All or nothing, boys and girls!

“…If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.”
Romans 8:32



It took me a long time to learn that God wants to bless our lives. I always pictured Him as somewhat reluctant to pour out His blessing on us. Like, “Well, OK, I guess you can have a little more.” But I was so wrong. God wants to lavish all the fullness of heaven on us. He doesn’t promise that everything will always be perfect or that He won’t sometimes allow difficulty but He does promise to give good things to His children.

You may be thinking, “I hope that’s true and I want to believe that, but before I embrace it, I’ve got to be convinced that God really loves me. I’ve got to know that I can trust my life to Him.” God understands our need for that and repeatedly gives us evidence throughout the Bible that He is for us. He did absolutely everything He could to find us, and to reach us, and to forgive us. Why? Because He loves us.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Son…”
Romans 5:8: “God demonstrated His love to us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
First John 4:8b, “God is love.”

And the passage that you should look at more closely and think about is, Romans 8:32: “…If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.”



If you’ve ever wondered if God cares about you, look at what He did for you in His Son, Jesus Christ. “God, who did not spare His own Son…” Question: Did not spare Him what?



Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the humiliation of becoming a man. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, Eternal God, Creator of the Universe, became a human being. That’s what we’re celebrating this Christmas season. Jesus took on flesh and all the limitations of a physical life. Can you imagine the humiliation?

Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the degradation of His atoning work. The mocking, the spit, the torture, the crown of thorns were all laid on the Precious Son of God because your heavenly Father loves you.



And because God loves you, He did not spare His Son crucifixion. “[Jesus] became obedient unto death,” Philippians 2: says, “even death on a cross”!—the most humiliating, torturous way for a person to die. But why did God not spare His own Son? Because He loves you, that’s why. He gave the best for the worst. He gave the highest for the lowest. He did the most for the least. That is God’s message of love to you and me!



Look again at Romans 8:31, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us…” Twice in verses 31 and 32 you can see the reason God did this—it was “for us.” All that God did, He did for us. Jesus just didn’t come as a good example or some religious icon to be worn around your neck. He died to pay the price for your sin before a Holy God. He took upon Himself the sins of the world and God poured out on His Son all of the righteous wrath and judgment for all the wicked things that happen in this world. When people say to you, “Why doesn’t God do something about sin?” Tell them that He did! God dealt with all sin through the sacrifice of His Son so that no matter who you are, or where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, you can be forgiven. That’s the Gospel: Jesus in my place. I should have been there! I should have paid the price for my own sin. But Jesus took it on Himself. Why? Because God loves me.



And if that wasn’t enough, God wants to pour out still more blessing on the lives of His children. Continue reading Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously or freely give us all things?” All the things that we make such a big deal over here are incomparable to what God has already given us. Charles Spurgeon said, “There can be no end to the generosity of God once He has given His Son.”



Now there are two words in the verse we haven’t looked at yet, and they are the most important words in the entire verse. “…But gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” With Him.



With Christ you get everything; without Christ you get nothing. You accept Christ’s work on your behalf, you get everything—forgiveness of sin, peace with God, eternal life, heaven. If you don’t accept the offer of God’s Son, you get nothing.



God wants to bless your life but He will only do that through His Son Jesus Christ. He offers you His most precious treasure, His Son, the Savior of the world, the Lover of your soul, the One who died so you could be forgiven. If you take Him, you get everything; if you reject Him, you get nothing. In fact, Hebrews 10:29 tells us, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”



It’s a very serious thing to reject Christ. If you have heard of God’s great and loving offer of His Son’s work on your behalf and have said, “No thanks, I think I’ll find another way,” I implore you to turn around. Who knows if you’ll have another day? John 1:12 says, “As many as have received Jesus, to those He has given the authority to be called the children of God.”



Have you done that? Have you made the choice to trust Christ personally? Today could be the turning point of your entire life. Come to Christ; He loves you, He’ll forgive you if you receive His amazing love for you through the gift of His Son.