Ii. The Invincible Purpose Of God
CHAPTER FOUR
LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
Romans 8:5-39
Our fourth Christian privilege is life in the Spirit. So far the Holy Spirit has not figured prominently in these chapters. He is not named at all in chapter 6. He is mentioned only once in chapter 5, as the One through whom God’s love has flooded our hearts (verse 5). And once only in chapter 7, where it is written that our Christian bondage is not to an external code, but an indwelling Spirit (verse 6). Now, however, in chapter 8, the Holy Spirit comes to the fore.
The Christian life, the life of a justified believer, is seen as being essentially life in the Spirit, that is to say, a life which is animated, sustained, directed and enriched by the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Spirit in this chapter is portrayed particularly in four areas. First, in relation to our flesh, our fallen nature. Secondly, in relation to our sonship, our adoption to be the sons of God. Thirdly, in relation to our final inheritance, including the redemption of our bodies on the last day. Fourthly, in relation to our prayers, in which we have to acknowledge our weakness.
The Holy Spirit’s gracious activity in these four areas may be summed up as follows: He subdues our flesh (verses 5-13); He witnesses to our sonship (verses 14—17); He guarantees our inheritance (verses 18-25); and He helps our weakness in prayer (verses 26, 27). The chapter ends (verses 28-39) with an affirmation, unsurpassed in grandeur, that the purposes of God are invincible and that the people of God are therefore absolutely and eternally secure.
I. THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (8:5-27)
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh you will die. but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
a. The Spirit subdues our flesh (verses 5-13)
Verse 4, which we considered in the last chapter, says that ‘the just requirement of the law' can be fulfilled in us believers only if we ‘walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit’, following His promptings and yielding to His control. Now the apostle Paul explains why this is so. A great deal of it has to do with our mind. Our walk depends on our mind, our conduct on our outlook. As a man ‘thinketh in his heart (or mind), so is he’ (Proverbs 23:7, av) and so he behaves. It is our thoughts, ultimately, which govern our behaviour.
That is what the apostle writes in verse 5. ‘For’, he says—and this is the reason why we can fulfil the law only if we walk according to the Spirit—‘those who live (literally, “are”) according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit’. Now to ‘set the mind upon’ the flesh or the Spirit means to occupy ourselves with the things of the flesh or the Spirit. It is a question of our preoccupations, the ambitions which compel us and the interests which engross us; how we spend our time, money and energy; what we give ourselves up to. That is what we set our minds on.
Verse 6 describes the results of these two outlooks: ‘To set the mind on the flesh’, he says, ‘is death.’ Not it will be, but it is—now—death, because it leads to sin and so to separation from God, which is death. But ‘to set the mind on the Spirit is life . . .’—now—because it leads to holiness and so to continuing fellowship with God, which is life. Further, it brings not only life, but ‘peace’: peace with God, which is life; and peace within ourselves, integration, harmony. Many of us would pursue holiness with far greater zeal and eagerness if we were convinced that the way of holiness is the way of life and peace. And that is precisely what it is; there is life and peace no other way.
By contrast, to set the mind on the flesh brings death and war. Verses 7 and 8: ‘the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.’ They ‘cannot please God’ because the only way to please Him is to submit to His law and obey it. Thus the mind of the flesh is hostile to God’s law and will not submit to it, while the mind of the Spirit is friendly to God’s law and delights in it.
Here, then, are two categories of people (those who are in the flesh, and those who are in the Spirit), who have two mentalities or outlooks (called the mind of the flesh and the mind of the Spirit), which lead to two patterns of conduct (walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit), and result in two spiritual states (death and life). If we are in the flesh we set our mind on the things of the flesh, we walk according to the flesh, and so die. But if we are in the Spirit we set our mind on the things of the Spirit, we walk according to the Spirit, and so live. What we are governs how we think; how we think governs how we behave; and how we behave governs our relation to God—death or life. Once more, then, we see how much depends on our mind, where we set it, how we occupy it, and on what we focus and concentrate its energies.
That brings us to verse 9, in which the apostle applies personally to his readers the truths which he has so far expounded in general terms. He has just written (verse 8), ‘those who are in the flesh cannot please God/ Now (verse 9) he says, 'But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him/ Notice the synonyms in this verse. First, the 'Spirit of God’ and the 'Spirit of Christ’. Secondly, to be in the Spirit, and to have the Spirit dwelling in us. This is simply two ways of looking at the same experience. Thirdly, to have the Spirit dwelling in us (verse 9), and to have Christ dwelling in us (verse 10), are the same thing.
Quite apart from these instructive synonyms, verse 9 is of great importance. It tells us plainly that the distinguishing characteristic of the true Christian, which sets him apart from all unbelievers, is that the Holy Spirit dwells in him. Twice in chapter 7, in verses 17 and 20, the apostle has written of the 'sin which dwells within me’. But now he writes of the Spirit who dwells in us. Indwelling sin is the lot of all the children of Adam; the great privilege of the children of God is to have the indwelling Spirit to fight and subdue indwelling sin. And ‘any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him’.
Verses 10 and 11 indicate the great consequence of having the Spirit dwelling in us. Both verses begin similarly with an ‘if clause. Verse 10: ‘if Christ is in you . . . Verse 11: ‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you . . . What is the result of having Christ by His Spirit indwelling us? The answer is ‘life’—life for our spirits now and life for our bodies at the end—because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. He is the Lord, the life-giver. Thus verse 10: ‘If Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.' That is, although our bodies are prone to death, mortal, yet our spirits are alive, for the Holy Spirit has given them life. Because of Adam’s sin we die physically; because of Christ’s righteousness we live spiritually.
Further, although at present it is only our spirits which live (our bodies are mortal and must die), yet on the last day our bodies will live also. Verse 11: ‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.' Notice the reference to the three Persons of the Trinity. The God who raised Christ from the dead will raise us, raise our bodies. Why? Because the Spirit dwells in them and thus hallows them. How? By the power of the same Spirit who indwells them. So the Holy Spirit, who has already given life to our spirits, will in the end give life to our bodies too.
‘So then, brethren,’ verse 12, ‘we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-’, and the apostle breaks off before completing the sentence. If he had completed it, almost certainly he would have said that we are debtors to the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit.
This idea of being ‘debtors’ to the Holy Spirit is an interesting and compelling one. It indicates that we have an obligation to holiness. It is an obligation to be what we are, to live up to our Christian status and privilege, and to do nothing which contradicts it. In particular, if we live in the Spirit, we have an obligation to walk according to the Spirit.
This is the argument. If the Holy Spirit is our life-giver and dwells within us, we cannot possibly walk according to the flesh, because that way lies death. Such an inconsistency between what we are and how we behave, between possessing life and courting death, is unthinkable. We are alive! Our spirits are alive. The Holy Spirit has given us life. Therefore we are debtors to the Spirit who has given us life. And by His power we must put to death anything that threatens this new life, especially ‘the deeds of the body’. It is only by their death that we shall live, that is, continue to enjoy the life which the Holy Spirit has given us.
Such is the solemn alternative of verse 13. ‘If you let the flesh live.' Paul says, ‘allowing it to prosper and flourish, the real you will die. But if you kill the deeds of the body, mortifying them or putting them to death, the real you will live.' And each of us has to choose between this way of life and this way of death. But Paul’s point is that our choice is not really in doubt. ‘We are debtors’; under obligation to make the right choice. If the Spirit has given life to our spirits, then we must put the deeds of the body to death, so that we may continue to live the life which the Spirit has given us.
Looking back over the paragraph, we can see something of the apostle's progression of thought. The essential background is that there are two categories of people—those who are in the flesh (the unregenerate) and those who are in the Spirit (the regenerate). ‘Now you', he writes to the Romans (verse 9), ‘belong to the latter category. You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if, as I believe, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Further (verse 10), because Christ dwells in you by His Spirit, you are alive.'
Now these two facts are the incontrovertible, inescapable facts about every Christian. First, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and secondly, as a result, our spirits are alive because the Spirit has quickened us. Therefore, we are debtors (because of what we are) not to the flesh but to the Spirit. We are under a most solemn obligation to be what we are. to conform our conduct to our character, to do nothing inconsistent with the life of the Spirit within us, but rather to nourish this life and to foster it.
More specifically, if we are to be honourable and to discharge our debt, we shall be involved in two processes. The theological names for these are ‘mortification’ and ‘aspiration’—words which express the proper attitude to adopt towards the flesh on the one hand, and the Spirit on the other. We must put to death the deeds of the body or flesh, which is mortification. And we must set our mind on the things of the Spirit, which is aspiration.
Mortification (putting to death by the power of the Spirit the deeds of the body) means a ruthless rejection of all practices we know to be wrong; a daily repentance, turning from all known sins of habit, practice, association or thought; a plucking out of the eye, a cutting off of the hand or foot, if temptation comes to us through what we see or do or where we go. The only attitude to adopt towards the flesh is to kill it.
Aspiration (setting our mind on the things of the Spirit) is a whole-hearted giving of ourselves, in thought and energy and ambition, to ‘whatever is true and honourable, just and pure, lovely and gracious’ (see Phil. 4:8). It will include a diligent use of the ‘means of grace’, such as prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, worship, the Lord’s Supper, and so on. All this is involved in setting our mind upon the things of the Spirit.
Both mortification and aspiration are expressed by verbs in the present tense, because they are attitudes to be adopted and then constantly, unremittingly maintained. We are to keep putting to death the deeds of the body (‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’). We are to keep setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. Then there is something else mortification and aspiration have in common. Both hold the secret to life, in the fullest sense. There is no true life without the death called mortification, and there is no true life without the discipline called aspiration. It is while we put to death the deeds of the body that we shall live (verse 13); it is while we set our minds on the things of the Spirit that we find life and peace (verse 6). So the Holy Spirit subdues the flesh as we mortify it in His power, and as we set our minds upon the things of the Spirit.
b. The Spirit witnesses to our sonship (verses 14-17)
The emphasis on the work of the Spirit continues in this paragraph, but our Christian status and privilege are now described in different terms. What the apostle has just said (verse 13) is, ‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live’. What he now says (verse 14) is, ‘all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God’. The two sentences are closely parallel. Both refer to the activity of the Spirit, but the first in terms of life, the second in terms of sonship.
What visions of intimacy with God the word ‘son-ship’ conveys! Access to God and fellowship with God as Father—these are the privileges of His children. Not all human beings are God’s children, however. Verse 14 definitely and deliberately limits this status to those who are being led by the Spirit, who are being enabled by the Spirit to walk along the narrow path of righteousness. To be led by the Spirit and to be sons of God are virtually convertible terms. All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, and therefore all who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.
This is made even clearer in the next verse (15) which refers to the kind of Spirit we received (aorist tense, referring to our conversion), not a Spirit of slavery, but of adoption or sonship. The Holy Spirit (who is given to us when we believe) makes us sons, not slaves. He does not recall us to the old slavery spoiled by fear. He gives us a new sonship in which we approach God as our Father. More than that, He goes on to assure us of the status which He brings us. Verses 15b and 16: ‘When we cry, “Abba! Father!”’ —the very words the Lord Jesus Himself used in intimate prayer to God—‘it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.’ This rsv rendering shows that the inner witness of the Spirit is given us when we pray. It is in our access to God in prayer that we sense our filial relationship to Him and know ourselves the children of a heavenly Father. And when our spirit is in communion with God, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit (so that there are two concurrent witnesses) that we are indeed God’s children.
Verse 17 : ‘and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’ Once more, as in chapter 5, suffering is the pathway to glory. And notice that it is ‘with Christ'. The whole Christian life is identification with Christ. If we share His Sonship, we shall share His inheritance in glory; but if we are to share His glory, we must share His suffering first.
c. The Spirit guarantees our inheritance (verses 18-25)
The theme of this paragraph is the contrast between present suffering and future glory that Paul mentioned in verse 17. He begins (verse 18) by saying that the two are not to be compared; they are rather to be contrasted, because future glory will far surpass all present suffering. This he proceeds to elaborate in a magnificent, cosmic setting. For in the rest of the paragraph he goes on to show how both in present suffering and in future glory the whole creation and the new creation, the church, are involved together. The two creations (old and new, physical and spiritual, nature and the church) suffer together now and are going to be glorified together in the end. As nature has shared in man's curse (Genesis 3), and now shares in man's tribulation, so it will come to share in man's glory. Verse 19: ‘the creation waits with eager longing', as if on tiptoe with expectation, ‘for the revealing of the sons of God', because that is the time when it too will be redeemed.
1. The creation (verses 19-22). The creation (neb ‘the created universe') is mentioned four times, once in each verse. Notice how its present sufferings are described. Verse 20: it ‘was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope'. Verse 21: it is held in ‘bondage to decay'. Verse 22: it ‘has been groaning in travail together until now'. ‘Futility' in verse 20 means ‘frustration' (neb). It is the word that is translated ‘vanity’ in the Greek version of Ecclesiastes and C. J. Vaughan writes, The whole Book of Ecclesiastes is a commentary upon this verse’. ‘Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher . . . All is vanity.’ This futility or frustration, to which God has subjected nature, is explained in the next verse (21) as a ‘bondage to decay’, the continuous cycle of birth, growth, death and decomposition, the whole process of deterioration in a universe that appears to be running down. Further, this process is (whether literally or metaphorically) accompanied by pain. Futility, decay and pain; these are the words which the apostle uses to depict the present suffering of nature.
But it is only temporary, for the present sufferings of nature will lead to a future glory. In each verse this is stressed. Verse 20: if the creation has been subjected to vanity, it has been thus subjected ‘in hope’, that is, with a view to a brighter future. Verse 21: ‘the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.’ Bondage will give place to liberty; decay or corruption to glory incorruptible. If we are to share Christ’s glory (verse 17), creation is going to share ours. Then in verse 22 the groans and pains of the creation are likened to the pangs of childbirth. In other words, they are not meaningless or purposeless pains, but pains necessarily experienced in the bringing to birth of a new order (cf. Mt. 24:8).
2. The church (verses 23-25). We move now from the creation to the church, which is the new creation of God. Observe the transition from the one to the other. Verse 22: ‘the whole created universe groans in all its parts as if in the pangs of childbirth’ (neb). Verse 23: ‘and not only the creation, but we ourselves . . . groan inwardly.’ What is this inward groaning which we share with the rest of creation? What are the present sufferings of the church to which the apostle is referring? It is not now persecution, but the simple fact that we are only half saved!
It is a fact that not one of us is wholly saved yet. Our souls are redeemed, it is true, but not our bodies. And it is our unredeemed bodies which cause us to groan. Why is this? For one thing, these bodies are weak, fragile and mortal, subject to fatigue, sickness, pain and death. It is this that the apostle has in mind in 2 Corinthians 5:2, 4, when he says that in this body ‘we groan'. But it is also that ‘the flesh', our fallen sinful nature, dwells in our mortal bodies, ‘sin which dwells within me' (7:17, 20). Indeed, it is this very indwelling sin which causes us to cry out, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?' Such a shout of anguish is precisely what Paul means by our present inward groaning, except that there the inward groan is audibly expressed.
What makes us groan inwardly, then, is our physical frailty on the one hand, and our fallen nature on the other. So we long ardently for the future glory, when we shall be delivered from both these burdens.
Our future glory is defined in two ways. First, it is ‘the redemption of our bodies’, because we are going to be given new bodies on the last day, set free from their double burden, their frailty and their ‘flesh'. Our resurrection bodies will have new, undreamed-of powers, and no indwelling sin.
The future glory is also called our ‘adoption as sons'. The Greek word is the same as ‘sonship' in verse 19. In one sense we have already received our adoption; in another sense we are still awaiting it, because our present sonship, although glorious, is imperfect. We are not yet conformed, either in body or in character, to the image of God's Son (see verse 29). Nor has our sonship yet been publicly revealed and recognized. But the last day will witness what in verse 19 is called ‘the revealing of the sons of God’. The world does not yet know us as the children of God (1 Jn. 3:1), but on the last day it will be manifest. For then we shall obtain what is called ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (verse 21). And the creation is going to obtain it with us.
Of this future, glorious inheritance we are absolutely sure. Why? Because (verse 23) we already ‘have the first fruits of the Spirit’. We have not yet received our final ‘adoption as sons’. We have not yet received ‘the redemption of our bodies’. But we have received the Holy Spirit, the God-given guarantee of our full inheritance to come. Indeed, He is more than the guarantee of it; He is the foretaste of it. Sometimes Paul uses a commercial metaphor, and calls the Holy Spirit the ‘earnest’, the first instalment in a hire purchase agreement, the down payment which certifies that the remainder is going to be paid later. Here, however, the metaphor is agricultural, the first-fruits of the harvest being a pledge of the full crop to come.
So the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of sonship and makes us the children of God (verse 15), and then witnesses with our spirit that we are God’s children (verse 16), is also Himself the pledge of our complete adoption to be the sons of God, when our bodies are redeemed.
Verses 24 and 25 enforce this further, asserting that ‘in this hope we were saved’. We were saved, but only half saved, in hope of a full salvation in the end (to include our bodies). The object of that hope is invisible. We do not yet see it. But we wait for it with patient fortitude (hupomone), undeterred by the grievous sufferings of this present time.
d. The Spirit helps our weakness in prayer (verses 26, 27)
Here is yet another ministry which the Holy Spirit fulfils. He is mentioned four times in the brief compass of these two verses. He ‘helps us in our weakness’, and the particular weakness here in view is our ignorance in prayer. ‘We do not know how to pray as we ought’, but the Spirit ‘helps us in our weakness’.
The general ministry of the Holy Spirit in prayer is much neglected. Yet we are clearly told in Scripture that our access to the Father is not only through the Son, but by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). The Holy Spirit’s inspiration is as necessary as the Son’s mediation if we are to gain access to the Father in prayer. But here the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our prayer life is more specific.
It seems to be this. Sometimes, when believers do not know how to pray in words, they groan without words. Sometimes, to quote E. F. Kevan, ‘we find ourselves brought to silence by the very intensity of our longings’. Or again, sometimes we feel so burdened by our mortality or by indwelling sin that we can only groan (as in the previous paragraph) ‘with sighs too deep for words’. These unutterable sighs or groans (what J. B. Phillips calls ‘those agonising longings which never find words’) are not to be despised, as if we ought to put them into language. On the contrary, when we thus sigh with inarticulate desires, it is the Holy Spirit Himself interceding on our behalf, prompting these groans. We should not be ashamed of such wordless prayers. God the Father understands prayers which are sighed rather than said, because He searches our hearts, and can read our thoughts. He knows too what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit always prays according to the will of God.
And so the Father in heaven answers the prayers which are prompted by the Spirit in our hearts.
Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.
JAMES MONTGOMERY
These, then, are the four gracious activities of the Holy Spirit. He subdues our flesh, He witnesses to our sonship, He guarantees our inheritance, and He helps our weakness in prayer.
II. THE INVINCIBLE PURPOSE OF GOD
(8:28-39)
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, 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 first-born among many brethren. 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 this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes 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 thy 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 principalities, 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.
This brings us to the conclusion, and the climax. In the last twelve verses of the chapter (28-39) the apostle rises to sublime heights unequalled anywhere in the New Testament. He does not now mention the Holy Spirit. Instead, having previously described some of the privileges of the justified—peace with God, union with Christ, freedom from the law, life in the Spirit—his great Spirit-directed mind now sweeps over the whole counsel of God, from an eternity that is past to an eternity that is yet to come, from the divine foreknowledge and predestination to the divine love from which absolutely nothing whatsoever is able to separate us.
The burden of the apostle’s climax is the unchangeable, irresistible, invincible purpose of God, and by this purpose and in it, the eternal security of the people of God. These tremendous truths, far too great for our puny minds to absorb, Paul expresses first in a series of five undeniable affirmations, and then in a series of five unanswerable questions, in which he challenges anybody to contradict the affirmations which he has just made.
a. Five undeniable affirmations (verses 28-30)
He introduces his affirmations with a verse familiar to all believers (28). On it we have often stayed our troubled hearts and minds: ‘We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.' The av is probably better known, ‘all things work together for good to them that love God'. But the rsv is to be preferred because all things do not work themselves into a pattern for good; it is God who works all things together for good, including the pains and the groans of the previous paragraphs, in the case of ‘those who love him, who are called according to his purpose'. Then follow the affirmations (verses 29, 30), which explain both what is meant by the divine calling and the sense in which God works all things together for good. This working together for good, God's purpose in the salvation of sinners, is traced from its beginnings in His own mind to its culmination in the eternal glory. The five stages are foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification.
1 and 2. He foreknew, and He predestined. The difference between foreknowledge and predestination is perhaps that God's electing choice formed in His mind before He willed it. His decision preceded His decree. This is not the place to delve into the mysteries of predestination. Some wise and true words of the commentator C. J. Vaughan are worth quoting, however: ‘Everyone who is eventually saved can only ascribe his salvation from the first step to the last to God's favour and act. Human merit must be excluded : and this can only be by tracing back the work far beyond the obedience which evidences, or even the faith which appropriates, salvation; even to an act of spontaneous favour on the part of that God who foresees and foreordains from eternity all His works.' Notice also that the purpose of the divine predestination is not favouritism, but holiness, Christlikeness. It is that we should 'be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren’. Just as at the beginning, by an act of sovereign grace, God created man in His own image, so, again in sovereign grace, God predestined men to be conformed to the image of His Son.
3 and 4. He called, and He justified. The call of God is the historical outworking of His eternal predestination. Those whom God thus calls respond in faith to the call, and those who thus believe, God justifies, accepting them in Christ as His own.
5. He glorified, bringing to resurrection and to heaven those whom He had predestined, called, and justified, giving them new bodies in a new world. The process of sanctification is omitted, but, as Professor F. F. Bruce points out, it is involved in glorification: 'Sanctification is glory begun; glory is sanctification completed.’ So certain is this final stage of glorification that it is even expressed by an aorist tense, as if it were past, like the other stages which are past. It is a so-called 'prophetic past’.
Here, then, is the apostle’s series of five undeniable affirmations. It is like a chain with five unbreakable links: 'Those whom he foreknew he also predestined. . . . And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.’ God is pictured as moving steadily on from stage to stage—from an eternal foreknowledge and predestination, through a historical call and justification, to a final glorification of His people in heaven.
b. Five unanswerable questions (verses 31-39)
‘What then shall we say to this?’ This is the little formula (used already three times in the chapters we have been studying) which the apostle uses to introduce some conclusion. He implies, in effect, Ίn the light of what I have just said, what are we now going to say?’ In the light of the foregoing, of the five great affirmations of verses 29 and 30, how shall we conclude? And Paul’s answer to this question is to ask five more questions, to which there is no answer! Verse 31: ‘If God is for us, who is against us?’ Verse 32: ‘He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?’ Verse 33: ‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?’ Verse 34: ‘Who is to condemn?’ Verse 35: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’
The apostle hurls these questions out into space, as it were, defiantly, triumphantly, challenging anv creature in heaven or earth or hell to answer them or to deny the truth that is contained in them. But there is no answer, for nobody and nothing can harm the redeemed people of God. If we are to understand these unanswerable questions, it is important to see the reason why each remains unanswered. It is because the assertion implied in each is grounded upon some immovable truth. Thus each question, either explicitly or implicitly, is attached to an ‘if clause. This is clearest in the first one.
1. ‘If God is for us, who is against usV (verse 31). Had Paul simply asked the question, ‘Who is against us?’, without the introductory clause, there would have been many replies. We have formidable enemies arrayed against us. Unbelievers are in opposition to us. Indwelling sin is a powerful force which assaults us. Death is an enemy. So is he who has the power of death, the devil. In fact the world, the flesh and the devil are all too strong for us.
But Paul does not ask the simple question, 'Who is against us?’ His question is: 'If God is for us’—the God who foreknew, predestined, called, justified and even glorified us, if that God is for us—'who is against us?’ To that question there is no answer. The world, the flesh and the devil may still set themselves in array against us. But they can never prevail against us if God is on our side.
2. ‘He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us ally will he not also give us all things with himV (verse 32). Again, if the apostle had merely asked, 'Will God not give us all things?’ we might well have hummed and hawed, and given an equivocal answer. We need so many things, great and difficult things; how could we be certain that God will supply all our needs? But the way Paul expresses his question banishes our lingering doubts. The God whom we ask if He will give us all things is the God who has already given us His own Son. neb translates: 'with this gift how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give?’ If He gave His unspeakable, indescribable gift (His only Son, for sinners), will He not give us all lesser gifts which can easily be described? The cross proves the generosity of God.
3. ‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?' (verse 33). Commentators point out that the next two questions (about accusing and condemning us) seem to bring us, as it were, into a court of law. The argument is that no prosecution can be of any avail if Jesus Christ is our Advocate who pleads our cause, and if God the Judge has already justified us. Who will accuse us? Now again, if this question stood alone, it would not be at all difficult to answer. Our conscience accuses us. The devil never ceases to bring charges against us, the devil who is called ‘the accuser of the brethren’, and whose very name means ‘slanderer’ or ‘calumniator’. But the devil’s accusations fall to the ground; they do not hurt us; they glance off us like arrows off a shield. Why? Because we are ‘God’s elect’ whom He has justified, and if God has Himself justified us, no accusation against us can stand.
4. ‘Who is to condemn?’ (verse 34). Once again, many seek to. Sometimes our heart condemns us, or tries to (1 Jn. 3:20, 21). So do our critics and our enemies. Yes, and all the demons of hell. But their condemnations are idle nonsense. Why? Because of Christ Jesus. To begin with, He has died—died for the very sins for which otherwise we would indeed be condemned. And Christ has been raised from the dead, to prove the efficacy of His death. And now He sits exalted at the Father’s right hand, and there He is our heavenly Advocate interceding for us. With such a Christ as our Saviour—crucified, raised, exalted, interceding on our behalf—we can confidently say ‘there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (verse 1). We can call out even to the demons in hell, ‘Which of you is going to condemn me?’ And there will be no answer.
5. ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ (verse 35). With this fifth and last question, Paul himself does what we have been trying to do with his other four questions. He looks round for a possible answer. He brings forward all the adversities he can think of, which might be thought to separate us from Christ’s love. We may have to endure ‘tribulation’, ‘distress’ and ‘persecution’—that is, the pressures of an ungodly world. We may have to undergo ‘famine’ and ‘nakedness’—that is, the lack of adequate food and clothing, which, since Jesus promised them to the heavenly Father’s children, might seem to be evidence that God does not care. We may even have to experience ‘peril’ and ‘sword’—that is, the danger of death and actual death, by the malice of men; martyrdom, the ultimate test of our faith. It is a real test, too, because (verse 36) the Scripture warns us in Psalm 44:22 that God’s people are for His sake ‘being killed all the day long’. That is, they are continuously being exposed to the risk of death, like sheep for the slaughter.
These are adversities indeed. They are real sufferings, painful and perilous, and hard to bear. But can they separate us from the love of Christ? No! Verse 37: far from separating us from Christ’s love, ‘in all these things’—in these very sufferings, in the experience and endurance of them—‘we are more than conquerors’. These five words represent only one in the Greek: hypernikomen, meaning that we are ‘hyperconquerors’. Moreover, we are super-conquerors ‘through him who loved us’. Notice that little phrase. It seems to say this: Christ has proved His love by His sufferings; therefore our sufferings cannot separate us from His love.
So Paul reaches his climax (verses 38 and 39). He begins, Ί am sure . . .’. This is my fixed, unshakable conviction, he says, that neither the crisis of death, nor the calamities of life, nor superhuman agencies, good or bad (‘angels, principalities, powers’), nor time (whether present or future), nor space (whether height or depth), ‘nor anything else in all creation’ will be able, however hard it may try, ‘to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’—the love of God historically displayed in the death of Christ; the love of God poured into our hearts by the Spirit of Christ.
In that conviction of the love of God, through all the pains and perplexities of human experience, may we too both live and die!