Romans Chapter 8

Introduction

"The inner sanctuary within the cathedral of the Christian faith; the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden; the highest peak in a range of mountains - such are some of the metaphors used by interpreters who extol chapter 8 as the passage within what so many consider to be the greatest book in Scripture. While the varied riches of God's Word make such comparisons precarious, Romans 8 deserves to be put in the front rank for its rich and comprehensive portrayal of what it means to be a Christian. Prominent in this description is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The word pneuma occurs 21 times in Romans 8, and all but two (those in vss. 15a and 16b) refer to the Holy Spirit. This means that the Spirit is mentioned in this chapter almost once in every two verses, while its closest competitor, 1 Corinthians 12, mentions the Spirit once in every three verses. Nevertheless, despite the prominence of the Holy Spirit, Romans 8 is not really about the Spirit. For one thing, the Spirit is not equally prominent throughout, being mentioned fifteen times in verses 1-17 but only four times in verses 18-39. For another, Paul's focus is not so much on the Spirit as such, but on what the Spirit does. And perhaps this is the best way to learn about the Spirit. For, as important as it may be to define the nature of the Holy Spirit and His relation to Christ and to the Father, the Spirit is best known in His ministry on behalf of Christians. It is those blessings and privileges conferred on believers by the Spirit that are the theme of this chapter.

If we were to sum up these blessings in a single word, that word would be assurance. From no condemnation at the beginning (vs.1) to no separation at the end, Paul passes in review those gifts and graces that together assure the Christian that his relationship with God is secure and settled. The chapter contains no sharp breaks, but four major sections emerge.

(1) In verses 1-13, the key word is life. The Spirit of Life (vs.2) confers life both in the present - through liberating the believer from both the penalty (justification) and power (sanctification) of sin - and in the future - by raising the mortal body from the dead. Yet this life is not attained without the believer's active participation in the Spirit's progressive work of mortification (vss. 12-13).

(2) The Spirit is also the Spirit of Adoption conferring on us the status of God's own dearly loved children and making us aware of that status at the same time (vss. 14-17).

(3) In the last verse of the second section, Paul makes the transition into the theme of hope, which dominates the last part of Romans 8. To be a child of God means to be His heir (vs. 17) - and an heir must wait for the full realization of what has been promised. So believers in this age of warfare between the kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan suffer and groan - but their groans are not the despairing cries of the hopeless. Rather, they are the impatient yearnings of those who have been saved in hope and hunger for that glory which has been promised to them. (vss. 18-30)

(4) Paul celebrates this comforting expectation in vss. 31-39, a hymn of triumph that caps off and applies the exposition of Christian privileges given in vss. 1-30, as well as bringing to a conclusion the exposition of chapters 5-8 generally. (Moo, pp. 467-469)

Verses 1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Therefore... - In the concluding verse of the preceding chapter (7:25) Paul had summarized his condition in this way: So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. That which now follows is the result of this reality. This link is indicated by the combination of the Greek particles ara nun, literally therefore now. Since the apostle is a servant of God's law in his mind, even though his sinful nature remains a slave to sin, he is in Christ Jesus and therefore he is not subject to the condemnation which is the just and inevitable fate of every descendant of Adam. The noun condemnation (Greek - katakrima) is forensic, a judicial term which describes the pronouncement of sentence and the declaration of punishment by the judge upon a convicted criminal. Leon Morris notes: "Condemnation is a forensic term which here includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence." (Boice, p. 790) In Christ Jesus the believer is delivered from the penalty which sin exacts. The Greek negative ouden is emphatic. It also occurs out of the usual word order at the beginning of the sentence to stress its importance even more. Paul is not merely saying no condemnation, but rather absolutely no condemnation, not a single one of any kind. Joseph Fitzmyer notes:

"Paul utters a victory cry; through Christ Jesus the Christian has vanquished all the forces of evil, especially the force of the law in human life. Condemnation is no longer leveled by the law against those not observing its specific prescriptions; nor is there condemnation resulting from sin, the sin that came from Adam...The law as the judge of human conduct has passed judgement on those who violate its precepts. Such a curse or condemnation was leveled by the Mosaic law itself on those who were subject to it...To be in Christ means to live as someone freed from sin, death, self, and the law and consequently from wrath." (Fitzmyer, pp.481,482)

On this most fundamental level there are only two categories of people in all the world: those who are in Christ Jesus and therefore not under the verdict of condemnation and those who are not in Christ Jesus and therefore remain under the verdict of condemnation. The only difference between these two classes of people is that which God has done on our behalf in joining us to Christ. Our salvation does not depend on anything that we have done, not the intensity of our faith nor the level of our sanctification. It is solely and completely the work of God from beginning to end. "Salvation is from God. It is by God. What the text says is that there is no condemnation for those who have been joined to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit." (Boice, p.793)

Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit... - Verse 2 supplies the reason for the assurance provided in Verse 1. The connection is indicated by the conjunction because (Greek - gar). Paul rejoices in the fact that through Christ Jesus the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. The liberation described in these words occurs through Christ Jesus. It is in Christ Jesus, and that which He accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection, that the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit is operative. The law of the Spirit of life is set in contrast to the law of sin and death. The term law is used once again in a general sense to refer to a governing principle, that which prevails or determines. The law of the Spirit of life is the new reality, the new governing principle which now prevails in our lives as the result of Christ's substitutionary atonement. This new order is one of righteousness and life, procured by Christ and provided by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is rightly described as the Spirit of life. John Murray notes: "The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life because He is the author of life and also because He is life...It is eminently appropriate that the Holy Spirit should be designated as the Spirit of life because the power He exercises is unto life as distinguished from the power of sin which is unto death." (Murray, p. 276) The life in question here is the life that we live with Christ, which causes us to be truly alive (6:8,10,13). This is the abundant, overflowing, eternal life which Christ came into the world to bring His people (6:22,23; cf. also John 10:10; 11:26; 17:2,3) Note well that the emphasis is once more on what God has done for us, not on what we must do for ourselves. We do not come to the Spirit, He comes to us. We do not earn the Spirit's presence or His gifts, He graciously makes us what we are in Christ. This is a crucial distinction. In his classic A Theology of the Holy Spirit Frederick Bruner offers this penetrating insight:

"Adherence to the law does not procure the Spirit, rather, and most significantly, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus procures us and in so doing sets us free from the law...If the Spirit does not come to us freely in Christ, then we must go to Him through some kind of spiritual achievement and this means, ultimately, via law...At once place Luther writes: "With all Karlstadt's mouthing of the words 'Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!' he tears down the bridge, the way, the path, the ladder, and all the means by which the Spirit might come to you. Instead of the outward order of God in the material sign of baptism and the oral proclamation of the Word of God, he wants to teach you not how the Spirit comes to you, but how you come to the Spirit."...A difference separates the two classic religious ways - the ways respectively of law and gospel, to and of the Spirit - and this difference may be discovered by observing the location of the absolutes. The way of the law places the absolutes on men; the way of the Gospel places the absolutes on the Messiah. The necessity of the law's righteous demands being fulfilled is of central concern to the Gospel. But the Gospel removes the burden of absolute fulfillment from the back of the believer to the cross of Christ, and we may say that this is what makes it Gospel." (Bruner, p. 230-231)

The importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life is often misunderstood. On one extreme are pentecostals who exaggerate the role of the Holy Spirit to the virtual exclusion of the other members of the divine Trinity. On the other extreme, many Christians ignore or minimize the Holy Spirit's role with the result that He becomes "the half-known God,"as one Lutheran author recently described Him. Dr. Martin Franzmann presents this masterful summary of the Biblical view.

"Our English use of "spirit" and "spiritual" has cast a grey veil over the meaning of "the Spirit of life"; the Spirit of God has become for us a pale and unsubstantial member of the Holy Trinity. We need to recall what a mighty and creative power of the Spirit, in the language of the Bible, is, active in the creation of the world (Genesis 1:2), active in the mighty deeds of Israel's judges, those deliverers whom God raised up for His people when all seemed lost (Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29); active in Israel's anointed kings (1 Samuel 16:13), in the history of Israel among the nations (Isaiah 31:3), in the Word of God that came to Israel's prophets (e.g. Ezekiel 3:12,14; 11:5; Zechariah 7:12); active in the Messiah destined to restore God's righteous order and peace or paradise on earth (Isaiah 11:2) and in the Servant of the Lord destined to bring God's people back to God and to shed God's redeeming light on all the peoples of the earth (Isaiah 42:1,6); active in the promised recreation of the people of God (Ezekiel 37:14; Isaiah 4:2-4; 44:3; Joel 2:28-32) and of the world (Isaiah 32:15ff.); active in the Christ who came, who was conceived by the Spirit (Matthew 1:18,20; Luke 1:35), endued with the Spirit at His baptism (Matthew 3:16), led and empowered by the Spirit in His victory over Satan (Matthew 4:1-11; 12:28), who performed His mighty deeds in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14; Acts 10:38), active in the apostolate (Acts 1:8). Everywhere where man's possibilities are at an end and the free and sovereign possibilities of God begin, we find the presence and the working of the Spirit of God.
For the writings of Paul we find the first statement in this section concerning the Spirit is characteristic; the Spirit is the author of "new life" (7:6), that new life which breaks into a world under the reign of death and ushers in the new world of God, the world to come. The kingdom of God with its ultimate gifts of righteousness, peace, and joy, is present "in the Holy Spirit" (14:17). The apostles, the messengers of Christ, are Spirit-filled, Spirit-guided, and Spirit-empowered men; their ministry is a ministry of the new covenant, a ministry in the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:6,8; cf. Romans 15:19; 1 Corinthians 2:4,13; 7:40; 2 Corinthians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:5). To the Spirit they owe the revelation given them (1 Corinthians 2:10; Ephesians 3:5; 1 Timothy 4:1) and their inspiration (1 Corinthians 2:13; 12:8); their word is a word filled with the power of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:4). Their word calls into being a new people of God "sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:16). The characteristic token of this people is that the Spirit dwells in them, in all of them (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14; cf. Galatians 6:1).
This Spirit-filled people live upon the threshold of the world to come, they breathe the air of the new world of God. The present working of the Spirit is the firstfruits, the beginning of the greater harvest of the world to come (Romans 8:23), the guarantee to God's people that they shall enter into the promised inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14). With the gift of the Spirit, God has set His seal upon His people, has marked them as His own forever, destined them for new, unending life with Him (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). What Jesus promised for the end of days, that His disciples should be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9) is a reality already inaugurated in this people by the Spirit (Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:6) and therefore sure to be complete and consummated (Romans 8:23). By the Spirit life belongs to this people, new life, eternal life, the life of God (Romans 8:6,10,11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Galatians 6:8). The glory of the world to come shines on them now, and day by day they grow more like the Lord of glory, whose they are (2 Corinthians 3:18).
By the Spirit they taste the powers of the world to come, and these powers of the Spirit are powers that move men to obedience and enable them to walk according to the will of God. Men do not "enjoy" the Spirit or luxuriate in Him; they are "led" by Him and walk by Him (Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:16,18,25). It is by the Spirit that men learn to call Jesus Lord and learn to serve, to use the Spirit's gift for ministry to all (1 Corinthians 12:3 ff.). The Spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17), operative in the Word they hear (Ephesians 6:17), in Baptism and in the Supper of the Lord (Titus 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 12:13). The Spirit guides their prayers (Romans 8:26; Ephesians 6:18) and shapes their worship (Philippians 3:3). The Spirit is the power in their daily lives of hope (Romans 15:13; Ephesians 3:16); He puts upon those lives the impress of meekness (Galatians 6:1), of fidelity to one's trust (2 Timothy 1:14), and of love (Romans 15:30; Colossians 1:8; cf. 1 Corinthians 13, which comes under the heading, "Concerning Spiritual Gifts," (1 Corinthians 12:1), and He inspires in men the will to unity (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:3,4; Philippians 1:27).
The Spirit makes men's lives to be healthy, divinely normal lives; these lives know peace (Romans 8:6; 14:17). This peace is not the grim and quiet piety which sings psalms in a doleful dump and through its nose. Men who through the Spirit know this peace have access to the Father. Their lives are lives of liberty (Romans 8:21; 2 Corinthians 3:17), of sure hope (Romans 5:5), lives that glow (Romans 12:11), lives of joy (Romans 14:17;1 Thessalonians 1:6), lives with a high intoxication which breaks into song (Ephesians 5:18).
All that the Christ is for His own is present and at work in the Spirit. Paul can even, on occasion, simple equate the Spirit and his Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:11,17; 15:45). The life of the Spirit is "life in Christ Jesus." (Franzmann, pp. 138-141)

The law of sin and death stands in stark contrast to the law of the Spirit of life. Paul has already explained that the law in itself is not sin but that the just accusations of the law are used by sin to lead men to death. The reference here is to a state of being that is dominated or controlled by the two lethal powers sin and death. The tyranny exercised by sin and ending in death has been broken. The penalty has been paid and the damning accusations of the law have been satisfied. We have been set free from the condemnation and the curse. The liberator who has set us from this deadly dominion is rightly called the Spirit of life who accomplishes His work through Christ Jesus.

Verses 3-4
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

For what the law was powerless to do... - The text specifically explains how our liberation from the realm of sin and death was accomplished. The theology of these two sentences is profound indeed. "The sentence is freighted with meaning, every word in it is exactly right and deeply significant." (Lenski, p. 498) It is no exaggeration when John MacArthur contends: "This verse is perhaps the most definitive and succinct statement if the substitutionary atonement to be found in Scripture." (MacArthur, p.405) The Spirit can liberate the believer from sin and death only because in Christ and His cross God has already condemned sin. This the law was powerless to do. The Greek text literally says - that which was impossible for the law. The law could not accomplish man's liberation from sin and death because it was weakened by the sinful nature. The defect here is not in the law itself but in the medium upon which the law must work, namely the sinful nature. Given the reality of our sinful nature, its obstinate resistance to the will or God, and our inability to rid ourselves of that sinfulness, the law cannot be the means of our liberation. The law commands righteousness but it cannot be our means to righteousness. The law demands perfection but it only serves to reveal our utter imperfection. The legalist, who bases his hope of heaven upon the law, is relying upon the law to do something which it cannot possibly accomplish. Luther uses this apt analogy:

"It is as with a sick man who wants to drink some wine because he foolishly thinks that his health will return if he does so. Now if the doctor, without any criticism of the wine, should say to him, "It is impossible for the wine to cure you, it will only make you sicker." the doctor is not condemning the wine but only the foolish trust of the sick man in it. For he needs other medicine to get well, so that he then can drink his wine. Thus also our corrupt nature needs another kind of medicine than the Law, by which it can arrive at good health so that it can fulfill the Law." (Luther, 25, p. 350)

God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man... - Therefore God determined another means to do what we could never have done for ourselves. That which God has done operates in a completely different category. It is apart from the law (3:21; cf. also 4:13-15). God accomplishes His saving purpose for humankind by sending His own Son. The noun Son is placed before the participle in the Greek text for special emphasis. It is modified with the emphatic pronoun His own. This dual emphasis highlights the divine relationship of Jesus to the Father, the divine origin of the task to be accomplished. Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second member of the Holy Trinity (cf. John 1:1-5; Romans 1:3-4; Philippians 2:5-6; Galatians 4:4). At the same time, the text reminds us of the unique bond of love which unites the Father with His own Son (cf. Genesis 22:2). This love becomes the basis for the divine plan of salvation. To describe Jesus as one who has been "sent" by God the Father is com-pletely consistent with Christ's own view of His ministry. He repeatedly uses similar language (cf. Mark 9:37; 12:6; Matthew 15:24; John 20:21; 1 John 4:10). The concept of Jesus as One who has been sent serves to emphasize His authority as the representative of the Father who sent Him (cf. Galatians 4:4; Romans 10:15). God the Father sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man (Greek - homoiona). Lenski identifies these words as "one of those exact Scripture phrases which admit no change." (Lenski, p. 500) The words carefully affirm both the humanity and the sinlessness of Jesus. In Church History, the Docetists denied the full humanity of Jesus Christ. They contended that the Son of God did not truly become a man but that He only took on the appearance of a man (thus the title "Docetism" from the Greek "doceo" which means "to seem" or "to appear.") The Ebionites, on the other hand, denied the sinlessness of Christ, and wrongly insisted that in order to be fully human Christ also took on the sinful nature of fallen mankind. Paul's meticulous language avoids both errors. The Word of God became flesh (John 1:14), Christ was truly human but He was, nonetheless without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21). This is precisely the meaning of the phrase in the likeness of sinful man - full humanity without the taint our sinful nature. This is humanity as it was originally meant to be. Christ was human as our father Adam was human before his fall into sin. Only thus could our Lord have undone the deadly damage done by Father Adam. Douglas Moo describes the careful balance maintained in the text:

"Paul is walking a fine line here. On the one hand, he wants to insist that Christ fully entered into the human condition, became "in-fleshed," and, as such, exposed Himself to the power of sin (cf. 6:8-10). On the other hand, he must avoid suggesting that Christ so participated in this realm that He became imprisoned "in the flesh" (cf. the negative use of this phrase in 7:5 and 8:8,9) and became, thus, so subject to sin that He was personally guilty of it. "Homoioma" rights the balances that the addition of "sinful" to "flesh" might have tipped too far." (Moo, pp.479,480)

"To be a sin-offering." - This phrase expresses the mission upon which the Son of God was sent. He sent Him to expiate sin by His sacrificial death. This is the center and foundation of Paul's Gospel (Romans 3:25). The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed forward to the once for all sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross. The 17th century orthodox Lutheran theologian David Chyrtaeus offers this helpful description of the role of the Old Testament sacrifices:

"The sacrificial system was the nerve and sinew of the priesthood or ministry of the Jewish church, and the sinew of the public assemblies in which there occurred a general proclamation and transmittal to posterity of the true doctrine concerning God and His Son, our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who was to be offered as victim for the entire human race...Beyond that the sacrifices were primarily representations or types of the sacrifice and benefits of Christ which are set forth in the New Testament. For the Levitical sacrifices did not merit the forgiveness of sins, nor did they placate the wrath of God; they were only signs to bring to mind the future sacrifice of Christ, which alone was a ransom for the sins of the human race. Colossians 2:17 speaks of this purpose of the sacrificial system when it says that the Mosaic rites were "shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Hebrews 10:1 reads: "The law had a shadow of the good things of eternity, not the very image of the things." Likewise Hebrews 8:4-5: "The Levitical priests that offer gifts according to the law should serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses received the admonition, See that thou make all things according to the archetype showed to thee in the mount." All these statements with regard to Christ's sacrifice are pertinent, and especially so are the New Testament assertions that the blood of Christ has been shed for the remission of our sins. For all these testimonies at the same time constitute and antithesis to the blood of lambs and of other animals which was shed in the Levitical sacrifices and by which no one was freed from sin or attained to the remission of sins before God - as 1 Peter 1:18,19 proves: "We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish," not by the blood of a lamb in perennial sacrifice, daily poured out; not by the blood of a lamb offered at the Passover, not by Abel's lamb; etc. 1 John 1:29: "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." 1 John 1:7: "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son (not the blood of Mosaic sacrifices)cleanses us from all sin." Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14; "In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Hebrews 10:4,14 (and cf. Hebrews 9): "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins," but Christ "by one offering hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Ephesians 5:2; "Christ hath given Himself for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor." These pronouncements should be kept before our eyes as a profound interpretative commentary on all the Mosaic sacrifices whenever we read Leviticus, so that we may have no doubt that each and every sacrifice was a sermon on the sacrifice and benefits of Christ." (Chytraeus, pp.59-60)

"And so He condemned sin in sinful man." - The death of Christ on the cross was not only a sacrificial death, it was also a "penal" death, that is to say, a death which paid the penalty of God's righteous judgement upon sin. God condemned sin as a convicted criminal. The Greek verb is once again the forensic katakrinen, the technical term for both the pronouncement of sentence by the judge and the execution of punishment. God executed His judgement upon the sin of the whole world in the person of His Son. The just condemnation that our sins deserved has been poured out in full upon Christ, our Sin-bearer. Thus, sin's power to damn and condemn us has been broken once and for all. Accordingly, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (vs. 1) A delightful reversal has taken place. The sin which once condemned us is now itself condemned in the sacrificial death of His own beloved Son. The NIV's translation of the conclusion of the phrase, "in sinful man," fails to reflect both the literal meaning and the intent of the Greek text. The original words are en ten sarki, which means in the flesh. The reference is to the physical death of the God/man, Christ, upon the cross. In a wonderfully ironic manner, death, which has always served as sin's faithful ally and the decisive demonstration of sin's victory, is transformed into the very means of sin's defeat and destruction.

"In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us..." - The ultimate purpose and goal of this plan is now defined. The just demands of the law could not be overlooked. The holiness and justice of a righteous God would not allow for permissive indulgence. This is the very reason why God sent His Son. As always, the language of the text is most carefully chosen. Paul does not indicate that we must fulfill the law's demands or that those demands may be fulfilled by us. Such an assertion would deny the Gospel and place the burden of our salvation squarely back upon our own shoulders. Sin was condemned in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. The verb, might be fulfilled, is passive. Fitzmyer correctly notes:

"The fulfillment spoken of here is in no sense achieved by Christians themselves; it is something which God, the author of all, works in us through the Spirit as a consequence of the Christ event. There is a fulfillment of the moral demand...but this righteousness is entirely the creation of God operating through the Spirit." (Fitzmyer, p. 487)

The Law, proposed as a basis for the achievement of righteousness, is powerless (vs.3) because of the total corruption of man's sinful nature. Therefore, the result of all Law religion must be frustration and damnation. But the law remains the expression of God's will and its demands must be met. Now God has condemned the sin which once condemned us in the innocent death of His Son for the sins of humanity in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us. The perfect life and innocent death of our Savior/Substitute are credited to us by God's gracious decree of justification and in this way the law's demands have been met. This is the "happy exchange" of which Luther speaks:

"Accordingly, the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were his own, and whatever the soul has, Christ claims as His own. Let us compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them, and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ's, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul's." (Luther, 31, p.351)

The law's just demand is fulfilled in Christians not through their own acts of obedience but through their incorporation into Christ. His perfect submission to the will of God becomes ours by faith. He fulfilled the law; and, in Him, believers also fulfill the law - perfectly, so that they may be pronounced righteous and free from condemnation.

Those in whom the just decree of the law has been fulfilled in Christ are characterized as people who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. God has broken sin's mastery of our lives in the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is not to say that Christians have become perfect people who no longer sin. The agonizing struggle of the preceding chapter clearly reveals the impossibility of that view. But God in His grace has made possible what was impossible for the law because we no longer live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. This powerful phrase describes the sanctification in life which is the result of our pardon and justification. "God not only provides in Christ the full completion of the law's demands for the believer, but He also sends the Spirit into the hearts of believers to empower a new obedience to His demands." (Moo, p.485) The verb live is the Greek peripateo which literally means "to walk around." It refers to the customary, routine, daily activity that comprises the lifestyle of the individual. "To live according to the sinful nature" is to have one's life determined and ruled by the old way of sin and death; to live rebellion against God. To live "according to the Spirit," on the other hand, is to live under the control and direction of the Holy Spirit. Believers now strive to live according to God's Word and will not because of the law's coersive demands and the threat of damnation, but in joyful, willing, eager response to what God has done for us in Christ. Dr. Stoeckhardt observes:

"That we Christians do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit shows that the Spirit has really freed us from the law of sin and death. That is the reason why there is no more judgement of condemnation for us. We, with our real ego, serve God's law and walk after the Spirit. The converted, out of the weakness of their corrupt flesh and blood, indeed daily sin much and serve the law of sin, even though unwillingly, because the flesh clings to them all the days of their life. But the flesh does not govern their life and conduct. They walk after the Spirit. The Spirit of God predominates in them and determines their deeds. Their walk thus coincides with God's law, though their fulfillment of the law is not perfect and their deeds fall short of what they desire to do. Because the Spirit rules in them, God does not reckon to them the weakness of their flesh after Christ atoned for all the sins and transgressions of men." (Stoeckhardt, p.101)

Verses 5-8
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

"Those who live according to the sinful nature..." - In these verses the apostle defines the radical difference between living according to the sinful nature and living according to the Spirit. The explanation is introduced by the Greek conjunction gar (for) which links that which now follows to the preceding comments. The NIV omits this connection.

The connection between the Spirit and life, on the one hand, and the sinful nature and death, on the other, is absolute and unbreakable. The first great class or category of mankind are "Those who live according to the sinful nature." James Dunn offer the helpful translation - "those who exist in terms of the flesh." These are the unregenerate. They are presented first of all in terms of their orientation or mindset. These are people who define themselves and live out their lives without reference to God and His will. These are people who "have their minds set on what that nature desires." They have willfully chosen to live for self and this pattern of so choosing has become so well established that the chooser is no longer aware of its selfishness. Lenski explains:

"They consider and concern themselves with the interests, the objects, and the affairs of the unchanged, old fleshly nature, to satisfy the cravings, the desires, the passions, etc., of this nature. This is the occupation of all their thinking; they are unable to rise higher; the higher world is closed to them." (Lenski, p. 504)

"But those who live in accordance with the Spirit..." - The other class or category of humanity is exactly the opposite. Those who belong to God are concerned about godly things. Because the Spirit lives in Christians they are no longer dominated by the things of the sinful nature. A profound change has taken place within the Christian. Despite their many spiritual failures, their basic orientation and innermost spiritual concerns have to do with "what the Spirit desires."

"The mind of sinful man is death..." - The contrast continues with a definition of the respective results or consequences of life in each of these two categories. The inevitable result and inescapeable consequence of the midset of sinful man is death. Sinful man is dominated by and obsessed with death. Like the moth drawn to the fatal flame, fallen mankind deals in death and is drawn toward death. In Psalm 49, the psalmist characterizes the death obsession of sinful humanity in this way: "This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve of their words. As sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the place of the dead); Death shall be their shepherd; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning and their form shall be for Sheol to consume." (Psalm 49: 13,14) Wise King Solomon warns that worldly foolishness can have only one outcome:

"For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life...Many are the victims she has drawn down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death." (Proverbs 2:18,19; 7:26,27)

"Whoever fails to find Me hurts himself; all who hate me love death...There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 8:36; 21:6)

"But the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." - The contrast is complete and absolute. For "the mind controlled by the Spirit" the certain result is "life and peace." These words to not denote a subjective state of mind but an objective reality. This is the salvation into which the believer has entered. The death dominance of the old way of sin is replaced by the present reality of abundant life in Christ and the sure promise of life everlasting in heaven. Harmony with God has been restored and thus there is a sense of well-being and security in the knowledge that all is as it should be. As the old Gospel Song rejoices: "What a blessedness, what a peace is mine: leaning on the everlasting arms!"

"The sinful mind is hostile to God..." - The third mode of contrast is one's attitude toward God. "The sinful mind is hostile to God." The adjective "hostile" (Greek - exthra) is a forceful term which refers to personal animosity, hatred, dislike, and opposition. The sinful nature rises up in active opposition to that which God desires. This enmity is the precise opposite of the peaceful harmony ascribed to the mind controlled by the Spirit in the preceding phrase. This explains why the mind-set of the flesh must lead to death. There is no indifferent in-between, no neutrality is possible. Without the Spirit's mind-set, found only through union with Christ, people can only order their lives in a way that is hostile to God and to all of His purposes. The inevitable result of this hostility is the experience of God's wrath. The text goes on to explain the nature of this hostility: "It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so." The sinful mind, hostile to God, also rejects and defies the law as the expression of God's will.

"Every thought product of the sinful flesh rebels against God's law. God and the law are in its way, and it hates them and wants them removed from its path. Often the very existence of God is denied; new moral codes are invented, or an amorality is set up in order to allow the sinful flesh all the indulgence that it wants." (Lenski, p. 506)

There is no possibility that the sinful mind will transform itself and submit to God and His law. The nature of original sin, and the resultant total depravity of all Adam's naturally born descendants, rules out even the theoretical potential for a self-induced cessation of natural man's hostility toward God. The assertion of the text is absolutely categorical: "It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Sinful men live not for God but for themselves.

"All people, by nature derived from Adam, are incurably 'bent' toward their own good rather than the good of others or of God. The various sins to which we are attracted - desire for riches, or station in life, or power, or sexual pleasure - are but different symptoms of this same sickness, this idolatrous bent toward self-gratification." (Moo, p. 489)

The sinful man is incapable of and uninterested in pleasing God. John MacArthur points out that the concept of "pleasing God" is a consistent theme in Pauline theology.

"Men were created for the very purpose of pleasing God. At the beginning of the practical section of this epistle Paul says, "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2). In a similar way he admonished the Corinthians, "whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to God" (2 Corinthians 5:9; cf. Ephesians 5:10; Philippians 4:18). He exhorted the believers in Thessalonica "to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk that you may excel still more." (1 Thesslonians 4:1) (MacArthur, p. 419)

Verse 9
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature..." - The shift to the other side of the contrast is indicated by the adversative conjunction "however" (Greek - de). The status of the justified Christian is completely different than that of the unregenerate human being. We have moved from one realm to another. There is a new and different dominant and decisive reality. It is not possible to be in both simultaneously. Sin does not disappear, but it is no longer in control. No Christian can be controlled by sin, and every Christian is by definition controlled by the Spirit. Pentecostal pretensions notwithstanding, Paul argues that every Christian is indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The possession of the Holy Spirit goes hand in hand with being a Christian. Christianity without the presence of the Holy Spirit is an impossiblity. "And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."

"Paul's language is positional: he is depicting the believer's status in Christ, secured for him or her at conversion...Subject to physical decay and death, prone to sin, tempted to let the flesh take control of us again we may be - but to do justice to Paul we must insist that the believer is "freed from the law of sin and death (8:2; cf. 5:12-21), "dead to sin's power" (6:1-23), and no longer "in the flesh." (Moo, p.490)

Paul addresses the Roman Christians directly, "You, however, are controlled...". That which has been asserted in reference to those who live according to the sinful nature does not apply to the Christians in Rome. Note that the language here is indicative not imperative. Paul is simply stating the facts, not urging or ordering. Note also the inter-changeable language of the verse. The Holy Spirit is described as both "the Spirit of God," and "the Spirit of Christ." This Spirit is equally God's and Christ's within the divine Trinity; thus the language of the Nicene Creed - "who proceedeth from the Father and the Son" (Latin - filioque).

Verses 10-11
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

"But if Christ is in you, your body is dead..." - The physical body of the believer remains subject to mortality. Death is the result of sin. All must die for all have sinned and "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) But for the Christian death has been transformed and becomes the passage to eternal life in heaven with Jesus. Even while we exist in these mortal bodies our "spirit is alive because of righteousness," that is to say that because of the justification imputed to us Christ we already experience the abundant life for which man was created and we anticipate the perfection of that life in the eternity prepared for us in the mansions of heaven. The appropriateness of the Spirit's role as the Life-giver flows from the breath of God which brought life to Adam's inanimate clay in the beginning (Genesis 2:7; cf. Ezekial 37:1-14).

"And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead..." - The Holy Spirit also plays an instrumental role in the restoration to be accomplished in the resurrection of all flesh. The Spirit is here identified as "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." The reference is, of course, to God the Father (cf. Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:4). The resurrection of Jesus is of crucial significance as the harbinger of the great resurrection to come on the Last Day (cf. Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 15). The same life giving Spirit who restored life to the corpse of the God/man on the third day, will restore life to all on the day of resurrection. The presence of that divine Spirit within us now is the pledge of the eternal life that will one day be ours.

Verses 12-14
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation - but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

"Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation..." - The text now shifts from the indicative to the imperative. Having described the facts of our situation, the apostle proceeds to urge the Christians in Rome to live in a manner consistent with their new reality in Christ. That shift is indicated by what the grammarians call the "emphatic inferential," (English - "Therefore;" Greek - ara oun - literally "now therefore"). The use of these conjunctions indicates a compelling conclusion to be drawn from what has just been said. For the fourth time in the epistle, Paul addresses the Romans with the intimate title, "brothers," and he is careful to include himself in his own admonition - "we have an obligation." "We have an obligation" - literally, "we are people who owe a debt" (Greek - opheiletai). This term is unusual in Biblical Greek. It occurs only three other times in the New Testament. It means someone who is legally obligated to pay a debt. Paul asserts that as Christians we are people with a debt to pay, we have an obligation, we are indebted. But that obligation is not "to the sinful nature." We owe nothing to the old way of sin and death. We are under no obligation "to live according to it." The implication is obvious. Our obligation is to the Spirit. Our loyalty and commitment must be to Him and our resolve must be to live according to the will of God. This is the debt owed to Christ Jesus who has graced us with His Spirit. "We are of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, we are sons, children, heirs, co-heirs with Christ to be glorified with Him. Can we then live as though we were none of these, as though we were still entirely flesh, going forward to nothing but death?" (Lenski, p. 515)

"For if you live according to the sinful nature you will die..." - Death is the only possible result of a life dominated by the sinful nature. The death in question is not merely the separation of the body and the soul, physical death. No, the stakes here are much higher. This is eternal death in hell, permanent separation from God and His love as the penalty for sin. The fact that this warning is addressed to the Roman Christians serves as a helpful reminder that the "once saved - always saved" mentality that afflicts much of Protestant Christendom is false comfort, a highly dangerous delusion. The believer who allows the sinful nature to regain its dominance and control in his life will forfeit salvation. Faith cannot co-exist with a persistent pattern of willful deliberate sin. The Law/Gospel paradox of Scripture is clearly evident in this section. That which God has done for us in Christ is the sole and exclusive basis for our salvation. Our salvation is not dependant upon anything that we do, say, or believe. And yet the Bible urges us "to put to death the misdeeds of the body" and warns that if sin is allowed to regain its rule within us we will most surely die. How the promise of the Gospel and the warning of the Law are to be reconciled with one another is beyond human comprehension. We simply believe all that which Scripture says even when we cannot comprehend or correlate it. Dr. Siegbert Becker eloquently argues that this willingness to permit the Word of God to be decisive is of the essence of the Christian faith.

"The doctrine of preservation in the faith as it is taught in the Lutheran Church, confronts us with another apparent contradiction. This doctrine too illustrates very clearly how Lutheran theology differs from that of Rome on the one hand, and that of Geneva on the other, in the matter of dealing with seeming contradictions. The very terminology employed is signficant. What Calvinism calls the perseverence of the saints, a term which lays the stress on the activity of the believer, Lutheranism calls preservation in the faith, a term which lays emphasis on the work of God. The Scriptures present us with two sets of passages in this doctrine which reason finds difficult to harmonize. There are both statements in Scripture in which God promises to preserve us in the faith (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13; John 10:28,29; 2 Timothy 1:12;
Philippians1:6; 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:8) and statements which warn us
against falling from the faith (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10; Luke 8:13; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Hebrews 6:4-6; Philippians 2:12; Romans 11:20-22).
The promises of God are to be believed. Not to believe them would be to call God a liar. The believing child of God reading these promises, should be convinced that he will never fall away, that God will never suffer him to be tempted above that he is able, that no man shall ever pluck him out of his Savior's hand, that no creature shall be able to separate him from the Father's love, that the Spirit of God will complete the work which He has begun in him.
On the other hand, all the warnings of God are to be observed with care. God does not jest. His words should be taken at their face value. And the believing child of God who takes these warnings seriously will be sure that he is in constant danger of falling away from the faith, that he may be a castaway, that he may make shipwreck of the faith, for he is not one whit better than Hymenaeus and Alexander, he is not stronger than Peter, he is not less subject to temptation than David, he is no wiser than Solomon, he is no less attracted to the world than Demas, and so he lives in fear and trembling.
It is clear that we are here dealing with a rational difficulty. Calvinism looks at the promises and draws from them the doctrine of the perseverence of the saints. "Once a believer, always a believer!" says the Calvinist. The warnings are either ignored or made to agree with the axiom "Once converted always converted!" A Lutheran finds difficulty in seeing one can thus interprete the words of Jesus regarding those who "for a time believe and in time of temptation fall away." But in pursuing its course, it must be said, that Calvinism remains true to the law of contradiction. It holds that as long as there is a real possiblity of falling away, there can be no complete and perfect assurance of perseverance.
The Roman Church, on the other hand, characterizes all certainty of salvation as proud presumption. When the promises of God are held before them, they respond that some men may have a special revelation from God. Only they can be sure of their salvation. But the ordinary Christian has no such assurance, and he can have no such assurance. "Let him that thinketh he standeth," they say, "take heed lest he fall." We must live in fear and trembling all our lives and hope that we may be able to overcome. Only if we look at the warnings of God will we be able to avoid carelessness and indifference in our Christian living. Romanism holds that if men are not kept in fear, they will be led into carnal security and will fall away.
Reason finds it impossible to see how the man who is convinced that he can fall, that he may fall, that he is in great danger of falling away throughout his earthly life, can also be perfectly sure that he will never fall away.
One answer that Lutheranism gives is that the contradictory heart of man needs a contradictory doctrine. The heart of man, desperately wicked, still even in the converted Christian, is inclined to become proud. Like Peter it is inclined to say, "Though all should be offended because of you, yet I will never be offended." (Matthew 26:33) Like an immature teenager it responds to expressed concern over its salvation with, "Don't worry mother, I can take care of myself." To convince man that he cannot take care of himself, to make him realize that by himself he is lost, that he should never become careless and indifferent in his faith and life, the Lord has given us these serious and earnest warnings which mean exactly what they say and are not to be changed or modified in any way.
But the heart of man is also a timid, quaking heart, which so often needs reassurance. When its feet have slipped into the slough of despondancy, there is only one way that it can be helped. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. When I am weak, then I am strong. For when I know that I cannot remain faithful, that I cannot persevere, for I am frail and helpless, then the Lord comes with the blessed assurance that no man shall pluck me out of his hand. And so, every day, the Christian, as long as he remembers and believes the promises, will be sure that he will never fall away.
There is no logic that avails here. We must simply hear and believe - believe it when God tells us that we are in danger, believe it when God tells us that we are in no danger...Thus the Christian must learn to live in constant tension between these two. When he begins to lean over to the left, toward pride and presumption and confidence in the strength of his faith, and to trust in his own character, then the warnings against apostasy, the Savior's "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation," pushes him upright once more. But usually man, even the Christian man, whose heart is never fully what it ought to be, begins to lean over to the right - he becomes afraid and begins to doubt that he will ever make it to the gates of the heavenly city. Once again the Savior comes and stands on the other side to support him and push him upright once more with his promise, "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God." (Isaiah 41:10) And he knows that when his pilgrimage comes to an end, "all the trumpets" will be blowing "for him on the other side." (Becker, The Foolishness of God, pp.217ff.)

"But if you live by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body..." - Living by the Spirit necessitates the mortification of "the misdeeds of the body." There is a beautiful irony in the language of the passage. We are told that that there is a living that brings on death and there is a dying that makes alive and keeps alive.

The Holy Spirit remains the basic source of empowerment as we strive to put to death the sinful conduct of our old way of life.

"While the Christian is made responsible for this mortification of sins, he or she accomplishes this only "through the Spirit." Holiness of life, then, is achieved neither by our own unaided effort - the error of moralism or legalism - nor by the Spirit apart from our participation - as some who insist that the key to holy living is "surrender" or "let go and let God" would have it - but by our constant living out the life placed within us by the Spirit who has taken up residence within." (Moo, pp. 495,496)

Human activity is clearly necessary in the process of sanctification, but that activity is always prompted and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The intensity of the conflict here described dare not be underestimated, as the preceding chapter has shown. This combat is a mortal one; we go on living the spiritual life only by killing these vicious deeds that want to destroy this our life. We keep on doing it as long as we are in this body that is prone to sin in a sinful environment. The battle is waged every day, as in contrition and repentance the Old Adam and his works are put to death within us.

"Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." - The explanation now proceeds one more crucial step. The Spirit not only dwells within us to give new life and put to death the misdeeds of the sinful nature, but He also restores the intimate relationship with God for which mankind was created in the beginning. To be led by the Spirit is to be a child of God. By birth we are children of Adam but by new birth in the Holy Spirit we are children of God. This is a new and different perspective which has not been touched on before in the epistle. Its potential for Christian living is obvious and abundant. In the Old Testament, the Children of Israel are often referred to as the "sons of God" (i.e. Deuteronomy 14:1; Isaiah 43:6; Hosea 2:1) to emphasize the close relationship between God and His people. Thus this will not be an unfamiliar idea to the Christians in Rome.

The verb in this phrase "are led" (Greek - agontai ) is in the durative present tense and the passive voice - thus literally, "are being led" indicating continuous ongoing action carried out upon the subject. The active agent is "the Spirit of God" who continually leads and guides the people of God throughout their earthly lives. The divine Spirit, of course works through the objective means which God has established, namely the written Word of God, lest we fall prey to the leading of our own feelings and fallible fancies. Lenski emphasizes:

"The truth not to be overlooked is the fact that, although the Spirit dwells in us (vs.9), and thus leads us by inward prompting, He does so only by means of His outward, written Word. To be sure, that Word is also in us ( it abides in us, John 5:38), and only in this way does the our hearts, none other. We can verify the fact that the Word that is in us is the Spirit's own Word that is leading us, by comparing it with the Spirit lead us by means of it, but it is the written Word that we hold in written Word. Only by means of the written Word do we know that the voice inwardly prompting us is, indeed, the Spirit's own and not some hallucination that is afflicting our mind." (Lenski, p. 520)

Verses 15-17
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, "Abba," Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings that we may also share in His glory.

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you..." - Having introduced the concept of Christians as the children of God, the apostle now proceeds to explain the implications of this startling idea. Douglas Moo notes: "Paul's description of the Spirit's work in conferring sonship forms one of the most beautiful pictures of the believer's joy and security anywhere in Scripture." (Moo, p. 499) Slavery here implies co-ercion and compulsion. The authority of the master is maintained by fear of punishment and the imposition of physical force. As Paul has already explained (6:16ff.), slavery to God is true liberation - "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." (6:22; cf. also 2 Corinthians 3:17 - Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.") Our bondage to the law and the passions of the sinful nature were ended when we became Christians (cf. 7:6). The verb ("you did not receive") is in the Greek aorist tense which indicates completed past action, thus recalling for the Romans the moment of their conversion. The Spirit that believers have received does not return them to the state of fearful anxiety which was previously their status, the dread of the unjustified sinner before the righteous judge. Thus Paul's language - "that makes you a slave again to fear." Instead, the presence of this Spirit brings about an entirely new condition.

In total contrast to "a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear" (literally - "a slavery spirit") is the "spirit of sonship." The word "sonship" (Greek - "huiothesia") is a most significant term. It was a technical, legal term in the Greco-Roman world expressing the legal assumption of a person into the status of sonship within a natural family. The individual adopted in this way received thereby all of the legal rights and privileges which would ordinarily accrue to a natural child. In fact, in the eyes of the law, there was no difference in the status of the adopted child and the natural child. John MacArthur notes:

"In the Roman culture of Paul's day, an adopted child, especially an adopted son, sometimes had greater privilege and prestige than the natural children...At the death of the father, the favored adopted son would sometimes inherit the father's title, the major part of the estate, and would be the primary progenitor of the family name. Because of its obvious great importance, the process of Roman adoption involved several carefully prescribed legal procedures. The first step totally severed the boy's legal and social relationship to his natural family, and the second step placed him permanently into his new family. In addition to that, all of his previous debts and other obligations were eradicated, as if they had never existed. For the transaction to become legally binding, it also required the presence of seven reputable witnesses, who could testify, if necessary, to any challenge of the adoption after the father's death." (MacArthur, p.436)

Paul uses the same concept in Galatians 4 to describe the status of the individual believer in Christ: "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4-5) Later in Romans the same term also serves in a corporate sense to summarize God's unique relationship with Israel (9:4). The point of this powerful image is that God has graciously acted on our behalf with the result that we have come to be included in His family. "In adopting us, God has taken no half measures; we have been made full members of the family and partakers of all of the privileges belonging to members of that family." (Moo, p. 503) The presence of the Spirit is the result, in a sense the confirmation, of the action of God the Father who has adopted us as His children.

"And by Him we cry, "Abba , Father." - As the adopted children of God we enjoy the comforting conviction that we may approach God with the intimate confidence with which dear children approach their dear Father. The verb "we cry" (Greek - krazein) refers to a loud shout or exclamation and carries the connotation of deep emotional intensity. Luther describes this cry as one too powerful for words "Which exceeds and breaks through the powerful and horrible cries of the Law, sin, death, and the devil. It penetrates the clouds and heaven, and it reaches all the way to the ears of God." (Luther, 26, p. 381)

The phrase utilizes both the Greek (pater) and the Aramaic ("abba") words for father. The combination of the two titles felicitously unites a term of tenderness and endearment well-known by the Jews with its Greek equivalent. This combination was carried over into the liturgical usage of the early church in Greek speaking Christian communities. The original Aramaic word is especially important. It is an informal term of dependance and affection, the equivalent of the English words "Daddy" or "Papa." The use of this particular Aramaic term carries profound significance. Joachim Jeremias, the great German Lutheran New Testament scholar, provides the background and context of the word in the Bible along with a moving commentary as to its significance:

"Yes, here there is something quite new, absolutely new - the word "abba." From the prayer in Gethsemane, Mark 14:36, we learn that Jesus addressed God with this word and this point is confirmed not only by Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6, but also by the striking oscillation of the forms for the vocative "O Father" in the Greek text of the gospels, as oscillation which is to be explained only through the fact that the Aramaic term "abba" lies behind all such passages. With the help of my assistants, I have examined the prayer literature of late Judaism - a large, rich literature, all too little explored. The result of this examination was that in no place in this immense literature is this invocation of God as "Abba" to be found. How is this to be explained? The Church Fathers Chrysostom, Theodor of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus who originated from Antioch (where the populace spoke the west Syrian dialect of Aramaic) and who probably had Aramiac speaking nurses, testify unanimously that "Abba" was the address of the small child to his father. And the Talmud confirms this when it says, "When a child experiences the taste of wheat (i.e. when it is weaned) it learns to say "abba" and "imma" ("Daddy" and "Mommy"). "Abba" and "Imma" are thus the first sounds which the child stammers. But these terms were not limited to small children; grown-up sons and daughters also used them to address their parents. "Abba" was an everyday word, a homely, family word, a secular word, the tender, filial address to a father: "Dear Father." No Jew would have dared to address God in this manner. Jesus did it always, in all His prayers which are handed down to us, with one single exception, the cry from the cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46); here the term of address for God was prescribed by the fact that Jesus was quoting Psalm 22:1. Jesus thus spoke with God as a son would with his father, simply, intimately, securely, filial in manner. But His invocation of God as "Abba" is not to be understood merely psychologically, as a step toward growing apprehension of God. Rather, we learn from Matthew 11:27 that Jesus Himself viewed this form of address for God as the heart of that revelation which had been granted Him by the Father. In this term "Abba" the ultimate mystery of His mission and His authority is expressed. He to whom the Father had granted full knowledge of God, had the messianic prerogative of addressing him with the familiar address of a Son. This term "Abba" is a manner of speaking unique to Jesus and contains in a nutshell His message and His claim to have been sent from the Father. The final point, and the most astonishing of all, however, has yet to be mentioned; in the Lord's Prayer the Lord Jesus authorizes His disciples to repeat the word "Abba" after Him. He gives them a share in His Sonship and empowers them, as His disciples, to speak with their heavenly Father in just such a familiar, trusting way as a child would with his father. Yet He goes so far as to say that it is this new childlike relationship which first opens the doors to God's reign: "Truly, I say to you, unless you become like children again, you will not find entrance into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 18:3). Children can say "Abba"! Only he who, through Jesus, lets himself be given the childlike trust which resides in the word "abba" finds his way into the kingdom of God. This the apostle Paul also understood; he says twice that there is no surer sign or guarantee of the possession of the Holy Spirit and of the gift of sonship than this, that a man makes bold to repeat this one word, "Abba, dear Father" (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). Perhaps at this point we get some inkling why the Lord's Prayer was not a commonplace in the early church and why it was spoken with such reverence and awe. "Make us worthy, O Lord, that we joyously and without presumption may make bold to invoke Thee, the heavenly God, as Father, and to say, Our Father." (Jeremias, pp.19-21)

Martin Luther adds his own profoundly reverent insight into the implications of this phrase for our understanding of the nature of our relationship with the God who has adopted us as His own children:

"This is indeed a very short word, but it includes everything. Not the lips, but the feelings are speaking here, as though one were to say, "Even though I am surrounded by anxieties and seem to be deserted and banished from Thy presence, nevertheless, I am a child of God on account of Christ; I am beloved on account of the Beloved." Therefore, the term "Father," when spoken meaningfully in the heart, is an eloquence that Demosthenes, Cicero, and the most eloquent men there have ever been in the world cannot attain. For this is a matter that is expressed, not in words but in sighs, which are not articulated in all the words of all the orators; for they are too deep for words." (Luther,26, p.385)

Verses 16-17
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.

"The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit..." - Hebrew law prescribed that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter was to be established (Deuteronomy 17:6; cf. Matthew 18:16; John 5:31-37). Similarly, there are two witnesses to one's salvation; one's own personal experience of the intimate relationship which we enjoy with the God whom we can address as "Abba, Father," and the Holy Spirit Himself who confirms the believer's realization that he has indeed been made God's own child through faith in Christ. The witness of the Spirit takes place in and through the Word of God, as the Spirit places the promises of the Word before us and enables to claim those promises as our own through the faith which He Himself has given us. Lenski offers the following pertinant word of caution:

"Here again we should not think of immediate testimony apart from, outside of, or above the written Word. All such supposed testimony is Schwaermerei, the evidence of not only a spiritual but also a mental pathological condition. The Spirit indeed puts the Word into our heart and in this way testifies in us; but we can ever verify that Word and testimony by the Scriptures. This testimony of the Spirit is thus objective, one that reaches us from the outside and from another person...We ourselves need and must have a second witness. The world is full of self-deluded men who think that they are this and that when they are completely mistaken...How do we know that we are not equally or similarly deluded? It is because of the Spirit's testimony in the written Word." (Lenski, p. 254,255)

Thus, the believer's assurance of salvation rests upon the combined testimony of his intimate access to the "Abba, Father" and that of the Holy Spirit Himself as He addresses us in the countless Gospel promises of the written Word which He then enables us to personally appropriate by faith. It is pertinent to note that in both instances we do not seek that assurance of salvation within ourselves, our progress in sanctification or the intensity of our faith. Instead, the apostle urges us to call upon God as our Father and to look away from ourselves to Him who established the relationship.

"Now if we are children, then we are heirs..." - Having asserted our membership in the family of God and our identity as His children the apostle now presents the inference to be drawn from the fact of sonship. In Greco-Roman practice, the basic purpose of adoption was to provide for a suitable heir. Central to Jewish self-perception was the understanding the Israel was the Lord's inheritance, the people chosen out of all the nations of the earth to be His own (cf. Deuteronomy 32:9) Israel's special relationship with God has now been extended to all who are in Christ. We who are God's children in Christ have a share in the inheritance that God has prepared for His own. As God's children, we are also His heirs and as such we will "share in His glory." (cf. 1 John 3:2) Paul defines this more precisely by declaring that we are also "co-heirs with Christ." As the children of God we are brothers and sisters of Christ who is the Son of God. In the preceding verse we were accorded the precious privilege of sharing in Christ's abba-relationship with the Father. Now we are specifically designated as His "co-heirs." In these words we are reminded that Christians inherit the blessings of God's kingdom only through and in Christ. With St. Paul we can rejoice:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will." (Ephesians 1:3,11)

We are sons of God because we belong to the Son of God. God has appointed His Son to be "heir of all things." (Hebrews 1:2) We share in that glorious inheritance by grace through faith. It is "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you." (1 Peter 1:4)

Our oneness with Christ, however, does not only pertain to glory. We who "share in His glory" are also called upon to "share in His sufferings." Suffering is the ordained path to glory. Thus it was for Christ (1 Peter 1:11), and thus it must also be for us. It must be carefully emphasized that believers do not contribute to the accomplishment of expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption. These great works were fully and absolutely accomplished in Christ alone. His suffering, unlike ours, was vicarious, that is, in the place of and on behalf of others. Our suffering has no atoning power, not even for ourselves. Our suffering is both the sign and the result of our identification with Christ and our consequent rejection of sin and its dominance in our lives (cf. John 15:18; 2 Corinthians 1:5; 4:10; Philippians
3:10,11; 1 Peter 4:12,13; 5:10). Paul confidently and even joyfully declares his own identification with the suffering and death of his Lord:

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)

Two great hymns of the church express these truths with stunning beauty and power. The first is the Reformation chorale, "Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus," written in 1653. The hymn emphasizes our intimate identification with Christ both in suffering and in glory:

"Let us suffer here with Jesus, to His image e'er conform;
Heaven's glory soon will please us, sunshine follow on the storm.
Tho' we sow in tears of sorrow, we shall reap in heavenly joy;
And the fears that now annoy shall be laughter on the morrow.
Christ, I suffer here with Thee, there, oh, share Thy joy with me.

Let us gladly live with Jesus; since He's risen from the dead,
Death and grave must soon release us, Jesus, Thou art now our Head,
We are truly Thine own members; where Thou livest there live we.
Take and own us constantly, faithful Friend as Thy dear brethren.
Jesus, here I live to Thee, also there eternally.

The second is the classic English hymn "Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken" written in 1824 by Henry Francis Lyte. Lyte's development of the theme closely parallels the thought of this segment of Romans 8, promising glory after suffering and urging dependance upon the "Abba-father".

"Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me, Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends may shun me, show Thy face and all is bright.

Go then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain!
In Thy service pain is pleasure; with Thy favor loss is gain.
I have called Thee Abba, Father! I have stayed my heart on Thee.
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather, all must work for good to me.

Haste, then, on from grace to glory, armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heaven's eternal day before Thee. God's own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close the earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight and prayer to praise.

The balance of Romans Chapter 8 (Verses 18-30) comprise what has aptly been called the great "Consolation Section of Romans." These words of comfort and encouragement have always been an abundant resource for the people of God in time of trouble. Modern man views the world as a closed system in which suffering is a harsh, grim reality that can never be explained or justified. The pervasive pain all around us serves only to drive men to bitter cynicism or bleak despair. For the Christian, suffering is placed in a larger context which acknowledges the reality of that pain while at the same time affirming the confident expectation that pain and suffering are not the final word. There is more to this world than meets the eye. "The present and the visible can be understood only in the light of the future and the invisible." (Leenhardt, p. 511) R.C.H. Lenski summarizes the substance of the text in this way:

"It presents a worldview that is at once so lofty and so profound as to leave behind all non-scriptural conceptions. The whole creature world is made to depend on what God does with His children. Going back to the fall of Adam which plunged the creature world into vanity and corruption, the Christian hope is made nothing less than the fulfillment of the expectation of even this creature world. In the midst of a groaning world we pray, but one far greater, the Spirit Himself, makes our prayers what they should be. For above this vast whole, so sadly deranged, is the hand that makes all things work together for good to us according to His eternal purpose, the realization of which is sure. Paul is stirred into asking triumphant, challenging questions, the answer to which is Christ and the love from which no power whatever is or will be able to separate us. With this triumphant assurance Paul closes. Here there are eyes that do see the realities, a mind that penetrates to God's design working in them all, and the faith that moves with sure tread to lead us to God's own goal with certainty. Revelation expressed in inspiration, and both divine!" (Lenski, p.528,529)

Verse 18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

I consider that our present sufferings... - The Greek text begins with the conjunction "gar" ("for") which serves to indicate that the following is an elaboration and explanation about what has just been said in reference to suffering with Christ so that we may also be glorified with Him. The NIV omits the conjunction and thus obscures the continuity of the text.

Paul offers the sanctified judgment of the believer - "I consider" (Greek - logizomai). This verb literally refers to numerical calculations, thus the KJV translation "reckon." It is typically used in the New Testament to express a settled conclusion which comes from the standpoint of faith. This is a statement of firm conviction.

"Our present sufferings" (Greek - pathema) refers not only to that suffering which must be endured for Christ's sake, but to suffering in general, some of which is the result of our own folly, and some of which is the inevitable result of life in a world that is cursed by sin. The sum total of all the suffering that is experienced in the course of our earthly lives (Greek - tou nun kairou). Over against "our present sufferings" on the other side of the comparison is "the glory that will be revealed in us." "Glory" (Greek - doxa) refers to the radiance of heaven and the dazzling brightness and magnificence of the divine presence. The goal of God's saving purpose from the beginning has been to restore fallen man to share once again in the glory of his Creator. (cf. Romans 2:7,10; 5:2; 8:21; 9:23; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 15:43; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:17; Philippians 3:21; Colossians 1:27; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Timothy 2:10; Hebrews 2:10; 1 Peter 1:7; 5:1,4,10; 2 Peter 1:3) This glory is not yet ours but it is on the way; it is not present but future. The Greek text literally says "the coming glory" ("mellousan doxan"). Paul's language stresses both its certainty and its imminence. It is now hidden from earthly view, but it "will be revealed." When the glory is unveiled we will not merely be spectators but actual participants for this divine glory "will be revealed in us." The comparison is introduced using the language of weights and measures - "Are not worth comparing." The Greek word is "axios" from the verb "ago" which means to drive," "lead," or "cause to move." In this context, it refers to something that is heavy enough to cause motion in a balance, or as we would say, to tip the scales. Lenski captures the concept precisely: "Place all the sufferings into one pan of the scale and the coming glory into the other pan; the pan with the former flies into the air as if it were holding only a few feathers. (Lenski, p. 530) Paul expresses the same thought in 2 Corinthians 4:17, which closely parallels this text. "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."

Verses 19-21
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

"The creation waits in eager expectation" - "Eager Expectation" comes first in the Greek text to give particular emphasis. The Greek word apokaradokia literally means "to watch with the head stretched away from," hence the image a person craning his or her neck to see what is coming. The term denotes eager, confident expectation. There is no uncertainty here whatsoever, but a yearning for that which is definitely on the way. This sense of eager expectation is predicated of "the whole creation." Everything that the Lord God made was part of the perfect environment for the perfect creature fashioned in His image, man. At the end of the sixth day of creation the Lord God assessed all that He had made: "And God saw all that He had made and it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) All that changed with man's fall into sin. The devastating impact of sin and death was not only experienced by humanity but by the entire physical environment. The natural world of matter, plants, and animals was transformed to reflect the grim consequences of man's rebellion against His Maker. In a typically Old Testament manner (cf. Psalm 65:12-13; Isaiah 24:4; Jeremiah 4:28; 12:4), Paul personifies the subhuman creation in an effort to convey to his readers a sense of the cosmic significance of both humanity's fall into sin and believer's restoration to glory. We are not alone in eagerly waiting for the glory to be revealed. That disclosure of divine glory will occur when "the sons of God" are revealed. All of creation waits with us, yearning to see the day when all will be set right, and God's original plan and purpose for that which He has made will be restored.

"For the creation was subjected to frustration..." - What is the creation's interest in the revelation of the sons of God? Why this eager anticipation on the part of the material universe? The apostle explains that as a result of sin, creation itself is not what it should be. It has been "subjected to frustration." In the Genesis account of man's fall into sin God had warned Adam: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field." (Genesis 3:17,18). This segment of Romans 8 now offers what has aptly been called "Paul's commentary on Genesis 3:17,18." (Murray, p. 303) The noun "frustration" (Greek - "mataiotes") describes creation's predicament. This is the New Testament equivalent of the "vanity" of the Old Testament's book of Ecclesiastes. It means "emptiness", "futility", or "purposelessness." It denotes the state of ineffectiveness of something that does not attain its goal or has not become that which it was meant to be. Creation did not bring this sorry state upon itself. It was "subjected to frustration, not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it." The reference here is to God, who alone has the authority to issue the cosmic condemnation as the result of human sin. But from the beginning neither man nor creation were without hope. The first promise of the Gospel, the "protoevangelium," was given in the immediate aftermath of the fall (Genesis 3:15; cf. Romans 16:20)

"That the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay..." - The hope in which creation waits is here defined. The cosmos is currently in "bondage to decay." The good creation of God became a slave to material corruption, decay, and death. The term "decay" (Greek -"phthora") refers most literally to the putrefaction and decomposition of that which is dead. In this instance the reference is somewhat broader indicating the perishability and powerlessness of the created universe as the deadly consequences of sin are expressed and implemented through it. The creation waits in anticipation of "liberation." This is a theme which Paul has sounded before, in regard to liberation from sin (6:18,22) and from the law (7:3; 8:2). Now we are told that the cosmos itself will also be set free. Thus the physical world is not only a spectator of humanity's liberation and triumphant glory but it also has a share of its own in that which is to come, namely, "the glorious freedom of the children of God." The reign of dissolution and death will be overthrown and God's original intent for the universe will be restored once again. John Murray notes:

"The creation is to share, therefore, in the glory that will be bestowed upon the children of God. It can only participate in that glory, however, in a way that is compatible with its nature as non-rational. Yet the glory of the children of God is one that comprises the children also and must not be conceived of apart from the cosmic regeneration." (Murray, p. 305)

Verses 22-23
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

"We know that the whole creation..." - The phrase "we know that" (Greek - "oidamen gar hoti") is used to introduced a familiar and widely accepted idea, a commonly recognized truth which does not need to be demonstrated or proven. All of the cosmos, "the whole creation," is involved in this waiting process. The yearning for deliverance that characterizes the entire universe is expressed in "groaning." The classic Lutheran commentator Philippi has rightly asserted: "The entire creation, as it were, sets up a grand symphony of sighs."

The nature of creation's anticipation is aptly expressed in the imagery of labor and birth. Jesus uses the same comparison in John 16:20-22.

"You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for the joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you."

The pain of labor is the result of sin (Genesis 3:16). Yet, the pain is temporary and constantly anticipates the joy to come. These are not the woes of impending death but the pangs of new life. The pain of labor is tempered by the knowledge that when the suffering is over a beautiful child will have been born. So also the travail of creation is directed toward the hope of restoration and regeneration. John Calvin writes:

"As creatures have a hope of being hereafter freed from corruption, it hence follows that they groan like a woman in travail until they shall be delivered. But it is a most suitable similitude; it shows that the groaning of which he speaks will not be in vain and with effect; for it will at length bring forth a joyful and blessed fruit." (Cited in Murray, p. 305)

This text appears to resolve the longstanding debate between so-called annhilationists (including many of the orthodox Lutheran fathers) and restorationists (including, most notably, Martin Luther himself). An annihilationist is one who contends that on the last day the present universe will cease to exist and will be replaced by a new heaven and earth which God will create at that time (cf. Psalm 102:25-27; 2 Peter 3:10-11; Revelation 20:11; Isaiah 34:4; Luke 21:33; Job 14:12). A restorationist is one who argues that the new heaven and earth of eternity will be the restoration and purification of the original creation to the condition in which God fashioned it in the beginning. This passage decisively supports the restorationist view. Lenski summarizes:

"So the creation too, will at last be glorified. What Paul says about it in this section settles the question raised by some other passages as to whether the creature world will finally be annihilated. The "liberty of the glory" cannot have a double meaning: blessed eternal glory for the children of God, annihilation for the creation. To call the latter a liberation is an odd use of language indeed...The teaching of the entire Scripture is to the effect that God's plans are never defeated, that he does not replace, but restore." (Lenski, p. 538)

"Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan..." - The creation's "grand symphony of sighing" is now linked to that of the children of God. The same eager hopefulness demonstrated by the expectant creation is predicated of God's people "who have the firstfruits of the Spirit." We have already tasted the bounty of the coming harvest in the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. He is the guarantee of that which is to come; the downpayment, so to speak, of the glory yet to be revealed. He is the beginning of God's saving work and the pledge that God's work of salvation will be fulfilled within us.

The verb "groan" (Greek - stenazo) is characteristically used of the moaning occasioned by pain or oppression as God's people cry out for deliverance. "Groan inwardly" indicates not outward verbal expression, but the inward, nonverbal sighs which indicative of a certain attitude. This groaning is not the result or the expression of uncertainty or anxiety as to whether God will keep His promises but frustration over our current condition and eagerness for the full realization of God's glory.

That for which we are yearning is "our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." As previously stated, Christians are adopted into the family of God at the moment of their justification. Yet there is a sense in which this adoption will be remain incomplete until we experience the perfection of heaven. St. John clearly affirms this in his first New Testament letter: "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2) This is but another dimension of the already but not yet tension of the Christian life. The end time perspective of this segment is further indicated in the phrase which follows to explain "our adoption as sons" as "the redemption of our bodies." The "frustration," the "bondage of decay" to which the material world has been subjected is nowhere more evident than in our physical bodies and their susceptibility to disease, aging, pain, and death. We long for the day when these bodies will be glorified and the rigors of sin's dominion will be gone forever. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:35-57)

Verses 24-25
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

"In this hope we were saved..." - In Verse 20 we had been told that the entire creation waited "in hope" to be liberated from its bondage to decay. In the same way Christians, whose salvation has already been fully accomplished, also look forward to the great day when God's glory will be revealed in us. That which God has done for our salvation in Christ enables us to live "in hope." Thus St. Paul urges the Thessalonians not to sorrow "like the rest of men who have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4:13) Without Christ, there is no hope. Without Christ, we have nothing to look forward to. But the Christian, justified by faith and baptized into Christ can live in anticipation of the eternal salvation which God's Son has already achieved. Lenski contends that this phrase is a "dative of advantage" and should more precisely be translated "for this hope we were saved." The theologians call this an "eschatological perspective," that is to say, a way of looking at life that focuses not on the present but on the future; not merely on things as they are now but on things as they will be at the end of time when the Lord returns again. The creative tension between already and not yet is of the essence of the Christian experience. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones expressed this perspective very clearly. Dr. Lloyd-Jones wrote:

"Hope is the measure of true Christianity which is through and through otherworldly. Pseudo-Christianity always looks chiefly at this world. Popular Christianity is entirely this worldly, and is not interested in the other world. But true Christianity has its eye mainly on the world which is to come. It is not primarily concerned even with deliverance from hell and punishment, and all the things that trouble and weary us. That really belongs to the past. True Christianity "sets its affection on things which are above, not on things which are on the earth." (Quoted in Boice ,2, p.884)

"Hope" (Greek – "elpidi") is the term which captures and expresses that concept. This is one of the great words of the New Testament. There is no hint of uncertainty here. Unlike the hopes of men which are often little more than wishes which we have no power to fulfill, the "hope" of the believer is the steadfast confidence of faith based upon the sure promises of the Word of God. It is a "sure and certain hope." Hence the inspired writer to the Hebrews can rightly describe hope as "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." (Hebrews 6:19) The hope of the believer is directed solely toward God and that which He has done for us in Christ. St. Peter writes: "Gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:13) The hymn writer says it well:

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
(Edward Mote, 1884)

"But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?" - The contrast between that which is seen and that which is unseen becomes the basis for this explanation of the nature of hope. Hope obviously anticipates that which is to come. It is the element of expectation which defines hope. The day will come when that for which we now hope will be fully revealed. Then we will walk by sight and not by faith. But until that time, we believe in that which God has promised and eagerly look forward to the perfect fulfillment of all of God's gracious promises to us. Using the same contrast between the seen and the unseen, the apostle expresses the substance of our hope in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

So also the writer to the Hebrews notes: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)

"But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently." - The confident hope of the believer is characterized by an attitude of humble patience and endurance. Calvin comments on this phrase: "Hope, then, ever draws patience with it." The term "patiently" (Greek – hupomones) suggests the connotation of bearing up under intense pressure. It is an active, not a passive, concept. It expresses itself in vigorous service for Christ, even as we eagerly wait for His appearance. Like the rest of creation we are, as it were, standing on tiptoe craning our necks to catch the first glimpse of His imminent arrival. Patience is an attitude regularly commended to Christians who are called upon to endure severe trials (cf. 5:3-4; James 1:3,4; 5:11; Revelation 13:10; 14:12). The word literally means "remaining under" and thus describes the willingness of the believer to submit to the plan and the purpose of God as we wait for His glory to be revealed.

Verse 26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness." - Sustained by the solid hope that God has given us, we wait out our time in patient endurance. As we do so, the Holy Spirit Himself, stands by our side and comes to our aid. Paul links his assertion of the Spirit's assistance to that which has gone before with the conjunctive phrase "in the same way." In this way he indicates his progression to the third reason why the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed. To our solidarity with all of creation, and the steadfast hope of the believer is now added the intercession of God the Holy Spirit.

The NIV translation of the verb "helps" lacks the force of the original. The Greek "synantilambanomai" literally means "to bear a burden along with." It is used in the Old Testament to describe the work of the seventy elders who are chosen to assist Moses in bearing the burden of Israel's leadership (cf. Exodus 18:22; Numbers 11:17). In the New Testament, this is the word Martha uses in her complaint to Jesus about her sister's failure to help with the meal preparation - "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me!" (Luke 10:40) In this instance the image is that of the Holy Spirit shouldering a burden which we in our weakness are unable to carry.

The "weakness" of man denotes the totality of the human condition; the corruptibility of the body and the subvertedness of the flesh which are the result of our inherently sinful nature. In this instance, the consequence of that condition is that "We do not know what we ought to pray." The English text here may be somewhat misleading, suggesting nothing more than an inability to formulate or articulate our prayers. The Greek text of this phrase literally says; "for that which we are to pray for as we should we do not know." Sin renders man incapable or either identifying his own most fundamental needs or expressing those needs in prayer. Like our first parents and their pathetic fig leaves (Genesis 3:7) we are unable to recognize our real problems. We deny, pretend, and avoid. We evade responsibility and shift blame. We are chronically self-focused and seek the immediate satisfaction of our own wants and desires (i.e. Paul's repeated prayer for the removal of his thorn in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 12:3-9). Hence, the fact that "we do not know what we ought to pray" is not merely a matter of inarticulateness. It's not just that we cannot put it into words. We actually don't know what we ought to be praying for. We cannot express that which we cannot comprehend.

"But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." - The remedy for our inability to know what we should be praying for is the intercession of God the Holy Spirit on our behalf. Paul's language here is reminiscent of Christ's description of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the "Paraclete." (John 14:15-31; 15:26; 16:13) This Greek title literally means "one who is called alongside of another to provide aid." The term is often translated as "Comforter," "Advocate'" or "Counselor." An intercessor is one who pleads the case of another. We do not know what to pray for or how to pray so the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and does for us that which we could not do for ourselves. He "intercedes for us," He prays on our behalf to the heavenly Father. This intercession takes the form of "groans that words cannot express." This is the third time in Romans 8 that Paul has referred to "groans" (Greek – stenagmois). In Verse 22 the groaning of all creation signaled its longing for deliverance. In Verse 23, believers were said to groan inwardly as they waited for the redemption of their bodies. Now, in Verse 27, it God the Holy Spirit who intercedes on our behalf with "groans." The continuity of the language serves to unify the message of the text. Fitzmyer notes:

"Paul mentioned earlier that Christians groan together with the groaning material creation (8:23); now he affirms that the Spirit too groans with Christians who have hope and long for the glory of the risen life. It is not that the Spirit Himself hopes for such glory, but that He enables Christians by His assistance to formulate the proper prayer of hope. In so doing, the Spirit bears testimony to the status of the Christian life and its destiny." (Fitzmyer, p.517)

The prayer language of the third member of the divine Trinity is "ineffable," that is, incapable of being expressed in human language. (The Greek word is "alaletois," that is, "laleo" the Greek word for intelligible human speech, combined with the negative prefix "a." Hence, literally, not in intelligible speech) This clearly rules out the charismatic claim that the prayer language of the Holy Spirit is a form of speaking in tongues. It is rather a form of communication which clearly transcends our capacity to comprehend and express. Dr. Stoeckhardt writes:

"The Spirit groans and pleads and intercedes for us before God. The Spirit does this in our hearts. From our hearts, the groanings of the Spirit arise to God. We can feel and experience something of this groaning and longing of the Spirit in our hearts. Because they are the groanings of the Spirit they are thus unspeakable, too sublime and profound for us…With this, His mighty intercession, incomprehensible yet perceptible to us, He, at the same time, supports and sustains our weak groanings and prayers, so that they do not altogether cease but finally attain their goal. Every believing Christian has experienced this help of the Spirit. When the cross presses severely, when we feel ourselves alone and forsaken, when we find no friend, no comforter, no person who really understands our troubles and burdens, when our prayers will not come forth properly, we experience in our hearts an undefinable, unspeakable lamentation, a powerful groaning and longing, which goes through the very marrow and moves the organs of the body, which tears us out of our miseries and permits us to taste of the powers of the future world. It is as though another, a Stronger One, takes hold of our unsteady heart and raises it up, directs it to God, so that we again look and pray to God more joyfully and trustfully. That is the assistance, the intercession of the Comforter, of the Holy Spirit." (Stoeckhardt, p.110)

The unique effectiveness of the Spirit's intercession on our behalf that perfect accord exists between God ("He who searches our hearts" cf. 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Kings 8:39; Psalm 7:9; 17:3) and "the mind of the Spirit." This is what one commentator has aptly described as "intertrinitarian communication." (MacArthur, p.467) God knows us better than we know ourselves. No secrets are hidden from Him. He looks into the depths of our heart and soul, the very place where the Spirit's ministry of intercession takes place. God not only "knows the mind of the Spirit," but is in full accord with the Spirit's activity and purpose, and, in fact, that activity and purpose is an expression of His own will – "because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." The beneficiaries of the Spirit's intercessions are "the saints" (Greek – "hagion"). This literally means "the holy ones." It is used in the New Testament in reference to those who have been justified by God's grace through faith in Christ. They have become holy through the blood of Jesus Christ shed for them upon the cross.

From the perspective of human reason this is a perplexing passage. We are dealing here with the most profound mysteries of the doctrine of the holy Trinity. The human mind which seeks to plumb these infinite depths would do well to remember this word of caution:

"Because the Spirit's will and the Father's will are identical, and because God is one, Paul's statement seems unnecessary. But he is pointing up the truth in order to give encouragement to believers. Because the three persons of the godhead have always been one in essence and will, the very idea of communication among them seems superfluous to us. It is a great mystery to our finite minds, but it is a divine reality that God expects His children to acknowledge by faith. In this passage Paul emphasizes the divine intercession that is necessary for the preservation of believers to their eternal hope. We can no more fathom that marvelous truth than we can fathom any other aspect of God's plan of redemption. But we know that, were Christ and the Holy Spirit not continually on guard on our behalf, our inheritance in heaven would be reserved for us in vain." (MacArthur, p.469)

Paul Gerhardt, the great hymnist of Lutheran Orthodoxy, composed his magnificent chorale, "If God Himself Be For Me" on the basis of this passage. He catches the sense of the text precisely, and expresses its comforting assurance for the believer with powerful clarity:

"If God Himself be for me, I may a host defy;
For when I pray, before me my foes confounded fly.
If Christ, my Head and Master, befriend me from above,
What foe or what disaster can drive me from His love?

His Spirit in me dwelleth, and o'er my mind He reigns.
All sorrow He dispelleth and soothes away all pains.
He crowns His work with blessing and helpeth me to cry,
"My Father!" without ceasing, to Him who dwells on high.

And when my soul is lying weak, trembling, and opprest,
He pleads with groans and sighing that cannot be exprest;
But God's quick eye discerns them, although they give no sound,
And into language turns them, e'en in the heart's deep ground.

To mine His Spirit speaketh sweet words of holy cheer,
How God to him that seeketh for rest is always near
And how He hath erected a city fair and new,
Where all that faith expected, we evermore shall view.

My merry heart is springing, and knows not how to pine;
‘Tis full of joy and singing, and radiancy divine,
The Sun whose smiles so cheer me is Jesus Christ alone;
To have Him always near me is heav'n itself begun.

Verse 28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good…" - Now another mighty word of comfort is added. The whole creation is groaning in eager anticipation. The steadfast hope of believers sustains and strengthens us as we patiently look forward to the revelation of His glory. God the Holy Spirit is Himself interceding on our behalf. Despite all this, in the weakness of our sinful flesh, surrounded by the trials and tribulations of life, with evil apparently triumphant on every side, it is all too easy for God's people to become discouraged and afraid. And so, in the magnificent, supremely confident text the apostle affirms the almighty power and endless love of our sovereign God. Despite all appearances to the contrary our lives are being governed according to His purpose in a manner consistent with His plan for our salvation.

"We know," that is, we as believers know. This is an expression of a basic faith conviction. It is not the result of rational deduction, empirical observation, or intellectual investigation. In fact, this confident affirmation is a repudiation of the visible evidence. It is, none the less, the common conviction of all who believe. This point need not be argued or demonstrated. It is a familiar and unchallenged part of the core belief of the Christian community of faith.

"That in all things God works for the good of those who love Him…" - There is a bit of textual ambiguity in this well-known verse. The KJV translation – "all things work together for good to them that love God" - is supported by the majority of the Greek manuscripts. The NIV has chosen instead to follow the reading of a number of the earliest papyri which insert "o theos" (God) as the subject of the sentence. The majority reading is offered as an alternative in the margin of the NIV. Although there is little substantive difference between the two, it would seem best in this instance to follow the majority reading as reflected in the traditional KJV translation.

"All things" (Greek – "panta") is unrestricted and inclusive in the fullest possible sense. The phrase is utterly comprehensive without limitation or restriction of any kind. Neither this verse nor its context allows for any exception or condition. Everything in our lives from the best to the worst is included in this incredible phrase. In the verses that follow the apostle will enumerate a few of things that he has in mind: "trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword" (Verse 35); "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all of creation." (Verses 38-39)

"Work together for good" - In the sovereign love and wisdom of God every factor, condition, and event in our lives converges upon and contributes to His gracious purpose for us as His people. The Greek verb (synergei) literally means to work with, to co-operate, to strive toward a common goal. "All things work together" - even the diabolical schemes of our Satanic enemy, along with sin and its painfully destructive consequences, are summoned into the service of God's divine purpose. John Murray marvels:

"Many of the things comprised are evil in themselves and it is the marvel of God's wisdom and grace that they, when taken in concert with the whole, are made to work for good. Not one detail works ultimately for evil to the people of God; in the end only good will be their lot." (Murray, p. 314)

The classic expression of this reality in Scripture is Joseph's comment to his brothers. They had hated and resented him. They had betrayed him, sold him into slavery, and broken his father's heart with a false report of his death. Carried away into captivity in a strange and distant land, he had endured bitter imprisonment. And yet, at the end of it all, Joseph, the believer, was able to say to his brothers: "You meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good." (Genesis 50:20)

We must be careful to define the "good" toward which all things work together in God's terms not ours. As the hymn writer warns:

"The will of God must be my pleasure while here on earth is mine abode;
My will is wrong beyond all measure, it doth not will what pleases God.
The Christians motto e'er must be: What pleases God, that pleases me.
("I Leave All Things To God's Direction" by Salomo Frank, 1685)

This passage is not a trite promise of earthly happiness, health, or prosperity for every believer, nor is it a divine guarantee that bad things will not happen to good people. God's "good" may include a great many things that are "bad" from man's point of view. God uses sufferings and trials, the bad things of this life, to strengthen our faith and sharpen and renew our hope of life eternal. Douglas Moo says it well: "The promise to us is that there is nothing in this world that is not intended by God to assist us on our earthly pilgrimage and to bring us safely and certainly to the glorious destination of that pilgrimage." (Moo, p. 530)

The classic Lutheran chorale, "What God Ordains is Always Good" ("Was Gottes Tut, Das Ist Wohl Getan,") by Samuel Rodigast (1675) has conveyed the comfort and the trusting submission of the believer to God's loving will that are the essence of this great text to generations of humble Christians.

"What God ordains is always good; His will abideth holy.
As He directs my life for me, I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed in every need doth well know how to shield me.
To Him, then, I will yield me.

What God ordains is always good; He never will deceive me;
He leads me in His own right way, and never will He leave me.
I take content what He hath sent; His hand that sends me sadness
Will turn my tears to gladness.

What God ordains is always good. He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm, tho' many storms may gather.
Now I may know both joy and woe, some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

What God ordains is always good. This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm, for with His arm He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.

The text defines those for whom all things work together for good in two subordinate clauses, "of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." To speak of Christians as those who love God is uncharacteristic of Paul. Usually the apostle focuses on God's love for us rather than our love for God. But here, in the original Greek, the phrase is placed first for particular emphasis. This is consistent with other Biblical texts which speak of the believer's love for God in the context of God gracious gifts to His people (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9; James 1:12; 2:5). Man's love for God is a response. It does not and cannot originate with us. We are lovers because we are beloved. Man's love for God is only possible because God first loved us. God is the source of love, as St. John indicates: "This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and set His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10) John Calvin correctly notes: "The love of God, which is commanded in Scripture, is nothing less than the response of a man in the totality of his being to the prior love of God. It thus includes the whole of true religion." (Quoted in Fitzmyer, p. 522) This phrase defines every Christian. It does not distinguish between categories of Christians on the basis of the intensity of their love for God. All who belong to Christ love God. The love of the Christian for God does not earn God's favor but is itself a gracious gift from our heavenly Father. The Greek text uses the verb "agaposin" to describe the believer's love for God. This powerful word describes the highest kind of love, the selfless, giving love that demands nothing in return. God's love for His people is typically described with forms of this word, and thus again it can be seen that our love for God is the result of His prior love for us. John MacArthur lists the following nine characteristics of true love for God:

"First, godly love longs for personal communication with the Lord…
Second, genuine love for God trusts in His power to protect His own…
Third, genuine love for God is characterized by peace that only He can impart…
Fourth, genuine love for God is sensitive to His will and His honor. When God is blasphemed, repudiated, or in any way dishonored, His faithful children suffer pain on His behalf…
Fifth, genuine love for God loves the things that God loves, sand we know what He loves through the revelation of His Word…
Sixth, genuine love for God loves the people God loves…
Seventh, genuine love for God hates what God hates. Godly love cannot tolerate evil…
Eighth, genuine love for God longs for Christ's return…
Ninth, and finally, the overarching mark of genuine love for God is obedience." (MacArthur, pp.483-485)

Secondly, Paul describes the recipients of this divine assurance as those who have been called according to His purpose. The "called ones" (Greek – "kletoi") are those whom God has brought into relationship with Himself by grace through faith in Christ. This is the way in which Paul and the other New Testament epistle writers consistently use the term (cf. Romans 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2:24; Jude 1; Revelation 17:14). The word is used on occasion in the Gospels in a broader sense to describe the gospel invitation which is presented to all but rejected by most as in Matthew 22:14 - "Many are called but few are chosen." (Cf. Matthew 20:16). However, throughout the rest of the New Testament those who are called are Christians, those who have not only received the call but have been won by it. When Paul uses a form of "kaleo," God is always the subject of the verb as He effectively summons people to be His own. God is the calling agent and the Gospel is the divine means and power by which He calls. Man's role in the acceptance of this call from God is purely passive. Christians are called "not as the recipients of an invitation that was up to them to accept or reject, but as the objects of God's effectual summoning of them to become the recipients of His grace." (Moo, p. 530) Dr. Stoeckhardt offers the following careful distinction between what he refers to as the "outward call" (extended to all who hear the Gospel) and the "inward call" of those who receive the Gospel in faith.

"This term, "the called" is always predicated to believing Christians. God who wills that all men should be saved, and who has prepared salvation for all through Christ, calls to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel all who hear this preaching. He sends out His servants, the preachers of the Gospel; and they invite all whom they are able to reach with their voice, to share in salvation in Christ. So all men who have heard the Gospel are called, in the sense of invited. (Matthew 20:16; 22:14). Most men reject this call and invitation of God and do not obey the Gospel. Those, however, who follow His call, who receive the Gospel in faith, do it not to themselves. God works faith in them. God , through the preaching of the Gospel in which He offers them salvation, also calls them inwardly, takes heart and will, puts the consent into their hearts, calls and brings them to Christ. Those who are called are therefore not only the invited but such as are brought to God through His call. God has called them into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, (1 Corinthians 1:9). God has called them from darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). (Stoeckhardt, p. 111)

God's desire for the salvation of all men is the same. The call is the same both for those who reject and those whom God enables to accept. The only difference between the two is the wicked obstinate human will which spurns God's free offer of salvation in those who are damned.

The called ones have been called "according to His purpose." The noun "purpose" literally means "the act of setting something before one's self." This is the eternal counsel of God for the salvation of His elect. This divine purpose and plan was determined before the creation of time and space. In the opening chapter of Ephesians, St. Paul declares: "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." (Ephesians 1:3-14; 3:11; cf. 2 Timothy 1:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:13)

Verses 29-30
For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

"For those God foreknew…" - Introduced by the Greek conjunction "hoti" ("because"), these verses explain the preceding assertion that all things will work together for good to them that love God. In a magnificent five step process Paul outlines the accomplishment of God's purpose for the salvation of man from before time began to the glory of eternity. He thus creates what has been aptly called a "golden chain of salvation," linking the concepts together by repeating the preceding main verb in each new relative clause. The precise symmetry of these phrases has led many commentators to conclude that Paul may have been quoting a portion of one of the church's earliest liturgies. Be that as it may, this passage becomes one of the great "sedes doctrinae" (Latin – "seat of the doctrine," a clear Biblical text which serves as the foundation for an article of faith) for the pivotal doctrine of predestination.

The text emphasizes the fact that God, not man, is the initiator and the active agent in each and every step of the process. Salvation is absolutely "monergistic." From beginning to end, it is the work of God alone. R. Kent Hughes rightly observes: "Whatever else may be said about this, one thing is clear: the entire initiative for our salvation lay with God." (Hughes, p 168) It is precisely at this point that the profound comfort of Paul's words may be found.

"All five of these great terms – foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification – refer to things God does. Why is this?… The answer is obvious. The apostle is dealing with our eternal security, and he is emphasizing God's work so that we might understand from the beginning that this wonderful plan of salvation cannot fail. It would if it depended on us. Everything we do fails sooner or later, and that would certainly be true of salvation. Our faith would fail. Our ability to persevere would be extinguished. Our hold on God would weaken, and we would let go and in the end fall into hell. But salvation is not like that. It is not our choice of God that matters, but rather God's choice of us. It is not our faith, but His call. It is not our ability to persevere, but the fact that He has determined beforehand to persevere with us to the very end and even beyond." (Boice, p.926)

The first link in salvation's golden chain was forged by God before the creation of time and space – "For those God foreknew." The basic meaning of foreknowledge (Greek –"prognosis") simply means to possess intellectual knowledge in advance, to know beforehand. However, in Scripture, the word takes on a much more powerful connotation drawn from the Old Testament Hebrew word "yada" ("to know") which means "to enter into relationship with," "to know intimately," "to care about," or "to choose in love." Thus "yada" becomes the euphemism for the act of love, sexual intercourse in the Hebrew Scriptures. (cf. Genesis 4:1; 18:19; Jeremiah 1:5;Amos 3:2) The continuance of this usage is evident throughout the New Testament where the Greek verb "ginosko" carries the same powerful connotation of its Hebrew counterpart (cf. Acts 2:23; Romans 11:12; 1 Peter 1:2,20). Accordingly to assert that God foreknew those whom He predestined is to say a great deal more than that He was intellectually aware of certain individuals. Those whom God foreknew are people with whom He entered into relationship and chose as His own in love before time began.

"When it is said in Scripture that God has known and knows us, this means that God has acknowledged, recognized, accepted us as His own, by such knowing has made us His own, adopted us as His own, has placed us into union, into fellowship with Himself, and so, as though bound to Him in unity and kindred with Himself, loves us with His whole heart." (Predestination, p. 16)

This loving foreknowledge is distinctly individual and personal. It applies to specific individual people. This is pure, precious, personal Gospel. Dr. Stoeckhardt describes the wonder of this concept: "We do not permit the comfort to be taken from us, the comfort that Scripture has opened up to us in and with the "foreknowledge" of God, that God, already in eternity has said to us, to each and every one of us; You are mine: I have engraved your name upon my hands." (Predestination, p. 25) There is nothing coincidental or haphazard here. . James Dunn notes: "Believers rest in the assurance that their part in the people of God is not accidental or random, but part of a divine purpose whose outworking was already clearly envisaged from the beginning." (Dunn, p.482)

Stoeckhardt offers this carefully detailed explanation of the meaning of God's foreknowledge:

"Accordingly, the expression in our text means that God in His eternal counsel and purpose fixed His eyes upon each one of us, the very people who are now Christians, and thought of us in gracious love. At that very moment, He fixed His mind upon us, and seized us as His own. Thus beforehand He made us His own and acknowledged us…This foreknowledge is an act of God in eternity before time, a decree, an appointment of God. The persons whom God foreknew were not yet living at the time He foreknew them. At that time, in eternity, we existed only in the eyes, in the decree of God, and in this His eternal will, He adopted and acknowledged us as His own, and ordained that we in time should actually become His own in the manner which had been described." (Roemerbrief, pp.399, 400)

J.P. Meyer, a leading theologian of the Wisconsin Synod, paraphrases the meaning of God's foreknowledge in this way:

"But what does it mean when the Scriptures say that God "knows" someone?…Do not worry, he wants to say, in spite of your afflictions and weaknesses, did not God from eternity embrace you as His dear children and clasp you to His bosom? Before you were born, before your could do good or evil, before you could ever ask Him any favor, He had already claimed you as His own." (Quoted in Molstad, p.80)

There is no suggestion in the text that God's foreknowledge pertains to any specific quality or conduct in those whom He predestines. This is an act of pure grace. The suggestion by some Lutheran theologians that God merely foresees those who will come to faith and predestines them in view of that faith (Latin – "intuitu fidei") is without Biblical support. Faith is the result of God's foreknowledge and election, not its cause. As John Murray suggests, "intuitu fidei" injects an alien element of human participation in this pattern of divine action:

"Foresight of faith would be out of accord with the determinative action which is predicated of God in these other instances and would constitute a weakening of the total emphasis at the point where we would least expect it. Foresight has too little of the active to do justice to the divine monergism upon which so much of the emphasis falls. It is not a foresight that recognizes difference but the foreknowledge that determines existence. It is sovereign distinguishing love." (Murray, p. 318)

Franz Pieper offers a perceptive analysis of why so many theologians over the centuries have been intrigued by the concept of predestination in view of faith and why those same theologians have, more often than not, ultimately fallen into the error of synergism.

"The teaching of an eternal election intuitu fidei finalis finds no support whatever in Scripture. Later Lutheran theologians sought to foist this doctrine on Scripture in place of the doctrine of Luther and the Formula of Concord because, wittingly or unwittingly, they wanted to find an explanation satisfactory to human reason with God's grace universal and natural depravity alike in all men, still not all are converted and saved; in other words, why election is not universal. But the intuitu fidei finalis theory ultimately fails to solve this mystery as long as one adheres to the divine monergism of Scripture in man's conversion and preservation in the faith or holds that faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. Only with a synergistic basis will this theory furnish the explanation sought. Of course, if one denies that faith and constancy in faith are the gracious work of God and places the decision into the hands of man, making it depend on man's self-determination, correct conduct, lessor guilt, etc., then one has indeed arrived at an explanation, but an unscriptural one." (Pieper, III, p.489,490)

As frustrating as this doctrine may be to the presumptuous mind of man, it plays a key role in the Biblical view of salvation. Peter affirms the crucial role of God's foreknowledge in the opening of his first epistle: "To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father though the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkled by His blood." (1 Peter 1:1,2)

"For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined…" - Predestination is the next link in the chain. Predestination (Greek – "proorizo") means to decide, determine, or ordain beforehand. It is drawn from the root word "oros" which means "boundary" or "fence." John Molstad remarks:

"The original Greek word for "predestine" gives us a vivid and wonderful picture. It envisions the erecting of a fence or a boundary around ones property. The erecting of this security line is not done in any haphazard way, but with careful determination. So when we speak of God's predestining us for life in heaven, we might think of it as his way of putting a fence around us. He has made us His own property! That, of course, means hands off to sin death and the devil, our adversaries who also desire to have us as their own." (Molstad, p. 21)

In this context, predestination expresses the truth that God has determined a specific destiny for those whom He has chosen in love. It is closely related to but distinct from foreknowledge. Predestination focuses on the goal which God had in mind when He foreknew in love those whom He had chosen to be His own. Francis Pieper explains the distinction between foreknowledge and predestination in this way:

"We join Luther, the Formula of Concord, and a number of recent theologians in taking "foreknow" as a synonym of "predestinate," even though conceptually the two terms are not identical…Both serve to define one and the same divine act although they differ conceptually. Whom He did foreknow expresses the loving appropriation, or adoption of the person by God. The conclusion, "them He also foreordained" points toward the aim of the foreknowing, namely, "to be conformed to the image of His Son." (Pieper, III, p.488,489)

The text defines the destiny which God ordained beforehand as "to be conformed in the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." With this phrase, the apostle returns to the theme of the believer's personal identification with Christ which has already figured so prominently in the epistle, most recently in 8:17. We who once belonged to the first, fallen, Adam, and had been born in his image are now destined to bear the image (Greek – "eikon") of the second Adam who has overcome sin and death for us, in our place. The language here closely parallels that of Philippians 3:21 – "We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies making them conform to His glorious body." Thus through faith and baptism the sinner becomes a Christian who bears the shape and form of God's own Son, that is to say, they are fitted into the pattern of existence that Christ has established and modeled (Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; 3:10). "Christians are not just adopted children (8:15), but are being continually transformed or metamorphosed into an "eikon," an image, likeness of the Son of God." (Fitzmyer, p.525) The ultimate goal of all this is the glorification of Christ, "that He might be the firstborn of many brothers." The noun "firstborn" (Greek – "prototokos") stresses both the uniqueness and preeminence of Christ and His intimate identification with His people.

"And those He predestined, He also called;" - The golden chain now resumes to define that which God does in time to effect and implement His eternal counsel and will for the salvation of the elect. That which now follows is the result of that which came before. This is a relationship of cause and effect. God remains the active agent throughout the entire process. He who foreknew and predestined in eternity now calls and justifies in time and will glorify in eternity. It is significant to note that each of the verbs in this series is in the Greek aorist tense ("called," "justified," and "glorified") which denotes action that has been completed. These are certain, concluded, fully accomplished facts. They are not potential; they are actual. The first link in this segment is formed by the verb "He also called." The term is used in the typical New Testament sense to refer to God's effectual summoning into relationship with Him (cf. notes on Verse 28, p. 320). Dr. Pieper writes:

"Calling ("vocatio") is a synonym for conversion. In Matthew 22:14 – "Many are called but few are chosen," this term is used, indeed to designate the general offer of salvation by the Gospel, the invitation extended to the sinner by the Holy Ghost for the purpose of kindling faith in him. In this sense all men are called who hear or read the Gospel. In most passages of Scripture, however, calling means not merely the offering of grace, but the actual transfer of sinners, of unbelievers, into the Kingdom of Grace or of Faith. The kletoi, the called, are those who have not merely heard the Gospel, but have been thereby converted to faith. Thus the word is used in Romans 8:30 – "Whom He called, them He also justified."; also 1 Corinthians 1:26, 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:9. In the addresses of the epistles Christians receive the title "called" (Romans 1:6, 1 Corinthians 1:2)." (Pieper, II, p. 502)

As previously noted (p.320), man's role in the acceptance of this call from God is purely passive. The human will is by nature in bondage to sin and it is therefore impossible for the natural man of himself to perceive or accept the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Conversion and faith are the work of God the Holy Spirit alone. Man may reject the gracious calling of the God who would have all men to be saved - and most men, blinded by their own stubborn pride and self-righteousness, do - but he is absolutely incapable of accepting it. The Lutheran Confessions declare:

"The cause of condemnation is that either men do not hear the Word of God at all but willfully despise it, harden their ears and their hearts and thus bar the ordinary way for the Holy Spirit, so that He cannot work in them; or, if they do hear the Word, they cast it to the wind and pay no attention to it. The fault does not lie in God or His election, but in their own wickedness." (FCSD, XI, 11)

Those whom the Holy Spirit calls to saving faith in Christ are then "justified." This is what some have called "subjective justification," the individual reception of all the blessings which Christ won for mankind by His innocent death in our place upon the cross.

"Those He justified, He also glorified." - The golden chain of salvation comes to its triumphant conclusion in its fifth and final link, the glorification of the saints. Paul here returns to the point at which he began, "the glory that will be revealed in us." (vs. 18). Thus the chain ends where it began in eternity. Lenski affirms: "Paul sees God's whole work complete, complete from eternity to eternity, all these from the first saint to the last, from God's foreknowledge ere time began to the glory of these saints when time shall be no more." (Lenski, p. 564)

The Scriptural doctrine of predestination has been the subject of endless debate and consternation within the church. The application of man's reason to this teaching inevitably results either in a false sense of security or despair. The confessions warn: "Therefore we should not judge this election of our to eternal life on the basis of reason or of God's Law. This would either lead us into a reckless, dissolute, Epicurean life, or drive men to despair and waken dangerous thoughts in their hearts." (FCSD, XI, 8) Dr. Martin Franzmann sums up the message of the Bible on this most important topic with characteristic eloquence:

"Romans 8:28-30 is one of the classic passages on election or predestination. Heads and hearts have been broken over that doctrine. But it cannot fairly be said that Paul, or anyone else in the New Testament, is responsible for the breakage. When the New Testament speaks of election, it speaks, as Paul does here, in terms of adoration and doxology. The New Testament speaks of it personally and concretely, not in general and theoretically. The New Testament therefore holds absolutely to the revelation of God's elective will in Christ (vs. 29), the will that took concrete, historical, knowable form when the Father sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. There man can see spelled out the will of Him who tells His children, "I have chosen you." To speak of election is to confess that God alone is the author of our salvation; to speak of eternal election is simply an intensified expression of that same certainty; He has loved me with an everlasting love. If we stay with the New Testament, the intellectual puzzles and the agonizing uncertainties which so often attend an abstract consideration of election need not arise. Questions like; "What of the others, those not elected?" "Why some and not others?" "How can this particular and personal elective will of God be brought into harmony with the fact that He would have all men to be saved?" "How can I be sure that He has chosen me?" - questions like these are gray and sightless creatures born to live in darkness. They simply cannot live in the light and air of the New Testament. When the New Testament speaks of election, it is speaking a personal and heartening word to the called saints of God about their sainthood. It is not in search of a theory to explain the fact that the Word of God is a fragrance of death to some and a fragrance of life top others." (Franzmann, p. 155,156)

Verses 31-32
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?

"What, then, shall we say in response to this?" – Upon reading this statement, the renown Renaissance scholar Erasmus is said to have declared: "What has Cicero(the greatest orator of classical Rome) ever spoken with such eloquence?" In response to the great scholar's question Lenski remarks: "Poor Cicero never had a subject like this nor a mind so filled with spiritual light. The product of inspiration is the greatest proof for inspiration." (Lenski, p.564) Paul's dramatic series of rhetorical questions, serves to highlight the obvious conclusion that there is no trial or suffering in this world comparable to that which God has done for us in Christ. Fitzmyer rightly describes the closing paragraph of Romans 8 as "a jubilant hymn of praise to the love of God in Christ Jesus."(Fitzmyer, p. 529), and once again many commentators are convinced that these lofty words were a portion of the church's earliest liturgy. The language of the passage is indeed intense and highly emotional. James Dunn colorfully describes this segment as "a purple passage of praise" and "a victory song of salvation assurance", which , he contends, becomes the focal point of the entire epistle. The initial question, "What, then, shall we say in response to this?", sets the stage and serves as the transition to the conclusions which now follow. (cf. similar constructions in 3:1; 4:1; and 9:19) The NEB catches the sense of the Greek well in its translation, "With all this in mind, what are we to say?"

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" - There is an unmistakable note of exuberance and joyous elation in these words. The preposition which describes God's relationship to us is the Greek huper which literally means "on behalf of," or "on our side." With the almighty power of the sovereign God working on our behalf all those forces which stand opposed to us and His purpose in us pale into insignificance. The text does not minimize our opponents. It simply places them into the context of God's incomparable power. St. John Chrysostom remarks:

"Paul was saying: Let me hear no more about the dangers and evils which beset you on all sides. For even if some do not believe in the things to come, still they have not a word to say against the good things which have already taken place, e.g. God's friendship toward you from the beginning, His justifying work, the glory which He gives, and so on…The world is against us, but in spite of itself it has become the source of endless blessing for us. So, in reality, nobody is against us." (Bray, p. 229)

Paul's language carries a forensic flavor, evoking the setting of a law court. In the person of Christ, God Himself stands by our side before the divine judge. With such ad advocate, who would dare to accuse us? Fitzmyer notes: "With God on our side, the forces that are marshaled against us amount to nothing. They cannot prevail; they too can only work for our good." (Fitzmyer, p. 530)

In "Melancthon Haus," the museum which now occupies the building where Luther's colleague and fellow reformer Phillip Melancthon once lived and worked, this verse is displayed on a plaque hanging on the study wall. The verse was Melancthon's favorite Bible text. He referred to it over and over again in his lectures and correspondence. History tells us that in 1560, as the reformer lay dying, the pastor at his bedside quietly read the text of Romans 8 to the man whom many believed to be the greatest theologian of the Reformation. When he came to Verse 31, Melancthon stopped him, and exclaimed: "Read those words again!" The pastor repeated, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" In a satisfied, contented voice, Melancthon murmured, "That's it! That's it! If God is for us who can be against us!" And then he died. One hundred years later, John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, noted that this text was also a source of profound comfort to him in a time of deep depression. Bunyan wrote: "I remember, that I was sitting in a neighbor's home, and was very sad, that word came suddenly to my mind: "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" That was a help to me." (Hughes, p. 171)

"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all…" - God's action in giving up that which was most precious to Him in all the universe, His only-begotten Son, is adduced as the decisive demonstration of the depth of God's commitment to His people (cf. 5:8; 8:3; John 3:16). The language of the text here ("His own Son") intentionally echoes that of Genesis 22 and the heart rending story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. God comes to the patriarch and commands: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2) The triple repetition of the text serves to emphasize the
incredible nature of that which God is asking Abraham to do. Later, after the sacrifice has been interrupted, the angel of the Lord explains: "I swear by myself, says the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky." (Genesis 22:16). God did not "spare His own Son." This is the same verb used in Genesis 22:16 where the NIV translates –"have not withheld your son." It literally means to hold back or protect an object of great value. The contrasting verb is "but gave Him up." (Greek – "paradidomi"). This term, describing God's action in offering His own Son as the ransom price for man's sin is drawn from the Old Testament and the great prophecy of Isaiah 53 where it is used three times to describe God's action in handing over the Suffering Servant to His enemies. "Paradidomi" is a judicial term, indicating the delivery of a prisoner for punishment or execution (cf. Luke 24:20). Note carefully that God Himself is the initiator and the actor here. Nothing that took place in the passion of our Lord happened by chance or human design. God the Father remained in absolute control of the entire sad process. Each tragic event in that long series of tragedies was an expression of God's love and His compelling desire for the salvation of humanity. As the great Puritan preacher Octavius Winslow notes: "Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy - but the Father, for love." (Moo, p. 540) The beneficiaries of God's action in giving up His Son are defined in broadly inclusive language – God "gave Him up for us all." These great words reach out to include every believer in every time and place. The early church father Origen writes:

"The Father gave up His Son not only for the holy and the great but also for the least and for all everywhere who are members of the church. Therefore anyone who offends the conscience of even the least and weakest of these is said to be sinning against Christ, because he is scandalizing a soul for whom Christ died." (Bray, p. 238)

"How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" - God's steadfast love for us, and the certainty of that which He has promised to us in love, is demonstrated by that which He has already done for us in love. It is not possible that that which He has already begun at so tremendous a cost to Himself could now simply be abandoned. He will surely complete all that He has promised. The British poet Horatius Bonar said it exceedingly well:

"What will He not bestow?
Who freely gave this mighty gift unbought,
Unmerited, unheeded and unsought,
What will He not bestow?
He spared not His Son!
Tis this that silences each rising fear,
Tis this that bids the hard thought disappear.
He spared not His Son!"

Verses 33-34
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

"Who will bring any charge…" - Once more, the courtroom context so prominent throughout the epistle comes through very clearly. The language is strongly forensic. It is technical legal terminology. The verb in this phrase "to bring a charge against" (Greek – enkaleo) occurs six times in the book of Acts (19:38,40;23:29,38;26:2,7) always in reference to the legal trials and tribulations of St. Paul. The word refers to the bringing of an indictment in court, the presentation of formal charges before a judge. The verb is in the future tense, pointing forward to the last judgment. The text does not suggest that no charges will be brought. In fact, it assumes that such charges will be presented, as the following phrases indicate. Rather the passage assures us that no charges will ever be successfully brought against us. The accusations of Satan, our ancient adversary, of the law, and of our own conscience, must all end in failure. Not because there is no intrinsic basis for these accusations – unfortunately our sins provide full and adequate basis to support the charges. Nonetheless, these charges must inevitably fail because we are "those whom God has chosen." The Greek phrase is "eklektoi theou," literally, the elect, the called of God (cf. 1 Peter 1:1,2). The word means "to pick someone or something out for one's self." This is the only instance in the Epistle to the Romans where this powerful term is used. The call of God is implemented in His justification of those whom He has called (cf. vs. 30). "It is God who justifies." The forensic language of the text might well be translated "It is God who acquits or pronounces the verdict of "Not Guilty." The charges pending against us are cleared from the docket of the court by divine action. Lenski notes: "There lies the entire doctrine of justification as presented in 3:21, etc. The elect are constantly justified. God does not ignore the sins they still commit, He pardons them for the sake of Christ whom the elect embrace by faith." (Lenski, p. 569) The accusations of our accusers are vain because Christ has taken our place and by His perfect life and innocent death has removed the basis for those accusations.

Verse 34
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

"Who is he that condemns?" - The acquittal of the elect was not simply an exercise of God's sovereign power which no one would dare to challenge for fear of offending divine majesty. As the following phrases will demonstrate, God's declaration of acquittal is unchallengeable not merely because it is God who made it, but because it is right and just. God did not simply justify His people by divine fiat; He provided a basis for their justification in the vicarious atonement perfectly accomplished by His Son. Lenski notes: "What Christ has done not only answers all condemnation, it makes every condemnation on the part of any person impossible." (Lenski, p. 570) R. Kent Hughes offers this vivid description of the courtroom scene:

"If accusations are brought against us, we need not fear, for the charges are silenced by the upraised, pierced hands of our Intercessor. If we are to be condemned it will have to be over Christ's dead and now resurrected body, which actually is the basis for our salvation. How's that for confidence? (Hughes, p. 170)

"Christ Jesus who died - more than that, who was raised to life..." - Our Intercessor is designated first with His title "Christ" (Greek - "Christos" - "the Anointed One".) This Greek title is the equivalent of the Hebrew title "Messiah." The reversal of the typical sequence serves to highlight Christ's identity as the Savior chosen and equipped by God to accomplish His plan of salvation. That plan of salvation was accomplished in the death of Christ upon the cross ("Christ Jesus who died" cf. 3:25; 5:6,8-11; 6:4-8). The efficacy of Christ's death as the once for all ransom for the sins of every human being is conclusively demonstrated by His resurrection ("more than that, who was raised to life."). The NIV translation of the Greek conjunction "mallon" ("more than that" ) is somewhat misleading. In this context the word might better be translated "rather." In any case, the language of the text should not be understood to imply that the death of Christ was not enough. The resurrection does not complete the unfinished work of the crucifixion. Instead, it serves as God's affirmation of the all-sufficient sacrifice proffered by His Son.

"Is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." - Old Testament anthropomorphic language is used to describe the exaltation of our Lord. The terminology is drawn from Psalm 110:1 - "The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." (Cf. also Isaiah 63:11,12). This great text from the Book of Psalms is one of the most frequently quoted Old Testament verses in the New Testament (cf. Matthew 22:24; 26:64; Acts 2:33-34; 5:31; 7:55,56; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22). The language emphasizes the divine majesty of Jesus as the true Son of God and His enthronement and glorious power. Having previously asserted the intercession of the Holy Spirit on our behalf (vs.26), the apostle now goes on to add the assurance that Christ Himself intercedes as our Advocate with God the Father (cf. 1 John 2:1). The Greek conjunction "kai" is, in this instance, ascensive, that is to say, it indicates the addition of the crowning detail. To everything else that Christ has done for us is now added this great ministry of intercession. Fitzmyer correctly translates the word "and even." This concept is amplified in the Letter to the Hebrews which describes the ministry of Christ as our great High Priest (cf. Hebrews 7:25; 9:24). Chrysostom writes: "Christ did not merely die for us; He now intercedes on our behalf as well...The only reason why Paul mentioned intercession was to show the warmth and vigor of God's love for us, for the Father is also represented as beseeching us to be reconciled with Him." (Bray, p. 240)

Verses 35-36
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' - This startling rhetorical question sets the tone for the verses which follow. The "who" of this phrase embraces any and every conceivable opponent, whether personal or impersonal. "The love of Christ" is the love which Christ has for us (Subjective Genitive), not the love which we have for Christ (Objective Genitive). The apostle is not considering love as a mere feeling or emotion but as God's gracious disposition toward man which is conclusively demonstrated in the sacrifice of His own Son. God's love is action on our behalf - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16) Thus the question Paul is posing might be paraphrased, "Is there anything in life that can disrupt our relationship with Christ or lead us to doubt the love of Christ for us?" The answer is unequivocal and absolute - No one! Nothing! Never! Lenski points out the practical relevance of the question:

"The world likes to point to our afflictions as proof of the fact that Christ has ceased to love us, or that his love is imaginary. The Jews mocked Jesus under the cross, "He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him; for He said, I am the Son of God." So men say to us, so our own hearts say to us when the waves threaten to overwhelm our little bark as they did the boat of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee while Jesus slept. He seems to have forgotten us, to have ceased caring for us. The afflictions appear like a gulf that separates us from Him, a gulf which He has allowed to remove us far from Him." (Lenski, p. 573)

In 2 Corinthians 11:26-27 and 12:10 Paul lists the tribulations which he has personally experienced in the course of his ministry. That enumeration closely parallels the list of difficulties that follows here. Only the final item, "sword," is missing in the Corinthians list. Bengel, the classic Lutheran commentator, suggests that the reference to the sword here points forward to the martyrdom which Paul himself was to experience. Tradition indicates that Paul was beheaded with a sword in Rome. Be that as it may, the list here does seem to follow a natural order of intensification, progressing from difficulties in general all the way through to execution and death itself.

The point is supported by a reference to the Old Testament, Psalm 44:22. John Calvin explains the citation at this point: "Paul wants to demonstrate that it is no new thing for the Lord to permit His saints to be undeservedly exposed to the cruelty of the ungodly." The quotation is based on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew original. The Psalm laments the trials which Israel must endure because of her faithfulness to God and calls upon the Lord to judge the enemies of the nation. These trials are presented as the natural and expected result of loyalty to God in a sinful and wicked world. In this way the text serves Paul's purpose very well as he argues that affliction does not mean that Christ has ceased to love us, but rather that we, as those loved by Christ, must expect to be persecuted because of that love. The particular verse quoted asserts: "For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." As Israel's suffering for the Lord did not divide the chosen from their God, so also the afflictions of the people of God in Christ will not separate them from Him, nor do they indicate the absence of His love toward them.

Verses 37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors..." - The argument now takes a decisive step forward. The difficulties previously cited will not only fail to separate us from God's love in Christ but will instead become the basis for a glorious victory. The adversative conjunction "alla" introduces the thought. In this context the word means "yet" or "but" and suggests the contrast between that which preceded and that which follows. The English "more than conquerors" expresses well the intensity of the Greek verb "hupernikao" which literally means "we are supervictors," or "we continue to achieve the most brilliant victory." We not only win the victory, but we do so superlatively, decisively, and absolutely. And yet this great victory is not something which we have accomplished for ourselves. It is, instead, the result result of God's undeserved love for us in Christ - "through Him who loved us." Thus, it becomes possible for us to "rejoice in our sufferings" (5:3) and like the apostles of old, celebrate the fact that "they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." (Acts 5:41)

"For I am convinced...." - As the chapter moves toward its climax Paul rises to personal confession and testimony. Lenski suggest: "Paul's "I" does not obtrude itself, it links arms with his fellow believers. The very soul of Paul reveals itself." (Lenski, p. 575) The verb, "I am convinced" is in the passive voice, thus indicating that this is not a conclusion which Paul has reached independently, but that God has brought about and sustained this conviction. This confidence is a matter of firm conviction founded upon the promises of God and validated in repeated personal experience. "The overwhelming act of God in Christ has put into his heart a certitude which all his sufferings in the past have left unshaken and unshakeable." (Franzmann, p. 160)

Paul here presents one of the most powerful affirmations in Scripture of the certainty of salvation. Once again the message is pure, sweet, precious gospel directed to humble believers who are struggling to survive in a hostile world. God's love will not fail. There is no barrier that can divide us from the love of God in Christ.

It should be emphasized that this text does not teach the Calvinist doctrine of the "amissibility of faith," (Or, as it is more popularly known, "Once Saved - Always Saved"). According to this misguided notion, if an individual has ever truly believed, it is impossible to fall away from the faith. In direct contradiction to this view, the Bible clearly teaches that a true believer may fall from grace and lose his faith. In His commentary on the parable of the sower Jesus explains that the seed which fell upon the rocky ground are those who "believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away." (Luke 8:13). Paul refers to Hymenaeus and Alexander as examples of believers who have fallen away and "so have shipwrecked their faith." (1 Timothy 1:19) To Galatian Christians who had attempted to combine legalism with grace Paul warned: "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace." (Galatians 5:4); and to prideful, self-satisfied Corinthian Christian the apostle wrote: "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." ( 1 Corinthians 10:12) The writer to the Hebrews warns: "See to it brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God...We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence that we had at first." (Hebrews 3:12,14): and again; "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance." (Hebrews 6:4-6) In the same way Peter admonishes: "Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position." (2 Peter 2:17) "Once Saved - Always Saved" is a misleading delusion which offers false comfort to troubled souls. It ignores the stern warnings of God's law and directs the Christian to look within himself rather than to gracious promises of God in Christ for his eternal security. Both the warnings of the law and the promises of the gospel must be allowed to stand. We dare never pit precious gospel promises, like this great text in Romans 8, against the stern warnings of the law, like those cited above, which admonish us to avoid complacency and foolish self-confidence. The dialectic of law and gospel must be accepted on its own terms as it is presented throughout Scripture. The tension between the two cannot be minimized or rationalized by emphasizing one to the exclusion of the other. The proper distinction between law and gospel must be meticulously maintained and each truth rightly applied to the appropriate people. Martin Chemnitz, one of the great theologians of the Reformation era, masterfully defended the Biblical doctrine of perseverence in the faith in reference to this passage, while carefully maintaining the proper distinction between law and gospel.

"It is manifest that many do not persevere but fall from grace. But this is not because God does not will that believers whom He at one time received into grace, should persevere unto the end, but it comes from the fact that many drive out the Holy Spirit and trample their faith underfoot. And looking at the traps of the devil, the evil of the flesh, and the frightful examples of those who have lapsed, we ought to disintegrate with fear and trembling for our salvation. But when we look at the will of God revealed in the Word, and at Christ the Mediator, we can and must declare: "Who shall separate us? I am persuaded that neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us," etc. (Romans 8:35ff.) We have been called to fellowship with Christ. He will then certainly not reject again those whom He has received. But He is our everlasting Savior. We are called to eternal fellowship with Christ. The Father is eternal and the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance on His part. "No one shall snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:28) Therefore, as it pertains to God, the perseverence of the godly is sure; and because it has been revealed in His Word, faith must believe this...But we pray and struggle that the pride of the flesh not stifle the gift of perseverence. This distinction will help in understanding the gift of perseverence." (Chemnitz, II, p.514)

It should also be noted that Paul's words in this text focus only on those forces which lie outside the believer himself and thus do not preclude the possibility the an individual through his own stubborn impenitence or unbelief may separate himself from the love of God.

"Neither death nor life,..." - An extended series of contrasts and combinations is presented to demonstrate that "No natural, cataclysmic, or cosmic power or adversary can rupture the union of Christ and the Christian. No extreme can separate." (Fitzmyer, p. 535) The first contrast is between death and life. The reference is to physical death with the promise that even the fearsome separation of the body and the soul will not divide the believer from the love of Christ. At the instant of physical death the believer is with the Lord in heaven. There is no interruption of the love bond that unites us with our Savior. With St. Paul we can all confess, "I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better!" (Philippians 1:23) There is also the assurance that while we live here in time the allurements, distractions, and temptations of this world will not be able to come between Christ and those whom He has chosen in love.

"Neither angels nor demons,..." - This combination has elicited considerable debate. The Greek text literally refers to "angels" and "rulers." The latter term is used elsewhere in the New Testament to refer to a particular, although undefined, category of angels (cf. Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:15). In Hebrew angelology rulers constituted one of the nine ranks of angels and were associated with the spiritual oversight of the governance of the nations (cf. Daniel 10:12-14). Some argue that the first reference is to fallen angels and the second to human political authorities. Other insist that both references are to fallen angels, while still others apply the former to good angels and the latter to fallen angels. This view is suggested by the NIV translation. Given Paul's intent in this section, this would appear to be the preferable interpretation. The point is simply that as there is nothing in the physical world that can separate us from the love of Christ, so also nothing in the realm of spiritual beings can come between us and our Savior.

"Neither the present nor the future..." - Even time itself is powerless against believers. Were it not for the steadfast promises of God, the instability of the present and the uncertainty of the future could certainly conspire to drive us to despair. But although "Heaven and earth shall pass away, my Word will never pass away." (Matthew 24:35). The promises of God to His people stand firm and sure for all time. No matter what trials we are called upon to bear today and no matter what the future may bring, we rest safe and secure in the loving arms of God.

"Nor any powers," - This is the only item in the list which is not paired with another and that complicates its definition. The reference may well be to yet another category of angels (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24; Ephesians 1:21).

"Neither height nor depth," - Time cannot divide us from God, nor can the vast reaches of space. No distance is so great that God's love cannot reach out across that gap to come to us. In Psalm 139 David rejoices:

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your right hand will guide me, even your right hand will hold me fast." (Psalm 139:7-10)

"Nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - This sweeping summary statement concludes and crowns the apostle's affirmation of the certainty of salvation. The only reality outside of creation is God Himself. He is the only independent existence. All else comes from Him. Everything else is a part of that which He has created. Thus the statement is as comprehensive as it could be. There is no external force or power; no circumstance or situation that can divide the believer from the love of God in Christ.

Lenski's concluding observation on Romans 8 is no exaggeration:

"The results of justification are thus fully presented. No one has ever set them forth so compactly and so profoundly, in a way that is so stimulating, effective, and uplifting. And all this in a letter to a single congregation! These are indeed words in which every Christian should immerse his soul." (Lenski, p. 578)

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