Romans 8:29-30 - From Eternity to Eternity

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

These are the five steps that God takes, stretching from eternity to eternity — far greater than any of our individual lives would suggest. The first step is that God foreknew us. A lot of people talk about how God foreknew what we were going to do, he foreknew that we would believe in Christ. This verse is not dealing with that. This verse is concerned with the question of existence. It is telling us that from among the tremendous number of human beings that have been spawned onto this earth since the creation of man, God foreknew that you and I would be there — as well as all the believers who have preceded us or who will follow us in the course of history.

Then, Paul says, the next step is that God predestined: "Ah," you say, "I know what that means! That means God looked over the whole group and said, "Now these will go to hell, and those will go to heaven."" Predestination has nothing to do with going to hell. Predestination has to do only with believers. It simply tells us that God has selected before hand the goal toward which he is going to move every one of us who believes in Christ. That goal is conformity to the character of Christ. Everything that happens to us focuses on that one supreme purpose.

The third step is that God called us: This is where we get into the act. I could not begin to describe to you the mystery and wonder that is involved in this. This means that the Holy Spirit somehow begins to work in our lives. We may be far removed from God, we may have grown up in a non-Christian family, we may be involved in a totally non-Christian faith, or we may be from a Christian home. It does not make any difference. God begins to work and he draws us to himself.

Fourth, those God called, he justified: Justification is God's gift of worth. Those who are justified are forgiven, cleansed, and given the position before him of being loved, accepted, wanted, and endeared. By the cross, God was freed to give the gift of righteousness. Had he given it apart from the cross, he could have been properly accused of condoning sin — but the cross freed him. It established his righteous justice on other grounds, so that he is now free to give to us the gift of worth without any merit on our part.

Then, finally, those God justified, he also glorified: Paul writes as though this had already happened. It has already begun, and God counts it as true. Glorification is the exciting day which the whole creation is anticipating, when God is suddenly going to pull back the curtains on what he has been doing with the human race. Suddenly, the sons of God will stand out in glory.

There are none lost in the process. Those whom he foreknew, before the foundation of the world, he also predestined to conform to the likeness of his Son; the same number of people he called; and the ones he called, he also justified; the very ones he justified, he also glorified. No one is lost in the process, because God is responsible for it. It is going to involve pain and toil, but it is going to happen, because what God sets out to do, he does — no matter what it takes.

Prayer: Father, I am so grateful for your eternal purposes which allow me to rest in deep gratitude for your grace and mercy. I don't truly understand the process but I trust in You and rest in Your goodness. I know that you do not want anyone to perish but that all would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I rest in Your complete goodness and love. Thank You Jesus for your death and resurrection which allowed You to give me the gift of righteousness. I love you! In Your name I pray, Amen. 

Life Application: What are five aspects of God's eternal plan for those called according to His purpose? How does this radically change our 'time-management' perspectives?

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Romans 8:26-28 - All Things

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 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.

Romans 8:26-28

Never separate these verses. The Spirit prays according to the mind of God, and the Father answers by bringing into our lives and working through the experiences that we need. He sends into our life the experiences that we need, no matter what they may be.

Now, that means that even the trials and tragedies that happen to us are an answer from the Father to the praying of the Spirit, doesn't it? You may be in an automobile accident today. Someone may steal your purse. You may find your house is on fire. There are a thousand and one possibilities. What we need to understand is that these things do not happen by accident. They happen because the Spirit which is in you prayed and asked that the Father allow them to happen — because you or someone close to you needs what God will accomplish in them. These are the results of the praying of the Spirit.

The joys, the unexpected blessings, and the unusual things that happen to you are also the result of the Spirit's praying. The Spirit is praying that these things will happen, he is voicing the deep concern of God himself for your needs and mine. Out of this grows the assurance that no matter what happens, God will work it together for good. This verse does not tell us that everything that happens to us is good. It does say that whether the situation is bad or good, it will work together for good for you if you are one who is loved and called by God. What a difference that makes as we wait for the coming of the glory! God is working out his purposes within us.

Paul is telling us here that we can wait with patience because nature testifies of his glorious coming, and our own experience confirms it as well. We are being prepared for something — we can't really tell what it is, specifically, but we are getting ready for something. One of these days, at the end of our lives, if not before, we will step out of time into an incredible experience of glory, something that begs description — a glory that Christ himself shares, and that we all shall share with him.

This is what God is preparing us for. No wonder the apostle then closes this passage with one of the greatest paeans of praise in the Scriptures, in vv.31-39. As we face the sufferings we are going through now, what a blessing, and what a help it is to remember the glory that has been granted to us. We have been counted worthy to suffer for his name, that we may also share in the glory that is to come.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for these mighty promises. I pray that I may understand them, and thus be able to endure patiently and with thanksgiving what I am going through now, knowing that it is the very suffering that is working and producing the glory. May I follow Your example Lord Jesus. In Your name, Amen. 

Life Application: In what ways does this promised partnership with the Spirit change our perspective on our prayers? Are we learning to confidently receive all aspects of our lives as God's loving, perfect will?

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Romans 8:18-25 - Our Present Sufferings

 

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:18-25

The theme of that verse and the next nine verses is that incomparable glory lies ahead — glory beyond description, greater than anything you can compare it with on earth. A magnificent and fantastic prospect awaits us. All through the Scriptures there has been a thread of hope, a rumor of hope that runs all through the Old Testament, through the prophetic writings, and into the New Testament. This rumor speaks of a day that is coming when all the hurt and heartache and injustice and weakness and suffering of our present experience will be explained and justified and will result in a time of incredible blessing upon the earth. The whisper of this in the Old Testament increases in intensity as it approaches the New Testament, where you come to proclamations like this that speak of the incomparable glory that lies ahead.

We tend to make careful note of our suffering. Just the other day, I received a letter from a man who had written out in extreme detail a report of his recent operation. He said he had to listen to all the reports of other people's operations for years, and now it was his turn! We make detailed reports of what we go through in our sufferings. But here the apostle says, "Don't even mention them! They are not worthy to be mentioned in comparison with the glory that is to follow."

Now, that statement would be just so much hot air if it didn't come from a man like Paul. Here is a man who suffered intensely. He was beaten, he was stoned with rocks, he was chained, he was imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, starved, often hungry and naked and cold. Yet it is this apostle who takes pen in hand and says, "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us." The glory that is coming is incomparable in intensity.

Our sufferings hurt us, I know. I am not trying to make light of them or diminish the terrible physical and emotional pain that suffering can bring. It can be awful, almost unendurable. Its intensity can increase to such a degree that we scream with terror and pain. We think we can no longer endure. But the apostle is saying that the intensity of the suffering we experience is not even a drop in the bucket compared with the intensity of glory that is coming. You can see that Paul is straining the language in trying to describe this fantastic thing that is about to happen, which he calls the revelation of the glory that is coming.

This glory is not only incomparable in its intensity, but it is also incomparable in its locality. It is not going to be revealed to us, but in us. The word, literally, means "into us." This glory is not going to be a spectator sport, where we will sit up in some cosmic grandstand and watch an amusing or beautiful performance in which we have no part. We are to be on the stage. We are going to be involved in it. It is a glory that will be "revealed into us," and we are part of it.

This is the incredible glory that God has prepared for those who love him, that he has given to us — not because we have been faithful, not because we earn it, but because we are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. All Christians suffer. There are no exceptions. If you are a true and genuine believer in Jesus Christ, you will suffer. But we are not only given the privilege of suffering with him now, but also of sharing in his glory that is yet to come. We can endure the suffering, and even triumph in it, because we see the glory that is to follow.

Prayer: Lord, thank you so much for the glory that awaits me. Help me to endure suffering with joy because of the hope you have given me. Thank you Jesus for making this all possible for me. I love you! In Your name I pray, Amen. 

Life Application: What affect does the expectation of promised glory have on our view and experience of suffering? Did the Apostle Paul's suffering make him more, or less, self-focused?

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Romans 8:15-17 - Assurance

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 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.

Romans 8:15-17

What Paul describes here is our deepest level of assurance. Beyond the emotions, beyond the feelings, is a deep conviction that is born of the Spirit of God himself, an underlying awareness that we cannot deny that we are part of God's family. We are the children of God. I think this is the basic revelation to which our emotions respond with the cry, "Abba, Father." That is our love to him, but even more - this is his love to us. It is what Paul refers to in Romans 5 when he speaks of the love of God "which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit which is given unto us," (Romans 5:5 KJV).

As I look back on my own life, I can understand how this is true. I became a Christian when I was about eleven years old, in a Methodist brush arbor meeting. I responded to the invitation, and, with others, came and knelt down in front and received the Lord. I had a wonderful time of fellowship with the Lord that summer and the next winter, and there were occasions when I just would be overwhelmed with the sense of the nearness and dearness of God. I used to sing hymns until tears would come to my eyes as the meaning of those old words reflected on the relationship that I had with God. Then I used to preach to the cows when I would bring them home. Those cows were a very good audience too, by the way — they never went to sleep on me. But that fall we moved from this town where I had Christian fellowship to a town in Montana that didn't even have a church. Gradually, because of that lack of fellowship, I drifted away from that relationship with God, drifted into all kinds of ugly and shameful things — habits of thought and activity that I am ashamed of. I even developed some liberal attitudes toward the Scriptures. I didn't believe in the inspiration of the Bible. I argued against it, and during high school and college I was known as a skeptic. But all through those seven years there was a relationship with God I could not deny. Somehow I knew, deep down inside, that I still belonged to him; and there were things I could not do, even though I was tempted. I could not do them because I felt that I had a tie with God. This is that witness of the Spirit. Calvin called it "the testimonial of the Spirit," which we cannot deny and which is especially discernible in times of gross sin and despair. First John 3:20 says, "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart," (1 John 3:20a KJV). He knows all things. There is a witness born of the Spirit which you can't shake, which is there along with the ultimate testimony that we belong with the children of God.

This is where to begin when you get into trouble. Go back to this relationship. Remind yourself of who you are. You can see it in your experience as you look around. You are led by the Spirit of God. You can feel it in your heart. There are times when your emotions are stirred by the Spirit, and you can sense at the level of your spirit that you belong to God.

Prayer: Father, help me to understand these things. Thank you for the work of the Spirit. What a wonderful thing it is that you have called me a child of the living God. Help me never to forget it, and to walk worthy of such a calling. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Life Application: Our adoption as God's children is far from simply theoretical -- so what response does it evoke from us? Do our lives bear witness to our shared inheritance with Christ? How do we share in His sufferings?

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Romans 8:14-15 - Children of God

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

Romans 8:14-15

We are all creatures of God by natural birth, but Paul is careful to use a different word in Romans. Here the word is "children (sons) of God." We are in the family of God, and this is a very distinctive term. This is something that God intends for us to return to when we are in trouble. If you are having difficulty handling your behavior — whether you are not doing what you want to do, or doing what you don't want to do — the way to handle it is to remind yourself of what God has made you to be.

In other words, in the struggle that you have with sin within you, you are not a slave, helplessly struggling against a cruel and powerful master; you are a son, a son of the living God, with power to overcome the evil. Though you may be temporarily overcome, you are never ultimately defeated. It cannot be, because you are a child of God. That is why Paul could say in Romans 6, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace," (Romans 6:14 KJV). In this gracious relationship, we are made sons of the living God. No matter what happens to us, that is what we are. Nothing can change that.

It is important also for us to see how we become sons and daughters of God. Paul says the Spirit of God found you, and he adopted us into God's family. Some of you may be saying, "What do you mean when you say we are adopted into the family of God? I have been taught that I was born into the family of God." The truth is that both of these are true. You are both adopted and born into the family of God. God uses both of these terms because he wants to highlight two different aspects of our belonging to the family of God. You are said to be adopted because God wants you to remember always that you are not naturally part of the family of God. We are all children of Adam by natural birth. We belong to the human family, and we inherit Adam's nature. All his defects, all his problems, all the evil that came into his life by his disobedience. So by nature we are not part of God's family. This is just like those today who were born into one family, but were taken out of that family and were adopted into another family. From then on they became part of the family that adopted them.

This is what has happened to us. God has taken us out of our natural state in Adam, and has made us sons and daughters of God. He reminds us that we are in His family by adoption so that we might never take it for granted, or forget that if we were left in our natural state we would not have a part in the family of God. It is only by the grace of God that we come into His family.

But it is also true that we are born into God's family. Once we have been adopted, it is also true that, because God is God, He not only makes us legally His sons and daughters but He makes us partake of the divine nature and we are born into His family. Peter puts it this way: "We have been made partakers of the divine nature," (2 Peter 1:4 KJV). So we are as much a part of God's family as if we had originally been born into it by the grace of God.

There is nothing more wonderful to remind yourself of each day than this great fact: If you are a Christian, you are a son or daughter of the living God, adopted and born into His family. Because you are His son or daughter, God loves you, God protects you, God provides for you, God plans for you, God hears you, God claims you and openly acknowledges you.

Prayer: Thank you, Father that you have made me your child. I have been both born into your family and adopted! I love you so very much! Thank you, Jesus, for making this possible through your death and resurrection. In Your name I pray, Amen. 

Life Application: Have we made the critical transition in mind-set from our identity in Adam to our identity as children of God, in His family? Think of some of the resulting vital distinctions in perspective toward life, death, destiny, calling, etc.

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Romans 8:8-13 - The Spirit and the Body

Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 8:8-13

Notice the helpful teaching about the Spirit here. He is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Then it is made clear that the Spirit actually is the means by which Jesus Christ himself is in us. By means of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in you.  

The problem is, our bodies are yet unredeemed. As a consequence, they are the seat of the sin that troubles us so. And the sin that is in us — still there in our bodies — affects the body. That is why the body lusts, the body loves comfort, and the body seeks after pleasure; that is why our minds and attitudes react with hate and bitterness and resentment and hostility. Sin finds its seat in the body. That is why our bodies keep growing old. They are dying, dead, because of sin.

But that is not the final answer for the Christian. The spirit in the Christian is alive because of the gift of righteousness. Christ has come in and we are linked with him. Paul puts it so beautifully in Second Corinthians 4:16: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." That is the joy of being a Christian. Though the body, with the sin that is within it, is giving us trouble and difficulty, tempting us, confounding us at times, nevertheless, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Sin has its seat in the actual physical body, and it rises up like a powerful beast. But we have an answer. It is put very beautifully in First John 4:4: "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world," (1 John 4:4). The Spirit of God within us is stronger than the sin that is in our bodies. Therefore in Christ, we have strength to control the body.

Unfortunately, many of the commentators say that verse 11 refers to the promise of the resurrection at the end of life, when God is going to make our bodies alive. But that is not what Paul is saying. He is talking about the Spirit in us, giving life to our mortal bodies. A mortal body is not yet dead. A mortal body is one that is subject to death. It is dying, but it is not yet dead. Therefore, this is not talking about the resurrection. Later on Paul will come to that, but here he is talking about what the Spirit does in us now. He says that though sin in our mortal bodies is going to tempt us severely, and at times rise up with great power, we must never forget that because our human spirit has been made alive in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God himself dwells in us, we have the strength to say, "No!" to that expression of evil.

We cannot reverse the processes of death — no one can. Our bodies are going to die. But we can refuse to let the members of our bodies become the instruments of sin. We can refuse, by the power of the Spirit within, to let our members be used for that purpose: We don't have to let our eyes look at wrong things. We can say, "No." We don't have to let our tongues say evil, hurtful, sarcastic, and vicious things. We can say, "No," to that. We don't have to let our ears hear things that are hurtful. We don't have to let our hands be used for wrong purposes. We don't have to let our legs and feet lead us into places where we ought not to be. We have been made alive in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God himself dwells in us!

Prayer: Father, you have made me alive through your Spirit. Teach me to yield to him rather than to my flesh. Thank you Holy Spirit for dwelling within me and helping me to say no to the things of the flesh and  yes to the things of God. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Life Application: Describe the radical differences between the two mind sets. What are the two different sources of power controlling them? What response to sin's slavery is characteristic of those who are led by the Spirit of God? What is the result of choosing to live according to the sinful nature? Shall we then choose Life?

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Romans 8:5-8 - Two Possibilities

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:5-8

There are two possibilities as Christians that will determine if we manifest the righteousness of God, depending on whether we walk according to the Spirit or according to the flesh. The difference is what you set your mind on, i.e., what you are thinking about all through the day, what is important to you. Is it the viewpoint of the flesh, which governs the thinking of the world? Or is it the viewpoint of the Spirit — God's viewpoint — on life? That is the determining factor — what you do with your thinking. Where you set your mind is going to make the difference.

What is the mind set of the person who lives according to the flesh? You only have to look around to see what that is. It is the natural viewpoint of life. People want to make money, because money provides comfort and conveniences that we would like to have. People want to have fun. People want pleasure, money and fame. People will give their right arm to gain influence and prestige. People desire to fulfill themselves. They want to manifest every capability that is within them. That is what the world lives for. And it wants it all now, not later. That is the natural point of view.

You say, "What's wrong with that?" There really is nothing wrong with that, unless that is all you want. If that is all you want, then it is very wrong. This is what the Scriptures help us to see — that there is another point of view, which is life viewed according to the Spirit. "Ah," you say, "I know what that means! That means you have to forget about making money and having fun and fulfilling yourself. All you do is go around memorizing Scripture and thinking about God all day long. You go around reciting Scripture verses and telling people what is wrong with their lives."

Many people think that is what we are talking about when we say that we are to have our minds set on the things of the Spirit. But, of course, if you see people like that, you soon discover that kind of life does not produce the results this passage tells us should be there. That is really nothing but another form of being run by the flesh — it's a religious form of it, but it is the same thing.

What does it mean, then, to have your mind set on the Spirit? It means that, in the midst of making money, having fun, gaining fame and fulfilling yourself, you are primarily concerned with showing love, helping others, speaking truth, and, above all, loving God and seeking his glory. The trouble with the world is that it is content with just making money, having fun, and fulfilling itself — that is all it wants. But the mind set on the Spirit desires that God be glorified in all these things. When your mind is set on the Spirit you look at the events of life from God's point of view, not from the world's. Your value system is changed and it touches everything you do. The important thing in seeking to fulfill your needs, is that God be glorified. That is what makes the difference. That is the mind set on the Spirit. It does not remove you from life — it puts you right back into it. But it does it with a different point of view.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that even though I struggle there is no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus. Grant me the mind set on the Spirit. In all that I do each day, help me to be primarily concerned with showing love, helping others, speaking truth, and, above all, loving You and seeking Your glory. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. 

Life Application: Is the chief end of our lives the glory of God and our enjoyment of Him? How does this affect our reactions to losses and gains of earth's treasures and pleasures? Do we need to seriously reassess our priorities?

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