Romans 8:15 - 8:39

Romans — Steve Gregg

Next in this series

Romans 9:1 - 9:13

00:00

Romans 8:15 - 8:39

RomansSteve Gregg

In Romans 8:15-8:39, Steve Gregg discusses the importance of being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit in overcoming sin and living a life of obedience to God. He emphasizes that our status as children of God is not based on our performance, but is given to us and maintained through our relationship with Him. The chapter also includes a discussion on predestination and the idea of God using all things for the good of those who love him, including suffering. Overall, the passage presents a message of hope and assurance for believers facing trials, reminding them that nothing can separate them from God's love.

Transcript

We're turning back to Romans 8 a second time now, and we were talking about Paul's emphasis on walking in the Spirit as the means of overcoming the power of sin in one's life. And I attempted to simplify what walking in the Spirit means down to two aspects, mainly being led by the Spirit, which Paul mentions in verse 15, and being empowered by the Spirit, which he mentions in verse 14. And these are the verses we left off at last time.

And to be led and to be empowered are the two things that make up prerequisites for walking somewhere. You have to know where it is you're going and what direction you have to take to get there. That's number one.

And secondly, you need to have the strength to get up and walk. You have to have the strength in your legs, the energy in your body. And so the Holy Spirit directs us and empowers us.

And of course, this raises some problems for certain people because most of us can relate with Romans 7 in that we don't always do what we want to do. And so we hunger for something that's dramatically different than what we're experiencing. And when we read that walking in the Spirit is that dramatic thing, it seems like it must be very, very different than what we're already doing.

And I don't think it is. If you're a Christian, I think for the most part walking in the Spirit is the default, but it's not a default that happens with that intention. If you're a real Christian saying, I want to follow Jesus today, I'm trusting in God, you know, I want to do what he says.

Well, then those are some basic Christian attitudes, which really are what we're talking about. We're talking about being doing what he says is being led by him and trusting God to help you live the life he wants you to live. That's the other part.

It's just that the Holy Spirit is the agency through which God leads and through which he empowers. So in other words, what most Christians probably, if they're real Christians, really serious about following God are already doing is probably walking in the Spirit. It's just a matter of being consistent and realizing that that's what we're doing.

We may be looking for something more sensational, more obviously supernatural than what we already have. After all, life seems pretty normal and normal doesn't seem supernatural, seems rather natural. So whatever life we're living, even if it's an ideal Christian, even if it's a life similar to Paul's himself, it may feel natural to us.

Just like a fish doesn't feel wet, I'm sure, because it lives in a wet environment all the time. It doesn't know the difference. And I think that sometimes what is supernatural begins to feel natural to people who are living supernatural lives.

And we are. If you're born again, you're in a different realm, which is in fact a supernatural realm. It may not feel like you're an extraterrestrial or something like that, or that there's magic going on or anything like that.

But you've had a new life given to you. It's supernatural. But since it is your life and it is your environment that you're in now, it feels natural to you.

So if it feels natural to you, you may be living in the supernatural way that the Bible is talking about and still feel like it seems like it should feel more different than this. It feels like I'm living a natural life. Well, you can know if you're living a natural life by whether you're following fleshly pursuits and following fleshly values and things like that.

Then maybe being born again hasn't happened yet for you. But if you're essentially saying, I want to live a life for God. I want to pursue the kingdom of God.

I don't do this perfectly, but it's what I'm determined to do. I think that's a pretty good indication you've been born again. You've got the new life in you.

And probably, though you are aware of the defects in your life, as Paul was aware of those in his, probably people that watched Paul didn't see many of those defects. Probably people who looked at Paul said, well, there's a good example of a Christian. It's very possible that you are very mindful of defects in your Christian walk, but other people, they say, that's a good Christian there.

She or he is living for God, and they're right, because that's what you are. It's just that because you're a Christian, there's a certain standard that you take for granted, and there's even a higher standard that you hope to attain to. And you're always mindful of the distance between where you are and where you're seeking to attain to.

Whereas where you are is really where maybe a Christian usually would be and could be expected to be. But the defects, we all have some. Paul had some.

We all do. But I don't know that walking in the Spirit feels that supernatural. A lot of people want to get guidance from God that feels supernatural.

They want to feel like something has come to them from the other side, from God. It's almost like if you're at a seance and voices were coming to you from you don't know where. Like there should be some kind of counterpart to that in the Christian life, where we're getting voices and guidance from God from some mysterious source.

That's not really how it feels when you really are living in the realm of the Spirit. It feels more natural. It's supernatural.

And if it happened to a non-Christian, it'd be very strange to them. To you, it's not strange because you live every day. You wake up in the realm of the Spirit of God.

And so it's what you're accustomed to, so that it might not seem as bizarre or strange or exceptional or supernatural as it really is. Of course, because it isn't really exceptional to your case or to that of Christians in general. Christians have the Holy Spirit.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they're none of His. And that being the case, Christians will be walking in the Spirit to a great extent. What is needed is simply to do it more consistently, which may mean more attentively, more carefully, on the watch more for stumbling blocks and temptations, and consciously applying the fact that I must obey what the Spirit says, and I must trust that He's going to give me the ability to do it.

Here in the moment where I'm facing a temptation, this is where I would normally fall. This is where I would normally obey the flesh, but I want to consciously say, no, the Spirit of God is telling me this is not the right thing. And the Spirit of God will help me to turn from it, as I now turn.

You know, you have to do your part too. You have to actually turn away from it. Like Joseph ran away from Potiphar's wife.

If he had stood around there saying, I must be strong, I must be strong, he might not have ended up being that strong. But if the Holy Spirit is saying, turn from this, run from this, flee, then that's what you must do. And as you obey, He empowers you to succeed in that obedience.

That's what I understand to be the case with reference to walking in the Spirit. And Paul doesn't go into that much detail specifically using that terminology, but he does say enough to indicate to me that this is what he's talking about, and also of course having had some years, frustrated years as well as less frustrated years as a Christian, this is what I've come to understand it to mean. There may be those who understand it better than I do, and who could explain it better than I do.

Now, in verse 14, he said, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. We've already mentioned being led by the Spirit of God, but he says, these are the sons of God. Now, notice, how many people are led by the Spirit of God? The same number as are the sons of God, as many as.

Which means if you're a child of God, you are being led by the Spirit of God. Maybe not every moment perfectly, if you allow yourself to be distracted or drawn or tempted off that course, but being a child of God means that you are in general being led by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is in you, he is convicting you, he is directing you, sometimes maybe when you're not even aware he's doing it.

A lot of times you'll be going about a course almost just because it's the default course you had to take for other reasons, and once you get to a certain point in the day, you have an encounter that you would never have had if you hadn't made certain decisions earlier in the day that brought you to that point, and you realize, well, I was being led there. Like the servant of Abraham who was sent across the desert for weeks with ten camels loaded of stuff to look for a wife for Isaac. And he comes to Padnerim, and he comes to the well, and he says, Lord, as he stopped at the well to get water, he says, the woman who comes out here who I asked for water, and she says, drink, and I'll give water to your camels also, I'll know that she's the one you've chosen.

Well, lo and behold, when Rebecca comes out, he asks her for water, and she also offers to water his camels, so he marvels and realizes that this is the right one. He says, who are you? She says, I'm the daughter of Laban, you know, or the sister of Laban, Bethuel. And he realizes, wow, this is the purest connection to the Abrahamic family that's available.

And he prays and he rejoices, he thanks God, he says, while I was on the way, you led me to the house of my master's family. And which is, notice he realized that while he was traveling, God was leading him, because he arrived at that well just at the right time to meet up with Rebecca. Had he come an hour earlier, maybe some other girl would have, made the offer.

If he'd come an hour later, he would have missed her altogether. But his arriving there at that time had to do with decisions he made over the weeks previously, when to break camp, when to stop traveling, what time they'd arrived had to do with other choices about how far they got other days. Every choice he made, he wasn't aware of being led, but God was leading him.

And he knew it only when he had this divine appointment, he said, wow, I've been led all along here by God. I just realized it now when I see what has been the result of a whole series of decisions made over the past few weeks. I got here at the right time to meet the right person.

God, he says, God was leading me to my master's house. So I believe a lot of times we're led by the spirit of God, even when we're not particularly aware, we're just doing the next thing that's our responsibility. Somebody asks us to do something and we say, well, I guess I should help.

So you go and do it. And as you're doing it, you have another encounter or something else happens. And, you know, I'd better stop and pick up some of these on the way home.

I mean, just things that don't sound like spiritual decisions. And lo and behold, at the store, you meet somebody who's in need of what you can say to them. And their life is changed by it.

There's many people whose testimonies are that they were led to the Lord by a chance encounter with somebody whom they might as easily have not encountered had they made a slightly different decision about what to do that morning. So God's spirit is leading us both behind the scenes and consciously. We don't always have to feel like I'm getting a word from God.

Like the kid my ex-wife knew in a Christian house where she had stayed, where this kid wouldn't eat cereal. He wouldn't eat breakfast till he got a word from the Lord about which cereal to eat. And this is serious.

He was serious. And by the way, I've given that illustration of the wrong attitude about this for a long time. And then I, more recently, I met someone who actually did that same thing.

They said they prayed in the morning which cereal they should eat. They wanted a word from God. They didn't want to make the wrong move.

That's very nervous. That doesn't sound like an easy yoke. That sounds like a very nervous life.

I don't even know how many squares of toilet paper to use unless the Lord tells me to try to use four or five. You know, I mean, those kind of ridiculous demands that the Holy Spirit gives you special guidance for things like that when you should just assume and trust. I'm yielded to God.

He's my guide. He lives within me. He is my life.

I'm led by the Spirit of God because I'm a son of God. I can be drawn away from His leading. But if I begin to be tempted away from it, I'll probably feel a check in my spirit about it and say, well, this really isn't the right thing.

But sometimes we ignore those for various reasons. And then that moment, we're not led by the Spirit of God. That moment, we're not walking in the Spirit.

So this is what I understand to be about walking in the Spirit. It's not a special kind of magic that we need to master the techniques of. It's just really living the life that God has put in us through His Spirit and being cooperative with it, trusting Him to make it work.

Okay, so but when he said those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, this gets him off on a slight tangent about being a son of God and what the implications of that are. He hasn't really gotten into that previously in Romans. It's obviously a very important concept about Christianity, our relationship with God as children.

And so he takes a moment to say some things about that. He says, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, meaning the spirit that's given to adopted sons, by which you cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified together.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Now, the glory that shall be revealed in us is Christlikeness. We will be mature sons.

It says in Hebrews 2 that God, in bringing many sons to glory, made the captor of their salvation perfect through sufferings. He's bringing many sons to glory. I've said before that glory is, in many instances in the Scripture, simply referring to our destiny to become like Jesus.

Christlikeness, the image of Jesus in us is the glory that we're called to. So where Hebrews says that God is called, bringing many sons to glory, the same concept is found in Romans 8, 29, where he says, whom he foreknew, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he'd be the firstborn of many children. That is, many sons to glory, many children to be brought into the image of his Son.

These two concepts are, I believe, identical, simply being expressed in different language that is not different in meaning. It's only different in choice of words. That being called to glory, by the way, that reference to many sons to glory is in Hebrews 2, 10, and the one in Romans is Romans 8, 29.

Many sons to glory, many sons to the image of Christ. This is God's purpose. And so being sons has many ramifications, Paul's saying.

We are the children of God. We have the Spirit of God, and we're led by the Spirit of God. We are his children.

Why would this connect like that? Because children obey their parents. If you're led by the Spirit, you're obedient to God. You're being led in a path that pleases God, and that is obedient to God, just like children follow their own parental authority.

Their parents' authority. And so he says, because you didn't receive a spirit of bondage again to fear. Now, the spirit of bondage, no doubt, is a reference to legalism.

Bondage can mean bondage or slavery to sin, but Paul also is known to use this term with reference to legalism. When he said to the Galatians, for freedom Christ has set you free. Do not fall again into a yoke of bondage.

When he's talking to the Galatians, he means bondage to the law. And a yoke of bondage that brings fear is legalism. Legalism is a life of fear.

It's a life of fear because it is a life of uncertainty. What a legalist is certain of is that he's got obligations to fulfill the law. But he's not certain that he's done it well enough, and so he nervously must strive to be good enough, to obey more laws as much as possible.

And then when he fails in one, then he's not so sure. Am I out entirely, or do I have to do a whole bunch more good works before this overturns his bad work? And what legalism is performance orientation, where you have to earn your status. Being a child in a home, you don't earn your status.

It's given to you by your parents, and it's maintained simply by reality, not by something you do. You don't maintain your relationship with your parents. You should obey them.

If you don't obey them, you're still their child. The parent-child relationship is not based on performance. It may be that the parents will discipline the child according to their performance or lack thereof, and they should actually.

But disciplining a child doesn't mean they've disowned the child. It's the opposite. You only discipline a child that's yours.

It says in Hebrews 12 that God only disciplines those sons that he receives. He doesn't discipline the sons that he rejects. So, God's discipline is about our performance.

If we perform badly, we'll be disciplined. Every good parent wants to steer the child into good behavior, into good citizenship, into good character, and discipline is for that purpose. But all the while that the child is stumbling around and not exhibiting good character, they're still a child, which is why the parent is committed to doing the training in this way.

Your status as a child is not based on anything you do, it's not your performance, whereas status in a legal code under legalism is based entirely on what you do, and therefore it's an insecure system. It's a spirit of bondage. You're trapped like a slave to the law, and it's fearful that you may not actually live up to what's required, and then you'll be rejected.

He says, no, that's not where we're at right now. We haven't received again that, that spirit of bondage to fear. We've received a spirit of sonship, of adoption, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

Now, what he means by that, I believe, is that because the spirit is in us, and he is the spirit of sonship, or spirit of God's son, therefore calling God Father, Abba, Father, is kind of what just comes from us naturally. We naturally speak of God as our Father. The spirit within us bears witness that we're children of God, he says in the next verse.

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God. That is to say, it's obvious to us that we're children of God. It's natural to call God Father, Abba.

The spirit in us has given us that assurance that we're his children, bears witness to that fact, and as such, it, of course, assures us that we are accepted by the Father. There's a similar passage in Galatians 4. I was looking for it, and I found it. It's hard for me to talk and look for something else at the same time.

But in Galatians 4, it says, when the fullness of time had come, in verse four, Galatians 4.4, God sent forth his son, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Now, this is very obviously the passage in Galatians that served as a rough draft for the passage in Romans that we're using.

The slight difference in wording is simply that he says it's the spirit of his son, the spirit of Christ that we've received, whereas in Romans, he changed that to the spirit of adoption, which is the same thing. Adoption essentially means we're sons, we've been adopted. So, Galatians 4.5, at the end of the verse, says we receive adoption as sons, and that's what Paul's talking about in Romans 8. We're adopted, we have a spirit of adoption given to us, which bears witness with us that we've been adopted as sons.

And Galatians 4.6, because you are sons, he sent forth the spirit of his son, which Romans 8 refers to as the spirit of adoption, same spirit, into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Here, it sounds as if the spirit himself is the one crying out, Abba, Father, in us. And in Romans, it says, by that spirit, we cry out, Abba, Father.

There's such a merging of who we are and who the spirit is, that he, through us, is crying out, Abba, Father. Later in Romans 8, he's going to talk about how the spirit prays through us, through groans that cannot be uttered. Well, who's doing the praying? Are we or he? Well, kind of both, because there's a linkage a oneness between ourselves and God.

It's a family relation, and he views us as his children. He's given us the same spirit that was in his son, Jesus. That links us to Jesus as one, sharing one spirit with him.

And, of course, he says that if we're children, which has been established in verse 16 of Romans 8, then verse 17, if we're children, then we're heirs. Paul said that also in Galatians 4, which we're looking at. Galatians 4, 7, Therefore you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God.

People who have children leave what they have to their children. Their children are their natural heirs, unless they're disowned for some reason. Or if they have no children, then maybe a servant, like Abraham's servant was in line to be his heir when he was childless, but under ordinary circumstances, you have children, they're your heirs.

And so if we're children of God, we're heirs of God. Now that could either mean that what we inherit is God himself, or that we are heirs of God in the same sense that I'm the heir of my parents. What God owns becomes mine.

I'm the heir of his estate. I'm his heir. And as such, I'm a joint heir with Christ.

Well, we know that Christ is the heir. In Psalm 2, in verse 8, God says to Christ, ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance, the outermost parts of the earth for your possession. Christ is going to inherit all the nations of the earth as his possession and his inheritance.

And I'm a joint heir with him, so I am too, and so are you. That's why Jesus said to his disciples, blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. We inherit with Christ.

We're joint heirs. Now a joint heir is someone who inherits jointly with somebody else, as opposed to someone who divides the estate. If there's like two heirs to an estate, it could go one of two ways.

It could be that one gets half and the other gets half, so they each take their half and go their way, or the will could be that they jointly inherit the whole thing, so they both own the whole thing and they have to manage it together. And that's what we are with Christ. We're joint heirs.

It's not that Jesus is going to get the lion's share and we're going to get our share divvied up among us in our individual lives. We are linked with Christ jointly inheriting the whole world, all things. And of course it would have to be joint because we're one body with him.

Exactly what form that will take in eternity is hard to know. Will we really be more like cells in a body, or will we be as individuals as we are now and yet have more of an awareness of our one? These things are not clear. We know what is clear is that we have a destiny in Christ that he receives, we receive.

What he inherits, we inherit with him. He shares the reign over all things with his brothers and sisters. And that's what God has in mind.

And Jesus doesn't begrudge it apparently. He's glad to share it, glad to be jointly inheriting with us all things. Now he said in verse 17 here, if we're children then we're heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if, now this is a condition, you want to inherit? Well, you will inherit with Christ if we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

Now, you know, not all Christians suffer with him for various reasons. One might be that they just don't live in an area where suffering is, suffering for Christ is quite a normal thing like it is in other areas where there's persecution. It might also be that they're a little wimpy about suffering somewhat.

When they could have suffered more they avoid it. But there's also the case that some people may just get saved so late in life they just don't have a chance to suffer. What suffering did the thief on the cross do for Christ? Now he suffered for his crimes.

Crucifixion is suffering indeed but he wasn't suffering for Christ. He was suffering for his sins and his crimes but he came to Christ and was saved. He didn't suffer with Christ unless perhaps we could say he did when he turned and rebuked the other thief and therefore he incurred the same persecution and ridicule from that other thief that Jesus did.

All Christians suffer something, some little thing but certainly our inheritance with Christ is somehow related to our suffering with him too. And so we also read over in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11 says, This is a faithful saying for if we died with him we shall also live with him. If we endure we shall also reign with him.

Now reigning with him is conditioned on our enduring and enduring is, you don't endure comfort, you endure hardship. Endurance suggests something that is hard to go through but you do anyway. And so the idea is we have discomforts brought upon us by our loyalty to Christ and our loyalty to him.

So the suffering is connected to the glory and to the honor and to the something, the degree of inheritance that we share with him. I can't amplify on that because the Bible doesn't. The Bible doesn't tell us much about those details but it is clear that suffering with him is considered to be normative.

Suffering is not some strange thing suffering is a normal thing. And if we're not suffering that's rather abnormal. In 1 Peter 4 1 Peter 4.12 He said, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing was happening to you.

But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed you also may be glad with exceeding joy. For Christ's blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he's blasphemed but on your part he's glorified.

Now, Peter is saying that you may be tempted to think it's strange when you unjustly suffer but that's not strange at all. That's not a strange thing. You're simply continuing to participate with Christ in his sufferings and when his glory is revealed you may be glad with him.

What that share will look like we are never really told and we shouldn't need to be. I mean, frankly, the attraction of heaven as far as I'm concerned the only attraction of heaven I know is Jesus. I don't really care what heaven's like.

I just want to be with Jesus. I mean, if heaven was a room with gray walls and no windows and no color but Jesus was there we would not ever lay out details of what the glorified state will be like day by day what it'll be like to our senses to our consciousness. All we know is we'll be like Jesus and we'll be with him ruling if we endure, if we suffer with him.

And he says in Romans 8, 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. It's interesting that the glory is going to be revealed in us. The glory of Christ manifests in us.

We're changed from glory to glory into that same image. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 18 We're being changed into the image of Christ from glory to glory. That is apparently from one degree of glory to another.

So, that glory is going to be revealed in us. It's going to be revealed in us somehow related to the sufferings of this present time but they are nothing compared to it. They are momentary.

It is eternal. They are light. It is heavy.

That's how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 4, 18 where he says For our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That's 2 Corinthians 4, 18 Our light affliction The affliction is light comparatively which is but for a moment so it's temporary. That's the thing about all our trials.

They are relatively light compared to what? Compared to the eternal weight of glory. There's a weight of glory and a lightness of the affliction by contrast. It's also the fact that the afflictions are but for a moment but the weight of glory is an eternal weight of glory.

The difference is in duration and intensity. When Paul says our light afflictions are light if you read the catalog of his afflictions in 2 Corinthians 10 and 11 they're pretty serious afflictions. He's been beaten with rods.

He's been received 39 lashes several times. He's been shipwrecked. He's had to float around on debris in the shark infested waters.

He's in danger in the country. He's in danger in the city. He's in danger among brethren who are false.

He's in danger among the Jews. Everywhere he goes he's in danger. He's in danger, So, does that make him light in comparison to glory? Well, since Paul referred to his afflictions as light then we certainly must refer to any of ours as exceedingly light.

And if his are light compared to the glory then ours are exceedingly light compared to the glory that shall follow. So that's why Paul says I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory. They're so light and it's so heavy.

They're so temporal. It's so eternal. You put it on the scales and the glory weighs its side of the balance down to the ground.

And you put the sufferings on the other side, it's like dust in the scales. It doesn't even move. It's not worthy to be compared.

It's not even in the same universe. And that's probably literally true. Our sufferings probably are not really in the same universe as the glory, because this universe is going to pass.

And Paul goes on to say that in the very next verses. In verse 19, for the earnest expectation of the creation itself eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, which means decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Liberty from that bondage of decay. Once we're liberated from this body, we will no longer decay. The bondage of decay we will be liberated from, and so will the creation apparently.

Those destructive effects of the second law of thermodynamics will be apparently reversed. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now, and not only they, but we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one hope, still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Now, he may seem to be meandering in his thoughts here, but he has moved somewhat from the discussion of walking in the Spirit to the discussion of ultimate glorification, which is the final aspect of salvation. Justification, sanctification, and glorification. And he's saying our glorification, he refers to it in verse 18, as being so great that the present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with it.

And in fact, our glorification is so great it will affect the whole universe. The entire creation is looking forward to this. To what? To the revealing of the sons of God.

That's what he says at the end of verse 19. The creation is groaning in expectation, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. What's revealing? Well, when that glory is revealed in us, he says in the previous verse.

What's going to happen is in the resurrection, God's glory will be revealed in us. That revealing of us is what the creation is looking forward to. Well, why should the creation care anything about it? Because the creation itself will also be liberated from the bondage of decay when we are liberated by that revealing, by that resurrection, by that redemption of our body, as he calls it.

So this is the true escape from this body of death. Who shall deliver me from this body of death, Paul said. Well, for the time being, God's not holding you guilty because you're in Christ.

And in the meantime, you have the opportunity to walk in the spirit and obligation to do so, so that you are provisionally overcoming that in that struggle against the flesh. But ultimately, there will be a removal from the whole temptation scene. Sometimes people have said to me, well, what's the problem? What guarantee is there that if we go to be with the Lord in the resurrection and so forth, that there won't be a repeat of the whole story, the fall or anything? Won't we be, won't we be capable of falling? Will we no longer have free will? Oh, we'll have free will.

Free will. If I had absolute free will now, I wouldn't sin because that's my choice. I've chosen.

My will is to obey God. The reason I sin is that will isn't completely free. There's this bondage to some other will.

You know, the will of my mind is to live in holiness. That's what defines me as a Christian, in fact. What makes me different than non-Christians is that in my mind, I'm determined to live obediently to God.

The problem is that my body hasn't gotten the memo and it has a will of its own. So my will to obey isn't a hundred percent free. With my mind, I embrace the law of God, but there's another law bringing me into bondage, into captivity.

Well, it's when I'm liberated from that, that my will will be totally freed to do what I really want to do now, and that's to live a holy life. See, Adam and Eve didn't have a predisposition to live a holy life. They weren't as near as I could tell predisposed one way or the other.

I think they had an absolutely free will until they fell. And I believe that free will was exercised by being wrongly exercised because they were tempted by the devil and deceived and they took the wrong step. And then no one has had a completely free will since then.

But I believe that once we're glorified, our will will be completely free, that is freed from the sinful law in our members, so that living a holy life will be no problem anymore. We'll be liberated from that bondage and that struggle. Now, there also won't be a devil there.

I don't know if Adam and Eve would have ever sinned if the devil hadn't been there deceiving them. I think they could have, technically, but I don't know if they would have. I think they could have eaten from that tree even if there's no devil, but they might never have thought of it, never been concerned, but the devil's there trying to talk them into it.

Get him out of the picture. Get your fleshly law of sin out of your members out of the picture. What's to sin? What's to go wrong? And besides, we don't know that anything will be forbidden.

If there's nothing forbidden, you can't really sin, can you? As far as we know, Adam and Eve only had one thing forbidden to them, and that was to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know of nothing else that was forbidden, and that was there as a test. Those who make it into the resurrection are no longer needing to be tested.

They passed the test. That's why they're there. They've finished the course.

They've sat for the exams. They've passed and they've gone on to the profession. There's no more testing.

There will be nothing that's forbidden that becomes a test for us. There's no devil to try to urge us to test. There's no sin in our members to drag us down toward rebellion against God.

There'd be absolutely nothing. Now, some people say, well, what about the devil? Wasn't he a holy angel and there was no tempter there? There was no sin in his members there. Wasn't he a perfect being and then he fell? Well, was he? We won't get into that now, but suffice it to say the Bible doesn't clearly say that that's the case.

Some people believe that, of course. Most Christians believe it, but the scriptures do not teach it anywhere that Satan was an angel. So, that's the one thing people often bring up.

Well, when we're perfect, we'll be maybe like the angels were, but didn't one of them. Actually, a lot of them fell and they were probably tempted by the devil, but the devil won't be where we're gonna be. And that the devil was ever an angel and that he fell without someone externally tempting him, we don't know to be the case.

One thing we do know is that new heavens, new earth will be where holiness and righteousness is dwelt, which is a better deal than the environment we're in now. And the whole creation is groaning until that happens, looking forward to it. It's an anticipation.

This is personifying the creation. This is just a personification for the sake of making a point. Just like when Jesus said, if these would be quiet, the stones themselves would cry out.

Or when Isaiah says, the trees will clap their hands. You know, these are things that aren't really literally the case, but they are giving the impression, you know, the whole creation will rejoice. The whole creation recognizes Jesus as the Messiah.

The whole creation is looking forward to this. If it were conscious, it would be, because it will be liberated at that time. And so, to speak of this personification of the creation anticipated, he speaks of it groaning.

And no doubt he's referring to that, to all the imperfections that have come upon the world because of the fall. No doubt the instability of the tectonic plates, the earthquakes, the tsunamis, the volcanic destruction that goes on, bad weather that destroys and tears up forests and kills people and things like that. I mean, there are natural things in our world that apparently will not be there in the new world.

When Jesus comes back and there's a new heaven, new earth, these things will not be there. It says in Revelation 22, excuse me, Revelation 22 verse 3, it says, describing it, it says, there is no more curse. The curse that came on the world is no more.

And for that reason, the creation, if it were conscious, would certainly be looking forward to that. And when will that happen? That will happen when the sons of God are resurrected, when we receive the redemption of our bodies. Now, this makes it very clear that Paul was not aware of any millennial reign of Christ between the resurrection and the new world.

Premillennialism, and this is not something that I want to beat this drum too much right now, but just an observation in case you didn't notice it, Paul never mentions any belief in a millennium. And here, he mentions that he doesn't believe in a millennium. Because according to the millennial doctrine, we would experience the redemption of our bodies at the coming of Christ, but the creation is not transformed into a new heaven, new earth until after the millennium.

That's premillennial thinking. Paul didn't know about that. He believed that when our bodies are redeemed is when the new earth, when the earth is recreated, when it's, everything is delivered from the bondage of decay.

That's the curse that goes away in the new heaven and new earth, apparently. So, Paul has a more simple eschatology than many have. That is, there's gonna be a day when everything happens.

We're raised from the dead, the earth is renovated, the curse is gone, all is good, devil's gone. It's all one day, the last day, the day of Christ, the day of the Lord. And that was Paul's eschatology, apparently.

Now, he mentions that the creation was subjected to futility. I'm not sure how he means the word futility. In the Old Testament, futility refers to emptiness and even that is, needs some explanation.

If he means it more in the way that we mean it, like something is futile, you know, you notice that when you go out and mow the lawn, it's futile. You're gonna do it again next week. It just keeps growing.

When you shave, when you cut your hair, if you want your hair cut and your hair and your face shaved, you have to keep doing it. It's like a futile effort. When you wash the dishes, what a waste of time.

In 24 hours or less, they're gonna be just as dirty. You know, it's like, what a futility there is. Everything decays, everything runs down, everything works against us.

Everything has to be maintained by hard labor and repeated labor. Sometimes just redoing the same job over and over again every single day. That sounds like futility to me, of labor.

I don't know when the curse is removed, if creation's gonna be working against us quite in this way, that we have to continue to fight it off. Have to keep, in the sweat of our face, keeping the weeds from returning and things like that that we pulled out last week. I suppose not.

What all that will look like again, I'm not claiming to know, but it's what the creation is experiencing now is futility and it won't be. It won't be that way anymore. It was subjected to futility, not willingly.

That is, the creation itself obviously didn't choose this. The creation was under the rule of Adam and Eve. It was their choice that brought this about.

Now when it says, verse 20 says, but because of Him who subjected it, clearly Him is capitalized here by the translators of the New King James, which means they've seen it, God subjected it. And that may be the correct answer. It could be a reference to Adam as easily.

The capitalization is not in the Greek, so it's not known whether Paul's referring to Adam who subjected the earth by his decisions or God who subjected the earth by His judgment upon what Adam did. In any case, it's not a permanent situation because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption or decay into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Will be delivered from decay.

Our bodies will not face death or sickness or aging or whatever. The decaying process would not be there for us or for the rest of the creation. No wonder the earth and the creation are looking forward to this groaning in the meantime under the imbalances and the disorders of the fallen creation.

But we also are groaning because we have things that are, he may be referring to our bodily ailments, our aging, our aches and pains, certainly we groan from those. Or he might simply be talking about the groaning that is characterized in that latter part of Romans 7. Wretched man that I am, who's going to finally once and for all overcome this sin in my members so that I never have to be struggling with it again. We do groan that way too.

In any case, all such groaning will be over. But he says in verse 24, this is our hope. We're saved with this hope in mind.

When you got saved, this hope was out before you. That you will someday be set free from all of this. You will someday reign with Christ.

Now we aren't there yet. Hope by very definition isn't yet. And that's what he says.

If you're hoping for something, it's something you don't yet see. If it was already here and you could see it, you wouldn't be hoping for it, you'd be enjoying it. But hope is by definition anticipation of something that hasn't yet arrived.

Hope is a look into a future thing that isn't here. And he said now if we are hoping for it, then we simply wait for it with perseverance. This is a pastoral application of the eschatology he just gave.

The eschatology was, hey, someday all of this groaning, all of this pain, all of the disorder and creation end in ourselves. We're gone. Okay, that's the eschatological fact.

Now the pastoral thing is realize that that's out there ahead of you. We're hoping for that. That's been our hope since the day we first got saved.

And if it is our hope, we will wait for it. And we'll have to do so with perseverance because we're gonna be groaning all along. There's gonna be at least occasion for groaning until this happens.

So we have to persevere and endure. And in the meantime, we have the assistance of the Holy Spirit in other ways besides those we've considered. Because he has said that the Holy Spirit, of course, as we walk in the Spirit, it sets us free from the law of sin and death.

So that's good. We need that. But there's more that the Holy Spirit does.

In verse 26, Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now here he's simply saying, we are groaning and we are persevering hard times, but we have assistance all the while.

We have weakness, which we'll no longer have when our bodies are redeemed. But in the meantime, while we have this weakness, in our weaknesses the Holy Spirit assists us. And the particular kind of assistance he mentions here is in prayer.

It's not entirely clear what Paul is envisaging here in my mind. When I first learned about speaking in tongues, the teachers I taught, that I was taught by, actually used this verse as a reference to speaking in tongues. We don't always know what to pray for as we ought to, so the Holy Spirit has to intercede for us.

And in doing so, he uses words we don't understand and gifts us to speak in tongues. And this is him praying according to the will of God. It all sounded quite good as a rationale for speaking in tongues, that since I don't know what to pray for, my mind would just get in the way.

God will just speak through a different language through me that doesn't clog up my mind with my own opinions about things, and he'll just pray according to the will of God through me. Now, I don't really have anything to say against that idea. It may very well be that this is quite true, that when we are praying in tongues, this is what is happening.

The Holy Spirit is in fact praying according to the will of God through us. In fact, I can't really imagine any other explanation of what's going on than this. But I do have now questions in my mind if that's what Paul's talking about here.

I told you again and again throughout Romans that these passages are popularly used to talk about certain things, and if I suspect that they aren't talking about those things, I'm not saying I don't believe those concepts. Some of these concepts I believe, but I don't think this is talking about that. And I'm not sure that this is talking about anything related to tongues.

It might be. It might be in the general realm of what he's talking about the Spirit, you know, interceding through us, but he doesn't say that he intercedes through other languages, which would be a very simple thing for Paul to say if that's what he was referring to. Instead, the Spirit intercedes through groans.

Groans. Now, groaning has already been mentioned. We're groaning.

We have the first fruits of the Spirit given to us, which means that it's given us a spiritual outlook that causes us to assess the world in a different eyes, and we don't like what we see. You know, having God's viewpoint given to us by the first fruit of the Spirit given to us, being more God-like in our orientation for this reason, we now see ourselves at odds with the world and find ourselves groaning because the Spirit within us is at odds with the whole direction of the sinful world. And it may well be that he's saying those very groans, that very dissatisfaction with the current order of things, the Holy Spirit takes those groans themselves and turns them into intercessory prayers for the manifestation of the sons of God that ultimately will come.

In other words, he may simply say that our very dissatisfaction with the world as it is, the Holy Spirit takes that and translates that into prayers that, you know, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It may or may not have any relevance to tongues, and I say that as one who does believe in speaking in tongues, and I do speak in tongues, and I used to see this verse almost entirely with reference to the tongues thing, but the reference to groaning instead of to speaking languages and the fact that groaning has been mentioned previously a few verses earlier makes me wonder if Paul's not really even interested in tongues at this particular point, but he's simply saying all this groaning, all this discomfort, all this perseverance on our part, it's not fruitless. The Holy Spirit in us even helps us by translating that dissatisfaction, that groaning into a petition that God's will will be done, prayers according to the will of God, it says.

Those are some thoughts I have about that verse. Now, verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. When it says all things work together for good to those who love God, I'm not going to preach a sermon on that.

That's good sermon material. It's very encouraging when you're going through something that doesn't seem good, that God can exploit that. God can take every circumstance.

He can take Judas, betraying Jesus, certainly one of the greatest crimes ever, or Caiaphas and Pilate condemning Jesus' death. That's a terrible thing, and look how God can turn that around for the salvation of the world. If he can do that, if he can take Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery, a tremendous injustice, and save the world from famine through that, then God can take anything and exploit it and turn it out for good if the persons involved are his people, those who love God and are his called ones.

This is how this verse is usually pastorally preached, and it's no doubt true. I agree with that. It may be, though, that Paul is simply saying all these things that we've been discussing are among the things that God is using for our good, that all the things listed in this chapter earlier, the giving to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit's intercession, the Spirit's enabling us to overcome sin, you know, the hope that's before us in sufferings that will be glorified, all these things conspire to improve our spiritual lives and experience.

He may mean that, or he may mean something much more broad as is popularly preached. I'm not for or against one of those interpretations more than the other. But he says in verse 20, whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

And then in verse 30, moreover, whom he predestined, these he called. And the ones he called, he justified, and the ones he justified, he also glorified. Now, sometimes the Calvinists call this the golden chain of redemption because it begins with foreknowledge, then predestination, then calling, then justification, then glorification.

And what they say is, see, the same people are... Once you get on the bottom link of this chain, you end up at the top one. Once you have been foreknown and predestined, you end up being called, you end up being justified. Inevitably, that's irresistible grace, that's the unconditional election.

And you end up being glorified. It's like someday you'll be glorified, and it is so certain in the mind of God that you can speak about it in the past tense, though it hasn't happened yet. Those, the ones he justified, he's already glorified.

So the idea here is that the past tense of glorified simply speaks of the certainty of it, and that the ones who are at any point in the early stages of this chain end up at the last stages. That means if you were ever justified, you're going to be glorified. There's no loss of salvation possible.

You can't really be justified and not eventually glorified. So you can't lose your salvation. You got the perseverance of the saints, the ones he predestined, he glorified, he called, and the ones he called, he justified.

See, the ones he predestined, he called, that's the unconditional election. The ones he called, he justified. If he calls you, you're coming, that's irresistible grace, you're going to be saved.

And the ones that he justified, he glorified is perseverance of the saints. It's like this one verse, the Calvinists love it, it's the golden chain, they say, of redemption. It shows that at least three, if not more, of the points of Calvinism are supported in a single spot in Paul's argument.

True, if they're seeing it correctly, that is true. I think not. First of all, they believe predestination has to do with God choosing out of the mass of humanity some individuals to be saved.

He predestined us to be saved, obviously, because we're here and we're saved. People next door who die lost, he predestined them not to be saved, or he just didn't predestine them to be saved. Predestination is seen as an individual saving choice, whereas Paul doesn't actually say that.

Paul says the ones that he foreknew, those ones, he predestined to be something in their future, to be conformed to the image of his son. We're not yet, but we will be. God has predestined this fact, that whoever is a Christian, and obviously whoever he foreknows will persevere as a Christian, he has predestined the goal for them is they'll be conformed to the image of Jesus.

He does not tell us whether God predestined certain people to become Christians. He starts with the ones that he foreknew. Well, who are these people? Clearly they're saved people, so he foreknew they'd be saved.

Now the Calvinist says he didn't foreknow something about them, he foreknew them, and therefore foreknowledge speaks of him pre-approving them or loving them in advance. Sometimes they say foreknew should be foreloved. In other words, he has an elect group that he loved in advance.

That's what foreknowing means, but of course foreknowing can simply mean knowing them, knowing them to be the ones who would believe and persevere. That could be the ones he foreknew too. In any case, of course he approved them, he loved them.

The foreknown ones are the Christians. It doesn't tell us how they became Christians or whether he preordained them to become Christians. They are already in the class of the foreknown before we get to the predestined part, the ones he foreknew.

Okay, that's a class. Now he starts doing something with this class. He predestines those that he foreknew to be conformed to the image of his son.

So there's nothing here about predestining some unbeliever to become a believer. There's something about predestining believers to experience a certain destiny someday. And he says those that he predestined he called.

Okay, well, we're called, the gospel is preached to us, and those that he called he justified. Now it does sound like everyone who's called is justified in this statement, and this could be a support for the Calvinist view of the effectual calling. They believe there's a certain kind of calling that God gives to the elect that inevitably results in them coming.

And this phrase by itself sounds like it could be true, although we don't know for sure that he didn't call some who weren't justified. Sure, it says those that he called he justified, and it sounds like every last one of them, and a Calvinist could press for this if they want to. But he is talking about a special group of people and what was done for them.

Jesus said elsewhere, many are called, but few are chosen. Certainly Paul is describing the chosen, and there are many called. That's more than the ones chosen.

So for Paul to say whom he called he justified, I mean, we know that Paul's theology would have to be something like, you know, the ones that he chose he called and then justified, the same group. But there might have been some of another group that he called and they weren't justified. This is not an impossible way to understand Paul, although it may be that the wording does sound better for Calvinism than for the alternative in this case.

I, you know, anyone who would not admit that there are some verses that sound Calvinistic would be not realistic. There's reasons why there's Calvinists. There are some verses that sound more Calvinistic than Arminian.

The question is when you take all the verses and find out Paul's ideas about things, it becomes necessary to say, well, you know, the wording here sounds Calvinistic, but what Paul says everywhere else seems to limit the absoluteness of some of these things. And there are many hyperboles, by the way, in Scripture where statements are made to sound very absolute, but they really turn out to be limited. All I can say is this phrase sounds very Calvinistic.

I'll just grant that. But it's very possible that he's talking about a specific group of chosen ones that he called and they came and he justified them. There's another group he's not talking about who he called and they didn't come.

That's a very real possibility in the way he said it and certainly agrees with what the rest of the Scripture, including Paul's writings, seems to teach, I think. And then it says the ones he called, he glorified. I'm sorry, the ones he justified, he glorified.

Does glorified mean he's going to glorify us, that glorification is in our future, but it's such a certain future that we can talk about as a past event? Well, God can do that, certainly. I mean, Paul earlier said in Romans 4, you know, God calls those things that are not as though they were. So he could certainly say I've been glorified when I haven't yet been.

Though it's not the most natural way for Paul to express himself and especially if there's a way to understand perfectly well from Paul's theology how we have already been glorified and that he's not talking about the future because Paul sees us in Christ. Christ has been glorified. We will have our own glorification in another sense in the resurrection, but we are already glorified in him because Paul says in Ephesians 2, 6 that in him we are seated in heavenly places.

Now someday we'll literally be, you know, actually in heavenly places, but we are already there in him because he is. He's the head of the same organism we're part of. The body we are one with is already represented in heaven glorified in the head and we are in him glorified.

So Paul says in Ephesians 2, 6 that God has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Not literally. I haven't been there.

It's in him. He's there. I'm counted to be organically one with him.

So in the person of him, I'm there too. That's already happened because he's there now. Now my personal subjective individual glorification is clearly in the future, but being glorified in Christ, being seated in heavenly places in Christ in Paul's theology, that's already happened.

As soon as I am justified, I am also included in Christ who himself is glorified. Now whether I'll personally experience glorification will depend on my perseverance or not, but when he says whom he justified, he glorified, I think he's talking about our status in Christ currently, past tense. When I got saved, that's when this happened.

I was included in Christ in heavenly places. I'm included in his glorification and he's not necessarily talking about personal glorification here at the end of the world as if it's already happened. So he speaks about the past tense.

He could. You could take it that way, but I don't see any necessary reason to see it that way. I will say it seems unnatural for him to speak of a bunch of things in the past tense that are in fact past and then include something that's in the future and say past tense.

He glorified. This is a possibility, but I think it's more likely that when you use the past tense, he's talking about something that has happened already and that has happened. In the glorification of Christ, those who are justified in him are also glorified in him, in God's estimate.

Now we need to very quickly take these remaining verses. There's some people's favorite verses and they speak largely for themselves, but that I want to make one caveat or one observation about them. He says, what shall we say to these things? Verse 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore also is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

This is a quote from Psalm 44, 22. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, obviously these verses are winding up the whole book of Romans in a sense. He talks about being justified. He's unpacked that thoroughly in the first five chapters and he says, you know, if God has justified us, who can condemn us? The devil's condemnation won't stick.

Who's going to bring a charge to God's elect? If he's justified them, who's going to condemn? There's no one can outrank God or veto his decision about us. Who could veto God? If he says you're acquitted, there's not a higher court that you have to answer to somewhere that could then condemn you. So justification is secure.

It's from the highest authority completely. He says that God has shown himself to be on our side by sacrificing his son for us. If he's given us the greatest, what less than that will he withhold from us if we need it? You know, no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly and he's proven that by giving us the most expensive thing he could give.

The rest is all just peripherals. Now he's given you the hardware. The rest is just software.

If God gives you a computer, won't he give you, you know, an operational system and software to run it? He's given you the hard stuff, the expensive stuff, and now of course he'll freely give us all things that are needed and we can count on that. He mentions that in verse 34 that Jesus is at the right hand of God making intercession for us. He earlier said that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us in verse 27.

So we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit interceding. Here is probably the only place outside of the book of Hebrews that hints at the priesthood of Christ. Christ is never referred to as the high priest except in Hebrews.

The book of Hebrews makes that unique theological contribution that Christ intercedes for us before God as a high priest. Paul doesn't use the term high priest here or any words of priesthood specifically, but he talks about Jesus interceding which is a priestly kind of thing to do. So here we have a hint at the priesthood of Christ, though that is not spelled out for us until the book of Hebrews.

And then this last part, who shall separate us, verse 35, from the love of Christ? And the answer he gives in verse 38 and 39, I'm persuaded that nothing will do that. Now in saying this, he lists a bunch of things. Shall this separate us? Shall this, shall this, shall this? These may be the kind of things that Christians might be fearful of.

You know, I know God loves me now, but will he still love me in this case? What if I go through tribulation? Can tribulation overthrow God's love for me? No doubt what we're thinking in that case is will tribulation make me defect? Will I be able to stand faithful in tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Am I going to be able to stay faithful and stay in God's good graces through all these things is the question. And yet he says in verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. So through Christ who loved us, through God who loved us, all the resources necessary to endure tribulation, persecution, distress, all these things, no matter how bad it gets, we don't have to worry that we won't have the ability to conquer these things.

We're more than conquerors because God has given us all the resources, the grace of God, the spirit of God, prayer, all the resources, all things work together for good for us, and therefore we can count on it that we can make it through all these things. And so he closes the chapter, I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principles nor powers, that'd be demons even, nor things present nor things to come, nothing that we're facing now, nothing we'll face in the future, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the one caveat I said I wanted to make about this is that you'll notice all the things he mentioned are external circumstances.

He does not raise the question of whether we by rebellion or defection or apostasy could separate ourselves from God. He's of course assuming we'll never want to do that. Who would want to do that? The question here is not to give hope to the person who's wanting to run away from God, but to give hope to the one who's trying to survive as a Christian, the person who wants to stay faithful but is facing challenges in the world, persecution, distress, maybe famine, maybe all kinds of tribulation, demons even attacking.

Am I equal to this challenge? Well, in God I'm more than equal, I'm more than a conqueror through him. He'll enable me. The assumption is I'm wanting to survive this, I'm wanting to fight this off.

I never have to worry that any external circumstance or being or person that ever comes my way will be that God in me will be unequal to those challenges. If I'm looking to God, if I'm walking in the spirit, if I'm trusting in him, we're going to win this thing. It says in 1 John, this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

And John said, who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God. That's in 1 John chapter 5 verses 4 and 5. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. We're more than conquerors, we overcome.

This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Trusting in God, trusting in the resources and the assistance he's promised, the spirit of God, the grace of God, all that. Through these things we conquer.

We will conquer all circumstances. We will survive. And nothing external to us, no circumstance that can come upon us can change that.

Now he does not address the question of, well, what if you decide you hate God and don't want to serve him anymore? Well, that changes things. That's not in the set of assumptions that this passage is making. He doesn't say we can't do it.

Now Calvinists say we can't do it. Calvinists say that perseverance of the saints means that if you're in, you're always in. You'll never fall away.

Of course, there are people who seem to be Christians and have fallen away but they would say, well, they weren't really Christians because that would foul their doctrine. Their doctrine is people who are really Christians can't fall away. So when you see people who seem to be Christians fall away, they just say, well, I guess they weren't really Christians.

Which isn't a very charitable thing to say about somebody unless you're required to by scripture. And scripture doesn't require that. The Bible does not say Christians will never fall away.

In fact, it says many will fall away from the faith, Paul said. In the last days, many shall fall away from the faith, he said. And there's many references and warnings about falling away from faith given to Christians.

So Paul is not saying here that apostasy is not an option. He's writing to people who don't want to apostatize. They want to stay firm and he's saying, don't worry.

You keep hanging on to Jesus and you'll cruise. You'll sail. You'll float on the waves.

You'll survive this. Your head will stay above water and God will see to it that nothing that is thrown your way that you're not choosing for yourself is going to overthrow you. But you do not lack free choice.

You can choose to go the wrong way and the Bible predicts that many shall and refers to some who have. So this is not a statement of unconditional perseverance. It's a statement of conditional perseverance.

As long as you are in Christ, you will persevere. Nothing can dislodge you from God's hand who's holding on to you. But abiding in Christ is your responsibility.

That's why Christ told his disciples, abide in me. And he said, if anyone does not abide in me, he's cast forth as a branch and withered and burned. So abiding in Christ is not inevitable, but it is our responsibility.

But it's not something that takes extra supernatural strength. We just have to trust God. A child can trust his father.

It doesn't take great strength to do that. And a Christian can trust God. It's a childlike response to his promises.

And as we trust him, we find that all things will in fact work together for our good and we will be more than conquerors in all these things.