Romans 8:28-39
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We've been working our way through the book of Romans over the last several Sundays. And this is heading towards the close of Romans chapter eight, which we've also been focusing on for quite some time. The Book of Romans begins by talking about our sin, and God's salvation. Now, no human being can live up to God's standard, whether we are religious or not, no matter how good we think we are, the only way towards salvation is to be saved by grace through Christ. After that, I talked about what it means to live as a Christian, knowing that we're not saved by our works, but by grace and how we have this new life by being baptized into Jesus Christ, and raised from the dead with him to walk in this newness of life. In Romans chapter eight begins with a great conclusion for all of that where it says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Last time, we talked about how what that means for us, as we deal with the deficiencies of our lives, as we grown under the weight of the decay of creation, and all creation waits for that day when Jesus will return and reveal the new heavens and the new earth. And so now, St. Paul begins with perhaps one of the most misunderstood passages of Romans, where he says, We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. I say that this is one of the most misunderstood passages because most people will shorten that up to something like this. We know that for all those who love God, all things work together for good or even shorter. All things work together for good. I remember watching a TV shows called scrubs. This is a show that was on a while back, where it was in a set in a hospital. And one of the religious characters on the show was having a really depressing day. And there was a tragedy, a kid had gotten stabbed, real sad. And one of the atheist doctors went up to her and said, Where is your God in this? And she said, Well, all things work together for good. She had confidence, she knew something was going to get fixed. And so they go back and forth in the sitcom way until the she goes into the MRI. And they find that the knife went right next to cancer, wish they could operate. And the lesson was that the Bible says all things work to make something better in your life. And that's what a lot of people think, Romans 828 sets. For those who love God, things will generally work out well for you. If there is a bad thing, it will lead to something better. If there is something hard in your life, it's going to generate something good. Often, we in the in America, think of that something good as health, or happiness or money. If you're a little less crass about that it's God is doing this to you to teach you a lesson to make you a better person. Of course, what that does, is it means that we are trying to defend God, as if the bad thing in our life isn't bad. It's really good. It means we end up having to call tragedies, good things. We have to say, Oh, it was really good that that girl got stabbed on that sitcom, because they found this cancer instead of saying, You know what, sometimes bad things are bad. Right? And that's what we should be able to do. We shouldn't have to say bad things are good in order to defend God. And that's not what St. Paul is doing here. What St. Paul is saying when he says all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose is something different. Because he actually explains What he means in the following verses. He says, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom He predestined, he also called, and those whom He called, he also justified and those whom He justified, he also glorify that word for at the beginning of verse 29, is doing a lot of work here. It might seem small, but it's the word that tells us that he's explaining here. He says, All things work for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose, for this is what he means. So let's take a look. He says, those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. St. Paul saying, the people of God that he knew He also predestined. They're kind of the same similar ideas, your God knows you and predestined you, before the foundation of the world. We have a couple of places where St. Paul writes something similar. In Ephesians, chapter one, verses four and five, he writes, in love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. And a little bit later, in Ephesians, chapter one, verse 11, he says, In Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his whip. St. Paul is telling us that God has known you, and predestined you, before the foundation of the world, to be called by Christ. He chose you. Now, when we hear this word predestined, I think just about everybody I know, gets gets a little panicky about that word, right? You start to hear things like wait, wait, if God predestined people before the foundation of the world, what does he do if he didn't predestined me? What about all of these other questions? And you start to go into like a theoretical spiral where you're asking, how does this predestination work? What I'd like to point out to you, is that whenever St. Paul uses this language of predestination, he uses it as a comfort for God's people. This isn't peering into the mystery of God's will, and looking to see how does God's will work and how does his his salvation work? As a theory, it is always God has chosen you. God is predestined you as is, as he says, in Ephesians, He predestined us for adoption, we have obtained and inherit. Predestination language is not about terrifying you. It's a comfort. And it's should be comfortable. Because if God waited to respond to you, to see if you should be saved, what would he see? If he said to himself, I will see if you have good enough faith. If your conversion to my Christianity was sincere enough, then I will choose you. All that means is he's waiting on you to be good, good enough for God, which is exactly what St. Paul talked about in the beginning of Romans, you can't do it. But that's predestination means God chose you. Simply because he wanted because of His grace, without anything about you. He chose you in Christ to be saved. And it's all by his own will. But He predestined us it continues to be conformed to the image of His Son.
What this makes me think of is the way that they they used stamps, to make coins in the ancient world. In the ancient world, when they would make coins they would take cold metal, and they would take the stamp had an image on it, and they would put it down on the metal and they whack it and it would leave behind an impression. When Jesus was asked about Whether it was okay to pay taxes to Caesar, he pulls it ask them to pull it a coin. And he says, whose image is that? And they go Caesars. That's exactly that kind of image language to be conformed to the image of the sun. And so what does it mean to be conformed to that image to be molded to be like Jesus Christ? Well, what is Jesus's story like? begins by being filled with the Holy Spirit and His baptism by going out into the world, and dealing with all sorts of people. And then it moves into being rejected by the priests and the scribes, suffering, dying, and then rising. That sounds like a Christian life, doesn't it? Beginning with baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus Christ did. We were born into him to follow in the pattern, as it says in Romans chapter six. And we live a life that can include suffering, and pain, sometimes even rejection and in many places, even death, because of our Savior. With the promise, that on the last day, we will rise just as Jesus. That is what we are predestined to be conformed to the image of the sun, not for good things now, but perfection in the future, for glory in Christ, to follow in the footsteps of our Savior.
And what it means then, is that by being conformed to this image by following this pattern, we become one of many who follow those footsteps of Jesus Christ, as St. Paul says, in order that he might be the firstborn among many. So that, just as Jesus was raised, we to rise with him. Verse 30, continues, it says, and those whom He predestined, he also called. So for the people that God shows before the creation of the world, you he also call. How did God call you? Well, he calls us all the same way that he calls everyone. By the power of the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ goes out into the world and he calls you into the church. And how do you know that you are called to the church? It's actually pretty easy. You're here, right? I mean, this is this is not hard. The gospel is gathered you here. You receive the sacraments. You receive forgiveness of sin. You've been adopted in baptism. God has called you. He has chosen you. He's predestined you he's gathered you what it says next, those who he called he also justified. Romans chapter eight begins, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, for God has done what the law we can by the flesh could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walked not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Jesus fulfilled, did everything that God needed from us, accomplished it for you. You have been called into Christ, to be justified by him. Which means, as Paul says, and those whom He justified, he also glorify. What I'd like you to notice about that one, is the tense of the verb. All of these verbs the that he he for knew He predestined, he called he justified. They're all in the past tense, and so is glorified. He didn't say those whom He justified He will glorify He glorified is the word. And what that means is, is that this is already accomplished, for those who are in print is that there is glory by being in Christ. Now. Am I much of the time when we sit here in the church, and we talk about the glory of Christ and the resurrection of the dead, we think about it as a thing that is in the future. Eternal life is far off on the day that Jesus returns. But Paul wants to remind us that there is glory already, by being in Christ, it might be hidden under our flesh. It might not be easy to see. But it's there. Because we are already in Christ. Now. We are already raised from the dead, we are already living eternal life, just in a hidden way. So God has already gone even as we wait for the day when that will be fully revealed, and Jesus Christ return. And so when we talk about what it means that all things work together for good for those who love God, and are called according to His purpose, what it means is that everything that happens around us whatever's going on in your life, the good, the bad, the tragic. We're all moving on a path to resurrection. The salvation that God has provided. What this comfort does for us is it doesn't mean that maybe this bad thing happens. So a good thing can happen two days from now. But that everything God does in all of creation, is pushing us towards the day of salvation, pushing us towards the resurrection of the dead. That the good that God wants for you is not solving a small problem in your daily life or make things 2% better. But the change all of creation, and make you heard, and new on the day of the resurrection. This is why Paul then goes into this amazing story about not being able to separate be separated from Christ's love. Because what he does is he lists all of the things that might bring up an objection, right? It's persecution, danger, nakedness, sword, famine. None of that matter, right. None of the problems that you face can take us away from Jesus. Because all of that is part of God's plan. All of that is part of God's push towards the end towards the resurrection and eternal life. So we can trust that whatever God is doing in your life now. It's not out of control. It's not going contrary to God's will. It's pushing you to resurrection and eternal life in him. Which is why St. Paul can say that. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai