and hope are hidden now in heaven, and on this earth they are strangers with no abiding place. Their home is in heaven. They are born of the Spirit, from above, according to God’s own decree for their salvation. They have eternal life now and can never die. They are free from the curse of the law and walk in liberty, free from the bondage of the law and of sin, free from death and the curse. They are in Christ, and they walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. They are children of their heavenly Father; they have not the spirit of bondage and fear but the Spirit of life in Christ, the Spirit whereby they cry, “Abba Father!” They are heirs together with Christ, and because of Christ they are heirs of all things. They have hope in the unseen things of the world to come, of which their faith is the profound evidence. They are loved of God, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified, already enjoying the life of heaven and freedom in Christ. So when we speak of “these things,” we must say that they include the things of salvation, the certain knowledge and joy in that salvation.

Then from that standpoint of the elect, what shall we say to these things?

We live in a creation subjected to bondage and that groans and travails in bondage until the redemption of all things. And in such a creation, then, in the most general way, there are for us unspeakable sufferings and sorrows, miseries and heartaches, and disappointments and griefs, so that the elect know not what to pray for. And the Spirit himself prays for them with groanings that cannot be uttered.

What shall we say to these things?

There are the sufferings of this present time: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. And to these things are added other things: the powers of death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, and any other creatures.

Tribulation comes on us from the world and false church that oppress the church. Distress lays hold on us, so that we are forced into a very narrow place, so that if we would look at that place not being in it, we would say that the narrow place would squeeze us to death! Persecution is all the mockery, the evil looks, the disparaging remarks, the hatred, the ridicule, all of the distress, and the narrow places that are specifically suffered by us in this world for Christ’s sake because we hold the word and testimony of Jesus Christ and because we speak that word and testimony in a world that hates God and knows not the Lord Jesus Christ. Famine and nakedness come on us because, for the testimony of Christ, we are squeezed out of the world and suffer lack in it. There are perils not only to our lives but also to our souls! And have we suffered yet the sword, that terrible instrument of death wielded against the church when the world, not satisfied with our anguish and distress, screams also for our blood?

And the apostle moves from the narrow window of our experiences and takes us on a grand tour of the universe to its farthest reaches and shows to us its greatest powers. What shall we say to death? What shall we say to life? Oh, indeed, what will we say to life? Is it for us nothing but a continual death? What shall we say to angels and devils, principalities and powers, whether temporal and tangible or whether spiritual and otherworldly? What shall we say to things present or things to come, for we know not what the future holds, whether good or evil will come on us? We can in the future expect for certain that the situation of the church in the world will not change. For all who live godly in the world shall suffer persecution. And the servant is not greater than his master; if they hated and reviled and put him to death, how much more will the world not do that to us? And what shall we say to heights or depths, to heaven or hell, to the great experiences of joy and triumph and the crushing experiences of setbacks and disappointments? And if there are any other creatures, then what shall we say to them?

What shall you say to these things? To them! We have to stare these things in the face, and they lay hold upon us as though they were themselves persons and the personifications of evil. These things take on lives of their own. They are with us and on our minds and consume our thoughts and energy. They are as real and as close as the person sitting next to us. And we must speak to them when they come into our lives.

And besides, notice that the apostle asks, “Who can be against us?” It is not merely what can be against us because in the midst of these circumstances, there is not only a what, but also a who to whom we must speak. Is it only Satan and his murderous principality that are against us in these things, as he was operative behind the calamities that rapidly befell Job and left him covered in dust, ashes, and painful boils? Does Satan not employ others in his wicked works? There may be miserable comforters like Job had, who used his calamities as an occasion to assail him. And there is always our sinful flesh that takes calamity, distress, and trouble to work against us, to tempt us, and to war against the Spirit. The question of what we shall say to these things, therefore, is not the academic’s question, and neither is it the question of the theologian in his ivory tower. The question must be answered when these things come to us through personal instruments of evil that have a name and a face. The devil? Oh, yes, he is ever present to cause us to despair. But also a spouse, a brother, a sister, a cousin, a friend, a colleague, an elder, a deacon, and a minister!

You sit with them in the same house; you see them at the grocery store, out to dinner, or on the jobsite. You must hear their sneering taunts and read their scathing emails, their mocking and depressing letters, and their heartless accusations. They too demand an answer about these things; and in demanding an answer, they inflict on us untold griefs. They accuse and bite and devour with their slanderous tongues. With their hands they grab us, and with their feet they stomp on us. With their eyes full of hatred, they glower at us, and with pitiless ears they hear our cries.

What shall we say to these things? What shall be your assessment of them? What shall you say about them? Oh, yes, a judgment and an evaluation and an explanation are always demanded. But what do you say to them? What do you hold up as that great good that makes these things strictly subservient to your salvation? What do you say to them, so that they are bearable and so that you see that in the sovereignty of God they work your salvation and the salvation of all God’s people, no matter the pain and heartache, and so that—wonder of wonders—you glory in your tribulations?

A very personal question too. The question is not merely, what will you say to persecution when it touches others, when another faces tribulation in his or her family? But what will you say when the sword of Jesus Christ divides in your life and family, among your close friends and relatives? What will you say when persecution—with its painful jibes, sneers, casting out, and hateful looks—comes and presses upon you, makes your life difficult, even impossible in the world, and leaves your table, stomach, and bank account empty?

The question is not what you will say to the peril of sickness when it wracks someone else’s body. But what will you say when you are lying on a hospital bed, being tormented by the doctors and undergoing the surgeon’s knife? What will you say to these things when they happen to you and to your life, which was rolling along so smoothly and then suddenly is interrupted so dreadfully?

The question is not what you will say to death as he appears in the families of other people. But what will you say to death when he appears to drag your loved ones off through his remorseless portal or when death comes and stands at the foot of your bed, and you must stare at his terrifying face?

That is the question to us while at the same time we have on our lips and in our hearts the confession of God’s love toward us, so that we get on our knees and pray every morning and night, sometimes with groanings that can barely be uttered, and also confess that there is a glory that shall be revealed in us. What shall we say to these things when we say with our mouths and sing with our lips that we are the called according to God’s purpose, that whom God did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and moreover, whom he did predestinate, those he also called, and whom he called, those he also justified, and whom he justified, those he also glorified? And then at the same time, we experience all these things in our lives that so powerfully seem to contradict the truth that God loves us, that he has adopted us for his children and heirs, and that eternal life is ours. What do we say who confess that there is no condemnation to us, and yet we have such contradictory experiences in the world?

What shall we say to these things?

Necessary question!

And there is the answer of sheer unbelief. “These things are not true! The bitter experiences, they are true. We experience them. But why suffer them if these other things, such as predestination, redemption, calling, justification, and glorification, are not true?” Unbelief lives by sight and says that these things are not true. Unbelief says, “I cannot see them. I see these bitter experiences, and they are true. And those experiences are not worth whatever supposed glory awaits those who patiently endure them.” Unbelief lives according to the things that are seen; and according to the things that are seen, so unbelief speaks! Bitter! Rebellious! Hardened unbelief! The bitter experiences only make the unbelief more bitter! Harder! More rebellious! “These things do not work for my good!” The bitter things of life work for the increased unbelief of the unbeliever.

We could say that all these things are simply the way of life in the world. And because this is so, we could adopt the philosophy of the unbelieving stoic. “Since these things are simply the way of life, then I will find happiness in being detached from them. I shall train myself such that it is nothing to me whether I suffer or do not suffer!”

We could answer with the worldling: “All these things are the mere troubles of life to be offset by the pleasures of sin and the joys of earthly life. I will get as much out of this life as I possibly can. A short and a merry life it will be for me! I will find my pleasure, as much pleasure as I can pack into this life before it is cut short and I fly away. Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!”

We could say with Jacob in Genesis 46:36, “All these things are against me!” What a painful outburst was Jacob’s cry on that day when his sons returned from Egypt without Simeon, and they asked for Benjamin too. Long ago Jacob had lost one son when Jacob sent Joseph away to the hill country of Canaan to see how his brothers were doing, and Jacob never saw Joseph again, the only remnants of him being a blood-spattered little coat. Then again that painful wound was torn open when Jacob’s sons whom he had sent down into Egypt to buy corn returned and told of the woeful tale of their treatment by the ruler of Egypt and how the ruler was keeping one son in bonds until the brothers returned with their youngest brother. Tribulation, distress, peril, famine. Jacob faced them; and in the face of them, he cried out, “All these things are against me! Ye have robbed me of my children. Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and Benjamin ye will take away!”

If God be for us, who can be against us! No matter how dark the way, no matter how bleak the prospects for the future, this fact remains absolutely unassailable and is the believer’s answer to these things: “If God be for us, who can be against us!”

How absolute and all-encompassing is the answer: “If God is for us, who can be against us!”

A sure fact! It is not a question of whether God is for us, and I do not know if he is for us or if he is not. But the if states a fact. If God is for us! Nothing can be against, but all things must be for us too!

That is the triumphant answer of faith; a faith that lives in hope; a faith that believes what it does not see; a faith that is saved by hope! Faith looks not on the things but on the God who is sovereign over those things. When we look on the things themselves and we dwell on them, then they multiply their ferocity, and we begin to give to them a power that they do not have. They are but persons, things, and happenings. All these things are under the providence and control of an almighty and sovereign God.

God! Almighty, sovereign, just, holy, righteous, gracious, good in all his works and ways, and wondrous in redeeming love. Above all things and in control of all things is the almighty and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. All these things—whether height or depth, principalities or powers, things present or things to come, angels, devils, life, and death—are in God’s hand, so that they cannot move without his will, and in all their activity they must fulfill his will for the glory of his holy name and the salvation of his people.

This almighty God is for us! Faith makes that triumphant confession on a good ground.

God is not for everyone. The unbeliever. The stoic. The worldling. The reprobate ungodly in the world. God is not for them. Whether in their prosperity or in their poverty, God is against them. If they have the wealth of Midas, all that wealth works their eternal destruction. If they are poor as the poorest pauper, that poverty, sickness, or trouble works for them their eternal destruction. No, God is not for everyone.

God is for us. He is for those whom he loved from all eternity and in which love he predestinated them in Jesus Christ unto salvation and to the way of salvation, so that everything must serve as a means to bring them to their appointed and glorious end.

That God is for us means that God is on our side; or, more accurately, it means that we are taken to God’s side, are made of his party in the world, and we live before him always in that grace wherein we stand. We are incorporated into Jesus Christ, and God has made with us an eternal covenant of grace, promising to be a God to us and to our children and to avert all evil or turn it to our profit.

Let us make that confession today. We do not stoically ignore that there is evil in our lives. We bleed when we are cut; we are pained by bruises, physical and spiritual. But none of those things, no matter how they might loom large in our lives, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, nor can they ever turn that love away from us, nor thwart God’s will to do us good and to bring us to our eternal home.

And do you want to understand that God is for us? Then look at Jesus. God spared not his own Son! Do you hear the love of God in that statement? God did not spare his Son all the anguish and travail and trouble of the cross. Faith says that because God spared not his own Son, God is for us. For us and for our salvation, God delivered up his most precious Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Can anything undo the perfect work of Jesus Christ at the cross, where God saw the labor and travail of Christ’s soul and was satisfied?

Faith says that because God spared not his own Son, God also justified us. Oh, not merely that God will justify us, but he has, he does, and he forever will behold us as his perfectly righteous people in Christ. God has forgiven us all of our sins and has accounted us righteous in Jesus Christ and heirs of eternal life. Being righteous in Christ Jesus, there can be no condemnation also in him.

Faith says that because it is Christ who died—yea, rather that he is risen again; who ascended to heaven to appear in the presence of God; who before the face of God makes continual intercession for us; and who is even at the right hand of God, so that by his sovereign hand Jesus Christ guides and controls all the events of heaven and earth and of our own lives for our benefit—then we are secure in him.

Faith says that because God did not leave us comfortless but has sent the Comforter to us and has come and taken his abode with us, we shall never be forsaken. And by the power of the same Spirit, we also in all of life cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Faith says in all these things that we are more than conquerors because we not only have the victory over them, but they must also serve us and our everlasting salvation.

That is the triumphant, glorious, complete answer of the believer to all these things.

If God be for us, who can be against us!

Let us say this always. Let us say this in our hearts, and let us say this with our lips with tear-streaked cheeks. Let us say it to ourselves, and let us say it to one another. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through God, who loved us.

And with that confidence of faith, we face whatever God in his good pleasure sends to us. No matter the way. No matter the things. Faith has an answer for these things. “If God be for us, who can be against us!”

And God being with us, all things are well as we march straight on in our pilgrim’s journey here in this sin-cursed world toward our heavenly home.