Principles of living a godly life [77] – More than conquerors

 ‘Who will accuse down the select of God, God the judicially approving and making rightwise? 34 Who is judging against and passing sentence? Jesus the Messiah, the having died, or rather now who having been roused up, is also at the right hand of God, and who is interceding above us. 35 What will put separating space away from the practical benevolent love of the Messiah? Pressure, confinement, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 Because as it has been written, ‘On account of you we are facing death all the day, we are counted as sheep of sacrifice’. 37 But within all this we are more than conquerors by means of Him starting and continuing to love us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angel/messengers, nor beginnings, nor things at hand, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor profound depth, nor any other original formation will have the power to put separating space away from the love of God within Jesus the Messiah, our Lord’, (Romans 8 v 33 – 39). 

And so we come to the glorious end of chapter 8. The deliverance of Christians is secure and certain away from the free gift of God by means of Jesus the Messiah. So who is going to accuse the select of God? It is God Who is making them judicially approved and rightwise. Who is judging and passing sentence? Jesus the Messiah! Jesus has successfully secured redemption for those whom God has brought forth. Having died, he is now roused up with God’s approval, and interceding as High Priest above us. Who then is going put distance and separation between Christians and the practical, beneficial love of the Messiah? 

Christians at different times and in different places experience extreme hardship, confinement or persecution. Some face very adverse situations. Paul quotes from Psalm 44 v 22, as descriptive of what God’s faithful people may expect from their enemies at any period when the unbeliever’s hatred of God and righteousness is roused and there is nothing to restrain it. The argument seems to be this: God’s faithful people of old have endured all manner of suffering, and yet they were not separated from the love of God, therefore such sufferings cannot separate them now. Outsiders or unbelievers reckon that they have Christians at their command, such that they can cut Christians off, negate them or cancel them when they choose. At the height of their opposition they place little importance on the suppression of the gospel or even the destruction of Christians, if such actions serve their own purpose. 

‘But…’. Paul acknowledges the potential of such opposition. He does not present a glib, sentimental or romanticised view in which Christians are always happy and live a peaceful, safe existence. Nevertheless, he says that ‘within all this we are more than conquerors by means of Him starting and continuing to love us’. Not even the Christian’s physical death will separate them away from the love of God. And thus he plainly and simply lists (verses 38, 39) those opposing circumstances that may seem to have the potential to separate Christians away from the love of God, but which in reality do not have the power to do so. No ‘original formation will have the power to put separating space away from the love of God within Jesus the Messiah, our Lord’, (verse 39). 

Having stated his teaching about divine approval and having considered some potential objections to it, Paul then goes on in chapter 9 to look at the specific situation of Jews as God’s chosen ethnic group, in the light of most of them rejecting Jesus as being their Messiah. But I am going to pause my series on godliness and the relationship of Christians to divine law at the end of chapter 8 for a short while, for a brief summer break. Then I will resume looking at Christians and divine law by moving on to look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians. 

Principles of living a godly life [76] – The divine plan

 ‘And those whom He predetermines, these He also summons, and whom He summons, these He also judicially approves and makes rightwise. Then, whom he judicially approves and makes rightwise, these He also honours and renders praiseworthy. 31 What then will we say to these things? Forasmuch as God is above us, who is down against us? 32 Indeed, He Who is not sparing His own Son, but surrendering him for us all, how will He not also give us all things together with him?’, (Romans 8 v 30 - 32).

As we come to the end of chapter 8, Paul steps back as it were to sum up the process of divine judicial approval and rightwiseness, which has been the main theme of his letter. As in other Scripture writings, the process of deliverance from condemnation is portrayed as being entirely down from God. When individuals are in a hopeless state and unable to deliver themselves, God, knowing some beforehand, predetermines them to be jointly formed to the image of His Son. It is God Who brings them forth – they are born again – and they become a new formation as a result of the atoning sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, given as a free gift, coupled with the work of the set apart Breath of God and His Messiah. 

The process is this. God knows some beforehand and predetermines these to be conformed to the image of His Son. How does this happen? Those He knows beforehand and predetermines to be conformed to the image of His Son He summons, calls or invites, (by means of the good news of the Messiah and the word of the cross. Those who are summoned are, by means of the Breath, enlightened and such that they are persuaded to the point of entrusting the Messiah), and thus God accounts them judicially approved and rightwise. These He also honours and renders praiseworthy. 

All of this originates from and is brought into effect by God, and this gives Christians assurance and confident expectation. Because divine approval and deliverance from condemnation is not down to their fickle and unreliable energies and labours to be godly. Indeed, they lack ability and strength to deliver themselves because of their fleshly constitution. Nor is divine approval attained or maintained by Christians seeking to work to fully observe the written codes of divine law. Divine law is good and set apart, but it reveals our self-forfeiture and loss, and the impulses of our flesh take hold of this starting point such that our self-forfeiture is seen to increase even more. Christians are not placed under the written codes of law or the Sinai Covenant, but under the free, undeserved gift of God, and the New Covenant of the blood of the Messiah. Deliverance from condemnation, and divine approval, is given to them as a free gift from God. Christians maintain Life – responsiveness to God – by walking around moment-by-moment within their breath [pneuma] which is being moved by the Breath of God [Pneuma] dwelling in their deep inner core and effectively interceding for them. Christians are bond-slaves to their Lord who pays the price necessary to buy them back - the shedding of his own lifeblood as a substitute payment to send away their self-forfeiture.

So what shall we Christians say? Well here is the conclusion – ‘Forasmuch as God is above us, who is down against us? 32 Indeed, He Who is not sparing His own Son, but surrendering him for us all, how will He not also give us all things together with him?’ The deliverance of Christians is secure and certain. Since all this is away from the free gift of God, and since God did not hold back even His only begotten Son, but surrendered him for all of us, then who can be down against us? Who can successfully rob us of our deliverance? More than this, if God has not held back His own Son, then surely He will also give us all things together with him. Christians are adopted sons in God’s household, joint-heirs, joint inheritors with the Messiah. God does not surrender His only begotten Son so as to then hold back from us the benefits that His Son has attained.

Principles of living a godly life [75] – God working all things together for good

 ‘Now we know that God is working all things together penetrating towards good to those having preference for loving God, those being called and invited down from setting forth. 29 Because those whom He knows beforehand, He also predetermines jointly formed to the image of His Son, him penetrating into being firstborn among many brothers’, (Romans 8 v 28, 29). 

Paul has said that the Breath is interceding, helping Christians in their weakness. This intervention is very effective because God knows and perceives the movement of the Breath in Christian’s hearts, because God diligently searches hearts and the Breath is down from God and striking the mark ‘spot on target’. He goes on to say that Christians also ‘know that God is working all things together penetrating towards good to those having preference for loving God’, (verse 28). When it comes to Christians, ‘those being called and invited down from setting forth’, God is not disinterested, nor is He working against their best interests. On the contrary, God is working everything together to contribute and penetrate towards their good. Early manuscripts have this rendering, ‘God works all things with’, or ‘co-operates in all things’. Thus we have, ‘God co-operates for good in all things with those having preference for loving God’. Not every situation and circumstance seems to be good – such as times of illness, suffering, adversity and so on, and at such times many Christians struggle to comprehend God’s purpose. But that is not quite what is being said here. Rather, Paul is saying that ‘even in these difficult situations, God is co-operating in all things towards the Christian’s good’.   

How do Christians know that God is co-operating in all things towards their good? Paul makes another general statement. Christians know this ‘Because those whom He knows beforehand, He also predetermines jointly formed to the image of His Son, him penetrating into being firstborn among many brothers’ (verse 29). Those whom God knows beforehand… The Greek word has been the subject of almost endless disputes with regard to its meaning in this verse. The literal meaning is not in dispute. It means to ‘know beforehand’, to be acquainted with future events. The dispute is whether it means that God knew beforehand that certain individuals would become Christians; or whether it means that God constituted them to be Christians and be saved. This has been a subject of almost endless discussion.

The word used here does not necessarily mean to decree. It does not mean ‘foreordain’, yet it supposes that there is a purpose or plan. Neither does this verse affirm why, how, or on what grounds God foreknew some human beings. It simply states the fact. The verse simply teaches that God knew certain people beforehand; that His eye was fixed on them; that He regarded them as those to be conformed to his Son, to be designated to eternal life. The Syriac renders it in accordance with this interpretation: ‘And from the beginning he knew them…’. Bible commentator Mayer states, ‘It is God’s being aware in His plan, by means of which, before the subjects are destined by Him to salvation, He knows whom He has to destine thereto’.

Knowing certain individuals beforehand, God then ‘also predetermines [them to be] jointly formed to the image of His Son’. God is co-operating in all things towards the Christian’s good because He predetermines that they will be jointly formed, or conformed, or have the same form as, or ‘mirror-like’ resemblance of His Son – Jesus the Messiah. Thus we read elsewhere, ‘And all of us, face having been unveiled, beholding as in a mirror the honour and praiseworthiness of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image…’, (II Corinthians 3 v 18). That is, being transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus. (See also Colossians 3 v 10; I John 3 v 2; Philippians 3 v 21). Part of the reason for this transformation is that Jesus is ‘penetrating into being firstborn among many brothers’, (verse 29). God’s purpose is not that the Messiah stands alone in isolated praiseworthiness and honour, but that he may be surrounded by a numerous brotherhood, fashioned after His likeness, as He is in the likeness of God.

Principles of living a godly life [74] - The Breath working alongside

 ‘But also, in the same way, the Breath [Pneuma] is joining with assertively taking hold of helping our weakness. For we do not know precisely what it is necessary and proportionate to pray for, but the Breath [Pneuma] itself makes intercession with inexpressible groans and sighs. 27 Now the diligent searching of the hearts perceives what the thoughts, purposes and inclinations of the Breath [Pneuma] are, for down from God set apart above, it is striking the mark’, (Romans 8 v 26, 27).   

Paul has said that despite the present suffering, (verse 17, 18), Christians, ‘by means of steadfast endurance’, (verse 25b), eagerly await the end result of their deliverance, namely ‘the full ransom and release of their body’, (verse 23b). But there is more. The Breath of God is joining by taking the initiative and assertively taking hold of helping Christians in their weakness and lack of strength. What does Paul mean when he refers to the Christian’s ‘weakness’? He tells us right away. Christians don’t know ‘precisely what it is necessary and proportionate to pray for’. They don’t know what would really be best for them or what God might be willing to grant them. They are to a great extent still ignorant of the character of God, the reasons for His dealings, the principles of His government, and their own real needs, such that they are sometimes in real, deep perplexity. They are surrounded with trials, exposed to temptations, potentially subject to debilitating illness, and to calamities. Asking for the right things to the right degree and proportion is the difficulty, and it arises in part from the dimness of their vision of heavenly realities in their present state, during which they have to ‘walk by faith, not by sight’. But the Breath is ‘in the middle’ as it were, to intercede. The Breath enters above and beyond to make petitions and make appeals that hit the mark spot on.  

‘The diligent searching of the hearts perceives what the thoughts, purposes and inclinations of the Breath [Pneuma] are’, (verse 27). The ‘diligent searching and examination of hearts’ is an indirect linguistic expression that refers to a particular and unique ability of God. Because neither good angel messengers, nor bad angel messengers, can search into the hearts of human beings. Neither can an individual human being know the heart of another, nor can any individual fully know even his or her own heart - this ‘searching of hearts’ is the prerogative of God. This diligent searching of hearts, of the Christian’s deep inner core, means that God knows ‘what the thoughts, purposes and inclinations of the Breath [Pneuma] are’. The heart constitutes the deep inner core, the ground, of an individual’s thoughts, emotions and intentions and it is where the Breath resides. The Breath is making intercession for the Christian, and God knows and perceives the movement of the Breath, not only because He searches hearts, but also because the Breath is down from God and is striking the mark ‘spot on target’.  

Principles of living a godly life [73] - Present hardship – Future honour [5]

 ‘For we were delivered within confident expectation, but confident expectation being seen is not confident expectation, for who confidently expects for what he sees? 25 But if we are confidently expecting and eagerly expecting what we are not seeing, we eagerly await by means of steadfast endurance’, (Romans 8 v 24, 25). 

‘For we were delivered within confident expectation’, (verse 24). When God brings Christians forth they do indeed enter into deliverance guaranteed by the Messiah. But the culmination and end result of this deliverance will come about in the future, at the end of the present age, when the Messiah will return as King of kings to commence the Millennium Reign. They are delivered away from divine condemnation and they are brought forth at this present time as a new formation. But this is within confident expectation of the completion of their deliverance in the future, that will see ‘the full ransom and release of their body’, (verse 23), when they will be changed in an indivisible moment of time and penetrate the air to enter into the heavenly realm.

But of course, at this present time Christians do not directly observe this end result of their deliverance with their physical eyes. The very definition of ‘confident expectation’ is that they cannot presently see what is expected. Who confidently expects something that they can already see and observe? But if Christians are eagerly expecting something that they cannot directly observe with their own eyes, they eagerly await by means of steadfast endurance. Christians steadfastly endure in their expectation of that which is certain and real. Despite the present suffering, (verse 17, 18), Christians ‘remain under’ eager expectation of the end result of their deliverance, ‘the full ransom and release of their body’.