Rom 8: 26 – 39   Our Victory in Christ

as we read this passage and all it contains, be mindful that every single thing mentioned is done by God, for God’s glory (and we are not the source of the action, merely the beneficiary)

(no more so than a newborn baby can take credit for it’s diaper being changed)

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 

as a note, this verse is often cited to support speaking in tongues , but since the verse says “too deep for words” this means there are no words to express it (all “tongues” are comprised of words)

NASB offers a very literal translation here “helps our weakness” (as opposed to “in our weakness” which might imply occasional moments of weakness).  The idea here is that we are always weak. ..

hence the very next example given “for we do not know how to pray as we should” this is a constant state (not an occasional lapse of spiritual perspective).  In fact, by looking on, we see that His Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words (language, any language which can be uttered by the human speech organs)

we are always weak. We dont see as God seeks, think as God thinks.
(we see a situation or problem, assess it according to our senses, then pray according to our deductions of what needs to be done)

we love to go on our own power until we are face to face with total ineptness (completely in over our heads)

then say “Jesus, take the wheel”

is that what our Father wants ?

rather than Jesus, you need to be sitting in the drivers seat all the time

hence “pride comes before a fall” verse … (Proverbs 16:18, James 4:6)

2 Cor 12:9. My strength is made perfect in your weakness

27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 … check out the phrasing of this verse.  The Father, who searches our hearts, knows what the mind of the Spirit is,

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of the Trinity. (back to that “groanings too deep for words)  each member of the Trinity knows what the other two are thinking and no words are needed (especially when the need cannot be expressed by words)

isn’t that comforting ?

while we are trying to pray and worried about saying the wrong thing, or the wrong way, the Spirit of God is right there inside us praying on our behalf the very things that God the Father was waiting to hear.

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

 … big verse, lots of things to qualify to understand how this is applicable

we know 

God causes (this does not mean He causes all things, it means He causes the “working together”) 

He uses the “all things”

all things (what is all things?)

to work together (an individual situation or trial may need to be matched up with other situations or trials in order to work together)  why some trials don’t even make sense until later down the road, after other things have happened to refine us or our path

for good for (what is good?)

those who love God (“did we not cast our demons in your name”)  hence “those who love God” must be defined from the Father’s perspective, not ours.

(qualifies those “who love God”) “called” according to His purpose.

verses 29-30 are the go-to verses for predestination

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 

30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

how many of us ever noticed that every single verb in verse 30

(action verbs that the Father does) are all in perfect past tense ?

predestined

προορίζω, proorizō, v.  [4574 + 4000]. to decide beforehand

called

καλέω, kaleō, v.  [root of: 440, 441, 511, 1269, 1592, 1598, 1657, 1711, 2126, 3104, 3105, 3559, 4151, 4155, 4156, 4614, 4673, 4678, 5157, 5220]. to call, invite, summon. The authority of the speaker dictates the nature of the calling (friends invite; kings summon). This is also translated “to name,” the giving of attribution to someone or something

OT Calling by name. “You are no longer to call her Sarai,” God told Abraham (Ge 17:15). Abraham’s wife’s name was changed to Sarah, which means “princess.”

The naming and renaming of things, places, and persons is seen often in the OT (e.g., Ge 1:5, 8,10; 31:48-49; Ex 15:23). Such activity is always significant, for to the Hebrews a name was more than a label. A name was an identifier, expressing significant information about a quality or characteristic of the thing named. This thought is carried over into the NT. Jesus angrily drove the merchants out of the temple court, saying, “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Mk 11:17). The very nature of the temple, expressed in the name “house of prayer,” was violated by those who bought and sold there in flagrant disregard of the sanctity of the temple.

Similarly, Luke (1:32) reports that Jesus is to be “called the Son of the Most High.” This is a strong statement of Jesus’ essential deity. The name affirms his identity.

It is also likely that in OT usage the right to name implies authority over that which is named. 

God, by right of creation, assigned names to his works (Ge 1). 

Adam, given dominion over God’s creation, was permitted to name the animals (Ge 2:19) and his wife (Ge 3:20). God reassured Israel, “I have called you by name; you are mine” (Isa 43:1). The Lord created, formed, and redeemed Israel and has sealed the relationship by calling Israel by name. He claims Israel as his own and asserts his sovereign care over them, even as he has called us to belong to him (Ro 1:6).

Calling to a task. The common Christian notion of a “calling” is expressed in the OT. The leaders of the tribes of Israel were “appointed [lit., “called”] from the community” for their roles (Nu 1:16). The story of Isaiah’s commissioning (Isa 6:1-8) is just one example that, in the Bible, God set individuals aside for specific tasks. And Paul clearly expresses this conviction: he sees himself as one “called to be an apostle and set apart” (Ro 1:1; cf. 1 Co 1:1).

NT — The Greek words. One of two Greek verbs is usually found where the NIV and the NASB read “call.” The most common is kaleo, “to call.” The other is proskaleo, “to call to,” or “to summon.” From the same root are klesis, “a calling” or “condition,” and kletos, “called.”

There is a significant shift in root meaning between the Hebrew and Greek terms. The OT word emphasizes the utterance or the message. The NT emphasizes the intent: to call is to speak to a person with the purpose of bringing him or her nearer. The nearness may be physical (Jesus “called the crowd to him,” Mk 8:34) or relational (“those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,” Ro 1:6).

OT call 

communicates authority of the caller

characteristic and/or purpose for the called

NT call

In the Gospels, God’s call is an invitation to personal relationship, and in response to this call individuals must make life’s most significant choice.

In the Epistles, “call” becomes a technical theological term encompassing the whole process of salvation. The called are the ones who have heard and have responded and thus been plunged into the experience of the salvation that God has planned from eternity.

“Calling” as a condition. A special use of “calling” is found in 1 Co 7:17-24. Here Paul wrote to individuals who were troubled by their situation in life. They were married or unmarried, circumcised or uncircumcised, slaves or freedmen. And many felt they could serve God better if one or more of these conditions were changed and if their life situation were changed. But Paul advised them, “Each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him” (7:17; cf. vv. 20,24). Here, then, God’s “call” is the Lord’s sovereign action in placing individuals in specific circumstances or situations. While Paul left the door open for a change of circumstances (v. 21), he wanted the Corinthians to realize that a person can serve God and be spiritually significant whatever his or her circumstances. And he wanted them to know that God’s sovereignty extends to ordering the details of each believer’s life.

9. Summary. In both Testaments, “call” can have special significance. A call uttered by a superior demands a response from the one to whom it is addressed. 

As God’s called ones, you and I now recognize that salvation is from the Lord alone. As God’s called ones, we joyfully submit to the one who alone defines and guides our experience of that salvation, until he ultimately brings us to share the glory.

justified

δικαιόω, dikaioō, v.  [1472]. declare righteous, to put someone in a proper relationship with another, usually referring to God’s relationship to humankind, implying a proper legal or moral relationship

glorified

δοξάζω, doxazō, v.  [1518]. to give praise, honor (in our case, even glorified bodies (Col 3:4)

we receive honor and praise from our Father

GLORIFIED SAINTS

Great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1), 

righteous people made perfect (Heb 12:23; Rev 6:11), 144,000 (Rev 14:1-5). 

Under the altar (Rev 6:9), 

before the throne (Rev 14:3). 

Sing song of redemption (Rev 14:3), 

of worship (Rev 15:2-4).

We see everything through “time” sequence of events, past, present, future

these do not exist for God (time exists for the convenience of our physical senses and comprehension)

people often try to explain God being outside of time in the following way:

draw a timeline, then draw a giant eyeball looking at the timeline

(this is still linear time)

I prefer a cylindrical cross section, (every event ever taking place is a point on the surface of the paper which wraps itself back to closure.

God’s eye looking at the paper from the middle of the cylinder, seeing all events equally, there is no sequence.

In God’s perspective, I am not only foreknown, I am already called, I am already justified, I am already glorified.

I am living out the events in a sequence of physical time, but to God, I am already glorified.

(we call this positional truth, as if to say “God says it is done, but I have not arrived yet in time”)

whose perspective is more accurate ? (my blip on that sheet of paper, or His view of fact in the universe, even beyond our time)

what application could this issue of metaphysics 

possibly have to do with my daily reality ?

Paul anticipated this question (more accurately , God seeing all events knew we would ask this)

and provides the answer:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 

”if God is for us, who is against us” is the answer to the “what shall we say to these things” question.

(it comes in the form of a rhetorical question)

clearly we do have opposition BUT the reason it is rhetorical is “what does it matter?”

He then explains why the opposition does not matter in verses 32-37

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 

if the Father gives His own Son to redeem us (while we were hating Him) , do you think He will withhold anything we need now that we are His children

Rom 5:8 mirrors this idea

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 

34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

35 Who will separate us from the love of [m]Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 

then brings out the Nuclear weaponry in verse 38

In most of my favorite guy movies, the bad guy loses of course,

but before that happens, we see a glimpse, a preview of the bad guy’s defeat.

(we often get to watch the face on the bad guy slowly

grow in awareness of this unavoidable defeat.)

I love those climaxes. When the enemy finally realizes his entire fight has been a waste of time.

(and that he didn’t just lose, he lost really badly, embarrassingly badly)

Sometimes, the loser is told in advance how they are going to lose

(as if to say, you are so powerless to stop your defeat, I’m gonna tell you in advance

how it’s coming at you and you are still going to lose)

Paul announces this victory to us (while the enemy looks on, in complete futility)

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

nothing can separate us from God, His love, His plan, His purposes for His kingdom or for us in His kingdom.

Nothing

we have similar (even though simpler verbiage from Christ Himself in John 10

27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

30 “I and the Father are one.”

we are victorious in this life not because of anything we are able to do but because of what He has already done.

This should be our perspective, our fuel for the race, our comfort during trials, our consolation during loss

(our centerpiece to show visitors)

it is our HOPE and CAUSE

(to live is Christ and to die is gain)  how can he say this ?

It is our battlecry !  I AM ALREADY GLORIFIED BY MY FATHER 

(AND WAITING TO EXPERIENCE IT IN ALL FULLNESS)