Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 3
Sunday, February 03, 2019
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 8, Part 3 (2023 Re-Record & Update) - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
This is now the third part in our study of Romans chapter 8, and being Romans chapter 8, there’s much to cover. Today marks the halfway point for us. This chapter really is the culmination of all the Apostle Paul has been talking about throughout this book, and this is where everything comes together. We’ve been reminded of and also learned quite a bit as we’ve been considering these things. As we can recall the first week our focus was concerning the fact that we are no longer under condemnation as Christians. That was our main focus. Then last week our focus was the fact that we are led and live out our lives through the Spirit of God, through his indwelling of us. Of course, in the midst of the last two messages, there have been other topics as well, such as our pursuit of not following our flesh, how our minds are to operate, and the fact that we are fellow heirs with Jesus.
Picking up today, we come to the paragraph in Romans chapter 8 where Paul discusses the creation of the world in general. He analyzes how even though the creation has currently been corrupted by sin, we as believers, and indeed the creation itself, are going to experience newness in Christ. We will ultimately be glorified with Christ, and we know that the earth is going to get reconditioned, then ultimately be destroyed and replaced with a New Earth and a New Heaven after Christ’s 1,000 year Reign on our current earth. So, today, Paul kind of zooms out a little bit and takes on a more ‘big-picture’ perspective in viewing the current state of things versus what they are heading toward. And we get to have a taste of Heaven in all the wonderful truths that are going on in this chapter. What a great change of focus.
Turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps to Romans chapter 8. We are starting in verse 18. Let’s go ahead and read this whole paragraph in full since it all pretty much ties in together. Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:18-25, ESV)
We considered last week how we as Christians can suffer in this life. There are all kinds of ways suffering may occur for us. We suffer because the world has been affected by sin. Things break down. People break down. Our loved ones die; we die. The earth is affected by sin. We also suffer because of incorrect behaviors of others done in our world. People can reap havoc; they can sin against us. They can come against us. Not to mention in all of this, behind a lot of suffering then comes Satan and his demonic forces. Satan is seeking to reap havoc where he can. He uses all kinds of tools in his arsenal in order to accomplish his objectives. Yes, it’s a wonderful world, and it’s a wonderful life, since God created both good, but at the same time sin exists in this world.
The good news Paul has to remind us of today in all these sufferings is that this is but a short time, and in the future we are going to ultimately be in glory with Christ. We know quite a bit about this subject. We understand that not only will we receive new resurrection bodies as believers, but we will be with God forever. Our relationships that we enjoy with him now are going to continue forever in the future. We will never be without him; in fact, we will be much closer to him. He will be right there among us. Speaking of where we will be, we understand that before we reach our ultimate destination, we are going to see the 1,000 year Reign of Christ on the earth, after The Battle of Armageddon. This will take place on our current earth, though it will be renovated. It will be restored to a sin-free environment. People will live here and bear children; animals will be here, and they will be at perfect peace with one another. Christ will rule the earth as the only leader, sitting on his throne as a King. Indeed, this is what God promised the Israelites would happen for them. Really, setting aside all that is, this world has them in focus.
We understand that after the Millennial Kingdom, after a short stint from Satan in successfully leading some people astray, God will destroy the current earth and current universe, and set up a New Earth and New Heaven, a new universe. On this new earth, God himself will dwell with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we will live, with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, with those who knew God from all times, who had a personal relationship with him. There will be all kinds of people there, almost all of whom we never even knew during our earthly lives. We will each have our own residences, and an abundance of possessions. The New Jerusalem will be there, and it will be truly glorious. It will be a wonderful, incredibly large city. It’s fun to consider all of these things that are going to come to pass. They are reality. They are really going to happen. That’s why it’s important for us to be sure we are in right relationship with God now, and that we are being pleasing to him in our lives. We certainly, certainly don’t want to miss all of these enjoyable times to come in the future.
Paul tells us that the current creation, the one we are in right now, we ourselves, we along with nature, are eagerly awaiting, we are eagerly anticipating these things to come to pass. Even the animal kingdom, in some way, and the earth itself, is waiting to be free from the effects of sin, from the curse on the earth and the universe. That’s what Paul says. And as we are aware, at the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, back in Genesis chapter 3, God cursed the earth and the universe (see Genesis 3:17-19). That means no matter how hard we try, we can never reach ultimate fulfillment in the happenings of this world. Before the fall, we could have been totally satisfied with the circumstances of this world. We could of had total enjoyment, perfect enjoyment, from them. But since we sinned and God cursed it, now we cannot. People will never be perfect here, the environment will never be perfect, animals will never be perfect, society won’t work without problems, and culture will be tainted by sin. Notice that this curse from God on the earth is an Old Testament curse, and Christ’s death and resurrection did not remove this curse—at least not yet. My point is that Old Testament curses from God can still be in play and come into play in this day and age.
One of the benefits to our salvation is that we believe that throughout our lives, our new lives in Christ, we can have the hope of our glory in being with Christ after this life. We can be looking forward to that. The mind definitely wanders there from time to time. It’s especially easier, and more appealing it seems, to think about it when conditions are rough, in the times events aren’t going the way we desire them to. We discern that really, in reality, in the grand scheme of things, this world doesn’t ultimately matter. What matters is that we have a personal relationship with God, that will are seeking to please him, that we are following Jesus. The troubles of this world will come to pass. Now, this has never happened for us. That is, we have never received a new body before. We have never been physically with Jesus before. Nonetheless, we have the hope we will be. Even though there is nothing in the past that can assure for us these things, that is, since they haven’t happened before, we still hope and count on them to happen. Taking an example from personal experience, having never been married before there is still hope that that day will come to pass. We don’t have to of experienced something in the past in order to hope for it.
Continuing along. Verse 26 of Romans chapter 8: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26, 27, ESV)
We are in weakness as Christians because of our sin-nature, and the effects of that. Paul had just been talking about how sin affects the creation as a whole, and now he focuses on ourselves individually. In view of the sin-nature and the complexity of the world around us, and all the problems we see on this earth, sometimes we don’t know exactly what we should be praying for in our lives, in the lives of others, for our society, our government, our nation, and the earth as a whole. We may pray a prayer, but it isn’t as precise as we would like it be. Or, it doesn’t hit home like we would want it to.
Paul talks of the weakness of the collective group of believers, for the word weakness is in the singular. We are in weaknesses as Christians and all of these together are the collective weakness. We all have individual weaknesses in our lives. That’s just the way it works, as Paul said. As long as we are in this world, we are going to have weaknesses. It’s significant for us to realize that it is okay for us to accept the fact that we have these weaknesses, whatever they are. Paul had weaknesses. Remember? He told the Corinthian church: ““For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV). Yes, God can work through our weaknesses for our own glory. And not only that, but it also adds to his own glory.
Now, let’s take a moment and consider perfectionism. We ought not expect ourselves to perform perfectly in our lives without any weakness manifesting itself at all. Not only is that not realistic, but it also set us up for disappointment and being too hard on ourselves. Expectations can be set too high for ourselves and too high for others as well. Burdens can be placed on others that God doesn’t want us to place on them, those of which are unrealistic and even unfair. We’ve been examining in Romans how we are imperfect. We ourselves cannot perform perfectly in all situations, and neither can others. Mercy needs to be granted toward ourselves and toward others. Anger with others when they don’t perform how we believe they should needs to be given up. When we stop demanding perfection from ourselves and accept the fact that we have weaknesses and are going to show our weakness in certain areas, it then makes it easier for us to give grace to others at the moment they show their weakness. This takes the pressure off of us and the pressure off of them.
Sometimes we don’t understand why we have certain weaknesses in our lives. We feel that a weakness in this or that area is not fair. We can surprisingly blame God for them, thinking he is at fault. We can feel that God hasn’t been fair toward us. We see someone else excelling in an area we have a weakness in and we can get upset. Social media can frequently do this for people; others are seen as successful where we lack. Nonetheless, when we grasp we have weaknesses we go to God in prayer and sometimes we’re not exactly sure what we should pray for. We would prefer to be strong in a certain area, but sometimes that’s not possible due to our physical make-up or even with the giftings God has given us, or lack thereof. We often see our weaknesses as bad, but God looks for opportunity to use them. He sees opportunity in them to display what he can do in and through us. We usually don’t prefer our weaknesses, but as Paul has said, we need to learn to become content with them and see them as an area for God to work even at the moments we don’t know what to pray in regard to them.
On occasion we may ask God something amiss or for something he doesn’t want, but this is where the Spirit of God steps in and helps us with our prayer by interceding for us to God. James talked about this. The great thing pertaining to the Spirit praying for us is that Paul makes the point that he always intercedes for us according to the will of God. He knows what God’s desires are when sometimes we don’t. This means that all our bases are covered with the help of the Holy Spirit. We pray, and even if we pray something amiss, the Holy Spirit will pray in the area or areas where we lacked in our prayer. What an encouraging angle for us. God is so gracious to us in this way. We could attribute this as the cause to why a lot of times good circumstances will occur that we didn’t actually pray for. They never crossed our mind. We never thought, “Oh, God could do this.” Yet, something good happens that we can clearly see was from God and nobody had prayed for it. At least, we hadn’t. But the Spirit had. This is one way he helps us.
Now, for one of our favorite verses in the whole entire Bible. Romans chapter 8, and verse 28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)
Before we dive into this beloved verse, there is one particular thing that should be noted. And that is, who’s this verse for? Well, as Paul says, it is “for those who love God.” The truth that pertains to this verse is then exclusively for the believer in Jesus. That’s the condition. We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We honor God and seek to do what is right in his sight. When you read the Old Testament, books such as Psalms and Proverbs in particular, you notice the passages that contrast the righteous versus the unrighteous, or the just versus the unjust. Romans 8:28 is for the righteous and just. People who aren’t following God, how aren’t honoring him, who are not seeking to please him cannot expect God to work good on their behalf. Yes, God does do good things for unbelievers, as Jesus clearly taught us, but they cannot and should not expect God’s favor when they are clearly violating his Word, his standard for righteousness.
So, what is God working good out of for us as Christians? Well, Paul tells us that God is working good out of “all things.” What is “all things”? Well, all things is just that, all things. Any and every circumstance you can think of. God brings good out of good situations, and he brings good out of bad situations.
At times, if we let them, our mistakes can teach us something important about ourselves and about others. When God has opportunity to prevent us from making a mistake, undoubtedly he oftentimes does. Perhaps sometimes, paradoxically, he stands aside and allows us to make the mistake. In the past, with the personal experience, it was typical to treat the mind harshly when there was a blunder, a misstep. Punishment of the mind would occur for bad choices made. Maybe you can relate. Anyway, this position has changed over time and regret for a wrong move has been pretty much given up. “And why is that?” you might ask. Well because the poor situations have been used to grow in personal knowledge. They have been re-contextualized as learning experiences. God certainly wishes he could prevent certain events that happen to us, yet whatever happens we can often use those circumstances to grow. This doesn’t mean God wants, or that we should want (and not that we would) bad life events to come upon us. No one really wants that. God doesn’t condone sin. We’d rather be responsible and learn the easy way. It should also be noted that not all mistakes are sin. But, if we have made a mistake or if we have sinned, either way, why not make use of it for our benefit? Isn’t that the greatest good that can come at that point? It’s the same as a little child learning to walk. At the time a child is learning to walk, he makes mistakes which result in him falling down and he uses them to learn how to walk better. And it can be no different for us.
It’s time to reveal a deeper-level secret. Are you ready? When it comes to ourselves, we can either look at our own performance to measure how good we are in life or we can depend on God’s performance, namely what Jesus has accomplished for us. What is meant is that if you’re a person who values how good you are by your performance, then you are a person who doesn’t take well to mistakes. Considering this, perhaps God does permit us to make mistakes at times if we are prideful. God doesn’t like a prideful spirit. He doesn’t want us to be depending on our appearance before others, what we think is our good appearance, he doesn’t want us depending on that for our own individual self-image. God doesn’t cause us to sin or want us to sin. But he does desire for us to be depending on him for our righteousness. He wants us to be depending on him for how we think of ourselves internally and also for how others perceive us externally. Surely, this rakes the gears of a person who subscribes to legalism. A legalistic Christian bases his or her whole life on their own personal appearance in life. They measure their goodness in that they don’t do this, this, and this, and the fact that they do do this, this, and this. They take the position that their righteousness, their standing before God and others, is completely in their control and based on externals. So, if you’re like that today, don’t be surprised if God does allow you to blunder in order to teach you that you need to be depending on him, not your own personal ability or behavior in your own eyes and before others.
To recap then, God brings good out of our successes on our journeys, but he also can bring good out of our failures also. God brings good out of our mistakes and past sins. He takes that which was bad and turns it completely around for good when he can and when we let him. We ourselves, with whatever particular failure, can use them for our own goodness, for our own growth. Our trials can to utilized for growth and good things in our lives. Take the example of the cross of Christ, the ultimate example. Due to our terrible condition in our sins, God utilized that to demonstrate his love for us by dying on the cross. He brought good out of bad. It is a perfect love toward us. The key in all this is not feel bad more than we need to after ours failures are over, and rather to ask God to maximize the situation for ours, and his, ultimate goodness.
Notice too that Paul says we are “called according to [God’s] purpose.” Thus, God has intentions for each one of us. Coming to my mind right now is one of my favorite verses, which is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (ESV). Now, someone might say, “You cannot just pull a verse out of the Old Testament that was meant for Israel and apply it to Christians.” Well, hold up. Sometimes that’s true, but in this case just as God had and still has good plans for Israel, so does he have good plans for us, as believers. Stop and consider it. If God has good plans for people who are not currently in right relationship with him, don’t you think it be safe to say he’s got good plans for us?
It brings excitement for us to see what God can bring to pass in our lives. Surprise has come time after time again by big things God has done in the personal experience. For sure. A practice that was personally put into place a couple years ago is a running list of these surprises at the moment they happen. We could call the list, ‘Big Things God Has Done.’ Anytime something good happens that is big and notable, we can enter it onto the list with the date that it happened. It will be encouraging for us to look back on these things from time to time and see what God has done. This may be especially true if we feel we are experiencing a dry season, where it seems as if God isn’t doing much. We can look back on this list and say, “Oh, I remember when God did that. And when he did that!” It will encourage us that God still cares, and that he’s still active in our lives. It’s helpful for us to remind ourselves of God’s good workings from the past.
Now, verse 29 of Romans chapter 8: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29, ESV)
“For those whom [God] foreknew.” What is Paul talking about here? We may ask, “how could God foreknow individuals who haven’t had the choice yet, whether or not they are going to believe in Jesus Christ?” Isn’t it implied that if God knows all the future, then people don’t really have free choice? Certainly, there are varying views, and we could talk all day with respect to how to define God’s omniscience. Nevertheless, we recognize for sure that God has knowledge of everything that can be known. And this is where the big debate comes into play with person’s free-wills and God’s sovereignty. The four mains views in Anabaptism or Evangelical Christianity are those of the Arminianists, Calvinists, Molonists, and Open Theists. Let’s quickly go over these views. The Arminians take the viewpoint that God looks into the future and sees those who will willingly believe in him, and then predestines, so to speak those who will choose him. In other words, God sees who’s going to choose him in the future and then calls those individuals seeing that they chose him. The Calvinists believe that God actually decides ahead of time those to whom he is going to save, and then he works to save those individuals as time passes by. Everyone God calls, according to the Calvinists, is chosen by God and therefore saved in his or her time. The Molonists believes God created the best possible world out of many possible worlds to accomplish his objectives. People who freely choose him in the world are predestined. Finally, the Open Theists believes that because of free-will, future events cannot be known as certainties until those free-choices are made. So, the definition of how time works is understood differently. We are going to get into all of this in Romans chapter 9.
The thing of it is, God is adding more and more brothers and sisters to the flock, so that Jesus himself will have these people to be his siblings, us. That is why we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. He is the firstborn. He is the first of all of us to rise from the dead. He was the first to experience bodily resurrection. One day we will all be like him—those of us who believe in him, who trust in him, in his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead. It’s our hope for our futures. Even though differing views exist on this predesntation thing, what we can all agree on is that we need to share the Gospel with people so that more and more can come into personal relationship with God and be conformed into his image.
Yes, Paul said, ““For those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” We become more like Christ in this life, as each day goes by, as we live throughout our whole lives. We will ultimately be just like Jesus after we leave this earth.
If we were to summarize the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, using the time he was here on the earth during his earthly ministry, how might this look? What was Jesus like? It doesn’t seem possible for us to get a full understanding of his character, but let’s still point out some characteristics. So, first, we might say Jesus’ mission in his time on earth was to do his Father’s will. He carried out the what his Father desired in all aspects of his life: his personal character, his career (what he spent his time doing in his life), how he related to others, and who he was friends with. In other words, everything as pertains to Jesus was filtered through what the Father wanted, or we might say, was approved by God. It didn’t mean he didn’t have freedom, or personal choice we might say. He just wouldn’t do anything that the Father would be against.
And it’s the same way with us. God wants us to align the different aspects of our lives, or our personal characters, so that they look more and more representative of Jesus’s image. Again, we don’t lose our individuality, for God created us each as unique, custom persons. That’s the way God has designed people; there are all kinds of persons with a variety of interests. In fact, in what God has gifted us to do with our lives, we are the only person on the earth that can do that task exactly as God has designed us to do it. You ever thought about that? You can do things that others cannot do, and others can do things that you cannot do. God continually has individual plans for each one of us. The point in saying all this, however, is that we need to stopping looking at what we feel we can accomplish or not accomplish. We need to stop efforting and instead start trusting. We need to look to God and realize that it is he who wants to conform us to the image of his Son. He can accomplish through us what he desires and wishes to accomplish if we will cooperate. As long as we are seeking to follow him, he will move us to be further like Christ, which obviously will result in us accomplishing good works for the kingdom of God.
Jesus was “the firstborn among many brothers.” This means anyone out there today who doesn’t feel their in personal relationship with God, who doesn’t feel God is conforming them into the image of his Son, can change directions and come into personal relationship with God today through Jesus Christ. You can become one of Jesus’ many siblings, as many of us have already made that choice. As we’ve been talking about, the mission of Jesus’ life was to do the Father’s will, and he did that some 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross and rose from the dead so that any one of us, who trusts in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection from the dead, can have a relationship with God, be at peace with him, and live our lives in righteousness, lives we will thoroughly enjoy and be happy with. Go to God today in prayer and tell him you desire a new life in Christ.
-Daniel Litton
This is now the third part in our study of Romans chapter 8, and being Romans chapter 8, there’s much to cover. Today marks the halfway point for us. This chapter really is the culmination of all the Apostle Paul has been talking about throughout this book, and this is where everything comes together. We’ve been reminded of and also learned quite a bit as we’ve been considering these things. As we can recall the first week our focus was concerning the fact that we are no longer under condemnation as Christians. That was our main focus. Then last week our focus was the fact that we are led and live out our lives through the Spirit of God, through his indwelling of us. Of course, in the midst of the last two messages, there have been other topics as well, such as our pursuit of not following our flesh, how our minds are to operate, and the fact that we are fellow heirs with Jesus.
Picking up today, we come to the paragraph in Romans chapter 8 where Paul discusses the creation of the world in general. He analyzes how even though the creation has currently been corrupted by sin, we as believers, and indeed the creation itself, are going to experience newness in Christ. We will ultimately be glorified with Christ, and we know that the earth is going to get reconditioned, then ultimately be destroyed and replaced with a New Earth and a New Heaven after Christ’s 1,000 year Reign on our current earth. So, today, Paul kind of zooms out a little bit and takes on a more ‘big-picture’ perspective in viewing the current state of things versus what they are heading toward. And we get to have a taste of Heaven in all the wonderful truths that are going on in this chapter. What a great change of focus.
Turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps to Romans chapter 8. We are starting in verse 18. Let’s go ahead and read this whole paragraph in full since it all pretty much ties in together. Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:18-25, ESV)
We considered last week how we as Christians can suffer in this life. There are all kinds of ways suffering may occur for us. We suffer because the world has been affected by sin. Things break down. People break down. Our loved ones die; we die. The earth is affected by sin. We also suffer because of incorrect behaviors of others done in our world. People can reap havoc; they can sin against us. They can come against us. Not to mention in all of this, behind a lot of suffering then comes Satan and his demonic forces. Satan is seeking to reap havoc where he can. He uses all kinds of tools in his arsenal in order to accomplish his objectives. Yes, it’s a wonderful world, and it’s a wonderful life, since God created both good, but at the same time sin exists in this world.
The good news Paul has to remind us of today in all these sufferings is that this is but a short time, and in the future we are going to ultimately be in glory with Christ. We know quite a bit about this subject. We understand that not only will we receive new resurrection bodies as believers, but we will be with God forever. Our relationships that we enjoy with him now are going to continue forever in the future. We will never be without him; in fact, we will be much closer to him. He will be right there among us. Speaking of where we will be, we understand that before we reach our ultimate destination, we are going to see the 1,000 year Reign of Christ on the earth, after The Battle of Armageddon. This will take place on our current earth, though it will be renovated. It will be restored to a sin-free environment. People will live here and bear children; animals will be here, and they will be at perfect peace with one another. Christ will rule the earth as the only leader, sitting on his throne as a King. Indeed, this is what God promised the Israelites would happen for them. Really, setting aside all that is, this world has them in focus.
We understand that after the Millennial Kingdom, after a short stint from Satan in successfully leading some people astray, God will destroy the current earth and current universe, and set up a New Earth and New Heaven, a new universe. On this new earth, God himself will dwell with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we will live, with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, with those who knew God from all times, who had a personal relationship with him. There will be all kinds of people there, almost all of whom we never even knew during our earthly lives. We will each have our own residences, and an abundance of possessions. The New Jerusalem will be there, and it will be truly glorious. It will be a wonderful, incredibly large city. It’s fun to consider all of these things that are going to come to pass. They are reality. They are really going to happen. That’s why it’s important for us to be sure we are in right relationship with God now, and that we are being pleasing to him in our lives. We certainly, certainly don’t want to miss all of these enjoyable times to come in the future.
Paul tells us that the current creation, the one we are in right now, we ourselves, we along with nature, are eagerly awaiting, we are eagerly anticipating these things to come to pass. Even the animal kingdom, in some way, and the earth itself, is waiting to be free from the effects of sin, from the curse on the earth and the universe. That’s what Paul says. And as we are aware, at the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, back in Genesis chapter 3, God cursed the earth and the universe (see Genesis 3:17-19). That means no matter how hard we try, we can never reach ultimate fulfillment in the happenings of this world. Before the fall, we could have been totally satisfied with the circumstances of this world. We could of had total enjoyment, perfect enjoyment, from them. But since we sinned and God cursed it, now we cannot. People will never be perfect here, the environment will never be perfect, animals will never be perfect, society won’t work without problems, and culture will be tainted by sin. Notice that this curse from God on the earth is an Old Testament curse, and Christ’s death and resurrection did not remove this curse—at least not yet. My point is that Old Testament curses from God can still be in play and come into play in this day and age.
One of the benefits to our salvation is that we believe that throughout our lives, our new lives in Christ, we can have the hope of our glory in being with Christ after this life. We can be looking forward to that. The mind definitely wanders there from time to time. It’s especially easier, and more appealing it seems, to think about it when conditions are rough, in the times events aren’t going the way we desire them to. We discern that really, in reality, in the grand scheme of things, this world doesn’t ultimately matter. What matters is that we have a personal relationship with God, that will are seeking to please him, that we are following Jesus. The troubles of this world will come to pass. Now, this has never happened for us. That is, we have never received a new body before. We have never been physically with Jesus before. Nonetheless, we have the hope we will be. Even though there is nothing in the past that can assure for us these things, that is, since they haven’t happened before, we still hope and count on them to happen. Taking an example from personal experience, having never been married before there is still hope that that day will come to pass. We don’t have to of experienced something in the past in order to hope for it.
Continuing along. Verse 26 of Romans chapter 8: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26, 27, ESV)
We are in weakness as Christians because of our sin-nature, and the effects of that. Paul had just been talking about how sin affects the creation as a whole, and now he focuses on ourselves individually. In view of the sin-nature and the complexity of the world around us, and all the problems we see on this earth, sometimes we don’t know exactly what we should be praying for in our lives, in the lives of others, for our society, our government, our nation, and the earth as a whole. We may pray a prayer, but it isn’t as precise as we would like it be. Or, it doesn’t hit home like we would want it to.
Paul talks of the weakness of the collective group of believers, for the word weakness is in the singular. We are in weaknesses as Christians and all of these together are the collective weakness. We all have individual weaknesses in our lives. That’s just the way it works, as Paul said. As long as we are in this world, we are going to have weaknesses. It’s significant for us to realize that it is okay for us to accept the fact that we have these weaknesses, whatever they are. Paul had weaknesses. Remember? He told the Corinthian church: ““For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV). Yes, God can work through our weaknesses for our own glory. And not only that, but it also adds to his own glory.
Now, let’s take a moment and consider perfectionism. We ought not expect ourselves to perform perfectly in our lives without any weakness manifesting itself at all. Not only is that not realistic, but it also set us up for disappointment and being too hard on ourselves. Expectations can be set too high for ourselves and too high for others as well. Burdens can be placed on others that God doesn’t want us to place on them, those of which are unrealistic and even unfair. We’ve been examining in Romans how we are imperfect. We ourselves cannot perform perfectly in all situations, and neither can others. Mercy needs to be granted toward ourselves and toward others. Anger with others when they don’t perform how we believe they should needs to be given up. When we stop demanding perfection from ourselves and accept the fact that we have weaknesses and are going to show our weakness in certain areas, it then makes it easier for us to give grace to others at the moment they show their weakness. This takes the pressure off of us and the pressure off of them.
Sometimes we don’t understand why we have certain weaknesses in our lives. We feel that a weakness in this or that area is not fair. We can surprisingly blame God for them, thinking he is at fault. We can feel that God hasn’t been fair toward us. We see someone else excelling in an area we have a weakness in and we can get upset. Social media can frequently do this for people; others are seen as successful where we lack. Nonetheless, when we grasp we have weaknesses we go to God in prayer and sometimes we’re not exactly sure what we should pray for. We would prefer to be strong in a certain area, but sometimes that’s not possible due to our physical make-up or even with the giftings God has given us, or lack thereof. We often see our weaknesses as bad, but God looks for opportunity to use them. He sees opportunity in them to display what he can do in and through us. We usually don’t prefer our weaknesses, but as Paul has said, we need to learn to become content with them and see them as an area for God to work even at the moments we don’t know what to pray in regard to them.
On occasion we may ask God something amiss or for something he doesn’t want, but this is where the Spirit of God steps in and helps us with our prayer by interceding for us to God. James talked about this. The great thing pertaining to the Spirit praying for us is that Paul makes the point that he always intercedes for us according to the will of God. He knows what God’s desires are when sometimes we don’t. This means that all our bases are covered with the help of the Holy Spirit. We pray, and even if we pray something amiss, the Holy Spirit will pray in the area or areas where we lacked in our prayer. What an encouraging angle for us. God is so gracious to us in this way. We could attribute this as the cause to why a lot of times good circumstances will occur that we didn’t actually pray for. They never crossed our mind. We never thought, “Oh, God could do this.” Yet, something good happens that we can clearly see was from God and nobody had prayed for it. At least, we hadn’t. But the Spirit had. This is one way he helps us.
Now, for one of our favorite verses in the whole entire Bible. Romans chapter 8, and verse 28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)
Before we dive into this beloved verse, there is one particular thing that should be noted. And that is, who’s this verse for? Well, as Paul says, it is “for those who love God.” The truth that pertains to this verse is then exclusively for the believer in Jesus. That’s the condition. We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We honor God and seek to do what is right in his sight. When you read the Old Testament, books such as Psalms and Proverbs in particular, you notice the passages that contrast the righteous versus the unrighteous, or the just versus the unjust. Romans 8:28 is for the righteous and just. People who aren’t following God, how aren’t honoring him, who are not seeking to please him cannot expect God to work good on their behalf. Yes, God does do good things for unbelievers, as Jesus clearly taught us, but they cannot and should not expect God’s favor when they are clearly violating his Word, his standard for righteousness.
So, what is God working good out of for us as Christians? Well, Paul tells us that God is working good out of “all things.” What is “all things”? Well, all things is just that, all things. Any and every circumstance you can think of. God brings good out of good situations, and he brings good out of bad situations.
At times, if we let them, our mistakes can teach us something important about ourselves and about others. When God has opportunity to prevent us from making a mistake, undoubtedly he oftentimes does. Perhaps sometimes, paradoxically, he stands aside and allows us to make the mistake. In the past, with the personal experience, it was typical to treat the mind harshly when there was a blunder, a misstep. Punishment of the mind would occur for bad choices made. Maybe you can relate. Anyway, this position has changed over time and regret for a wrong move has been pretty much given up. “And why is that?” you might ask. Well because the poor situations have been used to grow in personal knowledge. They have been re-contextualized as learning experiences. God certainly wishes he could prevent certain events that happen to us, yet whatever happens we can often use those circumstances to grow. This doesn’t mean God wants, or that we should want (and not that we would) bad life events to come upon us. No one really wants that. God doesn’t condone sin. We’d rather be responsible and learn the easy way. It should also be noted that not all mistakes are sin. But, if we have made a mistake or if we have sinned, either way, why not make use of it for our benefit? Isn’t that the greatest good that can come at that point? It’s the same as a little child learning to walk. At the time a child is learning to walk, he makes mistakes which result in him falling down and he uses them to learn how to walk better. And it can be no different for us.
It’s time to reveal a deeper-level secret. Are you ready? When it comes to ourselves, we can either look at our own performance to measure how good we are in life or we can depend on God’s performance, namely what Jesus has accomplished for us. What is meant is that if you’re a person who values how good you are by your performance, then you are a person who doesn’t take well to mistakes. Considering this, perhaps God does permit us to make mistakes at times if we are prideful. God doesn’t like a prideful spirit. He doesn’t want us to be depending on our appearance before others, what we think is our good appearance, he doesn’t want us depending on that for our own individual self-image. God doesn’t cause us to sin or want us to sin. But he does desire for us to be depending on him for our righteousness. He wants us to be depending on him for how we think of ourselves internally and also for how others perceive us externally. Surely, this rakes the gears of a person who subscribes to legalism. A legalistic Christian bases his or her whole life on their own personal appearance in life. They measure their goodness in that they don’t do this, this, and this, and the fact that they do do this, this, and this. They take the position that their righteousness, their standing before God and others, is completely in their control and based on externals. So, if you’re like that today, don’t be surprised if God does allow you to blunder in order to teach you that you need to be depending on him, not your own personal ability or behavior in your own eyes and before others.
To recap then, God brings good out of our successes on our journeys, but he also can bring good out of our failures also. God brings good out of our mistakes and past sins. He takes that which was bad and turns it completely around for good when he can and when we let him. We ourselves, with whatever particular failure, can use them for our own goodness, for our own growth. Our trials can to utilized for growth and good things in our lives. Take the example of the cross of Christ, the ultimate example. Due to our terrible condition in our sins, God utilized that to demonstrate his love for us by dying on the cross. He brought good out of bad. It is a perfect love toward us. The key in all this is not feel bad more than we need to after ours failures are over, and rather to ask God to maximize the situation for ours, and his, ultimate goodness.
Notice too that Paul says we are “called according to [God’s] purpose.” Thus, God has intentions for each one of us. Coming to my mind right now is one of my favorite verses, which is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (ESV). Now, someone might say, “You cannot just pull a verse out of the Old Testament that was meant for Israel and apply it to Christians.” Well, hold up. Sometimes that’s true, but in this case just as God had and still has good plans for Israel, so does he have good plans for us, as believers. Stop and consider it. If God has good plans for people who are not currently in right relationship with him, don’t you think it be safe to say he’s got good plans for us?
It brings excitement for us to see what God can bring to pass in our lives. Surprise has come time after time again by big things God has done in the personal experience. For sure. A practice that was personally put into place a couple years ago is a running list of these surprises at the moment they happen. We could call the list, ‘Big Things God Has Done.’ Anytime something good happens that is big and notable, we can enter it onto the list with the date that it happened. It will be encouraging for us to look back on these things from time to time and see what God has done. This may be especially true if we feel we are experiencing a dry season, where it seems as if God isn’t doing much. We can look back on this list and say, “Oh, I remember when God did that. And when he did that!” It will encourage us that God still cares, and that he’s still active in our lives. It’s helpful for us to remind ourselves of God’s good workings from the past.
Now, verse 29 of Romans chapter 8: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29, ESV)
“For those whom [God] foreknew.” What is Paul talking about here? We may ask, “how could God foreknow individuals who haven’t had the choice yet, whether or not they are going to believe in Jesus Christ?” Isn’t it implied that if God knows all the future, then people don’t really have free choice? Certainly, there are varying views, and we could talk all day with respect to how to define God’s omniscience. Nevertheless, we recognize for sure that God has knowledge of everything that can be known. And this is where the big debate comes into play with person’s free-wills and God’s sovereignty. The four mains views in Anabaptism or Evangelical Christianity are those of the Arminianists, Calvinists, Molonists, and Open Theists. Let’s quickly go over these views. The Arminians take the viewpoint that God looks into the future and sees those who will willingly believe in him, and then predestines, so to speak those who will choose him. In other words, God sees who’s going to choose him in the future and then calls those individuals seeing that they chose him. The Calvinists believe that God actually decides ahead of time those to whom he is going to save, and then he works to save those individuals as time passes by. Everyone God calls, according to the Calvinists, is chosen by God and therefore saved in his or her time. The Molonists believes God created the best possible world out of many possible worlds to accomplish his objectives. People who freely choose him in the world are predestined. Finally, the Open Theists believes that because of free-will, future events cannot be known as certainties until those free-choices are made. So, the definition of how time works is understood differently. We are going to get into all of this in Romans chapter 9.
The thing of it is, God is adding more and more brothers and sisters to the flock, so that Jesus himself will have these people to be his siblings, us. That is why we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. He is the firstborn. He is the first of all of us to rise from the dead. He was the first to experience bodily resurrection. One day we will all be like him—those of us who believe in him, who trust in him, in his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead. It’s our hope for our futures. Even though differing views exist on this predesntation thing, what we can all agree on is that we need to share the Gospel with people so that more and more can come into personal relationship with God and be conformed into his image.
Yes, Paul said, ““For those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” We become more like Christ in this life, as each day goes by, as we live throughout our whole lives. We will ultimately be just like Jesus after we leave this earth.
If we were to summarize the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, using the time he was here on the earth during his earthly ministry, how might this look? What was Jesus like? It doesn’t seem possible for us to get a full understanding of his character, but let’s still point out some characteristics. So, first, we might say Jesus’ mission in his time on earth was to do his Father’s will. He carried out the what his Father desired in all aspects of his life: his personal character, his career (what he spent his time doing in his life), how he related to others, and who he was friends with. In other words, everything as pertains to Jesus was filtered through what the Father wanted, or we might say, was approved by God. It didn’t mean he didn’t have freedom, or personal choice we might say. He just wouldn’t do anything that the Father would be against.
And it’s the same way with us. God wants us to align the different aspects of our lives, or our personal characters, so that they look more and more representative of Jesus’s image. Again, we don’t lose our individuality, for God created us each as unique, custom persons. That’s the way God has designed people; there are all kinds of persons with a variety of interests. In fact, in what God has gifted us to do with our lives, we are the only person on the earth that can do that task exactly as God has designed us to do it. You ever thought about that? You can do things that others cannot do, and others can do things that you cannot do. God continually has individual plans for each one of us. The point in saying all this, however, is that we need to stopping looking at what we feel we can accomplish or not accomplish. We need to stop efforting and instead start trusting. We need to look to God and realize that it is he who wants to conform us to the image of his Son. He can accomplish through us what he desires and wishes to accomplish if we will cooperate. As long as we are seeking to follow him, he will move us to be further like Christ, which obviously will result in us accomplishing good works for the kingdom of God.
Jesus was “the firstborn among many brothers.” This means anyone out there today who doesn’t feel their in personal relationship with God, who doesn’t feel God is conforming them into the image of his Son, can change directions and come into personal relationship with God today through Jesus Christ. You can become one of Jesus’ many siblings, as many of us have already made that choice. As we’ve been talking about, the mission of Jesus’ life was to do the Father’s will, and he did that some 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross and rose from the dead so that any one of us, who trusts in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection from the dead, can have a relationship with God, be at peace with him, and live our lives in righteousness, lives we will thoroughly enjoy and be happy with. Go to God today in prayer and tell him you desire a new life in Christ.
-Daniel Litton