Title: The Believer's Firm Hope
Content br> The Believer's Firm Hope
Romans 8 is one of the goriest chapters in the New Testament. Notice verses 35?6:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
But over this gory painting of the Christian life Paul splatters the word HOPE with a big red paint brush. For example in verse 37 he shouts, "No! In all these things we are more than conquerors." Not just conquerors, but more than conquerors! Tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword are not just defeated; they are more than defeated: they are turned into servants for our good.
Different Translations
That is the meaning of the all-time favorite verse 28: "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." The versions differ a little bit here. The NASB says, "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." And the KJV says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Same Basic Point
From my study I am inclined to view the KJV as the most faithful to the original wording of Paul. But the difference is not so great that you have to take my word for it I think. All the versions mean basically that God is so supremely in charge of the world that all the things that happen to Christians are ordered in such a way that they serve our good. Tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword all work together for the good of those who love God.
So the rugged hope of the believer is not that we will escape distress or peril or hunger or slaughter, but that Almighty God will make every one of our agonies an instrument of his mercy to do us good. "You meant it for evil," Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, "but God meant it for good." And so it is with every calamity of those who love God. God meant it for good!
The Bigger the Building, the Bigger the Foundation
Six blocks west of here on 7th Street a foundation is being dug for new building. A mammoth mechanized scoop sits in the middle of the lot and scoops out the dirt and drops it into dump trucks to haul away. Around the edges the hole is already about five or six stories deep, I would estimate. What may we infer from this? I would infer that something very big is going to sit on that lot, since a very deep foundation is being dug. The bigger the building, the bigger the foundation needs to be.
The Building of Romans 8:28
When it comes to the architecture of promises, there are not any bigger buildings than Romans 8:28. This structure is absolutely staggering in its size. It is massive. The infinitely wise, infinitely powerful God pledges to make everything beneficial to his people! Not just nice things, but horrible things, like tribulation and distress and peril and slaughter. What brick would you lay on the top of this skyscraper promise to make it taller? "All things" means all things.
If you live inside this massive promise, your life is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. Nothing can blow you over inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28 all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty and straw houses of deadening drugs and tin roofs of retirement plans and cardboard fortifications of anti-ballistic missiles and a thousand other substitutes for Romans 8:28.
Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakable structure of Romans 8:28 everything changes. There comes into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can't be blown over any more. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an absolutely incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life. No promise in all the world surpasses the height and breadth and weight of Romans 8:28.
The Foundation of Romans 8:28
Therefore the foundation of this massive structure must be extraordinarily deep and strong. Indeed it is. And that is what this four week series is about. Verse 29 begins with "for." That means that the basis, the ground, the foundation of this massive structure in Romans 8:28 is found in what follows. And we should not be surprised that it takes an awesome foundation to support an awesome promise.
My goal in these four weeks is to take you on a guided tour of the foundation of the promise of Romans 8:28. My prayer is that your confidence in this promise will grow, and that the renewed stability and depth and freedom and hope and joy of your life will be living proof to the world that our God reigns. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We long for our faith to be strong. Therefore let us give earnest heed to the Word of God.
A Summary Preview of the Foundation
As I understand verse 28, it contains a promise (all things work together for good) and two descriptions of the beneficiaries of the promise (those who love God . . . and those who are called according to his purpose). In describing the beneficiaries of the promise, Paul gives us a little summary preview of the deep foundation of the promise which he will delve into in verses 29 and 30.
Specifically when he says that the beneficiaries are those who are "called according to God's purpose," he points ahead to verses 29 and 30. Verse 29 is an unfolding of "God's purpose" ("Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to) to) to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren"). And verse 30 unfolds the implications of the "calling" in verse 28 ("And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified").
So my plan is to devote this morning's message to Romans 8:28 and its summary foundation, and this evening's lesson to verse 29, and the remaining three weeks morning and evening to verse 30.
The Beneficiaries of the Promise
The question that we begin with in verse 28 is: Who are the beneficiaries of this massive promise? Who may be certain that all the pain in their life is really the wise and good therapy of a sovereign God to bring about their good?
Two Descriptions
Paul gives two answers. Or he describes the one answer from two sides. He defines the beneficiaries of this promise first by what they do toward God, and second by what God did toward them.
All things work together for good, in the first place, "to them that love God." The beneficiaries of this promise are people who love God. This is the first and great commandment, that you love the Lord your God. No eye has seen nor ear heard nor anyone imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Then, in the second place, Paul describes the beneficiaries of this promise as "those who are called according to his purpose." What does it mean to say that in addition to loving God, the beneficiaries of this promise are also "called according to God's purpose"? To answer this question let's look at two passages in Paul which refer to God's call and two which refer to his purpose.
What Does It Mean to Be "Called"?
The closest clue about the meaning of "called" in verse 28 is verse 30 where Paul says, "And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified." What we learn from this verse is that God justifies everyone that he calls. He acquits them. He pardons them. They are treated as righteous. They are his children. "Those whom he called he justified."
Those Who Are Called Are Justified
This means that the call referred to here is not the general call that goes out to all men in the preaching of the gospel. If it were, then all who heard the gospel would be justified. For verse 30 says, "Those whom he called he justified." If everyone who hears Billy Graham calling them to Christ on the television is "called" in the sense of Romans 8:30, then they are all justified too. For "those whom he called he also justified." But Paul plainly teaches that not all who are called in this general sense are justified. "We are justified by faith!" (Romans 5:1). Not all who are called in this general sense have faith, and therefore not all are justified. Yet Paul says in 8:30 that "those who are called ARE justified!"
What Christ Is to Those Who Are Called
He clarifies this for us in 1 Corinthians 1:23?4. "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Notice carefully that Paul preaches Christ to Jews and Gentiles indiscriminately. In that sense all are called. But that is not the sense in which Paul uses the word. He says that out from among those who hear the general call there are those who are "called." And the difference is that those who are called in this narrower sense stop regarding Christ as a stumbling block and as folly. Instead they regard him as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Verse 24: "But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, C