7-26-2026

“IN CHRIST THERE IS ALWAYS MORE!”

Text: Romans 8:28-39 – Pentecost 9

Sunday July 26, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this ninth Sunday after Pentecost is the Epistle Lesson from Romans  8 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that in every circumstance there is always so much more than we can possibly imagine when we belong to you. We know the end of the story – eternity with you.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

We are bombarded daily, constantly with commercials, jingles, and advertisements that promise us “more, more, more” of whatever it is that will supposedly make us truly happy, satisfied, healthy, vigorous.

Let’s face it: All such promises are flat-out lies. Trusting in such promises will only ultimately disappoint us—and likely put a significant dent in our wallet, purse, or bank account.

Worse, they can also distract us from the one promise of  “more” that we can always fully and implicitly trust: God’s promise that in Christ he has already won and provided for us everything that we could possibly need or want, in this life and the next.

What’s more, God has personally delivered it to us—free of charge!—by the work of his Spirit through Word and Sacrament. Through Christ, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (v 37). What “more” could we need, want, or ask?

We Already Have “More, More, More”—in Christ.

I.

As sinners, we are guilty as charged (3:19, 23)—yet we are declared completely innocent by God for Christ’s sake, by grace through faith (3:24, 27–28). “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Paul asks rhetorically. “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 33–34).

Victory over sin is ours through Christ!

But in Christ, there is even more: God not only forgives our sin for Christ’s sake; he even promises to use our sins (and the sins of others) in ways that work together for our good. Our text, verse 28: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Incredibly, the “all things” must even include our sins and the sins of others.

Biblical examples abound: Joseph’s brothers sinned against him horribly, “but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). Peter denied Christ three times, but Jesus thrice reinstated him and called him to even greater ministry and discipleship (Jn 21:15–19).

Paul was “the foremost” of sinners, and yet precisely for this reason Jesus chose Paul in order to “display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Tim 1:15–16). “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (v 37).

Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over sin.

II.

But more! The wages of sin is death (temporal and eternal), but hear this: “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 38–39).

Even death cannot separate us who believe from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Victory over death is ours in Christ!

But in Christ, there is even more: The new life and new creation promised and won by Christ is even greater than God’s original plan for his creatures to live forever in harmony with him.

As perfectly “good” as God’s original creation was, the biblical depictions of God’s new creation (Rev 21:1–4) and of our new, glorified bodies (1 Cor 15:35–58) suggest that by virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, eternal life in heaven will be exceedingly more glorious than the perfection of Eden.

And unlike the lesser glory of Eden, heaven’s glory will be everlasting, forever unspoiled by sin, evil, suffering, death, and the devil.

Even our great enemy, death, is “swallowed up in victory” through Christ’s death and resurrection (cf 1 Cor 15:54–56), so that St. Francis of Assisi can actually speak of death for the Christian as “most kind and gentle,” since it “lead[s] to heaven the child of God.

Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over death.

III.

But more! Satan is indeed the lord of this world (2 Cor 4:4; Jn 12:31), but Jesus has overcome the world and its cruel lord and has shared his victory with us who have been freely elected, called, and justified by God in Christ. Victory over the devil is ours in Christ!

But in Christ there is even more: Christ has not only defeated Satan; he now mocks and frustrates Satan by using the devil’s own weapons against him. Yes, “all things” in verse 28 must also include the works and wiles of the devil!

Satan, the accuser, will never stop shoving our sins in our face. But note Martin Luther’s suggested retort: “Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you [Satan] are placing a sword and weapon into my hand with which . . . I can kill and floor you.

For if you can tell me that I am a poor sinner, I, on the other hand, can tell you that Christ died for sinners and is their Intercessor” (What Luther Says, comp. Ewald M. Plass, vol. 1 [Concordia Publishing House, 1959], §1190).

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (v 35). The devil constantly attempts to use such things to weaken or even destroy our faith in Christ.

But God continually turns the tables on the devil by causing even our sufferings to work together for our good and to intensify our longing for the “hope of the glory” that is ours in Christ (cf Rom 5:1–5).

“For I am sure,” we can say with Paul, “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 38–39, emphasis added). “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (v 37).

Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over the devil.

When the world promises you more, more, more, remember who’s talking: the world—the sinful, fallen world; your flesh—your selfish, deceitful flesh; the devil, who’s been a liar from the beginning (Jn 8:44).

Let someone else do the talking: your ever-faithful, ever-truthful, ever-dependable God, who sent his only Son to live and die and rise for you and who speaks to you through his inspired and inerrant Word through his Spirit.

In Christ, God has already purchased and won for you all the treasures of his heavenly kingdom, which you possess even now by faith in Christ and through the indwelling of his Spirit.

And when trials and difficulties come, continue to trust in his promise: We are more than conquerors through him who loved us, and someday soon he will return to reveal that “more” to us and in us in ways that are beyond earthly expression, disappointment, or imagination.

Amen.

Now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior...Amen.