Romans 8:14-25
Saved in Hope
From the beginning of this section of Paul's letter, he has been building your faith and assurance that what Christ has accomplished for you has given you a completely new life of peace with God -- a resurrected life where all old things have passed away and behold everything has become new.
And Paul's climatic declaration of this new life was given in v. 1:
Now, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).Why? Because Jesus is your perfect Savior. He took your curse of sin upon Himself and died your death so that you would be forgiven. He obeyed God for you, giving you His perfect righteousness so that God would be pleased with you. And just in case you ever have doubts of what He has done for you, He has sent His Spirit to dwell within you to make your salvation certain.
But if you were all honest this morning, you would have to admit that you often don't "feel" very saved. You often don't "feel" like the children of God. Everything in your daily experience seems to fight against this. How can you maintain your hope and assurance of eternal life in the face of daily sufferings, temptations to sin, including giving into temptation and rebelling against God, and finally even death itself? How can you have been set free "from the law and death" and still die? How can God's dearly loved children suffer? Don't your daily trials, suffering, and weakness at least call into question that there is NOW "no condemnation"?
It is to this set of questions that Paul now demands your undivided attention!
Paul's answer is always refreshingly the same -- it is found in Jesus Christ. How so?
When Jesus was sent by God to undo what Adam got us into, his life and ministry followed a particular path that His Father in Heaven set forth for Him -- it was the path of suffering and then glory to follow. In fact, the author of Hebrews tells us that it was through this very path of suffering that Christ learned obedience before God:
In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered (Heb. 5:7-8).
Now, through faith you have been joined to Jesus Christ so that He is your life before God. You are now, because you are "in Christ," what Paul calls this morning "sons of God." You are "sons" only because you are "in" the true, unique Son of God. You have taken on His life in every way so that His life has become your life.
But just what does that mean? It means that the very path that Jesus trod in His earthly life is now your path. The disciple is not above His master and as glory followed Christ's walk of suffering so your life as His disciple will now follow the same path. Literally, as Christ said, you must first die by laying down your life and only then do you take up the life of the cross and follow Christ.
Before a seed can germinate, it must be buried in the ground and the outer coating must break open and die before the seed can burst forth and come alive. Jesus said:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. 26 “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant be also (John 12:24-26).
In vv. 14-17, Paul explains how our adoption into God's family has set us upon this path of Christ's life and ministry.
Paul ties v. 14 into the previous section where Paul assures you that you are no longer "of the flesh" but that you now belong "to the Spirit." In other words, while you still live within this present, evil age it is no longer this world that defines you before God. This world doesn't tell you who you are. Rather, you now belong to the Spirit and the Spirit of God now dwells in you. You are a citizen of Heaven which makes you a pilgrim of this world. This world is no longer you home, but it is the wilderness period of the journey. Like Israel, you have already been delivered from bondage and you are heading to the promise land, so that now you live between the times -- between initial deliverance and final deliverance.
So what is it that ties these two worlds together? What has God given to you to assure you that even though you trod through the daily muck and mire of this present fallen age, that you really belong to a glorious kingdom in which you will soon arrive?
The answer is God's Spirit. The Spirit is the first installment of God's guaranteed gift of eternal life. He is the "first fruits" or "foretaste" of the glory to come. And it is because He now dwells within you that you have become what Christ is before God -- sons of God (v. 14).
Jesus Christ alone is the unique Son of God. By His Spirit you have been joined to Him so that His life now defines you before God. And it is in His image that you are now being conformed (cf. Rom. 8:29).
And the Spirit of God is the one who now confirms this new adoption or sonship of God. And just what kind of life is the life of sonship?
Paul once again contrasts the life of Israel "under the law" with your new life "under the gospel". Israel lived a life of dread and judgment before God. Because they could not fulfill the demands of the law they had no peace or security that they would remain in the land of promise (Rom. 3:20; 7:7-13). They lived in constant anxiety and fear of judgment to come.
But because Jesus Christ has lived the life that Israel should have lived and died to pay the penalty of sin and rebellion -- you now have peace with God -- no condemnation of any kind. That is why you have been given the "Spirit of adoption" instead of "a spirit of fear". The demands of the law have been met for you in Christ (vv. 3-4; cf. Heb. 12:18-24).
And through Christ you have been adopted into God's family. The language of "adoption" would have been well-known to Paul's readers where a citizen of Rome could legally adopt a child and confirm upon him all the legal rights and privileges that would normally be given to a natural child.
You have been adopted into the family -- the family that goes all the way back to Abraham in the desert where God made the promise of a land and a city whose "architect and builder is God" (cf. Heb. 11:10). God has now given the inheritance of that promise to the Seed of Abraham, who is Christ:
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ (Gal. 3:16).
Through faith, God's Spirit has now joined you to Christ so that you are now an adopted "son of God":
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:29).
Now, as an adopted "son" you have all the benefits and privileges that belong to Christ. And it is the work of the Spirit that confirms this adoption to you.
He testifies with your "spirit" -- the innermost, deepest part of your being -- that you belong to God through Christ (v. 16). That is why you may now cry out, at any time, "Abba, Father," in exactly the same way Jesus did in His cries to the Father in Heaven.
In this way, it is clear that God has taken no half measures. You belong fully to Him. You are full members of His family and you have been given all the privileges of His children. Martin Luther said of these precious words:
Abba, Father is but a little word, and yet it comprehends all things. It is not merely the mouth that speaks, but the deep affections of the heart. Although I am oppressed with anguish and terror from every side and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from God's presence, yet I am truly a child of God and God is my Father because of Christ: I am beloved because of the Beloved (see Moo, p. 503).
So it is because you are in Christ that you have inherited all the promises of God -- you have become the "heirs of God" and only because you are in Christ, a fellow hear with Him (v. 17).
But along with that sonship, means that you too will follow the path of God's unique Son. As God's children, we are following the same path of suffering to glory:
The Spirit of Christ was within them indicating the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow (1 Pet. 1:11).
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Phil. 1:29).
But you do not do so alone -- as Paul says in v. 17 -- you suffer "with Him." This means that as Christians you understand the sufferings of life, which are common to all man, very differently from the way the world understands them. Your sufferings have taken on a new, spiritual dimension that is transforming you into the New Man.
And what is it that transforms our understanding of suffering? It is heaven, where Christ your Lord is seated -- the glory that is to come when He appears (v. 18). What you see in the present must be understood in light of the future. You are to interpret the seen by the unseen. It is only as you look at your present sufferings in light of the future glory that awaits you in Christ that can you have a proper perspective on your daily trials and troubles in this life.
Heaven must transform how you view earth. You must weigh suffering in the balance with glory and only then will you see how "weighty," how transcendently wonderful, glory truly is, and then and only then will you see that suffering really has no weight at all:
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
It is because of your new "heavenly eyes" that you can now understand why it is that you suffer -- why is it that you suffer illness, the death of loved ones, succumbing to temptation, persecution, and even your own death?
Because this present evil age is the appropriate arena or stage where your life is being conformed through suffering into the image of Christ. It is the sufferings of this age that are putting stress and pressure upon your life in Christ, like the pressure and high temperature that presses against carbon deep under the earth's crust and eventually through the rupture of volcanic activity a diamond is brought to the earth's surface to dazzle and be desired by all.
It is the weight and burden of this life that presses against you, teaching you that your hope is not found in this life, or in anything that it contains, but that life is found only in Christ. And it is Christ whom you have tasted to see that He is good and it is His life in you that sustains you in your difficult and troublesome pilgrimage to Heaven.
It is because you have already been joined to Christ who dwells in glory that you already participate in the glory that is to come (cf. 8:30). It is already yours -- stored in jars of clay (2 Cor. 4:7) -- waiting to be revealed before all when he appears.
It is this glory that the creation itself waits with eager expectation (v. 19). Paul pictures here the natural world as stretching its neck out to see what is coming -- looking forward to the restoration, rebirth that is to come.
But when is it coming? When the glory that dwells within you is unveiled for all to see (v. 19). You are already "sons of God" and God has put His power within you, but since you are currently experiencing suffering, trials, weakness, and even death, your life doesn't appear to be glorious. You are the prince dressed in pauper's clothing.
But the day is coming when the glory that is in you will be unveiled and made a public event for all creation to marvel at.
But why is the creation in this state, looking forward to your being glorified? (vv. 20-21).
This world is not what it should be or what God had originally designed it to be. God created the world for a purpose -- it was destined to reflect God's glory in every square inch -- a display of His marvelous power and might for all to see.
But because of man's rebellion, the creation is now unable to attain the very end for which it was created. Man's sin polluted the goodness of God's creation and ever since the natural world has lived in a state of frustration. But this frustration came not of its own will but because God had cursed the ground as judgment for man's sin so that the earth would not freely nor easily give up its fruits to man. Instead, God said:
By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:17-19).
But along with the curse came "hope." There will arise from the seed of woman a champion who will fight for man and crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). The curse is given within the context of hope -- a new day is coming.
And the creation hopes for this day when it will be set free from the bondage and darkness of sinful decay that covers the earth -- it lives in hope that it will one day be set free to fully join in the glory that is to come when God's children appear before Christ.
It is this anxious longing to be set free that produces the groaning under the agony of the distress and suffering of this age. But because Jesus Christ has already won the battle and the victory is certain, those pains of this present age are described as "childbirth pains," because though painful at the moment, victory and joy will soon issue forth in the new birth:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. 21 “Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 “Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you (John 16:20-22).
In the same way that the creation itself does not hope in vain, so you too can be assured that your present suffering is not the last word -- it is only the birth pains of a new life of glory and joy which will soon arrive (v. 23). Knowing what awaits you produces within you deep sighs of longing in anticipation of the removal of all your moral and physical frailties to be clothed in the glory of Christ:
For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:2-7).
You can groan within only because God has already given you the first-fruits of the glory to come. He has given you His Spirit as the down-payment or pledge of the full glory to come. And it is because you have already tasted the sweetness of the land flowing with milk and honey that you are so eager to get there.
But this longing in hope should not surprise you. For you too were saved "in hope." By its very nature, "hope" means that you are waiting for something you are going to receive.
Notice the tense of the verb: we have been saved. You have already been justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ. There is now no condemnation. But your "already" salvation includes within it the "not yet" expectation of the fullness or the revealing of your salvation in glory. And therefore, the current trials and sufferings of this life can in no way erase the certainty of what it coming -- by its very nature, hope cannot be hope if you can see what is hoped for. But equally because it is unseen it belongs to God and therefore you can wait through thick and thin knowing that it will be entirely worth the wait.
1. Therefore, as Christians you should have a healthy balance of both your present joy in this life in all the many wonderful blessings that this life provides for you, but while not loosing sight that this is not all there is and therefore because it is temporary it isn't where you set your hope and ultimate longing. There is coming a day when you will all see Jesus face to face and the joy that you will know then, will forever dispel all the shadows of joy that you tasted here on earth.
In fact, C. S. Lewis sees this very longing as evidence that you were never meant to find your ultimate joy in this life:
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death: I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same" (MC 136-137).
2. Knowing that you already possess this new life in Christ and the glory that is to follow, you can endure the present weaknesses of sin and suffering in this life knowing that what awaits you will equally dispel all the many pains, tears, and worry that you have known in this life. For a day is coming when you will all hear a loud voice crying out:
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, 4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost (Rev. 21:3-6).
Amen!
-SDG-
