God’s Present and Future Work In Us - Romans 8:18-30
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Last week Pastor Chris had a wonderful message from the beginning of this chapter and he He spoke about our life in the Spirit and how we have a new identity, we have a new name and a new family. And it was a beautiful reminder of how transformative and powerful the gospel is. And the work that is done within us and for us by the Spirit of God. And this week, Paul is offering some perspective. If this entire series is like swimming in the ocean, today we come up for air a little bit and it's an encouraging time. It's gonna be a joyful passage about what's happening. And so Paul, we come up for air and he's gonna make sure that we're all on the same page, we know where we're going, and we know that we're all together, which is good. We left off last week talking about being co-heirs with Christ, and Paul said that we indeed share in Christ's suffering in order that we may also share in his glory. And now Paul turns his full attention to the future of the church. Knowing the tumultuous situation of the believers in Rome, He gives them an encouraging and yet measured response to what being a believer means now and what it means in the future.
So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Romans 8, or you can follow along on the screen as I read our passage this morning, starting in verse 18. Paul says, "I consider that our present sufferings "are not worth comparing with the glory "that will be revealed in us. "For the creation waits an eager expectation "for the children of God to be revealed. "For the creation was subjected to frustration, "not by its own choice, "but by the will of the one who subjected it, "in hope that the creation itself will be liberated "from its bondage to decay, "and brought into the freedom and glory "of the children of God. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning, "as in the pains of childbirth, "right up to the present time. "Not only so, but we ourselves, "who are the first fruits of the Spirit, "grown inwardly as we wait eagerly "for our adoption to sonship. "the redemption of our bodies. "For in this hope we were saved, "but hope that is seen is no hope at all. "Who hopes for what they already have? "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, "we wait for it patiently. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. "We do not know what we ought to pray for, "but the Spirit himself intercedes for us "through wordless groans. "And he who searches our hearts "knows the mind of the Spirit, "because the Spirit intercedes for God's people "in accordance with the will of God. "And we know that in all things, "God works for the good of those who love him, "who have been called according to his purpose. "For those God foreknew, "he also predestined to be conformed "to the image of his son, "that he might be the firstborn "among many brothers and sisters. "And those he predestined, he also called. "Those he called, he also justified. "Those he justified, he also glorified." Pray with me once more. God, we come before you eager to understand more of you. And as we come to your scripture this morning, we pray that you would reveal the truth to us in our hearts. Draw us closer to you, God. We seek understanding. We seek to be made more into your image. We're excited for what you're doing in this church through this series. And I pray that you continue the work that you started. We pray this in your name. Amen.
Paul addresses this tension that can exist between our present suffering and the hope of future glory, explaining why the redemption of the children of God and creation itself is only partially fulfilled right now. He even says that the world itself, the earth that we see around us, is affected by sin too, and it too will one day be redeemed. As Paul is connecting the reader to Christ, he wants to make sure that the Romans are not misunderstanding what they are inheriting and when they will inherit it. We know from scripture how difficult and challenging Christ's life was, ultimately leading to his death on the cross. Now, presently, Christ is glorified and sitting on the right hand of God in victory over sin and death. And Paul is making sure that the believers don't think that that's their inheritance immediately. That's not what they inherit here on earth fully. That is indeed in their future, but the present still looks different. Suffering and glory, they have a unique bond and connection. Our current understanding of glory that we will one day experience is often deepened when contrasted to the hardship of this world. While heaven will be a full experience of God's glory for everyone, our understanding of it right now is heightened when we have undergone pain and suffering. It's kind of like the situations that maybe you can relate to where you have something that you use every day, something common to you, and when you're without it, you don't realize how much you needed it and your appreciation grows. And when you get it back, you just are so thankful for that thing. So for, as an example, years ago, my wife and I were down to one car. I had gotten-- we had to get rid of one of our cars. And so I was working Granite Bay at the time, and I started riding my bike from Rocklin to Granite Bay every morning and afternoon. And at first, very excited, because I was like, what a better way to get in shape. And then by day two, I was like, this is no fun. This is no fun at all. This is very long, and I am sweating heavily at work, and it's no good. So I just didn't realize-- at first, I was like, yeah, no car, no worries. And then I was like, we need a new car. So a couple of months later, a couple of months went by, and then we're finally able to get a new vehicle. And I was very, very appreciative for that, yeah, for that reality. Now that example doesn't come close to what Paul is talking about because I was not suffering. I was just merely inconvenienced. And having a car isn't any sort of glory. But you get the idea that when contrasted to the pain and suffering, heaven seems even greater. Every hardship we face when held up to the future glory of being with God makes that picture of heaven even sweeter.
So Paul's first point in our passage this morning is that this present reality means struggle. This life in this world is full of hardship. We see this throughout these verses. 18, Paul says, consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed. Verse 21, creation itself will be liberated from its bondage. And 22 and 23 say, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning, "as in the pains of childbirth, "right up to the present time. "Not only so, but we ourselves groan inwardly "as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, "the redemption of our bodies." Paul is making it clear that suffering is a reality and it's to be expected. From the world around us that is also marked by the fall, we see this in evidence of like earthquakes and tsunamis and forest fires and other natural disasters, this world was affected by the fall, to our own physical bodies, the emotional and physical and mental hurdles that we face in life, be it anxiety or cancer, depression, back pain, migraines, abuse, and everything else that comes from being in this fallen world, suffering is a present reality. Life is a struggle. Now, what do we do on this earth? In the midst of the suffering, in the waiting, in the misery, what do we do? Well, Paul tells us three things that believers can do. And the first is, well, I'll tell you all three upfront. We can hope, we can wait, and we can pray. First is that we can hope. We hope because of what Jesus did. After his death on the cross, he ascended into heaven. He went to be with God. And because God has promised us to be co-heirs, as Pastor Chris preached last week, we look forward to that reality for us. We hope in the person of Christ and what he's accomplished. And we hope in his present reality, he being next to God in heaven. We want that for us and we can hope because we know that that will become our reality as well. Second is we wait. In our suffering, we can't assume that God will just end all hardships because we have faith in him. We must endure. We must persevere. We must wait. And waiting is really hard. I don't think anyone likes waiting. Some of us are better at it than others. Doesn't mean we like it. Waiting is really hard. Waiting means sacrificing our own desires and submitting to God's plan. It means embracing the struggle for a time.
Right now, we're trying to teach our daughter how to wait. and it's going, I don't know if it's going well, but we're trying. And so sometimes, the waiting, she doesn't have to wait very long, you know, for unwrapping a treat for her in that moment, but she still has these like gimme hands, where like, hey, yes, I can give this to you. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right now, I want it right now. Like, just hold on, I gotta get it open. And other times, we'll tell her to wait, like, hey, after dinner, you can have that thing, and then she doesn't wanna wait patiently. She understands that she won't get it, but she's not patient about it. And I think we can be the same. We're praying to God, we're talking to God. God, I know that I think you're gonna get me through this, but I don't wanna wait for it. I don't wanna be patient about it. I'll wait, but I don't like this right now. Waiting and patience is hard. And Paul says that we can wait and we do so patiently because we have a certain peace and trust in who we're waiting in, and that's God. God is looking out for us and He loves us, and we know that we can trust Him, And we can be at peace because he gives us peace and we know his character. We know that he will eventually work all things out for our good, but it can be hard, but we just need to rely on him in those moments to wait and to wait patiently. The third thing is that we can pray. In the midst of sin and suffering, of pain and problems, in the middle of all the misery and muck of life, we pray. Sometimes we understand the challenges that we're in and the hardships that we face. We understand how our sin may have brought about issues or just understand the chaos of the world and we know exactly what to pray. So we may pray, we know, God, please help me with my recovery. God, please heal that person of cancer. God, please be with the victims of the wildfires. God, please heal me, give me patience. Sometimes those words are right there and we know exactly what to pray. Other times, we don't understand the challenges that we're facing, the hardships that we're in, or why it's happening at this time, and we don't know what to pray. We're not always, or whenever, we're not omniscient like God. We don't know all the reasons why things are happening. We don't have that infinite perspective that God does. And so sometimes we just don't have words to pray. And that is okay. Because that's when the Holy Spirit acts as our priest and stands before God on our behalf and prays the words that we can't seem to find, that we don't know that we even needed to pray.
Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit prays for us while we are suffering. Verse 26 says, "The Spirit himself intercedes for us "through wordless groans, because the Spirit intercedes "for God's people in accordance with the will of God." In our recent community group, we went through the spiritual practice of prayer, and we learned the difference between prayers of petition and prayers of intercession. Prayers of petition are when we pray for something going on in our own lives, and we petition before God to help us with it, or to change something about our current circumstances. We are petitioning for ourselves. Prayers of intercession are when someone else prays for us, or when we pray that God will what intercede in someone else's life, or when the Holy Spirit prays for us. John Mark Comer says this, he says, "We come as sons and daughters, "not as beggars off the street, "but as princes and princesses "who have been adopted into the family "through Christ our brother. "We come in the name and authority of King Jesus "with access to the full resources of his kingdom." That last phrase right there, "The full resources of his kingdom," I mean, that just struck me when I heard that and read that. That's amazing. God isn't withholding anything from us. If it is His will, He will go the full extent to make it a reality. At our lowest point, Jesus knows what we need. And through Jesus, we have the most intimate connection with God. And we have the full resources of His kingdom available to us in our lives. Theologian Walter Wink says, Intercessory prayer is a spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently faded by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. In the midst of our deepest struggle, the Spirit is praying this on our our behalf, praying that God the Father would intercede in our lives. The Spirit is visualizing an alternate future to the one that we are currently in, praying that God would make that a reality. That alternative future may not mean a change in circumstances, I wanna be clear on that. It's not necessarily, it may, it may mean that God changes our circumstances, it may not, but what the Spirit is visualizing is us being made more into the image of Christ. Through whatever we are going through, God wants us to be formed more like Jesus. We'll come back to that in a bit. But the other part of the Spirit praying on our behalf is that He does so in wordless groans. J.D. Greer says, "In that groan, that groan from the Holy Spirit, we see not only emotion, we see wisdom." Paul says the Spirit prays for us according to the will of God, and that groan is something that you and I don't even know how to articulate. It's what God wants from this situation. He's praying God's will into our lives. Guys, do you realize this? In your moments of suffering, in your hardest, most challenging times that you've ever gone through, that the Spirit was interceding on your behalf, He was praying to God for you. He is in your corner, fighting and advocating for you. How incredible is that? I don't know if you've ever been in a time where you didn't know what to say. There's times, most of the time, it's when prepping for preaching, when it is late into the week and I do not have a sermon yet and I will sometimes be on the floor, just laying there being like, "God, I don't know what to preach." Like just groans. I'm not even really saying words, but I'm sure that God understands what I'm feeling in that moment. Maybe you have been somewhere, a similar position, where you didn't even have words, but you are directing your groans towards God for him to understand your emotion and where you're at. And in that moment, you don't have words, but the Holy Spirit has words that he is praying to God for you. The God of the universe is behind you, is for you, is praying for you, praying for needs that you are not even aware of. This is truly how the Spirit sustains us every day. So in the present, suffering and all, we wait, we hope, and we pray. And when we can't pray, the Spirit will pray on our behalf. Now the other part of this passage is about the future. And Paul says that the future means hope.
For the believer, the future is bright. The glory of God is ahead of us, at its fullest. And it's something to be excited about. It's something to anticipate and to desire. Paul writes, "I consider that our present sufferings "are not worth comparing with the glory "that will be revealed in us." Now to be clear, Paul is not minimizing our pain. but magnifying future glory. He's not trying to say that whatever you're going through right now is so small. Right now, whatever pain or struggle or suffering that you are going through, it is a lot. It's probably more than you can handle alone. You need Jesus through whatever you are going through. What Paul is saying is that he's trying to point to how great and infinite that future glory is. It is eternal, the magnitude of God's glory, of being made like Christ is so great that in that future, when we look back, the pain and suffering will appear small. It's a matter of perspective. As Paul brings the reader to think about glory, he mentions freedom in verse 21, the redemption of the body in verse 23, and the most important, sonship, being heirs with Christ in verses 19 and 23 and 29. Again, making sure that we connect our reality with what Christ endured. Paul is saying that we as believers should not be surprised that this life entails suffering. And while he's already covered some of this in chapter five, right now, Paul is trying to convey the sequence that we as believers follow.
For Jesus, glory only followed suffering. and it's for the Christians as well. That future glory only comes after we endure our time on earth. The future glory that we will experience comes after our time on this earth that is marred with sin and pain and suffering. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And here in Romans 8, Paul is talking about our mortal body being transformed and our bodies being redeemed. Theologian Douglas Mu writes, "It is the transformation of the body "that brings to fruition our sonship. "Only then will our sonship be revealed, "and will we be fully conformed to the image of God's Son." The life and future glory that is to come is not a distant dream, but it's partially present now. And the future will be complete, but some of it we can experience now. How? Well, Christians have some evidence of future glory in our lives already. It's the first fruits. And that first fruit is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. Theologian F.F. Bruce writes, "The indwelling of the Spirit here and now is the first fruits." In other words, the first installment or initial down payment of the eternal heritage of glory that awaits believers. I think sometimes we forget or severely underestimate the weight and power of the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. The fact that the Spirit dwells within us is evidence of what is to come, the future glory that God has in store for us. You can hope and anticipate and get excited about the future now because the Holy Spirit is in you now. The work that the Holy Spirit is doing is to make you more like Jesus. That will be perfected in heaven, but it is occurring right now. Right now as you sit here, the Holy Spirit is at work inside of you. That is the goal. That in the midst of all the suffering and pain that we endure, God's goal is not necessarily to alleviate you of that pain, but his ultimate goal is that through whatever comes your way, you would be made into the image of Christ. On another note, did you know that the future is bright for earth as well? This earth, like I said, is also marred by the fall. I was having a conversation with some of you last week about how some of the things on earth are clear evidence of the fall. Things like black widows, mosquitoes, cockroaches. I do not see any redeeming qualities of any of those. If there are, I'm sure we'll find out in heaven, but I think they're all evil, and I think that we will not see them in the new heavens and new earth. No biblical evidence, just my personal belief, you don't have to believe that. Evidence of the fallen world. On a more serious note, things like earthquakes and tsunamis, famine, drought, evidence of this world being fallen, the earth groans for wholeness too. Not just we as believers, but the earth itself wants to be made whole.
Throughout our passage, Paul explains how the earth is groaning in anticipation for deliverance to the glory to be revealed. So not only will our individual lives experience the glory of God, not only will the church as a whole experience the glory of God, but this entire world will experience the fullness of God's glory in the future. Our Christian faith enables us to hope and wait for the culmination of God's plan of redemption. Dr. Gary Brashear says, "This whole passage focuses "on a work in progress, the cosmic redemption "he is working in and through the church." God's plan is a big one, and it's amazing because every part of it, he cares about to the fullest extent. He cares about what he's doing in our lives, he cares about what he's doing in the church, and he cares about what he's doing on the biggest, grandest level of this entire universe. Now that glorious reality that is in the future of being in heaven with God does not just happen randomly. It happens with purpose and with our sovereign Lord making it come to be. Paul reminds us of this when he writes in verse 28, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. That theologian Mu writes again, it is important to insist that all things do not tend toward good in and of themselves, as if Paul held to a naively optimistic interpretation of history, rather it is the sovereign guidance of God that is presumed as the undergirding and directing force behind all the events of life. Good things don't just randomly happen in this world. The world just doesn't hope that good things happen to us or make good things, that is all God working behind the scenes. And we know this to be true through his word, through scripture, through our own experience, through other people's testimony. We know the character of God and we know Him to be good. And we know that God is working all things for His kingdom, for His purposes. Because it is God who is doing it, we automatically know that those things are good things. Paul describes a present struggle and a future glory. And then he describes in further detail the work that God is doing. And He does this to give us reassurance. Because He knows that the struggle is real, it's hard to have perspective when in the midst of pain and suffering. He talks so much about pain and suffering because often he's writing in a place of pain and suffering. He's writing from prisons, he's writing from affliction, and he knows that we too will face a similar reality. Paul's third point, God's work in us.
The end of verse 28 reveals who this all pertains to, who have been called according to his purposes. Verse 29, "For those God foreknew, "He also predestined to be conformed "to the image of His Son." Now, let me say this. Paul is not trying to start a theological debate when writing these words. He's not sitting there thinking, "Man, this is really gonna trip up the church "for the next couple thousand years. "Let me just write this and drop the pen." No. (laughs) Paul, in the context of this chapter, and this is what I wanna stress, in the present reality of suffering, Paul is trying to offer assurance. He is trying to assure the people that what God started, the work inside of us, making us into the image of Christ, He is going to finish. This idea of God foreknowing is to emphasize that what is happening is not surprising to God. God knew everything that would happen to you, the good and the bad, the struggles, the hardships, the impossible moments that you would face in life are not surprising to him. He began a work inside of you, and knowing all of that, he's still gonna finish that work. It says in verse 30, and those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. Paul wants the church in Rome and the Christian today to understand that when you feel Like all hope is lost. When you are barely hanging on, when you are at the end of yourself, you feel empty. For those who believe, for those who believe in the gospel, you can know that God is not done working in you. God is not finished with you. You can be assured that this work, the calling, the justification, the glorification that believers will experience all that he does in someone, he will do in you. Jesus called you and he is gonna see you through all the way to glorification in heaven. He started to work and he's gonna finish it. He started before you were born. He knew what he was gonna do in and through you before the world began. And he wanted to make you into the image of Jesus. It is easy to get caught up in the theological debate, and we can have that another time outside of this sermon. But I wanna stress this morning, in the full context of this passage, why Paul wrote these verses. It's in light of all the suffering. And maybe for the believer at the time, the future is just too distant. It is too difficult to wrap your head around. Paul is saying, then rest assured in what you know of God, and who He is, and what He does. Notice who is doing all the actions in this passage. God called according to his purpose, God for a new and he predestined. He is conforming us into the image of his son. He justifies us. He will also glorify us in heaven. Look at all that God is doing. Look at the work that he is working in you. This is what God will continue to do and promises to do using all that happens, the good, the bad that you experience in life, He will use all of it to make you into the image of Christ. That is his work and that is his promise. That's why you can have hope. That through the most painful situations that you experienced, you can know that God is not finished with you.
So my question this morning as we end our time is where is your hope? Are you hoping in anything from this world, a person, relationship, that just the randomness of this world to help you out in life? Or are you hoping in Christ? Are you hoping in the future of being with God? Hoping in the work that He is doing? Or is your hope founded in the gospel? Do you hope because you believe that Jesus lived the perfect life, became the perfect sacrifice, taking all of our sins, taking the death that we deserved, and defeating death and rising again to be with God? Do you have hope that you are heirs with Christ? You share in that sonship. You are a prince and princess in God's kingdom. Now again, this may or may not end your current suffering, but it doesn't mean that we can't pray for that. We can certainly pray for healing. We can certainly pray for whatever hardship to end. By all means, bring your desires before God, but also pray in the midst of all that that you would be made more into Jesus, into the likeness of Him. Have hope, church, have hope. Be encouraged that Jesus is at work and He won't stop working in you. Amen?
Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your word. Thank you for who you are. And thank you for the hope that you give us. I pray that we would all be encouraged have hope this morning in you, in the fact that you have started a work, you have called us, and you know that you will see us through to the very end. And so we are with you in heaven, you will never leave us. Thank you for the work that your spirit is doing in our hearts to transform us, to make us more into the image of Jesus. That is our prayer, that is our desire. I pray that you would make that a focal point for all of us, that as we go throughout our day, as we go through life, despite whatever hardships we face, we would keep our eyes on you and that our deepest desire would be to be made more like Jesus. God be with us, give us hope, encourage us, and I pray that you would use us for your kingdom. We pray this in your name, Amen.