Love Holds On

Series: Help for the Helpless

Message: Love Holds On

Rom 8:26-39

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness

· Holy Spirit or our spirit?

· Translators capitalize Spirit

· v23 points to Holy Spirit

· spirit helps

· “helps” is the longest Greek word I have ever seen

· συναντιλαμβάνομαι – sun-anti-lambano-mai

· Strange word stems are almost opposites

· sun – with or for

· anti – against

· “tug of war”

· Pulling together with PLUS pulling against

· We are not alone in the battle with the flesh

· The Spirit is tugging along with us

· Alone we lose

· KJV: infirmities, NASB: weaknesses

· We tend to think of sicknesses when we think of infirmities

· Like “infirmary”

· Means lack of strength

· Theme “helplessness” Romans

· flesh weak, Spirit helps us overcome

for we do not know how to pray as we should

· If only we knew God’s will

· Or our pain is great = trouble praying

· This verse is completed by Rom 8:28

· Spirit makes intercession according to the will of God.

but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words

· What is Paul talking about here?

· Speaking in tongues?

· It is an unusual expression of tongues if so.

· This is not unutterable

· Tongues languages unknown to speaker.

· Tongues are translatable to hearers.

· This sounds like the grinding together of two surfaces

· Imagine a tar road grinder

· Our old man is being ground away

· There has to be pain as that grinding happens

v27 – The Spirit knows God’s will

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,

· Three persons in mind here

· “hearts” = believers

· He who searches the hearts – God the Father

· the Spirit – The Holy Spirit

· Restating this

· The Father searches the hearts of men knowing what the mind of the Holy Spirit is,

· Supporting texts that this is the Father

· Matt 6:4, Act 1:24, Rev 2:23.

because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

· Often, we do not know God’s will.

· The Spirit knows the will of God for your life.

· “He intercedes” – The Spirit intercedes with God for us

· That is how God knows what the Spirit’s mind is

v28 – All things work together for good…

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God…

· Greek is very difficult to translate here

· Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν Θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθόν, τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιν·

· we know and because the love the God all fellow worker into good the according purpose saints have

· We can see that God will turn around even a bad situation and use it for our good.

· “all things” includes trials and tribulations

· See the list of these things later in Rom 8:35-36 and Rom 8:38-39.

· “God causes” – in spite of the badness of the thing at hand, God is greater and is able to transform that thing into something greater

· There is a redemptive purpose in suffering.

· This is a hard message for those who were abused as children

· Abuse has no excuse and God is not for the abuse

· Yet, we have to say that God is presently turning such things into good

· How could God possibly use such an evil thing as abuse of children for His good?

· Such a God seems sadistic to allow it in the first place.

· Our sight is often too short and focused on our immediate pain

· It is interesting that a larger percentage of the population than average of people who have been abused as children end up themselves in in helping professions (Medical, etc).

· Robert Schuller has a famous quotation has some validity on this point

· “Turn your scars into stars”

· We can’t do the turning without the Spirit.

to those who are called according to His purpose.

· “those who are called” – particularity again

v29 – Foreknowledge, Predestination, conformation to the image of the Son

· Our past, present and future all belong to God.

· If we are in Christ, then we have assurance of a good outcome to our lives.

· It is not a surprise to God that we go through trials.

· He knew of them before He created us.

For those whom He foreknew

· foreknowledge wrecks the idea of a limited God

· Finite Godism

· God does not know the future beforehand

· Others see pre-determination in foreknowledge

· Why use two different words here?

He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son

· Destiny is not some blind force

· Our future is known by God

· The will of God is clear

· God wants to bring many sons to glory.

· We are to be “conformed to the image of His Son”

· We are not left as weak creatures who are controlled by our sinful natures

so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

· Jesus is the first to rise from the dead and is the prototype of those to come.

· We will be raised victorious over the flesh as He was.

· There are other similar uses of the phrase (Col_1:15, Col_1:18, Heb_1:6, Rev_1:5, Act_26:23, 1Co_15:20).

v30 – Predestination, calling, justification, glorification

· The work of Christ is primarily what these verses describe.

· If we are in Christ, then they apply to us as well by virtue of being in Him.

String of terms from Rom_8:29-30

· Foreknow -> predestinate -> called -> justified -> glorified

· All are past tense

· The time in this passage in not in reference to us, but to Christ.

· These things have already been done at the cross/empty tomb

· [Definitions of terms –

· foreknow – know something before it happens

· predestinate – determine that something will happen ahead of when it happens

· called – invite

· justified – to be righteous

· glorified – fame, to be an illuminary (See Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

· Foreknowledge of what?

· Passage does not explain what is foreknown

· God foreknows the existence of all persons/things

· Therefore, it must be more than mere existence that is in view here.

and these whom He predestined

· Jesus is the means of salvation.

· 1Co_2:7 uses the same Greek word – predestinated

· 1Co 2:7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory

· The plan of God was determined long before man was even created

· The plan is to bring many sons to glory

He also called

· called can be used in an ordinary sense

· Ex: I call my children to come upstairs at dinner time.

· Some come and others don’t come.

· All were called but not all came to the call

· Lenski, Commentary on Romans, 562

· “These He called” includes acceptance of the call; and it in no way excludes the extension of the same call with the same power of grace to the rest.

and these whom He called He also justified

· The ones who are called are justified

· This is true now

· This will be realized in the future

and these whom He justified He also glorified.

· This is true now

· This will be realized in the future (Rom_8:17-18).

v31 – Our proper response to the truth of God’s calling

What then shall we say to these things?

· All of this calls for a response from us

· Paul will ask a series of rhetorical questions

· The answer is intended to be obvious

If God is for us, who is against us?

· Rhetorical question

· Intended answer – nobody.

v32 – If God gave His Son, how much more the other things…

He who did not spare His own Son

· As a father, I cannot imagine giving something greater than one’s son.

· Perhaps those who’s children go into the military and give their lives have experienced this

but delivered Him over for us all

· Jesus was delivered over to death

· We are the ones who benefit from His death.

· This is a gift that we cannot earn or deserve.

how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

· This is a greater to lesser argument.

· If God gave His Son who is the most precious thing that He has, then the other things pale in comparison.

· “all things” – justification, glorification, etc.

· The proof that God does love us was that He gave His Only Son for us.

v33 – Who justifies us?

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?

· Another rhetorical question

· The answer is meant to be

· no one can lay a charge against God’s elect

· The Devil is the one who wants to accuse the brethren before God.

· Satan literally means accuser.

· The book of the Revelation shows Satan as the accuser of the brethren (Rev_12:10).

· Rev 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

· Therefore it may be best to say this as who can succeed in making a charge?

· There may be an accuser role presently for Satan – depends upon how you understand Rev 12:10 whether you see that as presently continuing.

· At the very least, his accusations would not stick since we have an advocate.

God is the one who justifies;

· Rom_8:30 used the word “justified”.

· Since God justifies

· even if Satan was the accuser

· he would not win his case against you.

v34 – No condemnation

Who is the one who condemns?

· Rhetorical question again.

· Intended answer is that there is nobody who can condemn us.

· Rom 8:1 has already made it clear that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us

· Jesus has the authority with God to press for His position.

· His Sonship was by nature and actions.

· We put a lot of emphasis on the death of Christ

· Paul shifts the emphasis from death to resurrection

35 – The Love of God is greater than our circumstances

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

· Rhetorical question.

· Answer is nobody…

Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

· Yet another rhetorical question

· No, none of those external events…

v36 – Persecution of the righteous by the non-Righteous

Just as it is written,

· Old Testament passage (Psa_44:22).

· God delivered Israel in the past against her enemies (Psa_44:1-3).

· The present situation needs deliverance from God (Psa_44:4-8).

· God has turned His back on His people and is not delivering them (Psa_44:9-22).

· A cry for God’s deliverance from enemies (Psa_44:23-26).

“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

· Psalm is a people faithful to God and yet suffering troubles

· This needs to be explained to the church since the normal situation in the Old Testament –

· Suffering was a consequence of Israel abandoning God.

· This is the general principle from Deut 28 and other places.

· Yet, this passage shows there is an exception to the rule.

· Israel was not suffering for abandoning God.

· Israel was suffering for being faithful to God.

· There is a similar example from Israel‘s history that comes to mind.

· At the time of Elijah there were seven thousand who had not bowed their knee to Baal (1Ki_19:18) out of a much larger sized nation.

· Like Elijah, perhaps many of them were hiding.

· The example of Elijah is where Paul takes his idea of a saved remnant from Israel which will figure later (Rom_11:4).

· This sets an O. T. precedence for suffering that Paul will show.

· Paul is answering the “Where is it written?” question for his own generation.

· The church is not suffering for abandoning God, but for holding to God.

· The suffering is because of their faith.

· This passage raises the question —

· When did this Psa_44:22 passage happen in the history of Israel?

· The time of David doesn’t seem to be a good fit since David had military domination over his enemies.

· K&D commentary on Psalm 44, p 65:

· “…the events of the Syrio-Ammonite war. … conflict with the foes of the kingdom in the south, viz, with the Edomites, was also mixed up with the wars with the Ammonites and their Syrian allies at that period… 2Sa_8:13 and 1Ki_11:15“

· It is hard to see how this fits the passage.

· pp 66-67 – this “takes a unique position in the range of Old Testament literature side by side with Lam 3 and the Deutero-Isaiah. … resembles the affliction of Job. Psa_60:4 [is similar]”

v37 –

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us

·There is no denial in Scripture that we go through troubles as Christians.

·There is a claim here that we conquer.

·This is not lose, but win.

·The verb tense here is crucial

·Not that we will conquer in the future, but that we do presently conquer.

v38 – Nothing can separate us from God’s love

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

· It is difficult to imagine anything not included in such a list.

· death, nor life

· The list could have just included these two things

· nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers

· Powers of both sides

· Both good and bad

· nor things present, nor things to come

· Nothing you are going through now

· Nothing you will go through in the future

· nor height, nor depth

· No place you can go and ditch God

· nor any other created thing

· No created object has in it the power to separate us from the love of God.

v39 – Love of God is found in Jesus

nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,

· Included in commentary on previous verse (Rom_8:38).

will be able to separate us from the love of God

· Rhetorical question – answer no one will be able to separate us from the love of God

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

· Again the particularity of God.

· Does God love all people?

· God does love all in the sense that He died for all and want all to know Him

· But how far does that love extend?

As far as to all who are in Christ – which is an incredibly huge love.