God intends to help us suffer. That’s the point really of the rest of the chapter when he introduced “provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). When he introduced that suffering idea, everything else in this chapter relates to it. And everything is about suffering from here on out. You don’t get away from it.

We are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:36).

That’s what’s coming. Neither death nor life nor anything else can separate us. Everything else is about suffering and the realities of the global context in which we live, which is absolutely horrible and will remain horrible until Jesus comes, is that we’re called to be the freest of all people in this horrible, fallen, futile, decaying, suffering, slaughtering, Christian-killing world. We’re to be the happiest, freest, most loving, sacrificial people in the world.

That’s why he’s writing this chapter. It’s not to make you comfortable in your nice posh places where you feel guilty but rather to free you to be radically loving, sacrificial, world-changing people. So he’s trying to help us suffer here.

Help for Suffering

His first way of helping us is from Romans 8:18, which says:

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

It’s going to get really good and everything we’re called to go through here will pale in comparison to how good it’s going to be. Then Romans 8:19 says:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

I said last night that you’re going to be revealed. You don’t look like sons of God now. You will someday and the creation waits for that to happen. Then it will step in and be changed and serve you for the rest of eternity. Then he says:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

Now that’s God, not Satan, and the reason we know it’s God is because of the phrase “in hope.” God subjected the creation to futility in hope. Satan had a hand in this of course and tempted Eve and brought the whole thing down on our heads. But when God saw that happen, when God saw that sin happen, he brought the whole creation into a fallen condition and sentenced the world to futility. He sentenced the world to misery and groaning and decaying, floods and volcanoes and hurricanes and animals that eat each other up and all kinds of pain came into the world.

It’s a mixture of beauty and horror, is it not? It depends on where you focus your attention, whether you have 500,000 people swept away in Bangladesh in a monsoon a few years ago or whether you relax in The Cove. Where you are, depends on which angle of this you see, but this was God because Satan wouldn’t do it in hope. He wants nothing to do with hope. God judicially sentenced the creation, including our bodies to futility and death and that’s huge. That’s part of the global perspective you need to help your people have in order for them to handle their own suffering when it comes.

Futility for the Sake of Future Glory

It’s in hope of what? Romans 8:21 says:

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.

Now, God’s ways are not our ways. This is very strange. If God’s aim was that the creation be free from its bondage to decay, then why did he subject it to such futility? I mean, that’s a long way around. Why not go straight there? Why bring thousands of years of horror into existence? Why sentence the world with such millennia-long suffering if your aim is to bring it out and free it from its bondage to decay.

There are at least two reasons for that. One is we deserve it, and the other is that he means for the final creation, not just to glorify an obedient Adam and Eve, but to glorify the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It’s so that we obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God, and we have become children through what we’ve been seeing, the great work of Christ on the cross in justification and sanctification and glorification. God means to do a history of redemption and in that history of redemption, Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world. This plan of redemption redeeming us out of this horror was not a plan B after the fall. This was plan A.

He knew the fall would happen and he planned the whole thing around sin and redemption because in the end, when the new heavens and the new earth happen and we’re all freed in our bodies and freed in our spirits and freed in creation from the futilities and the decays, all of his perfections will shine more brightly because of the history of redemption, including justice and wrath and mercy.

I just would like to take you right to the end of Romans 9:20–23. In fact, I told John Parrish this morning, “If I ever came back I would just like to do Romans 9.” So he said, “Well, we’ll work on it.” The point here is that this roundabout way of getting the creation to the freedom for which God destines it, freedom from its bondage to decay, is all about us being the children of God. It’s about the revealing of the sons of God. He wanted to create a people for himself redeemed by the blood of his son so that he could demonstrate wrath against all that defames him and demonstrate mercy against the backdrop of that wrath, so that when the whole canvas is written from beginning to end with all the dark colors and all the awful pieces, the whole thing from the perspective of eternity will be the perfect display of the perfections of God. And we will bow down and spend an eternity worshiping the God of this redemptive history, including the decay, the futility, and the groaning.

The Pains of Childbirth

Romans 8:22 says:

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

In other words, this hope here is felt all along just like a woman who starts getting sick before she knows she’s pregnant. Now my wife never did. She was born to bear babies. She never had a day of morning sickness in her life. But she got heavy in the end and it was really big and we had 10 pound babies and to see a Piper baby is a phenomenon. We used to call them beached whales. It was before they could walk. So I have tasted this. I’ve been with her in three of our children’s births, and there’s pain. But it’s so full of hope except in some of the tragic situations that perhaps some of you have been involved in.

As a pastor, I’ve had to walk women through who’ve carried dead babies for three months and then given birth to them. So I don’t mean to say it’s always full of hope, but you know what the Bible is trying to say here? It’s meant to be a beautiful thing. Usually it is a beautiful thing and that’s creation. Creation is like a pregnant woman. Jesus said the same thing. Do you remember when he said there’s going to be floods and there’s going to be famines? These are the beginning of the birth pangs. Jesus said that in Mark 13:8.

So all that’s about hope. All the suffering you see in the world right now, including your own suffering, you should interpret as birth pangs. Get your whole mindset shifted into a global birthing process for the new heavens and the new earth and new bodies. It’s going to raise you from the dead. This is all about bringing forth the children of God and a creation that is appropriate and suitable for the children of God.

The Hope in Which We Were Saved

Romans 8:23–25 says:

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. 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.

Now what I want you to see here is how Paul is trying to help us with what we do see as not the main reality. What we do see is our body decaying.

There are a number of you who are old enough to have tasted much suffering and you know it’s coming. That’s what you see that’s real, and what you don’t see is hope. It wouldn’t be hope if you saw it. You see how he’s trying to help us with this intense reality of our fallenness, our futility, our groaning, our decay. We can see that so clearly. There’s so much hurt and so much pain in our families, in our bodies, and he’s trying to help us not become health, wealth, and prosperity wackos. Because the health, wealth, and prosperity wacko movement (all over the TV), does not grasp the progressive nature of salvation and the stages in which we are saved and the “not yet” of redemption. They are over-realized in their eschatology. They say, “We are kingdom kids, we don’t get sick. We expect because our hand gets healed that our daughter should be healed.”

It ain’t necessarily so and that’s what this text is about. Romans 8:23 is just absolutely foundational. I think the second or third sermon I preached when I came to my church in 1980 was called “Christ and Cancer”. I wanted my people to know what I would think about them when I came to the hospital when they were sick. Would I think, “What’s wrong with your faith?” Or would I think, “You’re part of a fallen, decaying, groaning, futile creation and God’s will is sometimes to heal and let’s ask him for it. Don’t let James 4 be your portion, which says, ‘You have not because you ask not.’ But when you ask three times like the apostle Paul and the thorn is not taken away, don’t get mad at God.” God has his purposes for why he heals some and doesn’t heal others, but this is for the non-healed. It is not only the creation but we ourselves who groan.

Even We Groan

Now in the Greek, I’ll give you a literal translation of what it’s like. He says, “We ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves.” There’s this emphasis on “we,” which means that he knows some wackos are going to say, “Hey, we’ve got the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent. The Holy Spirit can do anything he pleases. He can take away my disease, therefore he will. I just need to have enough faith.” Paul is directly addressing that person in this verse by saying, “Even we who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan.” That’s all they are. They are first fruits, not the fullest measure. He’s all here but he’s not going to do all his work yet, you will be raised from the dead “through the Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

He has his timing. He moves in now and forgives all your sins. He moves in now and begins to cause you to walk according to the spirit and love people. He moves in now and then heals you from a disease. And he moves in now and gives you patience to wait until you get your new body after you die, and he will not take away death. I have seen many great saints die hard deaths. Ruth Fast was one of the hardest. Her tongue turned black like a cinder. She was one of the sweetest, deepest praying women in our church. She was crying out, “Take me, take me, take me.”

I don’t want to be naive about your coming sufferings. I want to help you suffer. That’s what this chapter is all about. So we groan. Oh, do we groan. Inwardly, we are waiting. How long? How long, Oh Lord, until I get a new body? We need to really love people. We need to really get alongside people who are called to suffer. If you’re not suffering, you’re called to someone who’s suffering.

The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

Paul is saying, “I’m helping you teaching the big global perspective of suffering, telling you to be patient to wake. God has his purposes.” And 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).

What don’t we know to pray? What don’t we know to pray? I know lots of things that I must and should pray for. I should pray for patience in suffering. I should pray for healing. I should pray for love and kindness and meekness and humility. I know lots of things to pray for. I’m not ignorant about what to pray for. The Bible is so full of things that we ought to be and do. How can you be ignorant about what to pray? And we are. There’s something we’re ignorant of here. What would that be? We don’t know how or what to pray as we ought, and the Spirit steps in at those times and intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. What don’t we know how to pray for? Answer: We don’t know God’s secret will in our suffering.

We know his revealed will — be patient, be loving, be kind, be humble — but we don’t know his secret will. Will we get well? Will our daughter get well? Will our children get well? Are we in an apostle Paul situation of a thorn in the flesh and we’d like it to be taken away and we don’t know for a season whether it’s going to be taken away. In the end, it wasn’t taken away. And I’m sure Paul groaned, we groan not knowing what we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us. He knows the will of God and he prays for us with groanings. Whose groanings are those?

The Spirit doesn’t need to groan. He knows exactly what he’s praying for. He’s God. He has not one bit of ignorance or frustration. There’s no groaning except insofar as in us, we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan. It’s the same word and the creation is groaning. We are groaning and now the Spirit is groaning. My understanding of how the Spirit groans is exactly the way he bears witness that we are the children of God. There’s a parallel here. When we cry, “Abba, Father,” the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So the witness of the Spirit that we are the children of God is the Spirit’s birthing of a heartfelt, “Abba, Father.” And I think here the Spirit’s praying is the birthing of Godward groaning.

Godward Groaning

I can imagine in your lives that you’ve been in situations, financial situations, physical situations, relational situations, and you just don’t know what God means to do and you’re not sure what the will of God, as Scripture defines it, would imply. What do you do at that moment? Do you get angry? Do you just get frustrated? Do you seethe? If the Spirit moves at those moments, he comes in and he groans Godward because he hasn’t chosen to reveal to you what the will of God is at this point for your future. All you know to do is say, “God, I don’t know,” and those groanings are the Spirit’s groanings in and through you. I don’t think this is speaking in tongues by the way. That’s just the farthest thing from Paul’s mind here. The people that take the groanings here as praying in the Spirit, meaning speaking in tongues, it’s just off the wall because the context is clear from Romans 8:22–23 is that the groanings are real groanings.

They’re not speaking in tongues. These are groanings for people whose bodies are aching and they are waiting the redemption of their bodies and they don’t know if they’re going to get healed, if they’re going to die, or whether they should take a risk to the mission field, or whether they should try to avoid going to prison, or take the risk to get in prison. They don’t know what to do and their hearts are just aching Godward. And in those achings, God is listening to the Spirit who is saying, “Let’s do this for this groaning saint, that would be really good for them.” And he hears and he does it. That’s my understanding of the groaning.

To Escape or to Stand

Let me read you a text from John Bunyan. Bunyan spent 12 years in prison. What makes the 12 years in prison so painful for Bunyan was that he had children and he had one daughter who was blind. Her name was Mary. He had this little daughter who was blind and needed her daddy. Bunyan could have gotten out of prison anytime he wanted by simply signing that he wouldn’t preach. He chose to stay in prison. Now tell me that was an easy choice. The Bible doesn’t say, “Go to prison and don’t carry your family if it means you can’t preach.” The Bible leaves some leeway there. It says if you don’t take care of your family, you’re worse than an unbeliever. And it says, “Don’t do what man says do. Do what God says do. And if God says preach, preach and if they put you in jail, let them put you in jail.”

Now that was not an easy choice for John Bunyan, nor all over the world today for missionaries are the degrees of risk that they take easy decisions. I get regular emails from our missionaries like that. I got one from Turkey while I was preaching this series of messages saying, “We’ve got choices about how we do our book table that put us at varying degrees of risk of being thrown out of the country or put in jail.” One of our missionaries did spend time in jail in Turkey. How do you make these decisions? Listen to Bunyan. He’s talking about whether you run and escape persecution or whether you stay and accept it:

Thou mayest do what is in thy heart. If it is in thy heart to fly, fly. If it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Anything but in denial of the truth. He that flies has a warrant to do so. He that stands has a warrant to do so. Yea the same man may fly and stand as the call and working of God with his heart may be. Moses fled (Exodus 2). Moses stood (Hebrews 11). David fled (Samuel 19). David stood (Samuel 24). Jeremiah fled (Jeremiah 37). Jeremiah stood (Jeremiah 38). Christ withdrew himself (Luke 19). Christ stood (John 18). Paul fled, (2 Corinthians 11). Paul stood (Acts 20). There are few rules in this case. The man himself is best able to judge concerning his present strength and what weight this or that argument has upon his heart to stand or to fly. Do not fly out of a slavish fear but rather because flying is an ordinance of God, opening a door of escape for some which door is open by God’s providence and the escape countenanced by the word of God.

In other words, life is complex and when we groan over indecision about to fly or to stand, the Spirit prays and God’s good will for you gets done and it is always a good will for you.

All Things for Our Good

Now finally, Romans 8:28 comes, which is everybody’s favorite verse. There’s no “therefore” here, just an “and.” I think that means, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, and here’s some more help.” That’s all he’s doing for the rest of this chapter is helping you suffer. That’s all he’s doing. He’s helping you suffer so that you can walk right into the prison or into the mouth of the lion if it’s the will of God as you discern it and not worry whether you die or not. That’s what he’s trying to do. He 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 (Romans 8:28).

Let’s ask three questions: First, what’s the good? Second, what’s the love of God and why is that mentioned here? Third, what is calling? And we’ll spend that much time there because that will help us answer the rest of the text.

What is the Good God has for Us?

What is the good? God works all things together for your good. The immediate context would answer conformity to the image of his Son. 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 (Romans 8:29).

And here the word “for” is important. All things work together for your good because God predestined the foreknown to be like his Son. So contextually, the essential answer to what the good is that he’s always doing for you is bringing you toward Christ’s likeness. Don’t interpret that in a small moral way. I mean, moral is big and good and beautiful. I mean if I were morally like Jesus, I would be amazed. That would not be small. But also realize he has risen from the dead. He has a glorified body. He is at the right hand of the Father. He rules. He’s coming so that when he appears people will fall on their face. I mean, to be conformed to the image of the Son is big. It’s really big. You’re going to shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father. So that’s the goal.

Now, I don’t think you should limit the word “good” to that in this context because everything else in this text, I think is filling up what the good is, and we’re going to see all things are yours in him. There is no condemnation in him. God is for you in him. Nothing can separate you from God in him. I mean the word “good” here is, I believe, all-embracing. It is good as God sees good. And if we could believe that, every day and every hour of our lives, every red light, every missed parking place, every failed appointment, every broken brake and clutch, every sass from your child is going to work for your good — every broken heart, every disease, every failed relationship. I don’t think there’s any limit to this word.

I don’t think it excludes sin. Now, don’t do like Romans 6:1 here and say, “Oh, let us sin then, that more things may work for good.” That’s what the objectors said in Romans 6:1 and Paul did not like it, but that will have to be another Cove event. Chapter six. That includes everything.

What Is the Love of God?

Now what does love of God mean? Somebody wrote me a note and said, “Why does it say ‘to those who love God’ instead of ‘to those who trust God’?” I don’t know the answer to that question. I think he could have said trust God and it would be a true statement, but he said love, so let’s just think about love. If you know the answer, you can tell me. He said “to those who love God.” It’s to those who love God. All things don’t work together for good, for everybody. Some people go to hell. All things work together for good for those who love God.

I don’t think it means that some days you love God and things go good and some days you don’t love God and things go bad. I think it means here’s a person whose lifestyle is love to God, just like trust to God, and everything and their good days and bad days is working for their good. “Those who love God” here I think means those who cherish God, delight in God, and treasure God. It’s not working for God. It’s if your heart has been awakened so that you’re no longer insubordinate and rebellious (Romans 8:7), but you now are submissive and of proving, affirming, delighting, and rejoicing in God for who God is. To love God is not mainly to love his gifts, like forgiveness. It’s mainly to love him because he’s beautiful and glorious.

I’m going to ask a little tough Catch-22 question. I used to struggle with Romans 8:28, putting a problem to myself like this: I have to love God in order for Romans 8:28 to be valid for me and it needs to be valid for me so that I can love God. That’s what I used to think and I was trapped in a Catch-22. I thought, “I will love him if it’s true for me and I have to love him so it’ll be true for me,” and you’re trapped. There’s no way out of that until you get love right. If you say this text must be true for me before I will love him, it won’t be true for you. Loving God is not loving his working everything together for your good first. This is heavy. This is big. There’s a lot of professing Christians who don’t love God and are not saved.

Salvation is having your heart awakened to see God as the kind of God who is just and merciful and true and powerful and gracious and wrathful. And when you see it, you love it, and because you love him for who he is, then all things work together for your good. If you say to God, “If you turn this tragedy for my good, I’ll love you,” you’ve backed out of Romans 8:28 because you’ve reversed the order. You love him and then things work together for your good.

Don’t misunderstand me, I believe it’s right to love God because he works all things together for your good also. There are a lot of Psalms that talk that way, right? “I love you, oh Lord, because you hear my prayer.” Well, if that’s the only reason you love him, then he’s probably not hearing your prayer. You must see him displayed in the gospel as a glorious God, mingling all the excellencies of holiness and mercy and be drawn out to love and delight in him. And then in that new spiritual condition, everything works together for your good.

What Does It Mean to Be Called?

What does “called” mean? The first part talks about your response and act, and this talks about God’s response and act. The people for whom all things work together for good are people who are acted upon by God and people who act toward God a certain way. The act towards God is love. Now the being acted upon by God is called being “called.” What does that mean? This is absolutely crucial for what’s coming in Romans 8:32. So I’m going to put this text to define “called” from 1 Corinthians 1:22–24, which 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.

Now think hard with me for two minutes on this text. There are two calls in this text. One of them is mentioned and the other is implicit. Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. That’s Billy Graham preaching to 50,000 people. Billy Graham calls people to Christ. He says, “Come to Christ, and you will be saved.” Everybody is called in that sense. Everybody who comes under the gospel is called, “Come to Christ.”

That’s the way we ought to preach. No, don’t let the doctrine of election make you a hyper Calvinist. Hyper Calvinist is a technical phrase that means you only call the elect to salvation and you try to sniff out who they are. That’s never in the Bible. The Bible says be indiscriminate in your love. Be indiscriminate in your preaching, in your summoning to salvation. Call everybody, and whosoever wills may come. That’s clearly true. So here’s a call and it’s general, but it’s not this other call.

When Billy Graham calls, there’s some Jews out there who stumble and there are some Gentiles out there who say, “That’s stupid.” But to those who are called, they say, “Christ, you’re the power of God. You are the wisdom of God. I come, I come.” There are two kinds of call, a general call and an effectual call. There are different names for it. The second call affects what it demands. Here are the words going out of Billy’s mouth. They’re landing on 50,000 hearts and here’s the Holy Spirit coming down and in some, he calls. And the effect of the call — and it is an irresistible effect — is that they recognize Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God.

That’s how I got saved. That’s how you got saved. And like I said yesterday, you don’t have to know that to be saved, but I’m telling you now, that’s how you got saved. You were called two ways. You heard the gospel, or read a tract, or heard a radio message, or saw a TV program, or looked at a Billy Graham film. You heard a massage. That’s a general call, and maybe thousands of people heard it with you and something happened. Don’t take credit for that. Say, “Thank you for calling me.”

From Death to Life

Here’s an analogy. Jesus stood before the grave of Lazarus and he said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Now Lazarus was dead and the call created the obedience. Jesus said, “Come,” and when Jesus speaks effectually, his call creates the obedience. And that’s what this means when it says, “Those who are called according to his purpose.” I’d love to take you on a tour of that word in Paul. It’s his electing purpose, his purpose to predestine you.

So if you say to me, “How can I know if I’ve been effectually called?” The answer is, “You see Christ as the wisdom of God. You see Christ as the power of God and you love God.” You don’t look around inside of you, asking, “Where’s the evidence of my call? Where’s the voice? Where’s the call?” You just say, “Do I love him? If I love him, I’m called.” And then you give God the glory for how you got to be that way.

The Steel Chain of God’s Calling

All things work together for good because those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Now we’re starting into this chain that’s going to go from his predestined to called to justified to glorified. So we have foreknow, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. This is a chain. This is the most glorious steel, unbreakable, hope-giving heart-securing chain in the Bible. Let your heart be made firm by this chain. Get fiber in the tree of your faith by this chain. Be a solid Christian by this chain. Oh, there’s so many flimsy Christians because they don’t know this chain, this sequence, this building block of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification.

Let’s start with the word “foreknow.” What does that mean? The ways are divided here. I’ll tell you how Armenians understand it and how I understand it. One way to take this would be, “Okay, he’s going to predestine us, his called ones, to be like Jesus. That’s the content of predestination, to be like Jesus. He’s destining us and when he destines us, it happens. But before that, it’s those whom he foreknew that he does that to and foreknowledge is foreseen faith which I, by my autonomous self-determining free will, produce. So predestination then is a response to my autonomous self-determining decision to believe.” That’s one view. It’s called Arminianism. It will not work in this text and you don’t need to grasp for any theological presupposition. It just won’t work.

Here’s the reason it won’t work. If this refers to autonomously-produced, self-determined, human will-creating faith that God then sees, “Oh, that’s good, I approve of that,” and then backs up in his foreknowledge and predestines, then what becomes of the connection between calling and justification. It says, “Those whom he called, he justified” (Romans 8:30). Everybody that he calls, he justifies. How can that be? Justification is by faith alone. How can he say, “Everybody that I call, I justify,” when in fact, we must produce the act of faith so that we can be justified, which we do. I’m not saying faith is not your act. I’m simply saying it’s a gift of God and this connection won’t work if it’s not the gift of God.

To say, “Those whom he called, he justified” has to assume that the calling produces the faith, or guarantees the faith. Otherwise, there are a few people in the call here who shouldn’t be justified because they don’t believe. Justification is always by faith alone and he’s saying that all the called get justified. So all the called must believe, and the only way that can be secured is if the call produces the faith. If it’s all dependent on you and God can’t govern whether you believe or not, then he could not say all the calls are justified.

So just from the context alone, I argue that faith is not autonomously produced by a self-determining human volition which God has nothing decisive to do with. That’s just not biblical. Ephesians 2:8 says it’s the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. Philippians 1:29 says that we are called and we are given not only to believe but to suffer. We are given to believe. Second Timothy 2:25 says that they may repent if God perchance will grant them repentance. And over and over in the Bible your faith is the work of God.

What is Foreknowledge?

Now back up. Well, what then in the world does foreknowledge mean? Here’s the background of the word foreknow. Genesis 18:19 says, “I have chosen him.” Now I wish the versions did not translate that “chosen.” I even put the Hebrew for you here, for the few of you who can see it. It’s the word yadǎ. “I knew him,” or, “I have known him.” So let’s translate it literally. It says, “I have known him that he may command his children . . .” But the translators are right to interpret it as “chosen.” He says, “I have known him (I’ve chosen him) from all the people that he may command his children after me.” Amos 3:2, says:

You only have I known of all the families of the earth . . .

What does that mean? God doesn’t know about the Edomites? As if he were to say, “Oh there are Edomites. I didn’t know there were Edomites.” He is saying, “You only have I known,” that is, “I have acknowledged, I have set my favor and my care upon you. I have known you like this: Adam knew Eve and she conceived.” This word “know” is a drawing near, a setting of favor upon, an affection and love and care. Psalm 1:6 says:

The Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.

What? He doesn’t know the way of the wicked. He doesn’t know what wicked people are doing? Of course he does. This word “know” means, “I acknowledge it, I favor it, I like it, I care for it, I set it aside as my way.” Or Matthew 7:23 says, “Then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me, you lawless ones.” He never knew they existed? Of course he knew they existed. He never knew what they were doing? Of course he knows what they’re doing. What does “know” mean? It means I never had a relationship with you. I never acknowledged you. You were not mine.

That’s what I think foreknown means. It’s not stretching it at all. In fact, most commentators, if you read them, will take that position. I would translate this to mean that God, before the foundation of the world, did this:

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies (Romans 8:33).

If you ask, well, where does the election happen in that chain? It happens in the foreknowledge. That’s just another word for it. Those whom he chose knew beforehand in a loving relationship, he predestined to be like Jesus, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. That’s remarkable. What that means is there’s a Christ-exalting, Christ-centeredness to your conformity to Jesus. God wants this group right here to become many brethren like Jesus for a reason, so that Jesus might be the supreme brother. He wants you to become the family with an elder brother so that the supremacy and the primacy of Jesus might be manifest by many admiring younger brothers.

A Sure Salvation

So don’t think you’re the center here. Jesus is still the center. Romans 8:30 says:

And those whom he predestined he also called . . .

We have two eternal acts, foreknowledge and predestination, and now we enter into history and he calls. So God said, “I chose them, I’ve destined them, and now I will go and move by my power and my spirit and my word into their lives and call them to myself.” And then those whom he called, he justified. And we’ve seen what that is. It’s being declared righteous on the basis of the work of Christ and those whom he justified, he glorified. Amazingly, it’s past tense. That’s how sure it is. That’s what this chapter is about. This chapter is about rock solid surety that makes steel people.

I’ve written poems for my wife and one of my favorite images that I’ve used for her is “velvet steel.” That’s the kind of woman I have married. She is no nonsense, not too much affection and emotion. She’s not impressed with John Piper in the least. She is very impressed with Jesus. She is steel and unshakable. We go to the mission field, she eats the bugs. And since we’re one flesh, I tell my host that’s good enough. You can keep the fish head.

It’s past tense because it’s done, folks, it’s as good as done for you. You’re not going to fall out. He’s not going to let you fall out. He’s going to keep you. If I had time, I would take this word “calling” and take you to all the places. Do this word study when you get home. Go and look for the places in Paul and that word “calling” is connected with keeping. Those who he calls, he keeps. So we’re going to be glorified.

God Is For Us

Paul says:

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

That’s a good question to ask. Speechless we are almost. God being for you is a good way to summarize everything so far in Romans 8. He’s for you. He’s not against you, he’s always for you. When the sickness comes, he’s for you. When the car wreck happens, he’s for you. When you lose your job, he’s for you. Believe these things and you will be a strong person. If God is for us, who can be against us? What’s the answer to that question? Nobody.

Well, that’s stupid, right? Everybody’s against us. What does he mean? What do you mean “nobody”? You’re right. That’s the answer I would’ve given. He means for you to say “nobody.” Who can be against us? Nobody. Let’s stop jabbering away with theological nonsense. Let’s get real. Jesus said, “They’ll hate you everywhere. They’ll kill you. They’ll put you in prison.” What do you mean nobody is against you? So what word would you put at the end of “nobody can be against me?” I would put the word successfully. Nobody can be against me successfully. Of course they can kill me. So what? Do you remember what Jesus said?

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

I paraphrase that as, “Fear not, you can only be killed!” That’s exactly what this chapter is trying to breed into you. You should become the most dangerous, radical, life-laying-down people on planet earth — not to blow yourself up in a cafe but to lay yourself down to save the guy who blows himself up in the cafe. Christian martyrdom is very different from Islamic martyrdom. We do not kill, we die in love. So I’m really sensitive to saying that I’m calling for martyrs, which I am, because of 9/11 and all the martyrs we watch killing people by their martyrdom. That is not Christian martyrdom. We have a totally different way.

When we contemplate laying our lives down, we do it for our enemies that they might see the way they are loved by Christ. That’s what Christian martyrdom is about, and it is so different. May there be enough of us so that the Islamic world recognizes that Christianity is superior. I heard George Otis say one time in Manila at Lausanne 2, “Maybe we’re not making the headway in the Islamic world the way we should because there aren’t enough martyrs.” I hear so many Christians talk about missions, saying, “Well, is it safe to take your children there?” Nobody can be against us successfully because everything’s going to work for our good. We’ll see more of that in just a minute.

All Things with Christ

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?

Notice the logic of heaven there? I have a whole chapter in Future Grace on this verse. Since he didn’t spare his own Son, argue now, argue with that. Preach to yourself with that. And what’s the argument? There’s an implicit therefore. Therefore, he will most certainly graciously give us all things. It’s just another Romans 8:28 stated another way. If he didn’t spare his own Son, he won’t spare anything to bring me to himself. He will give me everything I need. And I understand Matthew 6:33, which says, “All these things will be added to you,” and Philippians 4:19, which says, “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory.” I understand that against the backdrop of this.

You may say, “All things? Well, why not the healing for my child? Or why not the rescue of my marriage? Or why not a new job?” This is again qualified by all things that are best for you. It’s just like there can be people who are against us but nobody can be against us successfully. All things are yours, but not everything you necessarily feel like having. It’s all things that are best for you. All things work together for your good.

The Verdict of the Highest Law Court

Romans 8:33

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

Yes they will. Successfully, no charge can be made to stick anymore. Why? Because God is the supreme court and when God vindicates, there is no appeal. There’s no appeals court after heaven’s courtroom, and you have been delivered the verdict. He says, “Not guilty, no condemnation.” So we’re winding up where we began. There is no condemnation. Sure there’s going to be some rascal lawyer who is going to say, “Objection. Did you see what they did last night?” Satan will do that over and over again to you. You’ll try to preach this to yourself and say there’s no condemnation, and that no charge can be made to stick against you and that nobody can condemn you. And Satan will say, “After what you just did? Are you kidding?”

Oh, the preciousness of the word of God to slay the devil. Memorize Romans 8 so that you can defeat the lies of the devil that come upon you when you sin and when you’re suffering.

A Fourfold Confidence for No Condemnation

Romans 8:34 says:

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

He gives you a four-fold confidence in not having condemnation. First, Christ died. And you remember Romans 8:3. He died to condemn sin, your sin, not his sin. He died. And second, he was raised. So death didn’t conquer him. He didn’t stay in the grave as though, “Oh, I guess it didn’t really work,” as though he tried to die for you, as though he gave himself and now he’s smoldering in the grave and so it really didn’t work. So he’s risen to vindicate the success of his sacrifice. He’s at the right hand of God and we know from Psalm 110 what that means. God says, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

So what is he doing at the right hand of God? He’s not playing tiddlywinks. He is ruling and bringing all the enemies of his people under his feet. Today, he rules in Iraq. Today, he rules in Russia and Indonesia and South Africa and Australia. He is ruling from the right hand of God. He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me — and I’m ready to release you now in just a few minutes — now go. You feel the sense of what this chapter is supposed to breed into your life in the face of all suffering, all persecution, and all the imperfection in your own life — the unbelievable confidence that should reign in the life of a sinful non-condemned Christian.

And fourth, he is interceding for us. So one, he died; two, he was raised; three, he’s reigning; and four, he’s praying. Remember Hebrews 7:25? It says:

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

And if you say, “Well, why does he need to intercede since we are justified by faith in the crucified and risen Christ? Isn’t it the cross? Isn’t it the death isn’t the resurrection that secures us? Why this intercession?” All he’s doing in interceding is daily pleading his blood. He’s daily, as it were, the living, present, triumphant emblem in the face of a righteous judge that the debt has been paid. That’s what he’s doing, and he’s just saying to the Father over and over again: “That sin, I covered. That sin, I covered. That sin, I covered. Watch me, Father. See them in me, Father. That sin, I covered.” That’s how he’s interceding for us. What a precious doctrine.

Nothing Shall Separate Us

Finally, Romans 8:35 says:

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

Now I can imagine a health, wealth and prosperity person, a naming and claiming kind of person who says, “Well, all that says is, ‘Can any of that separate us from the love of God?’ No, it won’t because it won’t happen to you. If you just believe him, you won’t have famine, you won’t go hungry, you won’t lose your clothes. You’ll always have really nice clothes.” There’s one problem with that and it’s the next verse:

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

That’s happening today in the world and it’ll happen to some of you if you’re faithful. We are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. This is Christian life. This Great Commission for which Billy Graham and this Cove and the whole organization and the Christian Church stands for, this Great Commission will not be completed without that happening. Blood will flow for Christ’s sake, and the world will see how much we love him and what his love looks like.

Paul continues:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

How can you be more than a conqueror? Isn’t being a conqueror good enough? What’s more than a conqueror? A super conqueror? What is super? What’s super about this conquering? Here’s what I think it is. When you’re a valiant, strong general leading your troops in victory, you can conquer a foe, smash them down, and kill them, or you can take them captive and make them serve you the rest of their life. That would be more than victory. That’s what this means, I think.

It says distress, tribulation, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword are defeated and taken captive and made to serve the good of the saints because Romans 8:28 says so. All things work for your good. Tribulation works for your good, distress works for your good, persecution works for your good, famine will work for your good, nakedness will work for your good, danger will work for your good, and the sword will work for your good. They have been made your servants because:

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).

The love of God is invincible. Everything here is meant to help you valiantly suffer.

A Final Exhortation

There’s no condemnation for you in Christ. You are set free from the law of sin and death. Your sin was condemned in the death of the flawless Christ. By the Spirit, you are fulfilling the just requirement of the law, namely love. You have the Spirit. You are in his sway. You’re owned by Christ. You’ll be raised. The Holy Spirit witnesses in you that you are the child of God. You will be glorified. You will see the glory of God. All your sorrows will be returned with joy. The whole creation will be set free from futility to share your glory. Your groaning in pain will lead to the redemption of your body. The Holy Spirit helps you in your weakness by praying for you. All things will work for your good. You are predestined to be conformed to Christ. You will be glorified. God is for you, and no one can successfully be against you.

Because of Christ’s death, God will give you all things with him. No one can make any charge stand against you. The risen and reigning Christ prays for you continually. No miseries, no horrors can separate you from the love of Christ. All adversities and adversaries will finally serve your everlasting joy. The invincible love of God will let nothing separate you from him. So my exhortation in the name of Jesus is to receive this. Believe this.

If you came here without a saving relation to Jesus, receive this. Receive this. Let this be the day of your quickening, your awakening. Embrace this in its entirety. Most of you know him and love him and to you, I would say, just staying with the book of Romans, I beseech you therefore on the basis of that:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1–2).

And the will of God for you is to be so freed, to be so empowered, to be so strengthened, to be so emboldened by this truth that you begin to take new risks in your life. I will give anybody a free copy of Don’t Waste Your Life who will plan to read it. In fact, all you have to do is go to the website called DontWasteYourLife.com and you have a free copy. This is my passion based on this. Don’t waste your life. You’re headed into an eternity of everlasting ages of ever-increasing joy in the presence of God in a new glorious heaven that will make The Cove look like a slum someday. Don’t waste your life trying to collect shells, trying to gather around as much Cove-like stuff as you can. Don’t do that. Come here, get empowered, and then lay down your life for the suffering.

You’ve been a really good audience and I thank you very much for your support.