Marking Time in Christ :: Romans 8:31-39

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In 1522, a ship originally commanded by Ferdinand Magellan arrived in port at Seville, Spain. Three years earlier, it had left port there and sailed west. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean, slipped past the tip of South America, traversed the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and then around the southern tip of Africa before going north back to Spain. This worm-eaten, storm-beaten ship had become the first vessel to sail around the world.

When the sailors arrived home, something was amiss. It seemed they had lost a day of their lives. By the sailors’ reckoning, it should have been Wednesday when they landed. But in Spain, it was Thursday. Where did they lose track of time? 

This mystery confounded voyagers for another three hundred years, until 1884, when representatives from all over the world gathered to solve the problem. They did so by establishing a point of origin to make sense of time all over the world: the international date line.

3. In a deeper, more profound way, we too need a point of origin to make sense of time. 

This is because we live in times that don’t make sense. 

Think of what we’ve witnessed during the past year. On the national and international scenes, there have been rumors of war with Russia, unprecedented murders in Chicago, riots in our cities, economic uncertainty, and moral chaos. We are suffering through a pandemic that is now two years old. There is no end in sight. 

On the personal level, you may have experienced problems with family and finances. Some of us have experienced unforeseen illness and tragic losses. Our times could well be described by the list Paul in our text from Romans 8: tribulation, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, sword (v 35). And these things just don’t seem to make any sense. 

Aren’t we God’s people? Isn’t he all-powerful? Shouldn’t he be with us when our times seem to be falling apart? Where is he when the world seems so bent on ignoring him and his will and making life so miserable for us? Will it get worse? How could God allow us to have a government that permits these things? What will next year bring?

We need a point of origin to help us navigate the perils of the current and uncharted waters. The future could hold for you experiences like those listed in our text: As it is written, because of you, we are being put to death; we are counted as slaughtered sheep (v 36). As we look toward the coming year, we may have fear. Fear of potential peril. Fear of failing health. Fear of losing those we love. It could even be your own life. 

For all this and more, we need a date line to make sense of our times!

2. Blessedly, the Scripture reading appointed for this New Year’s Eve service points us to a date ... and even more so to a God ... who can make sense of our times. 

Today, as we mark the transition from one year to another, from 2021 to 2022, we look to God to help us navigate through time. This date that enables us to make sense of all time can be called the “Eternal Date Line.” It is the reference point for all history. 

You may be surprised to learn that it’s a date we just celebrated. That date is Christmas. In saying that, I don’t mean Christmas 2021. I mean the first Christmas. You know, the one that occurred in a manger in Bethlehem! This date line marks God’s first breath as a human being. It marks the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, we even align our calendars according to that date. In a few hours, we begin AD 2022 ... which is Latin shorthand for “the year of our Lord” 2022. Every year before that is BC ... as in “before Christ.” Every year after it is AD ... as in Anno Domini, the time after our Lord appeared. 

Our time is calibrated according to the most momentous event of all history, the appearance of God in human flesh on earth.

That one life has brought to us the solution to all our problems ... Our problems of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is because God entered into our time and space in Jesus Christ. He took on himself all our sins ... past, present, and future ... He suffered the consequences of our sins on the cross. Romans 8:32 puts it succinctly but powerfully: God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Other Scripture further declares this mission of God. You know these verses well: God loved the world in this way: he gave his only Son in order that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Cor 5:19). He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 9:26). 

Brothers and sisters in Christ ... this one life has made all the difference in the world because he has delivered us from sin, death, and the devil. He has given us eternal life ... a life that continues now. So we not only make sense of our calendars by that date, but also our lives!

1. Moreover, this “Eternal Date Line” enables us to make sense of our future. 

Tonight, we look to the future. And we don’t know what it holds. But God’s word for us tonight is that from now on you need not fear. Christ is coming. The message of the angel on that first Christmas night ... do not fear! ... is still the message for you and for me tonight. Why? Because the one who loves you, who came to earth for you, who lived and died for you, who rose from the grave for you, who now watches over you until he comes again for you to take you finally and forever into paradise with him, is none other than the Lord of history, the God of all ages.

What then shall we say to these things? 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, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died ... more than that, who was raised ... who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (vv 31–34)

God is on our side. He is for us, not against us. He has given his Son as proof of this. God now justifies us ... that is, he regards us as blameless ... for the sake of Jesus. Thus we need not fear his condemnation. Christ is now interceding for us. He takes our side in the heavenly courtroom of justice. So we need not fear his rejection or judgment, now or in the future. Christ  holds our future, and he promises to uphold us in the future.

This doesn’t mean your future will be one on Easy Street. It doesn’t mean that life will be free of pain, loss, hardship, and suffering. This world is still broken. And we still carry in our bodies the brokenness of our fallen humanity. You may experience sickness and suffering, injury and illness. You may be rejected by friends and neglected by family. You will make bad decisions and suffer the consequences of those missteps. But those problems will not prevail. God will prevail. 

And God’s love will prevail, as Paul declares ...

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (vv 35–39)

IN THE MIDST OF SENSELESS TIMES, WE FIND REFUGE IN THE NEVER-FAILING LOVE OF GOD, MARKED FROM THE ETERNAL DATE LINE OF CHRIST

You can count on his love. And it’s all because of the one whose life, death, and resurrection marks the Eternal Date Line. That is what makes sense of our times, now and in eternity. 

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