13: Eternal Life Is Forever (8:26-39)
13: ETERNAL LIFE IS FOREVER (8:26-39)
In Part 1 of this book we have learned about the past aspect of salvation. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we were justified. If we have done this, our guilt before God is gone. In Part 2 we learned of salvation’s present aspect, whereby in this life, through the power of Christ and through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can experience ongoing salvation from the power of sin. In the first chapter of Part 3 we learned of a glorious future salvation in the resurrection of the Christian’s body, bringing with it the restoration of all creation. In this glorified state, we will be free of the very presence of sin, and we together with all creation will no longer suffer the consequences of sin.
This is all very wonderful, but it raises a crucial question: What good is all this—thinking especially now of our future salvation—what good is all this if you or I won’t be there? What if, even though we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we could be lost again? All these are wonderful things: this marvelous future salvation, the wonder of the resurrection of the body, the wonder of the restored creation; but if it would be possible that we who have accepted Christ as our Savior could be lost again, what joy is it to even think of these things? It becomes kind of like showing a child a Christmas tree and then putting him out in the cold.
As we consider 8:26-39, we will be asking the question, What assurance do we have that we who have taken Christ as our Savior will be there? Just how secure is our salvation? Let’s start by reading 1:16 again: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” The question before us right now is, Just how great is this “power of God unto salvation”? We have noted that “salvation” in this verse refers not just to justification, but to sanctification and glorification as well. It is salvation past, present, and future.
So, just how great is God’s power to save us? Can He save us in the future as well as in the past and present? Having read about the wonders of salvation’s future aspect, can I be sure that I will be there?
As Paul concludes his description of salvation in Romans 1—8, he answers this question. And his answer is not just purely academic. It is not just some nice, flowery words. Rather, his answer gives us the assurance we need. It is an answer that brings us joy, so that we don’t have to go to bed every night reviewing the events of the day and wondering, Am I still saved or am I lost?
Paul draws his discourse on salvation to a conclusion in 8:26-39, but rather than seeing a gradual winding down of his message we see Paul ending with tremendous force and with a definite theme. The theme of these final verses is that eternal life is forever. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:2728a). Would Jesus give us eternal life only to take it back again if we sinned too much? Paul’s answer, and as we shall see the answer of our Lord as well, is that such a thing could never happen. Eternal life is not a conditional gift. Eternal life is forever.
We find a key to unlocking this theme when we notice a parallel between Paul’s introduction (1:1-15) and his conclusion (8:26-39). Paul’s description of salvation began with the Trinity. In the first four verses of chapter 1 we meet all three persons of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We will see now that Paul ends just where he began. He assures us of our eternal salvation on the basis of the ongoing work on our behalf of all three persons of the Trinity. We are assured of our salvation by the work of the Holy Spirit (8:26-27), by the work of the Father (verses 28-32), and by the work of the Son (verses 33-34). Paul will then conclude in verses 3539 with a sort of culmination and conclusion of these three guarantees of salvation.
He tells us first of the work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. (8:26a)
What could possibly separate us from God and cause us to lose our salvation? It would be our “infirmities,” that is, our human weaknesses and tendency to sin. But there is someone who helps us amid these weaknesses.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (8:26-27)
The Holy Spirit guarantees us that once we have accepted God’s gift of salvation through Christ, we will never be lost again. As we have seen, the Spirit is the “earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14). As He indwells us in this life, the Spirit guarantees our eternal life. We are “sealed” for all eternity by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13). These are wonderful words of assurance, but they could also be made to sound somewhat impersonal and legalistic. But as Paul in 8:26-27 describes the Spirit’s present, continual interceding for each of us individually, it is like a flaming fire that could never be impersonal. What does the Holy Spirit do for us? He “makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The whole creation “groans” under the terrible weight of the consequences of our sin (8:22). “Even we ourselves groan” (verse 23) as we live in this fallen world. But amid all this suffering and amid all our longings there is someone else who groans. It is “the Spirit himself,” making “intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (verse 26). You won’t be lost again. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you’ll be there on resurrection day. Weak and infirm though you may feel, faltering though your love may often be, you’ll be there. For it does not rest upon you, it rests upon the work of the whole Trinity. The Holy Spirit would have to fail for you to be lost again. His intercession for you would have to be of no avail. Well might the sun grow dark or the universe turn into a chaos, but this one thing you can know for sure: The Holy Spirit is interceding before God’s throne on your behalf, and He will not fail in His work of intercession. Some people talk of the “perseverance of the saints” as though it were some mechanical thing. But it isn’t like this at all. It is a living, vibrant thing as “the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
The security of our salvation is also guaranteed by God the Father (8:28-32). It is guaranteed by the fact that He has chosen us (verses 28-30) and by the fact that He has sent Jesus His Son to redeem us (verses 31-32).
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (8:28)
This is one of the Bible verses that everyone seems to know and everyone seems to misquote. People will often just sort of shrug their shoulders with an attitude of fatalism and say, “Oh well, all things work together for good,” implying that this applies to all people, no matter who they are or what they believe. This is exactly what this verse does not say. What it says is, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” There is a limitation. All things do work together for good, but only for a certain group. The group this principle works for is those who “love God” and who are “the called according to his purpose.”
You’ll recall we saw this same limitation in 1:16. The gospel is the “power of God unto salvation,” but only “to everyone who believes.” It is universal, in that it applies to all kinds of people, here designated by Paul as “Jews and Greeks.” But it is limited to those from among all people who believe. Now supposing you read Romans 1:16 like this, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone.” Period. Full stop. That would be a tragic lie. People are being lost forever by being taught such things in our generation. Salvation is open to all classes of humanity, all nations, all colors of skin, living under all flags. It is open to all. But it is limited in every case to those from each class who believe on Jesus Christ as Savior.
Romans 8:28 has exactly the same limitation: “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Paul now describes the tremendous calling that is our from God the Father.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (8:29-30)
If you have been called by God (verse 28), if you have believed in Him, you can rest in the assurance that He has predestined you for complete salvation. He has justified you. Right now He is sanctifying you, beginning the process of conforming you to the image of Christ. And He will one day glorify you.
Paul speaks of this matter of predestination in Ephesians: “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: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:36). Such is the greatness of our infinite God that, while remaining in complete control of all human history, He was able to create humans outside of Himself who would have true significance. Those of us who have freely chosen Christ as our Savior can be assured that God, in His sovereignty, “chose” us and “predestinated” us “before the foundation of the world.” Yet as we have seen, both our initial salvation (1:18— 4:25) and our sanctification (5:1—8:17) involve significant choices on our part. According to the Bible, there is no ultimate conflict between God’s sovereignty and our human free will. After we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, the Word of God shines through and says that, wonder of wonders, God the Father has chosen you.
Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Then you may be sure of this, that God the Father has chosen you. We have seen that for you to be lost again, the Holy Spirit would have to fail. But now we see that, for you to be lost again, God the Father would have to have failed in His choice of you. You many recall the old story about the man who is walking down the street and comes to a church and sees over the church door a sign that says, “Whosoever will.” He goes in, but then he begins to be afraid and someone takes him down into the basement, shows him those gray foundation stones holding up that great building, and on one of the stones he finds written the words, “Chosen before the foundation of the world.” When you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you can be sure. The Holy Spirit intercedes for you, and God the Father has chosen you.
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son” (8:29). God created man in His own image (Gen. 1:27). Man has revolted. The image is distorted. Go into the place of wealth or down into the place of poverty, it doesn’t matter which. It isn’t a question of wealth or poverty. Go to the universities or go down into the uneducated portion of the world. It isn’t a question of education. Wherever one turns one sees mankind, meant to be the image-bearer of God—but what a distorted image! Marred and soiled, often speaking more of the devil than of God. Mankind’s morality twisted, mankind’s rationality contorted, believing all sorts of strange things, whether it be in the jungles of a primitive society or in the jungles of the modern university. Love, completely distorted. Man, created to be the image of God, to think, to act, to feel, to be rational and moral, to have real significance in the area of rationality and morality and beauty and love—and now look at mankind. The German concentration camps exhibited all this, but “nice” people exhibit it too. The woman walking the street for her living, yes, but the nice people too. “In the image of God,” yet how terribly we sometimes reflect that image. Yet God the Father has “predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son,” this Son of God, this marvelous one.
By faith we experience this conformity to Christ to some degree even in this present life. That’s what sanctification, our present salvation (5:1—8:17), is all about. But the final goal, which we will see only in eternity, is full conformity to the image of His dear Son.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (8:30)
Observe the steps in salvation that Paul describes in these verses: 1) “Whom he did foreknow . . .”; 2) “. . . he also did predestinate” (verse 29); 3) “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called”; 4) “And whom he called, them he also justified”; 5) “And whom he justified, them he also glorified.” If God has chosen you, you’re as good as in heaven now! If God has justified you, rest quietly, beloved, you will be in heaven.
Too often God’s choosing is presented in such a cold theological fashion. It is treated as though it were merely a process of selection and elimination. But when Paul wrote these words, he had only one purpose: to give you assurance. If the idea of predestination is presented in such a way that it decreases your assurance, then it isn’t being presented the way the Bible teaches it. The Bible only teaches about God’s choosing in order to give you assurance of your salvation. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, your heart can be still. He’ll carry you through the gates of glory.
Having spoken of God’s assurance in choosing us for salvation, Paul now finds assurance in the fact that God sent His Son Jesus to die for us.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 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? (8:3132)
“He that spared not his own Son” should remind us of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The infinite Creator God, who sovereignly chose us before the foundations of the world, is the same God who loved each one of us enough to send His Son to die for us. There is the total assurance of God’s sovereign choice, plus the total assurance of His infinite love.
We have read about Abraham taking Isaac up the mountainside to sacrifice him to the Lord. God spared Abraham’s son, but He didn’t spare His own Son, “but delivered him up for us all.” And if He has already done this much for you, “how shall he not with him also freely give us all things,” including eternal life.
Are you afraid that you might be lost again? Don’t be. The Holy Spirit intercedes for you. God the Father has chosen you and has sent His Son to die on Calvary’s cross for you.
Notice the similarity in how these verses on our assurance from God the Father begin and end: “And we know that all things work together for good” (verse 28a); and then the section ends with, “How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (verse 32b). This should erase forever any hint of fatalism in the truth that “all things work together for good.” This is not the face of fate, it is the face of your loving heavenly Father who chose you and sent His Son to die for you. If God did this for us, surely He will give us “all things.” Therefore, we can know that “all things work together for good to them that love God.”
Eternal life is forever. We are assured of this by the whole Trinity: by the work of the Holy Spirit (8:26-27); by the work of God the Father (8:28-32); and finally, by the work of God the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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. (8:33-34a)
“Rather” is better translated “much more.” “It is Christ that died, yes much more, that is risen again.” When Jesus died for us, He said, “It is finished.” The debt for our sin was fully paid. But then, “much more,” He rose again. He is the living Christ. And what is this living Christ doing now?
Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (8:34b)
We have already learned that the Holy Spirit “maketh intercession for the saints” (8:27). And now we learn that Jesus “also maketh intercession for us.” His priestly work of intercession on our behalf continues in heaven, on the basis of His finished work on the cross. He stands for us before the righteous Judge of the universe, before the very one against whom we have sinned. He pleads for us on the basis of His own character and on the basis of His finished work at Calvary. As Jesus pleads our case before this holy God, the very holiness of God now works for us. The holiness of God that must condemn us because we have sinned against Him, now works on our behalf. For Jesus pleads His shed blood, and God the Father, because of His holiness and His perfect justice, cannot ask any second payment for our sins. Jesus pleads for us on the basis of the complete forgiveness He has won for us at Calvary.
Jesus pleads our case, and therefore we can know that we will never be lost again. The security of our salvation rests not upon our good works, but upon Christ’s work for us at Calvary and upon the work He is still doing for us, pleading our case before God the Father.
Is it possible to make too strong of a case for the belief that once a person is saved, he or she is always saved? It is impossible to make the case any stronger than the Bible makes it. Look at 1 John 2:1: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Here again is Christ’s ongoing intercession on our behalf. Will the sins we commit after becoming a Christian cause us to lose our salvation? No. Why? Because “we have an advocate with the Father,” and this advocate, who petitions the Father for us, is “Jesus Christ the righteous.” He is pleading for us not on the basis of our righteousness or lack of righteousness, but on the basis of His own perfect righteousness. And God, because of His holiness and justice, must accept that plea.
Just how effective is Christ’s intercessory work on our behalf? The writer of Hebrews has much to say about the completeness of Christ’s work of salvation. In one place he says, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). “Wherefore,” that is to say, on the basis of His having finished His work on our behalf, Jesus is able to save those of us who believe in Him “to the uttermost.” “Uttermost” in this context could have at least two meanings. I think the writer of Hebrews had both in mind. Jesus can save us “to the uttermost” in that He can save us regardless of any personal failings on our part. But “uttermost” in this context can also mean that He is able to save us forevermore.
Lost again? How? Through a failure on the part of the Holy Spirit? Through God the Father having been mistaken when He chose you or me for salvation? Through God the Father having been wrong in sending Christ to die for us? Through Christ’s death at Calvary proving to be insufficient? Through Christ failing in His present efforts to intercede for us before the Father? Through God’s failing to forgive us in response to Christ’s intercession, even though Christ has paid our debt in full?
Lost again? No! Eternal life is forever. The Holy Spirit guarantees that eternal life is forever (8:26-27). God the Father guarantees that eternal life is forever (8:28-32). And Jesus guarantees that eternal life is forever (8:33-34). Having received all these assurances, you might say, “That’s enough! Now I’m convinced that I’ll never lose my salvation.” But then, in verses 35-39, it’s as if the Lord through Paul were saying, “No, wait a minute! I want you to understand in a way that you can’t ever forget. Not just when you’re sitting there reading this book, but during those times when you’re feeling overwhelmed, when the waves are so high that you feel broken, when you crash to the earth, when Satan begins to throw things in your face.” God says, “I want you to remember that eternal life is forever, even in the midst of the storm.” And so he gives us these final great words of assurance:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (8:35)
Remember, people were being killed for their faith even as Paul was writing this.
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (8:36)
Paul is quoting Psalm 44:22, and it is interesting to read that verse in its original context: “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And then the psalmist goes on to say, “Awake, why sleepest thou, O LORD? arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? . . . Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake” (Ps. 44:23-24, 26). The psalmist says, “we are killed all the day long,” then cries out to God to rescue His people. Paul, on the other hand, says, “Yes, it’s true, ‘for thy sake we are killed all the day long.’Yes, but Christ has died, and the victory is won. We don’t need to cry out to God to come and rescue us.” Yes, we are killed all the day long, but:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (8:37)
Even amid trials as bad as the psalmist was enduring, we are more than conquerors. In our own strength? Of course not. We are more than conquerors “through him that loved us.” We are “alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:11). We have “the gift of God,” which is “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23). With Paul, we “thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:25) for our victories over sin in this life. And now in 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” The psalmist in distress cries out to God, “Awake!” But Paul says to us, “Be still.” Yes, we may be suffering greatly because of our faith in Christ, and yet, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
We noted that the verses explaining God the Father’s assurance begin and end with “all things” (28a, 32b). And now in verse 37, “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” And just how wide are these “all things”?
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:38-39)
Nothing in all the universe can separate us from God’s love. It isn’t just the things we see, it’s also the things we don’t see. Supernatural forces, demons, all the forces of hell, the entire hierarchy of evil. Isaiah says, “It shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth” (Isa. 24:21). On the coming day of judgment, God will punish the rulers of this earth who have rebelled against Him, but He will also punish “the host of the high ones that are on high,” by which He means our adversary the devil and all the angels who have chosen to serve him. Any of the evil hosts of Satan who try in any way to “separate us from the love of God” will be defeated. And where does that leave us? It leaves us as “more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Paul begins this final section by asking, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:35). And he ends by saying, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” (8:39). This always reminds me of the passage in John 10 that we looked at earlier: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man [any-thing] pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and nothing is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29). If we have truly trusted Christ for eternal life, he assures us that we will never perish, and that nothing can “pluck us out of his hand.” Then, as though this was not assurance enough, he says that nothing can pluck us out of God the Father’s hand either. If you have trusted Christ, nothing can separate you from His love, and nothing can separate you from God the Father’s love. Once again, it is the whole Trinity assuring us of our salvation.
Let’s read verses 35-39 as a unit now: “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 killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Remember that these verses, like the rest of these first eight chapters of Romans, are simply an exegesis of Paul’s theme verse: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation” (1:16). Here in these final four verses we see just how powerful this salvation is. And the very last phrase of the very last verse of Paul’s exegesis explains, in a way, the whole reason for the gospel, for we would never have had the gospel at all had it not been for “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Yes, if you have believed on Jesus as your Savior, go ahead and pull back the curtain. Dare to look ahead. Look ahead to the day when your body will be resurrected, when with your resurrected eyes you will see the glories of the redeemed, restored creation. Look ahead to the day when, free in your glorified state from the very presence of sin, you will live with your Lord forever.
And when the storms of life come, and we stumble, and we cry out, “Oh God, will I be there?” the answer is, Eternal life is forever; beloved, be still, you will be there. You do not need to worry. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you will be there. And this rests upon the work of the whole Trinity.