ROMANS, CHAPTER 8
[Verses 18-30]
(11-2-11)
Review:
NOTE: Allow me to stress this point: God has never loved you more than He loves you now; He will never love you more than He loves you now. We must quit trying to win His love and instead, we must learn to accept/receive His love.
QUESTION: Why is it so important that we stop trying to get God to love us more?
ANSWER: We must quit trying harder to keep more rules so that God will love us more, and begin believing what God has said about us; i.e., that we are new creatures/creations in Him, etc.
I John 4:19) [KJV] We love him, because he first loved us.
QUESTION: How does the above verse fit in with this discussion?
ANSWER: When we question His love for us, it affects our love for Him.
Romans 8:17) [NIV] 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.
On To This Week’s Lesson:
Romans 8:18-30) [NIV] I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8: 30) [NIV] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
QUESTION: What “glory” is going to be revealed in us?
ANSWER: The “glory” Paul is speaking about is the end of the process of going form being predestined to being called to being justified to being glorified.
QUESTION: What does “glorification” involve?
ANSWER: Note the following verses:
19) [NIV] The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
QUESTION: What is “creation” itself waiting for?
ANSWER: Creation is waiting for the “sons of God to be revealed.”
QUESTION: What does that mean?
ANSWER: Creation is waiting for the full revelation of what God has in store for His children.
NOTE: Notice how Paul personifies “creation” in order to make his point, just as he personifies “sin.”
20) [NIV] 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) [NIV] that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
20) (GNB) For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope
21) (GNB) that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.
QUESTION: What happened to the planet when Adam and Eve sinned?
ANSWER: Our planet suffered a “fall” along with mankind. It is no longer the environment that God initially created for Adam and Eve.
QUESTION: What will happen to our planet when God’s children are glorified?
ANSWER: Our planet will enter into “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
NOTE: Our planet will be vastly superior to its current self.
22) [NIV] We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23) [NIV] Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
QUESTION: What is creation groaning for? What are we groaning for?
ANSWER: We’re groaning for the “redemption or our body,” i.e., the “manifestation of the sons of God.” We’re groaning for the day when the full revelation of what God has in store for His children is revealed.
QUESTION: What are these verses telling us about our current condition?
ANSWER: We are saved; our bodies are not! We are groaning for the day our bodies are redeemed!
24) [NIV] For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
25) [NIV] But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
QUESTION: What don’t we currently have that we are hoping for?
ANSWER: Redeemed bodies; we are waiting for the day when we will be housed in bodied free of the sin principle. When our bodies are saved we will never sin again!
26) [NIV] 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 with groans that words cannot express.
QUESTION: What is the Holy Spirit doing on our behalf?
ANSWER: He’s praying for us to grow spiritually.
QUESTION: Why?
ANSWER: We don’t know how to, or what to pray for so that the end result will be accomplished; the end result being our entering into the glory God will reveal in us.
QUESTION: Is verse 26 speaking of the Holy Spirit praying through us by our praying in tongues?
ANSWER: No! This intercession is not an “utterance” [KJV]; Acts, chapter 2 tells us that “speaking in tongues” is an utterance.
QUESTION: In the above verses who is doing the groaning?
ANSWER: Our planet groans; we groan; and the Holy Spirit groans!
QUESTION: What is all the groaning about?
ANSWER: Our planet, you and I, and the Holy Spirit are all groaning for God to finish His work in glorifying His children.
27) [NIV] And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
28) [NIV] 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.
QUESTION: Why will the groanings/intercessions/prayers of the Holy Spirit be answered?
ANSWER: God, the Father will answer the prayers of God, the Holy Spirit because the Spirit always prays for the will of God to be done.
QUESTION: What is the result of the Holy Spirit praying for us?
ANSWER: God is in the process of bringing us to the point of perfection that He has planned for us.
QUESTION: Is verse 28 telling us that everything that happens benefits believers?
ANSWER: Yes! But, it doesn’t necessarily benefit us in this life. However, it will definitely benefit us if we look at it with eternity in view.
29) [NIV] 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.
30) [NIV] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Regarding “those God foreknew he also predestined,”
“The only thing predestinated, or foreordained, is that those who love God as revealed in Christ shall become Christlike in life, and like Christ in eternity. This is the only decree in the passage” [PNT].
“That a predetermination of God is clearly stated as accompanying or (humanly speaking) succeeding, and grounded upon the foreknowledge” [Vincent].
QUESTION: What are these verses telling us?
ANSWER: God predestined to conform believers to “the likeness of his Son.”
QUESTION: How does this predestination work?
ANSWER: God “foreknew” who would love Him. He then predestined their glorification.
Also in regards to “those God foreknew he also predestined,”
“That this predetermination is to the end of conformity to the image of the Son of God, and that this is the vital point of the passage” [Vincent].