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Romans Part 8: When the Rubber Meets the Road
(Note: I apologize for taking so long to get back to this study; it's been a turbulent few months since the last installment, but I'm happy to be writing this again! - Robert)
In our last installment, we saw in chapters seven and eight that we can choose which nature to serve: the "sin" nature, or the new nature that the Lord has implanted in us when we accepted His incredible gift. Continuing on in the second half of chapter eight, The Lord (through Paul) gives us a fresh perspective on our walk with Him:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." (Romans 8:18-19, NASB)
Building upon what was said in the preceding passage, Paul tells us that the struggles we are enduring now are nothing compared to what awaits us when we go home to be with the Lord. As a point of fact, Scripture has many detailed descriptions of damnation, but in comparison, only tantalizing glimpses of what we call "heaven". But as anxious as we are to be redeemed, the Lord reveals through Paul that we are not alone in our desire to be set free from the shroud of sin:
"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:20-23, NASB, emphasis mine)
Creation itself seeks to be free of the corrosive, contaminating effects of sin; so much so that it is described as "groaning". We too are groaning to be set free, as we no longer are of this "world" but are instead of the Lord. We desire to be with the Lord and to see an end to the evil ways of man's self-rule upon a tainted creation, trusting in the Lord to keep the promise of redemption that He made to us:
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." (Romans 8:24-25, NASB)
Paul explains here what hope is: trusting without directly seeing what it is we are hoping for. it is not a blind trust, but instead is one predicated upon what the Lord has already done in the past. God has demonstrated repeatedly that He can be trusted above and beyond anyone or anything else, and that His promises are better than most people's facts. Scripture confirms again and again that what the Lord promises, He does. It is this dependability, honesty, and utter character of God that we trust in when we cling to and hope in Him to redeem and save us.
But the Lord also knows that we are weak, and have very little strength of our own:
"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27, NASB)
No matter how many years we have been at it, we really don't know how to put into words what we are feeling inside, nor do we know how to present it to the Lord. This isn't a judgment upon us insofar as "how we pray", but instead points out that we are limited in our bodies, minds souls and spirits how able we are to communicate to the Lord. Thankfully, God has it taken care of for us: the Holy Spirit, whom resides in and seals all true believers in Jesus Christ, communicates to the Lord what is in our hearts when we pray. And since God is at once three personalities and One God, the Lord knows the mind of the Holy Spirit. And who is it that knows the mind of the Holy Spirit but the one who sent Him: Jesus Christ?
Paul continues on:
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28, NASB)
Here we have to be careful; it is easy to read this and assume that God is going to give us nothing but good things for following Him. However, Scripture plainly tells us:
"Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Timothy 3:10-13, NASB, emphasis mine)
With that in mind, what does Paul mean in his comment in 8:28? Note that he says "causes all things to work together for good"; what happens to us in our walk may not feel good at the moment. Indeed, we can often feel like we are running a gauntlet or a race, and for a fact, we are! Scripture says:
"It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:7-11, NASB, emphasis mine)
God allows us to be tested, tried and tempted not so that we will break, but that we may be shaped according to what he knows is best for us. It doesn't feel good at the time, but afterwards we start to see the results and benefits that we gain from going through those trials and rough times. It teaches us to trust the Lord in all situations and troubles so that we are not easily shaken, and He may entrust us with the tasks He will ask of us. The Lord doesn't send us on a mission without first equipping and training us, and that is how we should look at it: training. Ultimately, it is for our good, but we need to learn the difference between what feels good and what is good; they are not synonymous.
"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." (Romans 8: 29-30, NASB)
This passage causes a LOT of trouble; at first blush, it seems like it is saying that the Lord determines ahead of time who will be saved. But reading this closer, we see that isn't the case. Reading it simply, it says that those He knew would accept His Son, He would have become conformed to be like Jesus, would call them, would justify and glorify them. In other words: for those He knew would accept the Lord, He would allow to go through each step and be transformed, called, saved and glorified.
Paul then asks a series of questions, and answers them:
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." (Romans 8: 31-34, NASB)
The Lord, in Paul's writing, tells us that not only is He for us but that since He gave up His only Son for us, He would also give us everything else that goes with being one of His children. Rather than considering us "inferior" or not as good as His only begotten Son whom never rebelled against Him, God would consider us as His own children and co-heirs in heaven. No one would be able to charge us with anything as the price was already paid, and Christ therefore intercedes for us because He was the one who was the sacrifice.
"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” " (Romans 8:35-36, NASB)
Paul asks if anything could separate us from the Lord, and then confirms that there were (and even today are) suffering even death for His name. But then the Lord confirms that even all of this is not enough to rend us from Him:
"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39, NASB, emphasis mine)
The Lord is greater than famine, danger, injury, death, and yes, even life; because of that, they have no power to come between us and Him. Not only do we not have to serve our old nature of sin, but we do not have to fear not being able to tell the Lord what we need and feel. He know we yearn for Him, to be set free of this shroud of sin and death, and that we are weak. And especially in these times, we feel weak and frightened indeed....
...but the Lord has us firmly in His hand. We simply need to cling to Him, and trust in His promises. God can do all things, but He cannot trust Himself for us; we have to trust Him.
In Part 9, we'll see how God eliminates works as being the basis of salvation, and what "predestination" really means.
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