SERIES: The Book of Romans
God Works!
Introduction: Let me begin this morning by presenting a few imaginary scenarios. Unemployed for six months and after a great interview, you receive the “We’ll keep your resume on file” letter for the thirtieth time. You try, you try, and you try, but pregnancy never happens. You finally get the affairs settled on your deceased father’s estate, and your sister-in-law calls and tells you that your brother has just died of a heart attack. The supervisors at your internship may let you go because they wrongly think you are homophobic. If they let you go, this will set you back another whole year and cost you thousands of additional dollars before you can graduate.
Just scenarios? No. Those scenes are a slice of reality at First Evangelical Free. You know these people. You are these people. Mike said something last week that got my attention. He said, “Suffering in the life of the believer is actually proof of sonship.” On the one hand it is troubling to our hearts because we don’t like this reality. But it is also freeing, because it validates our experience.
Since suffering is the normal Christian experience, does God give us any help to endure through those sufferings? How does one find comfort in the midst of tremendous hardship and suffering?
People look for comfort in many different ways. Some people deny that anything is wrong. When people do this, they tend to find comfort in some addictive sin. Some people are comforted by principles of positive thinking and look at suffering as a challenge to be conquered. Positive thinking may be a profitable course of action for a while, but if the suffering or testing is severe enough, positive thinking will eventually run out of steam.
Still another way is to just get angry and bitter. Many people take this course of action. They get angry at God because He didn’t follow their agenda and then they take out their frustrations on everyone who cares about them.
Even though they are momentary, present sufferings are painful, just the same. When suffering becomes intense, it is easy to think that perhaps God has abandoned us. There is nothing further from the truth. He doesn’t abandon us. In fact, he gives us comfort and confidence that helps us to endure through the suffering.
In order to find comfort in our sufferings, first …
We must focus our hope on eternity. (23-25)
Mike addressed this issue in detail last week, so I will offer only a quick review. When we are suffering for reasons other than our own sin, we need to broaden the scope of our hope beyond the temporal and into the eternal. Our hope needs to get past merely relief from suffering.
Our hope is our future adoption and redemption. Peter called this a “living hope,” a hope in “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)
Our hope gives perspective to our present sufferings. When we simply hope for relief from our suffering, we are hoping for something that is not a promise from God. One of the realities most of us have experienced is that God often does not remove suffering. People we pray for die. The chronic physical pain doesn’t go away. And all this happens with prayers offered in great faith. An eternal perspective doesn’t remove the suffering, but it can ease our suffering by giving us something certain to hope for.
But there is more than patient waiting.
We must depend on the intercessory prayer of the Holy Spirit. (26-27)
When the pain and anguish of suffering hits with all its intensity, is our only option to plead with God to coerce him to take the suffering away and make it better? What do you say to God? When you are driving to the hospital and you don’t know what is going on, what do you pray? When you receive the rejection letter for the thirtieth time, what do you say? Probably, you kneel and sigh and cry because you have no words that rightly express your emotions.
Paul writes, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit, himself, intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” This verse teaches us three things about the intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes alongside us in our ignorance. The weakness Paul refers to is not physical weakness or spiritual weakness, but the context tells us it is a lack of understanding. The issue is not how to pray but what to pray. When disappointment, pain, and fear are the most acute, the frailty of our humanity is most evident. We don’t have the understanding to know how we should pray. Unfortunately, the ignorance doesn’t go away with spiritual age and maturity. Paul uses the word “our,” and he includes himself in the company of those do not know what to pray for.
The word “helps” carries the connotation of a person coming alongside another person and helping him bear a heavy load. It is important to take note that Paul does not absolve us of our responsibility to pray here. It is assumed that in the midst of suffering we will be praying, but we will be praying with some definite lapses in our understanding. And when our understanding is weak, the Holy Spirit is right at our side.
The Holy Spirit pleads our case with God. Now some have incorrectly used this verse as a proof text for what our charismatic brothers and sisters would call a prayer language. But a prayer language has words, and it is written here that the Spirit’s intercession is in “groanings that words cannot express.” A prayer language is not what Paul has in mind. The context helps us here. The creation is groaning in verse 22. We are groaning in verse 23. And now the groanings progress to the third person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit.
Who is the Spirit’s groaning for? Is He groaning for the creation? No. He is groaning for us, the saints. And how does he pray? With words? No. The Spirit’s intercession is in the same form as our experience—wordless groans. As the Spirit comes alongside us, He identifies himself so completely with our struggles that he groans as he helps us in our burden.
But His groans take on a different character than ours. The groaning of the Holy Spirit is the way he intercedes for us. An intercessor is a person who takes up another’s cause and pleads his case. The Spirt doesn’t prompt us about what we should pray (though He could do that). Instead, he takes charge of the situation and goes directly to the Father on our behalf and brings our cause to Him.
When you are in the emergency room grieving your third miscarriage, isn’t it comforting to have someone alongside who loves you and just doesn’t say a word? They are just there. Not there foryou but there with you. Hurting with you. Weeping with you. Agonizing with you. Not many words, just their presence, their love and their help. If we find comfort from this at a human level, how much more we ought to be comforted when the Holy Spirit himself not only bears our burden with us but also compassionately intercedes for us!
The Holy Spirit prays for us in accordance with God’s will. In verse 27, we read, “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.” Where our inward groanings leads us to pray in weakness and ignorance, the Spirit groans with knowledge and understanding. When all we can do is weep, sigh and pray because we don’t understand, the Spirit hears our prayers of ignorance and translates those feeble words into a request that is in line with the Father’s will. I don’t know about you, but this stuff just amazes the socks off me. What a comfort this is to me. When we do not know how to analyze a situation rightly, the Spirit does. When we are unable to explain it, the Spirit is able to explain it to God for us. The Spirit does all this pleading, explaining and groaning in perfect harmony with God’s will.
Are you in the white-hot intensity of suffering today? Are you finding it hard to know how to pray anymore? Keep praying. Throw away the formulas and pour out your heart to God. Then be still and know that the Spirt is with you and interceding for you. Can you draw some comfort and confidence from this today? I do.
The hardships we suffer begin with great intensity. So much is unknown. Control is yanked out of our hands. But after a time, the intensity subsides and we are left with often a very long road of hardship to endure. This long road is often filled with great uncertainty and chaos. We begin to ask questions of reflection. How long, O Lord, must I wait until my husband comes to faith? Father, why are you allowing these people to ridicule me for my faith? Why are you taking me through this? Lord, why so much when I can hardly endure what I have? To find comfort as we ask these reflective questions,
We must faithfully trust the purpose and plan of God. (28-30)
In verse 28, Paul tells us, “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.” Verse 28-30 should never be separated from the previous passage. Unfortunately, the editors of the New International Version have separated it by putting a heading before verse 28. It is a nice heading, but it fits better before verse 31.
These verses show us four things about God’s purpose and plan as we endure the long road of hardship.
God works on behalf of believers. This great promise is for a special group. It doesn’t say that in all things God works for the good of all people. Rather God’s work is narrowed to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. This is a promise for Christians. This follows the same idea as verse 27, where we saw that the Spirit intercedes for “the saints.” All things do not work together for good for the unbeliever. This may sound harsh, but God has the freedom to choose to work for the good of some to the exclusion of others. And the sin of unbelief sometimes keeps God from working all things for good in their lives. Their unbelief will eventually lead to an eternal separation with God.
We may never know this side of glory the specific details to our questions of reflection. We may not be able to tell how God has been working or what exactly he is up to in our lives. But we can rest confidently in the truth that God has been working in our favor!
God works to conform us to the likeness of Jesus. When we are in the middle of our suffering, our prayers are understandably short-sighted. Our tendency is to pray for something that looks good to us. So, our prayers often focus on asking God to turn the prospect of death into life or to turn conflict into peace or to turn heartache into happiness. But the reality is that God may have you endure through suffering, persecution and disappointments for a long time. If he does, it is because he has a greater good. The good God always has in mind is found in verse 29: “Those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that He might be the first born among many brothers.”
God’s good may not be health, wealth, success or happiness. The greatest good that God wants to bring about in our life is to mold and shape us into the likeness of Jesus. He wants to mold our character, our beliefs and our behaviors. Ray Stedman called this truth, “what life is all about.” And it seems that at times God defers our desire for instant good for a greater long-term good. Paul told Timothy that “godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8)
God works to make good use out of bad things. This verse does not say that all things are good. Hatred is not good. Being unemployed is still not fun. Being ignored because of your faith still hurts. Sin still wrecks everything. Verse 28 tells us that God’s providential care and control extends to all things–to bad things as well as good things. The text teaches us that God uses all things to bring about his own good ends for his people.
The life of Joseph in the book of Genesis is an example of this truth. Keep your finger here in Romans and turn to Genesis 50:19. Joseph is the apple of his father’s eye. Because of this, his brothers become very jealous. Their jealousy drives them to toss the 17-year-old Joseph into a dry well in the desert, planning to leave him there to die. They start to feel a little convicted, so to ease their consciences, they pull him out and sell him as a slave to a band of Midianite traders. They, in turn, sell him as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. When Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, he refuses to succumb.
Joseph is falsely accused and convicted for trying to violate her and is thrown into a prison for two years. Then through a series of divine circumstances, both good and bad, Joseph finds himself overseeing the distribution of grain during a great famine. And who should show up looking for a handout but his brothers–those good-for-nothing sinful scoundrels who started all this heartache in the first place!
How does Joseph respond. In anger? In bitterness? Look at verse 19 of Genesis 50. “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’” In retrospect Joseph could look back and say with great confidence that God intended all along to make good use of bad things. Fourth we learn that, …
God demonstrates His trustworthiness. At the beginning of verse 28, Paul writes, “And we know …” The term “know” here implies more than just mental knowledge. The word carries with it a sense of certainty based on experience. In essence, Paul is saying, “from experience, we know as a fact that in all things, good or bad, God works to conform those who love him to the good of being like Jesus.” But how can Paul be so certain? How can he be so sure that through all his sufferings and trials that God was working for good? His answer is that God has demonstrated that he can be trusted. Paul begins verse 29 with the word “for” which we could also translate “because.” “And we know this … because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might have 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.” Paul is taking us through the process of salvation as evidence that we can know that God is working in all things for the good of those who love him. The process involves some key steps.
There are some significant theological terms here, so let me define them so that we can understand what Paul is saying. Foreknowledge is to know something beforehand. There is an important word that precedes the word foreknowledge in our text. It the word “those.” This tell us that the focus of God’s foreknowledge is people, not events. James Boice writes that “the object of divine foreknowledge is not the actions of certain people but the people themselves. In this sense it can only mean that God has fixed his special attention upon them or loved them savingly.”[i]
Those God foreknew are those people that God sovereignly chose to love in eternity past. He didn’t choose you because He knew you would respond in faith. He didn’t choose you because you were a good person. He simply chose to love you because he has that freedom as God.
Predestination means to determine beforehand. About this time fifteen years ago, I went to my senior prom. Unfortunately, I still have a picture from that event. I am wearing a light grey tuxedo with huge lapels, a ruffled shirt with red trim and a tie as big as a waffle. I can’t tell you this morning if God predestined me to wear that embarrassing thing or not. I wish I could—it would allow me to transfer blame away from me. But I can tell you with great confidence that God has predestined me and you to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. It says so right here.
These two events occurred in eternity past. But they become real in the life of people when they are called. This is the third important term. The calling Paul has in mind is an internal, personal call that includes the ability and willingness to believe. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him….” (John 6:44). The call of God is His special work in our personal lives that gives us the ability, willingness and faith to respond to the universal call of the Gospel. Without God’s special calling in our lives, we would all remain dead in our sin.
God continues the work by justifying those whom he has called. The men and women he calls are all sinners, but He declares them to be in right standing with him–not on the basis of what they have done, but based solely on Jesus’ death in their place on the cross.
Those he justified, he also glorified. Glorification is the final step in the plan of salvation. In the future those God foreknew in the beginning will receive their final redemption. Even though it is still in the future, Paul refers to it in the past tense. In Paul’s mind, glory is a done deal. He refers to it as if it has already happened.
The point Paul is making is that every person that God foreknew will end up being glorified, and God does not lose one of them. The reason this is true is that God is the one who does it all! We haven’t done a thing. In God’s plan of salvation, there are no weak links because there is no weakness in God. No one who is chosen to be loved in eternity past slips through the cracks.
Paul is saying that God has demonstrated through our salvation that he is capable of doing the impossible. And if He can be trusted with our salvation, then he is eminently qualified to be trusted to work in all things for our ultimate good. If he can do this, then we know that God works in all things for the good of those who love him. We don’t have to worry that maybe he can’t do it. This is beyond good news; this is great news! God can be trusted as we walk through hardship, grief and trials!
Look at verse 31. This is how Paul transitions to his next idea. “What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Friends, I offer Paul’s question to you. What is your response to this? If God is for you, can anyone or anything be against you? Whatever your trial, there is comfort as we focus our hope on eternity. Sometimes, it is simply enough to remind ourselves that we are temporary residents in a foreign land and that our home is not here. We are waiting expectantly for another time and another place. There is comfort in this truth, isn’t there?
Many of you are in the white-hot beginnings of suffering. It hurts and it is hard to know up from down. It is OK not to know what to pray for in that time. There is great comfort for you this morning. As you kneel before the Father, don’t be discouraged that all you can do is groan on the inside. The Holy Spirit is taking your burden to the Father on your behalf in perfect intercession. Depend on Him!
Some of you are enduring a long road of suffering, waiting, still waiting, for God to open doors. There is great comfort for you this morning. God has performed an amazing feat—he has saved you and he doesn’t let go. Since he doesn’t lose you in salvation, you know with certainty that he isn’t going to leave you stranded in your suffering. He is on your side and you can trust him.
DATE: May 7, 1995
Tags:
Hope
Prayer
Holy Spirit
[i] James Montgomery Boice, Romans, Vol. 2, The Reign of Grace, Romans 5-8, 913.