Scripture does not tell us that we as believers will not suffer; in fact it tells us quite the opposite. The believer will suffer in this life. What we will find today is that the believer is to suffer with perspective.
We know from history that for a long time Rome was very hostile to Christianity, so it only makes sense that Paul would deal with response to trials, tribulations, and sufferings. How were they to respond as they lost loved ones to persecution? How were they to respond as they were belittled because they were believers? How were they to respond as they seemed to be without hope in a world that hated them? Paul doesn’t say not to suffer; he says to suffer with perspective. Paul here gives us an outline for suffering with perspective.
We suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our eternal home, by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good, and by understanding that we will in the end persevere. So, let us take a look at how to suffer with perspective.
First we see that we suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our bodily resurrection (Romans 8:18-25).
Paul here states all of creation waits with eager longing for the coming of the great day when Christ comes and those who are His are revealed (Romans 8:19-22). But why would all of creation be awaiting the coming of this great day? Paul answers this question in Romans 8:20.
We tend to not understand how terrible the fall of man was. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience all of the descendants of the first man and woman were stained with the taint of sin. Now, no longer is the crowning jewel of God’s creation a creature free from the bondage of sin, but a creature enslaved to sin with a wicked nature that has tainted every part of his being. Paul goes into great detail about this in Romans 1:18-3:23. The crowning work of creation is no longer innocent, but guilty and condemned in the sight of its creator. But man is not the only one who was affected by the fall. Creation itself has been subjected to futility by its creator due to the incredible heinousness of the sin of mankind.
Do not think that the fall of mankind is a small thing. It is quite enormous. When Adam and Eve fell all of creation was “subjected to futility” by its Creator (Genesis 3:17-19). All of creation is coming to its eventual end, and end that it would not have to endure if sin had not entered the world. All of creation is now in the process of decay and destruction. Those mighty trees that we are surrounded by here in Russellville, Arkansas die. Rains, floods, and fires bring great destruction upon the earth. The earth is aging and there are great stresses in many places causing great earthquakes; the earth itself has been subjected to futility “in hope”.
God did not subject creation itself to destruction permanently. The futility and decay that creation was subjected to will one day end and it will all be over. God bringing this futility was an act done looking forward to the day when all will be renewed. Peter gives us the best picture of this in 2 Peter 3:10. This is the day that all of creation is longing for, that day when heaven and earth are remade into the New Heavens and Earth. On that day all will be as it should be, nothing in all of creation will be deformed or fading. On that day all of creation will be free from the bondage and taint of sin that has brought so much devastation to our present landscape.
Paul then gives us a contrast between creation now and creation on that day in Romans 8:22. What we see of creation at the present time is the pains of childbirth.
Haddon had stayed in the womb long enough so the doctor decided it was time for my wife to be induced. That day was the most pain I have ever seen my wife in, as she winced and groaned through the pains of childbirth. That is what Paul is saying of our present living conditions. We are currently living in the pains of childbirth. We are living in that painful time period before Christ comes and all things are made new. Just like a successful pregnancy there is great joy that comes after the pains of childbirth.
Paul now gets very specific and to the heart of the matter in Romans 8:23. As we suffer through these pains of childbirth, we suffer looking toward our eager hope. The day that Christ returns and our bodies are either brought up from the grave or, if we are still living at the time we meet Him in the air. It is not Heaven that we are looking longingly for; it is something much greater than Heaven. It is the New Heavens and the New Earth. Those people that we know in Heaven are still looking forward to something; they are looking forward to that day when all things are made new. They could very well be singing, “Heaven is not my home I’m just passing through.” Though there is in Heaven no suffering and no pain that which we look forward to is much greater than the glories of Heaven. It is this great event in history that is the believer’s great hope. It is that day that John tells us about at the end of the book of Revelation. Read Revelation 21:1-4.
We who have “the first fruits of the Spirit” now are eagerly longing for this day. We who have been “born again”, or regenerated, who have been given the deposit of the Holy Spirit, who are being made more and more like Christ as we travel through this world have only attained the beginning of our salvation. These are only the first fruits of that which is to come. We now have the blossom that will one day be an apple. Those things that accompany our salvation here on earth are simply the first signs of the fruit that gives us hope of the future harvest. It is that day when our adoption will be completely realized, as we are brought to God completely as adopted sons and daughters of the King. We have already been chosen out of this world to be His children, but on that day the adoption will be complete. The paperwork has already been signed, but on that day we will be home and will be there forever.
Our hope is found in our adoption, not in the things we have and the good times we live on this earth. Our hope is in that day when our salvation is completed. Our hope is in that day when God completes what He has promised. It is in this hope, Paul says that “we were saved” (Romans 8:24). This is the deliverance that we long for and eagerly await. Paul then shows that if this that we cannot see is what we hope for we will be patient and endure temporal suffering (Romans 8:25). Those who patiently long for eternal bliss can and long for the day our adoption is completed will be able to endure suffering in this life. As we wait for the completion of our salvation we patiently long for that which has been promised to us.
"Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On the Fourth of July in 1951, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The challenge was not so much the distance, but the bone-chilling waters of the Pacific. To complicate matters, a dense fog lay over the entire area, making it impossible for her to see land. After about 15 hours in the water, and within a half mile of her goal, Chadwick gave up. Later she told a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it.” Not long afterward she attempted the feat again. Once more a misty veil obscured the coastline and she couldn’t see the shore. But this time she made it because she kept reminding herself that land was there. With that confidence she bravely swam on and achieved her goal. In fact, she broke the men’s record by two hours!" (From Our Daily Bread)We who are believers know there is land that we will reach. We can patiently endure to the end through the despair that we feel could overtake us. We can do this because though we do not presently see the New Heavens and New Earth we know for certain that this is our final destination.
What trouble can we run into in this life that is greater than our completed adoption and our rest in our eternal home? The pain of this life and the pain of this world that we are to endure cause us to long and cling to our great unseen hope all the more. We patiently endure the sufferings of this world as we await our adoption as Sons and daughters of the King.
This is an immense help in our time of trouble all it itself, but Paul moves on to other great promises for us to cling to in times of trouble and despair.
The second point is that we suffer with perspective by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us (Romans 8:26-27). Paul begins this by saying “likewise”, so in the same manner that longing for our eternal destination helps us to endure suffering, understanding the work of the Holy Spirit in our suffering will help us to endure suffering.
After Jesus had sweat drops of blood, was beaten, scourged, had the crown of thorns placed upon His head and beaten some more, He did not have the physical strength to carry His own cross to His death by Himself. In His great pain and agony He needed help to make it through. He needed Simon of Cyrene to bear this burden with Him in order to carry His cross to Golgotha. This is the picture we get of the Holy Spirit in our time of weakness.
The word help means “to lay hold along with or to take hold with another”. In our time of great weakness and devastation we are not alone. God, the Holy Spirit is bearing the burden with us. We as believes are not carrying the whole burden alone. Just as Simon of Cyrene helped Christ carry His cross, the Holy Spirit is helping us carry our burden. God Himself, the third person of the Trinity is helping you through your hard times. One theologian stated it beautifully when he said,
“For as experience shows, that except we are supported by God’s hands, we are soon overwhelmed by innumerable evils, Paul reminds us, that though we are in every respect weak, and various infirmities threaten our fall, there is yet sufficient protection in God’s Spirit to preserve us from falling, and to keep us from being overwhelmed by any mass of evils.”-John Calvin's Commentary on RomansHow many times have we heard the testimonies stating that had it not been for God, that a believer would not have made it through? This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. As one of God’s children moves through struggles and hardships, they are not alone. The Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us.
But the work of the Holy Spirit does not stop at bearing our burdens with us. When we are weak and we find ourselves so devastated and disappointed that we do not know how to pray, he is praying on our behalf to the Father (Romans 8:27). The Holy Spirit not only helps us and ensures that we will not completely fall in devastation, but He lifts us up in prayer. As you are struggling with pain that you feel you cannot even comprehend, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father. As you find yourself in such deep despair that you don’t know how to pray or what to say to God, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father. As you find yourself so disappointed in what the Lord has allowed you to go through in this life that you feel you cannot even pray to Him at this moment, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf to the Father in “groanings too deep for words”. In ways that we cannot understand God the Spirit is interceding on our behalf to God the Father according to the will of God (Romans 8:27).
So, in a much greater way than Simon of Cyrene helped Christ with His cross to Golgotha, the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us and also praying for us on our behalf. Though you feel alone and isolated in your time of need, God the Holy Spirit is there giving you more help than you can ever imagine. We can suffer with perspective as we focus on the completion of our adoption and the work of the Holy Spirit during our time of need.
Third we see that we suffer with perspective by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28-30).
Paul here states another great hope that the believer has in the midst of suffering and is that God is working all things for the good of His children. If this is the case then we must ask ourselves a very important question. Does God rule the Universe in such a way that all things really can work together for our good? So, we will quickly look at several passages of Scripture that tell us how God governs His Universe.
- God does whatever He wants to do (Psalm 135:6). We don't serve a god who is powerless to do what he wants to do. The God of Scripture does whatever He pleases.
- All things that take place are part of God's plan (Ephesians 1:11).
- Both what we consider to be good and bad are God's plan (Deuteronomy 32:39; Ecclesiastes 7:13-14; Isaiah 45:5-7; Lamentations 3:37-38).
- God controls nature (Psalm 147:15-18).
- God is in control of the seemingly small and chance occurrences that take place (Proverbs 16:33)
- God plans and uses man's decisions to carry out His perfect plan. God uses Assyria to carry out His plan to punish His people (Isaiah 10:5-15). Jesus' death for the punishment of our sins is also an example of this. People killed the Son of God out of the evil of their own hearts, but carried out what God had planned and purposed (Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27-28).
- Even the decisions of the most powerful men on earth carry out God's plans and purposes (Proverbs 21:1)
So, the answer Scripture gives us is a resounding yes. God is in control of whatever comes to pass and has promised He will cause all things to work together for the good of believers. It doesn’t matter what situation you are talking about, it is part of God’s plan. From the birth of a child to the devastation of atomic weapons blowing up entire countries, it is all part of God’s plan. And the promise that we receive from our all-powerful God is that He is moving all of history for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In other words, God is moving all of creation for our ultimate good.
Paul then moves to give us great assurance of God’s great love for us (Romans 8:29-30). God has loved His people from all eternity and will bring them through to the end. No trouble in this life can ever truly overtake us. God who initiated our salvation will bring us through to the end. And here we see what many theologians have termed “the golden chain of redemption”.
Paul begins this by saying, “For those whom He foreknew”. The word simply means “to know beforehand”. But what does this mean? The key to understanding what is meant by God’s foreknowing in this passage is to look at who is the subject and what is the object of the foreknowing.
The subject or the one doing the foreknowing is God. The verb is “foreknew”, so God knows something beforehand. But what is the object of His foreknowing. The object of His foreknowing is people, not an event, but the people who are “called according to His purpose” that we see in Romans 8:28. But we still really have no idea what this means. All we have so far is basically, “Those people who God called according to His purpose, God foreknew.” If we dig a little deeper we begin to understand this better.
God’s act of foreknowing is personal. When God is said to know someone in Scripture it is speaking of God having a special relationship (love) for that person. There is no exception in the New Testament to this rule. We see in Romans 11:2 God foreknows “His people”, where Paul says “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” and we find in 1 Peter 1:20 that God foreknew Jesus. All three instances of God’s foreknowing people found in the New Testament is talking about the special relationship that God has had with His people for all eternity. We see the same thing in the Old Testament. When God knows a person, it is not speaking of knowing that they exist, but of His special relationship with them. Two examples of this are Jeremiah 1:5 and Exodus 33:17. God tells Jeremiah, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations”-Jeremiah 1:5 And we also see it in Exodus 33:17, “The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name”. So, it seems clear that when God knows a person it is not simply a knowledge that a person will exist or one thing they will do later in life, but an intimate knowing of that person. God’s foreknowing an individual is simply God’s love of that person before they were even created. It is the idea that is expressed in Jeremiah 31:3 of God's love being everlasting.
Those people that God has loved from all eternity, God has predestined, that is determined beforehand that they would be “conformed to the image of His Son”. No one will enter Heaven who is not first conformed to the image of His Son. As we live on this earth we are becoming more and more like Christ, but when our redemption is complete we will totally be like Him. All who God has loved from all eternity become like Christ when their salvation is completed. Those people that God “predestined He also called”. The word for called simply means to call or invite, so those whom God has loved from all eternity are also predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ are also called. These same people God has called He has also justified. Being justified before God is being made right in His sight. The word means to “render righteous”. We are made righteous by the work of Christ. He paid the penalty we owed with His death on the cross. He lived the life we should have lived earning righteousness on our behalf and we are credited with His righteousness. This is the transaction that is made for our salvation. And Paul ends by saying that those whom God justified, “He also glorified”. Glorified is speaking of our status in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We are glorified when we are given our glorified bodies and we live with God in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Here is what Paul is saying. If you are a believer God loves you more than you can ever imagine. This God who loves you has loved you with an everlasting love since long before you were born. God set His love on you therefore He decided for certain that You would one day be like Christ, He called you to salvation, applied the salvation earned by Christ to you, and will bring you across the finish line in your glorified body to the New Heavens and the new earth. What we notice here first and foremost is that God loved us and saved us. We have no claim to our own salvation whatsoever. He did it all. God loved you and from beginning to end has accomplished and applied your salvation for you.
This God who has loved you with an everlasting love so tremendous you can hardly wrap your head around the thought of it controls all things and is moving the entire Universe for your good. No matter what trouble you have in your life, never let this slip from your mind. If you are a Christian God has loved you with an everlasting love that will never end. He will be with you until the end. And though we do not understand His ways or His allowing us to be in the situation we are in, He is in control. There is not one rogue atom in the entirety of creation and they are all moving for your ultimate good.
“On one occasion when Martin was extremely depressed and indifferent to encouragement, Katherine donned mourning attire. Her husband asked her, “Katherine, why are you dressed in mourning black?” “Someone has died.” She replied. “Died?” said Luther, “I have not heard of anyone dying, whoever can have died?” Her response was, “It seems that God must have died!” (Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother, rev. ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), pp. 142-143.)Katherine Luther was clever. She confronted her husband about his depression. He was acting as if God, who loved Him, controlled all things, and promised to work all things for his good was dead. But God is not dead, God is alive. Our perspective needs to be that God is alive and as we suffer through trials in this life we understand that it has happened to us for our good. If we understand God’s love for us, His control of the Universe, and His promise to move all things for our good we are given a radically new perspective on suffering.
We focus on the life to come, understand that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, and understand that God who loves us is moving all of history for our good and lastly, we suffer with perspective by understanding that we will persevere (Romans 8:31-39).
“What then shall we say to these things?”, how do we respond to such a message? What is our response focusing on the glories of our eternal home, knowing that the Holy Spirit bears our burdens with us, knowing that God who loves us moves all of creation for our good as we suffer? Our response is the same as Paul’s: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Who or what on this earth can actually destroy us if God is for us? The obvious answer is nothing in all of creation. There is no sickness, no illness, no death in our families, no circumstance, no enemy, no trial, and no tribulation that is greater than God who is for us. If God is for us who can be against us?
Yet again Paul shows us just how great God’s love is for us and just how much God is for us.
God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for our salvation (Romans 8:32), what makes us think that He would not “give us all things”? Who now can raise a judgment against us? Is there anyone or anything in all of creation that can bring a charge against God’s chosen people (Romans 8:33)? No, there is no one or nothing. Why? God went to the greatest lengths possible to secure our salvation perfectly and ultimately.
God created all things, and in the beginning His creation was perfect and good. This includes the crowning work of His creation: human beings. The first human beings, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden bringing calamity upon all of the earth, created a separation between mankind and God, and stained all of their posterity with the taint of sin. God is perfect and He does not tolerate sin and evil. Yet, we as people, stained with sin, do not have the ability not to sin. All of us stand condemned before a Holy and Righteous God. All of us have broken God’s law. All of us have rebelled against God and all of us deserve eternal death, eternal Hell. But God made a way that He could save us in a righteous and holy manner. That is through Jesus Christ. God made a way for us to be justified (Romans 8:32). The way was that God the Son interceded for us through His death on the cross (Romans 8:34).
Year after year priests presented the offerings for the removal of sin and guilt for the Israelites. The temple was filled with different furniture that the Lord had commanded to be in the temple. There were altars for animal offerings and altars for incense. There were beautiful furnishings throughout the temple, but one thing that is purposefully missing from the tabernacle is a chair.
You see the Old Testament priest’s jobs were never done. The sacrifices that they offered, which was a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, were never finished. Year after year, month after month, day after day there were more sacrifices to be offered. They were never finished and never completed, so there was not a chair for them to sit down in. There was always more sin to be atoned for, more sacrifices to be given. Their work was never done, but when Christ offered His perfect sacrifice for our sin and our guilt once for all time on the cross the job was finished. For the first time in history a pries sat down because he had finished his work. It was perfect and complete. All of the believer’s sins past, present, and future were atoned for with the once for all sacrifice of Christ.
Who is their left to condemn? Who is their left to bring a charge against us? Christ died perfectly paying the punishment for all our sin, was raised conquering the power of sin and death and is presently seated at the right hand of God with His work for our salvation being completed. He is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us in prayer, just as the Holy Spirit is doing.
What a glorious thought. Is there anything in all of creation that can “separate us from the love of Christ? “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” No, there is nothing at all that can separate us from the love of Christ. Is there anything left for us to do, to earn the favor of God? No, Christ has accomplished it all. Is there anything we can do to bring God’s hatred upon us? No, Christ has accomplished salvation for us, and it is complete. Do we need to sit and wonder if we have done enough for our salvation? No, because we haven’t done anything for our salvation, Christ has done it all. Jesus paid it all.
Nothing can separate us from God because Christ’s work is complete. Though we face trials and tribulations of many kinds, though we feel as Paul has here written “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered”, though we make mistake after mistake and feel that we are unworthy of the great love of Christ that has been given to us we will never be separated from the love of Christ. The believer cannot do anything or have anything done to them that would take them away from the beautiful promises that we have been given about God’s care for us in our time of trials and tribulations.
Because of God’s work in giving us our eternal hope, bearing our burdens with us, loving us and moving all of creation for our ultimate good, and the glorious work of salvation we not only endure the greatest of pains and hardships on this earth, but we are made “more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” A better rendering of this phrase would be that we “overwhelmingly conquer” these trials and these tribulations. It is not simply a mere making it until the end that is being spoken of here, but a domination of the great troubles that we endure in this life. And because of this, no matter what the struggle, the believer will overcome. They will never be separated from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39).
So, how do we suffer? We suffer with perspective. We suffer with perspective by looking longingly toward our eternal home, by understanding that the Holy Spirit is bearing our burdens with us, by understanding that God who loves us is working all things for our good, and by understanding that we will in the end persevere.
As persecution continued against Christianity throughout the Roman Empire many Christians were tortured and killed for their faith. They had to watch family members be martyred and many died a martyr’s death themselves. This went on for many years. Notice in this account of martyrs one generation after death of the apostles the perspective they had that made them able to endure. It is the perspective we have been talking about.
“But indeed all the other martyrdoms that God willed to take place (we must be careful to ascribe all things to His governance) were blessed and noble. No one could fail to admire their high-hearted endurance, and the love they showed for their Master. Some of them were so cut to pieces by the scourges that their very vitals were plainly exposed to view, down to the inmost veins and arteries; and yet they still bore up, until even the bystanders were moved to tears of pity for them. Others displayed such heroism that not a cry or a groan escaped any of them; which seemed a clear proof to us all that in that hour of anguish those martyr-heroes of Christ were not present in the body at all—or better still, that the Lord was standing at their side and holding them in talk. So it was that, with all their thoughts absorbed in the grace of Christ, they made light of the cruelties of this world, and at the cost of a single hour purchased for themselves life everlasting. For them, the fires of their barbarous tormentors had a grateful coolness, for they held ever before their eyes their escape from the quenchless flames of eternity, and looking up they beheld with inward vision the good things in store for those who persevere. Things which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mortal heart has dreamed of were revealed by the Lord to these men.” (Andrew Louth, Early Christian Writings: the Apostolic Fathers (New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Classics, 1987), pg. 136R. Dwain Minor
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