Romans 8:26-39

 

In 1934, Will Eisner wrote a story about a criminal. This man had committed a crime and had been arrested. He served a term in prison; he paid his debt to society, and so far as the law was concerned, he was free. His condemnation was over. But he found out that it was hard to live as an ex-convict. Nobody wanted to give him a job and the only people who wanted to associate with him were his old criminal friends who wanted to pull him back to a life of crime.

And too many people think that becoming a Christian is like that—that God cancels out our debt of sin and then leaves us to live on our own, that justification is the beginning and the end for us. But Paul's whole point in Romans 5-8 is that God has a plan for us that goes beyond mere pardon, that justification is the beginning of the story and not the end.

In Eisner's story, the ex-con was ultimately able to find a new, honest life because another character became interested in him and made an effort to help him. And that is what God has done for us. God isn't just a judge offering pardon, but a friend who continues to walk beside us and help us. Indeed, as Paul showed in chapter 8, God is not just a friend, but a father. He did not merely deliver us from the house of sin but give us a new home in His own family.

That is the main idea of this part of Romans, and here in these final verses, Paul brings the whole idea to a glorious conclusion. The previous section looked forward to the consummation of God's plan, but Paul was fully aware that we had not yet received that consummation; as Christians, we are somewhere between the two bookends of Salvation and Resurrection. We live by hope for that which we do not have, and therefore this life is a life of patient waiting. But God is with us even now to help us on the way.

The key idea for this passage is the first words of verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” We are not alone in this Christian journey. As we saw earlier in Romans 8, it is the Spirit that makes the Christian life possible. To be a Christian means to have the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within the heart. And the Spirit isn't merely a passenger in our hearts; He 'helpeth' our infirmities.

The word 'helpeth' here means “to take hold of opposite together, i.e. co-operate (assist)” (Strong #4878) Picture a man trying to move a large, heavy object, and then someone else comes alongside and helps to push it. That's the idea behind this word 'helpeth.' 

God isn't a coach—walking behind us and offering encouragment or criticism. He is right there with us, working shoulder to shoulder with us in the labor of life. In this life, we are always going to have infirmities; we are always going to have problems and difficulties and troubles, whether internal or external. But we do not face them alone. We have a friend.

And because God is with us, we have help in prayer. Paul says we that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. What exactly does that mean?

In life, we face problems—situations that are unpleasant or damaging, whether physically, mentally, or spiritually. And the natural, obvious human desire it to see those situations resolved—whether that means removing the problem or escaping from it. And often we can do it on our own resources. As Christians, we may pray about the problem and we recognize that everything we do, even the most mundane, is ultimately because of God—but we don't need God to intervene in any special way in our to accomplish it. So, if you're hungry, then—so long as you have food in the house—you can go cook some and eat it. It's only because of God's grace that it's possible, but you wouldn't necessarily spend a long time praying about it.

But there are some situations in which the thing that is needed in order to resolve the problem is beyond our power to affect. So, think of Elijah on Mt. Carmel. The nation needed rain. People's lives depended on it. It was a real and pressing need—but there was not a single thing that Elijah could do to make it rain. There's a saying that God helps those who help themselves; but in this case, Elijah could do nothing to help himself. He had to have God's help. He knew what needed to be done, but it was something he could not do. He could only pray and ask God to do it.

But there are some situations in life when we do not even know what should be done to resolve them—let alone have the ability to do it. So, think of Saul of Tarsus coming to Damascus on a mission to stamp out Christianity there. We know that the Christians in Damascus knew that he was coming and what his mission was. So I've wondered what their reaction was to that news. I'm sure they prayed about it—but what did they pray for? What did they ask God to do to protect them from Saul? Did they think that God should just strike Saul down or somehow force him to turn back? Or did they just pray for patience and fortitude in the face of persecution? Whatever they prayed for, it seems that the one thing they didn't pray for was that Saul would be converted and become an apostle.

They had a problem. And God had a solution, one that solved not only their particular problem but brought about untold good for the entire Christian church, from the first century to today. And though this is a guess, I'm pretty sure that when they were praying, they did not even consider that solution. They knew the problem, but they did not know what needed to be done and they couldn't do it.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought.

But we have help in prayer. The Spirit makes intercession for us; that is, He meets us and works on our behalf. Again, we have this idea—that we are not alone; that in the depth of our perplexity and trouble, God's Spirit is with us, acting and speaking on our behalf. 

Often in trouble, we do not know what to pray for so we can't pray a simple, straightforward request. Sometimes—either due to ignorance or human limitations—we cannot put our desires and concerns into words at all. All we have is a deep, unspoken yearning, an unutterable groaning. The things we cannot say are a medium for the Holy Spirit to speak on our behalf. We talk a lot in relation to the incarnation to the fact that Jesus shared in the sufferings of mankind. But here we see that the Spirit also shares in our suffering. The Spirit also shares in the deep, unutterable groaning of unspoken desire and uses them on our behalf. The People's New Testament Commentary points out that we have a progression here. In the verses before this, Paul spoke of creation groaning, and then of the believer groaning, and now we have the Spirit sharing in that groaning.

This is a very familiar verse and one which always comes up in discussions regarding prayer. I feel as if not nearly as many people talk about the next verse which carries the thought forward. We have us, in peril and perplexity, and we have the Spirit, interceding for us. And then we have “he that searcheth the heart” who “knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit” and who “maketh intercession for the saints.”

Jesus is also making intercession for us. He knows both the mind of the Spirit and our own heart. The picture here is that we have a line of communication, with the Spirit on one side and the Son on the other side, and both are interceding for us to the Father.

Imagine back in Medieval times, a poor peasant had some need, some problem that required the intervention of the king. He was too poor to travel to the castle and present his petition in person. And he was too ignorant to be able to write a letter to the king. Under those conditions, he would be unable to get his problem to the king's attention.

But suppose the man had a close friend who was a scribe, who was able to put down in writing the man's problem and send it to the king. And then suppose, further, that the king's secretary--the man who would receive the letter and present it to the king—was also a friend to the man and his scribe, so that he was also working on their side, fully understanding the situation and dedicated to seeing it resolved, so that the man had two friends, both working on his behalf to present his problem to the king.

That is the picture Paul is painting here. When we pray, the Spirit and the Son are both working on our behalf. Prayer is often pictured as a battle; we speak of those who are powerful in prayer as Prayer Warriors. But what Paul is showing us here is that in the battle of prayer, God is fighting on our side. Whatever prayer is, it is not an attempt to force God to help us, because God is already helping us—assuming, of course, that our desires are within the will of God. He makes intercession "according to the will of God." (v. 27)

James 4:3 says: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Some prayers are not answered because they are asked for the wrong things or for the wrong motives. And you can see that as a rebuke, but it is also a comfort—given that we know not how to pray as we ought, we would be in trouble if God always answered all our prayers without concern for his own will. In the end, God's will is always best.

And that is the point to remember--that God has a will; God has a plan. That is verse 28, probably the most famous verse in this passage: the assertion that all things work together for good to them that love God. 

Note that Paul does not say that all things are good or that only good things happen to the Christian. Just a few verses before this, Paul was speaking of the suffering and trials we face because of being Christians. What he says is that all things work together for good, that God has a purpose, and that He uses everything in order to accomplish that purpose.

Think of Joseph, sold as a slave into a foreign land and clapped in prison for something he didn't do. Think of Ruth, alone in a strange land and having practically to beg for food. Think of Daniel receiving the news that he and his companions were to be killed because no one could interpret the king's dream. Think of Jesus being crucified and dying even though He did no wrong. Each of these people experienced very bad situations; if they had thought that nothing good could come out of their situation, it would be hard to blame them. But in each case, we know how the story ended—how God brought something good out of these problems; like a master strategist, God uses the attacks of the enemy to forward His own cause.

As Christians, we do not look at the problems and troubles of life the same way a sinner does. That doesn't mean we don't experience trouble. It doesn't mean we like or enjoy trouble. It doesn't mean we don't feel pain or sadness. What it does mean is that we have a different outlook.

Suppose a man was held captive by an enemy, and the enemy, to punish the man, forces him to march for twenty miles. It may be a grueling, exhausting march and will probably leave the man sore and tired.

But then, suppose, after having been held prisoner for a while, the man manages to escape and has the chance to make it back to safety, to his friends and family. And to escape, he must walk for twenty miles.

In both cases, the man walks the same distance. The amount of tiredness and soreness he experiences in both cases will be roughly the same. But it is clear that there will be an experiential difference between the two walks. One was pointless; it led nowhere. The other walk had a purpose; it took him somewhere.

As Christians, we experience many of the same pains and problems that sinners experience. Injuries and betrayals hurt the Christian just as much as they hurt a sinner. But for the Christian, we know that there is a purpose in these things; that life doesn't just happen; that God is working all things together for good. And so in life, just as much as in death, we do not grieve as those who have no hope. 

That is all true, of course, only so long as we hold tight to our faith that God is in fact at work. The just can live joyfully and triumphantly only so long they live by faith. 

But it is important to remember that this hope is not universal. The text does not say that God works all things together for good for everyone. It is specifically for those who love Him, those who are part of His called and chosen people.

And there is a reason for this which may not be immediately obvious. Acts 23:11 tells of something that happened to Paul following his arrest in Jerusalem. “And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.”

Here we have Jesus appearing to Paul with a word of encouragement, with the words 'be of good cheer.' This is a phrase Jesus used several times to people in trouble or distress; for instance, He called it out to the disciples when He came walking to them over the stormy sea of Galilee.

But there is something odd about it in this case.  Here we have a man in prison and here is a miraculous visitor coming to offer him a word of encouragement. You would think that would a prisoner would want to hear would be: “Be of good cheer; you will be miraculously delivered from prison.” You would think he would want to hear would be: “Be of good cheer; the Romans will release you.”

The last thing you would think of as a word of encouragement or consolation is: “Be of good cheer; you are going to spend the next several years in jail so that you will end up in Rome where you will be chained up and possibly martyred.” That hardly seems like a cheering message. But it was a cheering message to Paul because he was completely dedicated to Jesus and His work. Though Paul had wanted to visit Rome, this certainly hadn't been the way he had planned. But he was willing to accept it because he was dedicated to God's work. Paul loved God; he was part of God's chosen plan; and so he was happy to help forward God's kingdom even if it meant imprisonment.

Only those who love God are happy to hear that God is working things together for good. Only those who are part of his army are willing to suffer in order to see that army advance. Jesus told his disciples to be of good cheer because he had overcome the world. But that is only encouraging to those who are not part of the world. Jesus' enemies would not have found much comfort in seeing Him walking towards them over the sea.

In other words, to say that God works all things together for good doesn't simply mean that God is trying to make people happy (though God does desire happiness for man); it means that God has a master plan for His people and ultimately for the entire universe and that, if we let him, He will work that plan out through us, even in the midst of the difficulties and troubles of life.

We see this in the next two verses. God had a plan, a plan designed outside of time, a plan that His people would be conformed to the image of His Son. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:3-4)

God's plan was that we might partake in the nature of Christ, that we might be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, partakers of the Divine Nature. But it wasn't just that we might, as individuals, experience this; God's plan was to create a new race, a new family centered in Christ. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” (Hebrews 2:11-12)

And while the final consummation of that is still in the future, it is true even now. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; God makes all things to work together for good because we are part of his family, because we are all on the same side. And because it is God's side, we know it is the winning side. Because this plan is God's, we know that it will not fail because of any outside influence; we know there is nothing that can come in and derail the roaring juggernaut of God's will.

God made the plan; God called the believers; God justified the believers; and God will glorify the believers. God never lacks the resources to accomplish His plan.

Verses 29-30 bring up certain controversial issues, but the main point we need to grasp is simply this: God has a plan. And while, as I said, it is a plan for the whole universe, a plan to manifest the glory of God, it is also a plan for us, a plan for our own good. We know not how to pray as we ought, because we do not know what is truly good, but God does know and God is working all things together for good.

And when you have said that, what else is there to say? If God is on our side, then does it matter who is against us? As the late Rev. David Phelps used to say, if God is for us, everyone else might as well be.

God is able to help us. But is He willing? You may remember in an earlier lesson, we read that text from James in which he pictures a rich man meeting his poor friend and offering him encouraging words without actually using his power to help him. Is God like that?

No; and we actually have an objective indicator of exactly how much God is willing to invest in this venture. That is verse 32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” God was willing to go through with the costly plan of the gospels in order to enact our salvation. If God would sink that much capital into the launching of this plan, He isn't going to be stingy about a few incidental expenditures that pop up along the way. 

Now, in any worthwhile endeavor in life, there will be opposition. And to be a Christian today means—as it also meant in the first century—means facing opposition. And while then, as now, it sometimes meant concrete or physical opposition, that opposition also frequently took the form of criticism or accusation. In this country, this is the most common form opposition takes.

If you are a Christian, then there is a high chance that the world is going to criticize you and accuse you of everything from hatred to treason. There is even a relatively high chance that other professing Christians—whatever their motives or actual spiritual state—will find reasons to criticize you as well. Revelation refers to the Devil as 'the accuser of the brethren' and seems to picture that in the spiritual realm he brings accusations against Christians as he did against Job. And whatever exactly that means in the spiritual realm, we see it play out quite concretely in this world.

Even the perfect man, even Jesus Himself, faced these sorts of criticisms and accusations. This is summarized in His trial—they brought all manner of accusations against him but could bring no concrete evidence because none of the accusations were true. And yet they made the accusations stick enough to get Him killed. Innocence is no sure guarantee of good reputation (though it is obviously a better shot than guilt.)

So what can we say in the face of all these accusations from man and demon, from all attempts to paint us as villains and monsters? The answer is verses 33-34: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

The only one who can justify or condemn us, the only one who has jurisdiction to hear our case, who has the authority to pass judgment, the only one whose opinion matters is God—and it is God who provided a means of salvation and who is making intercession for us. The Devil can accuse us, but the Devil cannot judge us. The world can accuse us, but the world cannot judge us. The church, even, can accuse us, but cannot judge us. Only God can judge me.

Of course, there is a warning there—we can fool or mollify the world; we can escape their judgment; we cannot escape God's. But for Paul's purpose here, the main idea is this comfort. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or says about us. All that matters is what God thinks. And as I said before, God isn't just passively sitting there thinking. God is not merely a fair and impartial judge. He is interceding for us. He is working on our side. Therefore he certainly is not going to let any false accusations from the world sway His judgment.

Max Lucado wrote a story about a race of puppets. These puppets were very concerned about behavior and were constantly passing judgment by putting stickers on one another—they used stars to represent good behavior and dots to represent bad. And so all these puppets were covered by stars or dots to represent the judgment of their neighbors. All except one puppet. She had come to spend time with the craftsman who made the puppets—and as she learned to care only about his judgment, the approval and condemnation of her neighbors just fell away. Neither accolades nor criticism would stick to her, because she was only concerned with the judgment of her maker.

And this applies not only to the world around us. “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” (1 John 3:20) Even our only opinions regarding ourselves, even our own direct testimony, is secondary to the judgment of God.

The accusations and oppositions of anybody—even ourselves—are ultimately irrelevant. Only God matters and God is on our side. So that brings us to the question of verse 35: “Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ?”

Because, as Christians, that is the foundation of everything; we have talked before about the just living by faith, but the foundation of that faith is the activity of God and the basis of God's activity is His love. We have hope, we have life, we have everything we have discussed up to this point solely and exclusively because of the love of Christ. Faith is only important because it is our link to that love. So can anything cause the love of Christ to become ineffective?

Because on a human level, love is often rendered ineffective. I do not mean that people cease to love—that does happen, but that doesn't seem to be in Paul's mind. The fact that Christ will never stop loving us is taken as a given. But there are times when love is nullified by circumstances. A parent may truly love their child but if that child is captured and carried away by an enemy then the parent's love is rendered ineffective. A man may truly love a woman but if circumstances make their marriage impossible then that love is rendered ineffective. Love can be real and yet be blocked. Love often finds a way, but in human affairs, it doesn't always. One of the great English poets wrote a work called "Love is Enough" and someone else wrote this review: “No, it isn't.”

So is this true of God's love? God may truly love us and we may truly love God, but what of the things that strive to come between us? Because there are things that will strive to come between us. Verse 36 comes in rather strangely and abruptly in the middle of this passage: Romans 8 is a chapter about hope and victory, but there is not apparently hopeful or victorious about: "We are killed all day long."

As I mentioned before, Paul was very much, and very personally aware of the fact that being a Christian meant facing opposition and persecution. In verse 35 he mentions tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and the sword. And those are many of the same things which Paul mentions experiencing in 2 Corinthians 11:26-27. Paul knew very personally about the things which seemed intended to drive a wedge between us and God's love.

When such things are in play, it seems as if God is distant. It will often seem as if we have been separated from God or as if God's love is inactive. Paul is quoting here from Psalm  44:22-24, which reads: “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?” For the psalmist, it seemed as if God were asleep or had forgotten His people. Likely, for Paul, there were also moments when that seemed to be the case.

So given this reality—that the entire world is conspiring to cut us off from God—given that things are so dark that it seems as if God is asleep—does that mean that God's love has been rendered inoperative?

No, because in all these things we are more than conquerors. (v. 37) Not only can these things not disrupt the flow of God's love, they can actually be the fuel of a greater victory. 

There is an expression that says: Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger; the idea is that often the difficulties and problems we face can build character. Sometimes we are better people specifically because we have had worse situations. Often in life, we are more than conquerors specifically because of the bad things that happen.

But that it is just an expression. It represents a reality but it is not the whole of reality. On a human level, it isn't always true. Often what doesn't kill you only makes you weaker. Often what brings defeat is the gradual wearing down of circumstance, the growing burden of life. Life is often a war of attrition. And, of course, if you turn the expression around you have: What doesn't make you stronger kills you.

It is a general truth that we can find victory even in difficult times, even in defeat, but it is not certain and not absolute. So how could Paul be so certain that, in the spiritual realm, it would be true? That is the end of verse 37: we are more than conquerors through and only through Him that loved us.

This goes back to what I said before: God's love is the constant here. None of these circumstances can even be imagined to alter God's love. And because God's love is—well, God's—then it makes sense that nothing can stop it. Even human love can sometimes find a way in the midst of adversity, but God's love always can. There's a song that says: “God will make a way where there seems to be no way.” That can sometimes be said of man, but only sometimes. God—and God alone—can always make a way. God—and God alone—can make us, in any circumstance and any situation—more than conquerors. This doesn't always mean bringing victory in the obvious or expected way. As Paul said earlier, all things work together for good, but that doesn't mean all things are good or work in the way we expect. For the church, the truth has often been: What does kill you only makes you stronger. But we do know that, no matter the circumstances, no matter how bad things are, God still loves us and God can still bring victory and something better than victory.

This is the constant; this is the firm backdrop of Paul's whole thought. No matter what happens in life, no matter what we face, no matter what opposition comes our way, nothing can truly come between us and God. If you are flying a kite, the kite may go up into the clouds so that you can no longer see it. But so long as you hold unto the string, there is still a connection and mere clouds cannot break the string. Things may happen that make it difficult or impossible to see God's working or to feel God's love, but that doesn't change the fact that God's love is at work.

And to make all this perfectly clear, Paul ends with a cascading list of the enemies and problems we face, giving the triumphant assurance that none of them can nullify or stop the love of God. 

He mentions life and death, which are the two pillars of human existence. On one hand, we have the turmoil and bustle of life, the constant, unending swarm of concerns and frustrations, the realm where even good fortune comes as an inconvenience. On the other hand, we have the dark and silent gates of death beyond which is mystery. Life is hard and we know what it is like; death is hard because we do not know what it is like. Shakespeare said that the troubles people face in life are so great that everyone would just kill themselves if it were not that “that the dread of something after death/The undiscover'd country from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzles the will/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of.”

Paul had known life in some of its worst aspects, and he had come very close to death many times. But he was certain that nothing in either realm could stop God's love.

He mentions angels, principalities, and powers--the mysterious spiritual forces which struggle in the realms beyond human thought. We do not know very much about these spiritual forces; Paul knew more than many men perhaps, but even he didn't know that much. But he did know that none of them could stop or nullify God's love.

He mentions the height and the depths. This is probably an expression to denote the whole of reality. From the very top of the world to the lowest depth, from the east to the west, there was nothing that could render God's love ineffective.

And just in case he missed anything, he adds: "Nor any other creature." There are many things within the world that will cause us problems, many things that will try to hurt and oppose us. But there is nothing in all reality that can block or derail God's love for us for His people.

With this, we reach the end of Paul's discussion of transformation. Romans 5 began with us being reconciled to God; Romans 8 ends with God's all-powerful love being at work for us. God has a plan for us and if we let Him, He will accomplish it in us. Nothing in all reality can stop God from performing His work in those who have faith--and so God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: the just shall live by faith.