We’re at Romans 8:26. Paul just completed the paragraph from Romans 8:18–25 in which he helped us with our suffering by putting it in a global context — indeed, a universe-wide context. Now, he says, “Likewise.” That’s my understanding of the word “Likewise.” He’s saying, “I’ve been helping you with a particular angle on your suffering, your groaning. I said to you that you are an heir and you’re going to make it to the inheritance. I said you’ll make it to the inheritance of glory if you suffer with him. Then I talked about your suffering in relation to the upheavals and the futility and the corruption and bondage of the universe and how God would bring you into his glory and then the universe would follow. I hope that was helpful.”

The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

Then he says:

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).

Whose groanings are these? It doesn’t say the Holy Spirit groans, it says the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings. It might mean that the Holy Spirit is groaning. Or might it mean that those are our groanings awakened and sustained and carried and informed and made holy and pure and deep and meaningful by the Holy Spirit? Thus, he is interceding for us through our groanings and with our groanings. What’s the answer to that question? Well, I think it’s the latter and I’ll give you about five contextual reasons.

The Spirit’s Work in Our Groanings

Number one, the Holy Spirit has no reason to groan. These groanings are because of our weakness. He has none. They are owing to our ignorance. He has none. If those groanings are owing to our weaknesses and our ignorance, I think they’re our groanings.

Here’s the second argument. It doesn’t say he groans, it says he intercedes with groanings. Number three, it says that the God searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit. He searches hearts. Whose hearts? Ours. Why is he searching in our hearts? Because we’re groaning. That’s where the groans are.

Number four, this is perhaps the most important. Up in Romans 8:23, its says, “Even we who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit groan, waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Having just said three verses earlier that the creation is groaning and we who have the Spirit in us are groaning, why would I think any other way than that this is my groaning? The same groaning as verse 23.

Then here’s the analogy that seals it for me. Romans 8:15–16 said, “You do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, well by which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” The Holy Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit. I argued that the Holy Spirit’s witness is the awakening of my cry, “Abba.” The birth in my heart of a humble, childlike, dependent need for and cry to a Father is the witness of the Holy Spirit. That’s the way I think this text works. I don’t know what to pray for. In my frustration and ignorance and weakness, I can’t get it out. My heart is aching for I know not what in this moment.

I don’t know what should happen. I don’t know which way to go. I don’t know how to ask for help because I don’t know whether I should live or die. I’m arguing that those holy groanings are the Spirit’s work, just like the testimony of the Spirit was our cry, “Abba, Father.” He creates meaning in our inarticulate groanings.

The Spirit’s Intercession

What does he pray for in our groanings?

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.

What’s he asking for? He’s interceding. What’s he saying? What’s he asking God to do? Here are a couple of clues. Consider this word “weakness.” The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. In Galatians 4:13, that word is used for Paul’s bodily ailment. In Timothy, 5:23, he says that Timothy has many “ailments.” Would you think it would be natural then coming right after groaning as I wait for the redemption of my body that the weaknesses he’s talking about is sickness or injury? Do you know how to pray about those? The older you get, the less sure you are how to pray. Because when you’re young you just default to thinking, “I want to live, so I’m going to pray for healing.”

When you’re 80 or 90, why? Why not go home? At least you can think of some good reasons for both — family issues, grandchildren, unfinished projects, and Jesus. They’re both good, both good. That’s exactly what Paul said in Philippians 1. He said, “I want to be with Christ. It is far better to remain in the flesh more than necessary when you’re good. I don’t know what to pray for.” I picture Paul in Rome at night, groaning, groaning. And you’ve groaned, saying, “I don’t know what to pray, Lord.” You have a child. The suffering is so terrible or they’re on life support and you’re pro-life. You’re not into taking tubes out, but it’s just horrible what she’s going through it seems like.

That word “weakness” right there, given the fact that it’s used a couple of times by Paul for ailments, and given the fact that the immediately preceding context is my body — “I just want to be adopted and redeemed because this body is in pain — the Holy Spirit knows exactly what to pray. He prays the will of God, because there is one who searches the heart. God is down there discerning your heart’s desire that hasn’t yet had words put to it. The Holy Spirit is sanctifying and awakening and purifying your heart’s aches that are too deep for words and making them his own. He does it according to God. The word “will” has been added here. It’s according to God. He’s God. He’s in sync with God as God. God prays to God. God the Spirit prays to God the Father and God the Son does too. Romans 8:34–35 says that the Son is going to intercede for us. The Spirit is interceding for us. God is always praying to God. And guess what? Their prayers are perfect.

They are totally in sync with God’s perfect plan, which is what the next verse says. Everything is going to work for your good. That’s what he’s praying, I think. You don’t know what that is. He does. You don’t know whether it’s best to live best today. You don’t know whether it’s best to be healed or best to suffer. You don’t know and you ache and you groan and you say, “I want your will. I want to serve you. I want to be a faithful sufferer. I want to be triumphant in faith so I can be healed. I don’t know how best you’ll be glorified here.” God knows, and he means for that to be helpful. It is to me. Paul is saying, “I’ve tried to put your suffering in a global perspective and likewise, the Holy Spirit is so eager to help you. Where he’s so especially good at helping you is when, because of your ignorance and your weaknesses, you don’t know how to pray and your groans are so deep you can’t even put words on them. He’s really good at those moments. He’s good.

Now, that may sound so odd to you. You may say, “God prays to God? I mean, just simplify it. You make things so complicated, God. Just step in and read my mind or something.” Don’t talk like that. Learn, admit, and accept. God is three-in-one and the interactions of those persons in the Godhead is mysterious beyond human imagining. Be reverent when you get a glimpse into the Trinity, and this is one.

All Things Work Together for Good

Romans 8:28 says:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Do you know how I would’ve translated those first three words? “But we do know.” There is a little “but” there. It’s not a strong “but.” There’s a strong Greek word for “but” and a weak Greek word for “but.” This is the weak one. It’s a but, or at least it can be. Why would I say “but we do know”? It’s because he’s just said he helps you in your weakness because you don’t know. You don’t know what to pray for. This world is so full of futility and so full of corruption and so full of decay and so full of confusion and I’m so finite and so ignorant. There’s so many things I don’t know, but I know something. That’s the feel of the connection between verse 28 and 27. There is something.

The longer you live, the more ignorant you get. At least I do. You just discover whole galaxies of things you don’t know every day. It’s like a new ignorance appears on the horizon which could paralyze you, unless “but we do know” is true. It’s not an accident that this is one of the most favorite verses in the Bible. It can be used in a cavalier and thoughtless way. I’ve never taken offense at anybody who’s quoted this verse to me. It’s too precious to me. I know a lot of people are always mocking Romans 8:28. They say, “Everything works together for good? Don’t you tell me that. She’s dead.” I’ve never responded like that. I want to caution you. I mean it’s how you do things that matter. There is no moment when this verse is not precious. None. There’s no moment when this verse is not infinitely precious. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

What is this “good”? What’s that good? Well, would you think that this “for” would take us there? The reason that everything’s going to work together for good for those who are called is because those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. I think that’s the good.

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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:29–30).

The called are going to be glorified infallibly. These called ones have everything worked together for their good. That good is their glory. That good is their conformity to Jesus Christ. That’s what I think the good is. Out of that central contextual meaning, lots of other things could be said by way of good, but that we know for sure. Everything in the life of God’s children serves their conformity to Christ. Everything in the life of God’s children serves their making it to glory.

The Pervasive Goodness of God Toward Us

What does “all things” mean? For those who love God, all things take you there. All things. Look at a couple of texts just to get the feel for Paul’s theology. Romans 11:36 says:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Which means it’s everything. Every event, every object in the universe is designed by God, sustained by God, and for God’s glory. Therefore, nothing lies outside his control and nothing lies outside his design. Therefore, probably “all things” means all things. It’s pretty sweeping. Ephesians 1:11–12 says:

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

He works all things, which sounds like Romans 8:28. He works all things according to the council of his will. God is in charge of all things and he has a will and a counsel and he does all things for his glory.

A Surprising Gift

Romans 8:32 says:

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

That’s the “all things” of Romans 8:28. He gives us all things because Christ died for us. Would you go the prosperity gospel route to define that? I get everything. The problem with that is that the flow of the thought as you move forward takes you to Romans 8:35:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

To which the prosperity person might say, “Well, of course they won’t separate us from Christ because he won’t let them happen to us.” But Paul says next:

As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Romans 8:36).

That’s one of the all things that you get, murder, martyrdom. You get that. Do you think that’s a funny way to talk? You get all things including death. Maybe that’s a Piper flare. Look at this. First Corinthians 3:21 says:

Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours . . .

It’s not a Piper flare. Flat-out quote from the Bible. One of the “all things” you get is death. You inherit death. One of God’s gifts to you is death and sword and famine and peril. Because he works all things together for good. They aren’t good in themselves.

Rejoicing in the Good God Has for Us

How can that be? Romans 5:3–5 says:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

That’s about as close as Paul could get to try to help us understand how the gift of suffering, how the gift of peril, how the gift of famine, how the gift of nakedness actually are worth rejoicing in. It’s so different.

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).

He just said that we groan. We groan awaiting adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Therefore, there’s so many times we don’t know how to pray. One thing we know is this: Everything you’ve groaned about is in the hands of God being worked for your good, your conformity to Christ, your glorification. That, we know, and that will get us through.

Those Who Love God

Why does he say “those who love God,” instead of saying “those who trust God”? Paul only uses the idea of loving God four times in all his letters. It’s not a common category in his thinking, which is surprising. Jesus said it’s the main commandment in the universe. Paul refers to it four times. My question is, why love? It might be that if you go back to the previous verses in the chapter and ask whether there are any pointers to this, you will find some. Romans 8:7 says, “The mind of the flesh is hostile to God,” not the mind of the Spirit. What’s the opposite of hostile? Maybe love for God. Or Romans 8:15 says that we cry, “Abba, Father.” That’s a real cry, not an artificial affirmation of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and therefore it’s love for our Father. Here’s another possibility. This is the one that gripped me. Romans 8:18 says:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Now, even though that is my participation in the glory of God, the glory of God is the pinnacle of that experience, and he says, “The reason I don’t consider all these sufferings comparable is because this glory is so precious to me.” It’s love. It’s not just a fact. It’s love. If you don’t love the glory of God more than you love physical ease, that sentence doesn’t work. If you love physical relief and ease and comfort and security more than you love the glory of God, Romans 8:18 crashes to the ground. I think he’s given us some pointers why he’s using the word “love” here. It’s a treasuring kind of word here.

Here’s one last thought about why love would be here instead of say, trust. He is promising us that if we love God, we are going to have everything work for our good. To say “love God” protects our souls from idolizing the good I think better than to say trust God protects our souls, because love God means, “I value God, I esteem God, I treasure God. I count God as precious and satisfying to my soul so that when I’m given the gift of the good as a result of that, I won’t fall in love with the good because I love God so much better.”

Maybe that’s why he used love instead of trust. At any rate, that’s who we are. Those who love God have everything work together for their good.

The Division of Humanity

Now, let me ask this question. Is that all Christians or some Christians? Is “those who love God” here a group of Christians? Is it the really lover types, or is it all Christians? Of course, it’s all Christians, because the flow of thought in the passage would just fall to pieces if this were a group within a group. The argument goes:

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:30). There aren’t some non-foreknown Christians and some non-predestined Christians and some non-called and non-justified and non-glorified Christians like there’s some who don’t love God. That won’t work. The whole passage falls to pieces in your hands if you try to make those who love God just a category of Christians. But if that’s true, the implications here are you’re not a Christian if you don’t love God.

Do you love him? Love him? Don’t bracket that question like, “Oh, that’s for spiritual people,” or, “That’s for the next grade up.” That’s not. It’s basic. It’s saying it’s basic. If you don’t love God, Romans 8:28, is not true for you. It’s not true. It’s not yours. That’s pretty amazing.

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

I’m going to give you the three other places where Paul refers to loving God. That was one of them. That’s all Christians, not the natural man but the spiritual man that is those who love God. This is really important. We’ll come back to this one. First Corinthians 8:3 says:

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

That’s a perfect tense there — “has been.” If anyone loves God, he has been known by God, foreknown by God. We’ll be back. This is the most devastating and important:

If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! (1 Corinthians 16:22).

It couldn’t be clearer. There are two kinds of human beings, the cursed and the non-cursed — that is, those who love the Lord and those who don’t. There are only two kinds of people: lovers of Jesus and those who don’t. The point was that this is not a group of people within Christianity; this is Christianity. All Christians have all things work together for their good.

To Those Who Are Called

Here’s the last question on Romans 8:28. Why is the qualification of loving God supplemented with “those who are called”? Why didn’t he just say, “And to all who love God, everything works together for good”? Period. Why does he say, “To those who are called according to his purpose”? Why include that? Because he wants to give the objective divine side to the subjective human side. From our side, we know that all things work together for good if we love God, if we’re Christian. From God’s side, he doesn’t leave it at the subjective human fragile basis. He says, “If you love God, that’s an evidence that you’re called and the call here is not ineffectual.” How do you know that? Because here in Romans 8:30, those whom he predestined, he called. Behind this calling is predestination. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. Notice, it doesn’t say “some of those that he predestined he called, and some of those whom he called he justified, and some of those whom he justified he also glorified.

It’s all of them, which means that between the call and the glory, nobody drops out. None. It’s absolutely secure and certain. If you’re called, you’re justified. If you’re justified, you’re going to be glorified. It’s as good as done. That’s why it’s past tense there. When he says in Romans 8:28 that the people for whom God works everything together for good are the called, he means they’re the ones whom I’ve foreknown in predestined and called and justified and will glorify. They are absolutely secure and what I’m doing in working everything together for good is inserting myself into their lives to get them there. That’s full of implications too, isn’t it? That we tend to think mechanically about eternal security, as if to say, “Okay, if I’m called then I’m secure. God doesn’t need to work anything together for my good, to conform me to Jesus or to get me to glory.” Well, of course, he does. That’s the way he has ordained to get you there.

That’s the way he has ordained to keep you secure. The means that God uses like the intercession of the Holy Spirit and working everything together for your good are essential for you to make it to glory. This connection here between justification and glorification is a connection that God maintains by means. Like if you put to death the deeds of the body, you’ll make it by the Spirit. He doesn’t leave us to ourselves. This call here, what is it? What is the call? Let’s linger on that for a minute. That’s really important.

The Effectual Call

What is the call of God? We have seen right here in Romans 8:30 that this call leads to justification, but justification is by faith. Therefore, this call which has an infallible connection with justification must create the faith. Is that an inappropriate theological inference? First Corinthians 1:22–24 says:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Well, what is the call? “We preach Christ crucified” is not the call. Because there are Jews who are saying he’s a stumbling block and Gentiles who are saying it’s foolishness. The called regard it as power, wisdom. If preaching Christ crucified is not the call, since so many don’t respond that way, what is the call? The answer is the call is the work of God opening the hearts of people to see in the general call the irresistible beauty of Christ in the cross so that you say, “Power, wisdom!” This is an effectual call. Theologians distinguish between the general call of God. We preach Christ crucified. Billy Graham at a 55,000 person stadium across town is issuing a call, saying, “Come.”

Then within that call, there is the work of the Spirit of God effectually drawing people to Christ and that is this call right here in Romans 8:28. Because all the called are justified and you’re only justified by faith. Therefore, all the called are awakened to believe. That’s why Romans 8:28 is so rock-solid certain. All the called have everything work together for the good because all the called are predestined to be believers by the gift of God. Here’s another one, just so you feel how it works:

As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (Romans 4:17).

We’re not quite done with Romans 8:28. It’s also “according to his purpose.” What’s that? We are called “according to his purpose.” It’s the same as saying he foreknew and he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son and those who he predestined, he called. Those he predestined, he called. So the predestination is the exercising of this purpose over here. The purpose is to conform us to the image of his son and to bring us to glory.

The Foreknowledge of God

Why is that going to work? Romans 8:29 says:

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.

What does foreknow mean?

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:30).

The first one in the chain is foreknow. Here, two theologies go apart. I’m just going to state the two theologies without putting any name on them. One theology says the meaning of “foreknow” is that God foresees human self-determined faith. And seeing human, self-determined faith several thousand years in advance, he predestines them to sonship and to conformity to Christ. The reason for that theology, the reason that meaning is seen here is partly because there’s such a jealousy that this word “predestination” does not destroy the power of human self-determination. If human self-determination is removed, they would say, then responsibility is removed and accountability is removed and thus, guilt is removed and the need for the cross is removed and Christian theology collapses to the ground if you take away human self-determination.

That’s one view. I don’t think that view is true and the reason I don’t is because it won’t work in the flow of the thought here. Notice, if you believe that the point of this “foreknow” here is that God foresees my self-generated believing in Christ so that I could be united to him and thus be saved and maintain my accountability and responsibility, then what are you going to do with “called”? Those whom he foreknew, who created their own faith, he predestined, and those whom he predestined, he called. None of the called fall-out. We’ve seen that the calling according to 1 Corinthians 1:22 and Romans 4:13 is God’s effectual work of producing the faith. In other words, I don’t think there is anything like self-determination. There isn’t any self-determined faith here.

Well, what in the world would “foreknow” mean then? He foreknew. What did he he know? That’s a very good question and we need some biblical help to answer what foreknow means. Because the predestination is based on the foreknowing and everything else is based on that, so what is it?

Known by God

Let’s do a little tour. This is 1 Corinthians 8:3:

But if anyone loves God, he is (has been) known by God.

Loving God is an evidence that God has known you in the past. He has pre-known you, foreknown you. Loving God is the effect of the being known by God. It’s not the other way around. That’s the first clue that we’re up to something different. Here’s how the word “know” is used in the Old Testament. Genesis 4:1 says:

Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain . . .

That’s sexual intercourse. “Know” means take into your most intimate relation. The word “know” is a euphemism to cover the sexual intimacy of the act of “I choose you for my sexual partner.” Or Genesis 18:17–19 says:

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen (known) him, that he may command his children and his household after him . . .

The word “chosen” is in the ESV, but the word is “known” is in the King James version. In Hebrew it’s simply straightforward: know. He says, “I’ve known Abraham that he may command his children. I’ve chosen him. He’s mine.” To know is to set one’s acknowledgement upon. That’s the closest I can get in English. It’s like saying, “The senator from Minnesota is acknowledged.” What does that mean? It means I choose you to speak right now. I’m arguing that foreknow means choose because of what we’re seeing here.

Here’s Amos 3:2:

You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

What is this? God knows all the other nations in that he knows about them, but this “know” is, “I’ve taken you into my intimate relation.” I’ve chosen you for myself. Psalm 1:5–6 says:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
     nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked will perish.

Well, he knows the way of the wicked. Yes, but not this way. This knowing is him saying, “I approve of it, I embrace it, I acknowledge it. That’s mine. That’s the way I want you to live.” When it says “those whom he foreknew,” I’m arguing because it fits the flow of the thought that this is “foreordained” or “chose.” It’s election. When he says later, “Who should bring any charge against God’s elect?” has he even said that before? Yes, he has said it before. Namely, right here in Romans 8:29. To foreknow them is to set his favor upon them, draw them into his intimate fellowship and elect them and then predestined them. Man is responsible to know and to live up to what he knows and he’s guilty because he never does live up to what he knows, but God does not give the final and decisive choice of salvation to anyone. He remains decisive. He remains the one who is the ultimate arbiter of fallen sinners’ lives.

Purpose in Predestination and Election

Romans 8:29 continues:

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. What is God’s purpose in predestination? Or what is this purpose here? His predestination and election are not the same. Let’s just clarify this. Election (or foreknowing) is God’s setting his favor freely on sinners who don’t deserve anything from him at all and taking them into his care and then he has a plan for them (that’s predestination). What is the plan? The plan is that they would be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, which means that predestination is fundamentally family growing. God is saying, “I want a family. I predestine conformity to my Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. I want a family and so I will have it and I predestine it to be so, to be conformed to the image of my Son.”

It’s really interesting isn’t it, that the Son is the image of the Father and we are the image of the Son? Which means we have this sequence. There’s the Father, there’s the image of the Father, there’s the image of the Son who’s the image of the father. Which means God is filling the earth with images of himself in redemption as well as in creation. It’s glory of the Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

A question I ask is, so is Christ being diminished if predestination is trying to gather in a big family in his image? I want lots and lots of brothers of Jesus, lots and lots of brothers of Jesus. Is Christ being diminished by having this huge ingathering of brothers? No, because he said, my point in predestination is that we would be conformed to his image in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. It’s not that he would just have brothers, but that he would be surrounded by brothers who exalt him as honored among all the brothers.

It really is about the supremacy and exaltation of Christ, but God loves to have a family in the image of his Son.

No Dropouts

Romans 8:30 continues:

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The point of Romans 8:30, after all of that foreknowing and predestination is simply to show there are no dropouts. The emphasis of this chapter is on your security. You see that, don’t you? Do you feel that? Nobody dropped out. Are you justified? If you’re justified, you’re going to be glorified. Because it was rooted in predestination and foreknowledge. I remember at the end of the 1980s when I was preaching on this passage. I think I preached four sermons on Romans 8:30. I drove by one of those skyscrapers when it was a hole in the ground. I heard that it was going to go up 35 or 40 stories and I looked in the hole and it was like six floors deep. I thought, “Whoa, that’s a big hole in the ground.”

I use that as an illustration in the sermon the next Sunday. The higher the building you’re going to build, the deeper you need to take the foundations. Which is why Romans 8:28, being about as high as it can get — all things working for our good — needed something as weighty as verses 29 and 30 underneath it, because that’s where they are. Everything written in verses 29 to 30 about foreknowledge, election, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, is a support for Romans 8:28. Paul takes it really seriously.

What Shall We Say?

Here’s the next paragraph:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

What shall we say? It’s followed by six rhetorical questions. What should we say? And instead of saying, he asks questions. Why? I think as he comes to the end of the chapter, the way his mind is working here is not to just keep tossing out magnificent truths but to ask his readers, to ask you right now, what will you and I say? Then instead of telling you what to say, he asks you and makes you answer. What shall we, you and I say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? There’s the first one. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up first all, how shall he not also graciously give us all things? That’s the second one. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? That’s the third one. Who is to condemn? That’s the fourth one. Christ Jesus is the one who died. And the fifth and sixth come in Romans 8:35–39. Those are the questions that draw you in and force you as you come to the end of this chapter and say, what are you going to say? What will you say?

Romans 8:31 says:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Well, God is for us. That’s what the whole chapter has been saying. He foreknew us. He predestined us. He called us. He justified us. That’s what it means. He’s for us. Who’s this “us” here? That’s the called, the predestine, the elect, the justified. Don’t rip the flow of thought apart here and say that’s everybody. God is not for everybody that way. John 3:16 is true:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That’s the way he’s for the world. He gives his Son, offers him freely to the world. Absolutely anybody who receives the Son, has life. That’s not what this text has been about. This text is about so vastly more than the offer. This is God moving into my life, conquering my flesh and my insubordination, granting me to see the Son, believe in the Son, and be drawn to the Savior. That’s what the call means and he’s for the elect in a way that he’s not for everybody. The “us” here is the people that he’s been talking about in the preceding verses — the foreknown, the predestined, the called, the justified. If God is for us, who can be against us? What’s the answer to that? Nobody. To which you respond, you’ve got to be kidding.

Who Can Be Against Us?

Paul, have you just fallen asleep? You’ve been in prison so many times you told us you couldn’t count them. You have been lashed with 39 lashes five times. Your back is probably one scarred mass. You were beaten with rods three times. You described dangers in the streets and dangers on the seas and dangers in the cities. Have you forgotten how many people are against you? What are you talking about? It’s like Psalm 91 that we were singing. No weapon against you will prosper. You have to have a broad and deep biblical theology to make sense out of that sentence if they just cut your husband’s head off in Syria.

Well, he said it and “nobody” is the right answer. Who can be against us? Nobody. Which means nobody can successfully be against us. No weapon will prosper in achieving any ultimate destruction at all. Of course we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. We’re being killed all day long. Paul is not stupid, he’s not self-contradictory within a matter of two verses. He hasn’t forgotten what his life is. When he says nobody can be against us, he means nobody can successfully be against us. They can’t ruin us, they can’t destroy us, they can’t condemn us. All they can do is dispatch us to paradise.

How Will He Not Give Us All Things?

Romans 8:32 says:

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Every time you hear a rhetorical question, you need to know that he expects you to be able to answer and so you turn it into a statement which would go like this: “He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, most certainly will not fail to graciously give us all things and those all things.” And remember, the “all things” includes death, sword, peril, famine, nakedness, and sword. Yes, he will give us all things.

Who Shall Bring a Charge?

Romans 8:33 says:

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

What’s the answer? Nobody. Except all the people that hate Christianity and the devil who’s named the accuser? Exactly the same. He’s not naive. He knows what he’s saying. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Picture this, court after court, after court is accusing you and taking you to court and you’re appealing and appealing and appealing all the way and do you know why you’re not losing any sleep? The Supreme Court has already rendered. It’s over. There isn’t any higher judge than “it is God who justifies.” If God justifies, the lower courts don’t make you lose any sleep. You can’t appeal God’s ruling.

Therefore, of course, people can bring charges but they can’t make them stick. That’s what he’s saying. Nobody can bring a charge against you successfully. Nobody can bring a charge against you and make it stick. That’s good news because Christians are going to be criticized. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, count on it.

Who Can Condemn?

Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn?” The answer is nobody. Four reasons. One: Christ died. Two: Christ rose. Three: Christ is at the right-hand of God. Four: Christ prays for us. Christ died and that’s what he says in Romans 8:3:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh . . .

Therefore, my condemnation does not exist. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He bore it for us. Second, he was raised, which means God smiled upon the success of his redeeming work and said, it is finished, rise. We’ll bear witness together. You succeeded.

He is at the right-hand of God, which means there isn’t a place of higher honor for him, which means you don’t ever have to worry that God’s going to have a different take on you than Jesus does. He has put his Son after his finished work at the place of supreme honor and therefore, he loves what his Son achieved for you. He’s interceding for us. I have to just point you to two illustrations of this. Here is Jesus praying for you in John 17. What does he pray? What’s he doing tonight? Right now? It’s wonderful to think about right now, in heaven, Jesus is praying for you. He says:

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours (John 17:9).

And he also prays:

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth (John 17:15–17).

So he prays, “Keep them from the devil and make them holy. My God, in my name, I pray. Amen.” I’m so glad Jesus is praying that I am kept from the devil and that I would kill the deeds of the body by the Spirit successfully. Because if he weren’t praying that, I don’t think it would be happening. Otherwise, he’s wasting his time. He’s not wasting his time. Remember, God uses means to get us from justification to glorification. One of the means is the prayers of the Holy Spirit. One of the means is our own by the Spirit putting to death of deeds of the body. Another means is the prayers of Jesus. This is a dynamic universe and the Trinity is active in it to save us at every turn.

Here’s a beautiful illustration. I love this text. This is Jesus talking to Peter just before he denies him:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32).

That’s the sovereign Jesus praying effectually for Peter.

Who Shall Separate Us?

Romans 8:35–37 says:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Is it not amazing that at the crescendo of the greatest chapter in the Bible, he chooses to describe the most horrible experience in the Bible that Christians endure? Isn’t that amazing? For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Do you know why I think he chose to quote Psalm 44:20–22? It’s because it’s one of those rare psalms in which the psalmist is saying:

If we had forgotten the name of our God
     or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God discover this?
     For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
     we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

What’s he saying? He’s saying, “We’re innocent. We’re innocent. If we had forgotten the name of God, if we had spread out our hands to a foreign God, well, God would know that, and of course, we would be punished. We didn’t. We’re faithful.” That’s why he chose that verse. Because these Christians haven’t done anything to bring distress, tribulation, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword down on them. No. In all those things, we are more than conquerors.

Love Through Every Tribulation

Here’s just one observation before we go to the last section. I don’t think here where it says who shall separate us from the love of Christ, he means, “Will Christ stop loving us?” That’s been established already. The Father and Christ are not going to stop loving us. This means are there things that when they come into your life could be evidence that you’ve been cut off and his love can’t reach you anymore? You’re separate. He’s still loving but it can’t get through. Distress is blocking it and tribulation is blocking it. Look at this word “who” here. Isn’t it interesting? He says “who”? Then he gives things and events. Who shall separate? Then he gives things, tribulation, distress, persecution. Those are “who,” or are they?

What about the devil? Revelation 2:10 says:

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

The devil can kill you. He can put you in prison and see that you are dead. Behind any of these, especially this one, could be the devil. What he’s saying is that the devil cannot succeed in blocking the love of Christ toward you. He can’t block it. He can’t make a separation happen.

Nothing Can Separate

Which leads us to the last paragraph where it says the same thing in regard to the Father. Here’s the last paragraph:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38–39).

That’s not saying, “I am sure God will never stop loving you.” That’s a given in this chapter. He foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified, and he glorified. His love is rock-solid, constant, and rooted in everlasting pre-knowledge of you (election). That’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is these 10 things here — death, life, angels, rulers, present things, future things, powers, height, depth, and anything else — can’t successfully block it. I’ll draw a little picture and then we’ll quit.

This is a river. Can you tell? The fountainhead of the river is the love of God. The receiver at the other end is you and me, the elect. The love of God I’m saying, as a given, and never stops flowing to us, ever. The question is, can you block it? The devil puts a dam across called death. What Paul is trying to say in his “nothing can separate us” is not merely this death can be thrown out of the way. There it is off on the side, just thrown up on the bank and the love is still flowing. This obstacle here is turned and drawn into the love of God and made to serve you. Philippians 1:20 says “to die is gain.” Go ahead, devil, make my day. In other words, when the devil tried to block it, God didn’t just throw it out of the way. He said, “All right, come on. Serve.” I’ll give you another illustration of that besides Philippians 1:20.

What about 2 Corinthians 12? Paul says, “I have a thorn in the flesh.” What does he call it? A messenger from Satan. What does God do with it? He turns it into sanctification, humbling Paul. Paul says, “All the more gladly will I boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” That just must gall Satan. I meant to block the love of God and my thorn was made an instrument of love. All of them are. That’s why I put this here. This “I am sure” is just like this, “but we do know.” What do we know? We know that all things are not thrown out of the way. All things work. Death works.

Satan’s Service to the Love of God

Do you remember what the devil did the night Jesus was betrayed? What an idiot. He put it in the heart of Judas to betray him and committed suicide. Colossians 2:15 says, at the cross, the principalities and powers were disarmed. Satan, you are an idiot. You always wanted to keep him off the cross. Now, at the end of his life, you’re trying to get him on the cross? Don’t you realize what it’s going to mean for you? All that horrid, horrid suffering that you’re gloating in, it’s going to flow in the river of God’s love towards millions of people and save them for everlasting glory because you did it. Thank you very much.

The river not only cannot be blocked, all the blockages according to Romans 8:28, become part of the flow of love and serve God’s people. I’m finished. Let me end like this. Actually, tomorrow morning is the end. Let me end like this. What shall we say to these things? You should say all this, but what will you do? I think Paul and God want me to end on this note. Remember back in Romans 8:1–4 where it says:

God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I argued that the just requirement of the law fulfilled in us by walking through the spirit is love. I think this whole chapter is meant to make you radically-loving, risk-taking, loving. Off the charts, radically, sacrificially, risk-taking in love. You are meant to feel a security in suffering that sends you into the most difficult situations here and places in the world that no ordinary person would go because only Christians are this secure in suffering. I think it’s all serving the fulfillment of the law. He died so that we would walk by the Spirit so that we would fulfill the just requirement of the law. Love is a fulfilling of the law. God is saying, “My people, hit those streets. Hit those churches. Hit those nations, and lay your lives down and don’t fear anything.” Isn’t that the point of all this security? Tomorrow morning, we’ll try to answer the question from the big picture. Why is it the greatest chapter in the Bible?