Chapter 6: should obey the desires of it" (the body). The beasts and birds follow
should obey the desires of it" (the body). The beasts and birds follow the instincts and desires of their bodies, being without spirit, conscience or sin. But man cannot do so. For he has,--yea, he is, essentially a spirit,--though he dwells in a bodily tabernacle, and has a conscience, under the eye of which all his consents or refusals pass, and that constantly. And to let his unredeemed body govern him, is to fall far below the very beasts: for he lets sin reign in his mortal body, when he lets the lusts of the body control his decisions.
2. Now God says the "doings" of the body are to be put to death. Not that our bodies are not dear to God. They are,--and if we are Christ's our bodies are members of Christ (I Cor. 6:15). But they are not redeemed as yet. And God has left us in these unredeemed bodies, that we may learn--(1) the badness of our old self-life, as we see that in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing; (2) the exceeding sinfulness of sin,--and learn to hate and abhor it; (3) the sweet and blessed path of relying on the indwelling Holy Spirit,--nay, even of using His Almighty and willing power by acts of simple faith; for it reads, "If WE, by the Spirit, put to death the doings of the body."
For we must note most carefully that a holy life is to be lived by us. It is not that we have any power,--we have none. But God's Spirit dwells in us for the express object of being railed "upon by us to put to death the doings of the body." Self-control is one of that sweet cluster called "the fruit of the Spirit," in Galatians 5:22.
How confidently Paul walked in this power of the Spirit! "In the Holy Spirit," he says, in II Corinthians 6:6,--"in pureness," etc. And again, "I will not be brought under the power of any" bodily desire,--however lawful. And again, "I buffet my body, and bring it into subjection; lest, having preached to others, I myself should be rejected" (I Cor. 6:13; 9:27).
A holy life without a controlled body is an absolute contradiction; not to be dreamed of for a moment. Indeed, God goes further here, and says, "Ye shall live,--if ye by the Spirit put to death the doings of the body": the opposite path being, "If ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die!"
When we announce that the Scripture teaching is that walking by the Holy Spirit has taken the place of walking under the rule of the Mosaic law, there remains to be examined, and that most carefully, just what walking by the Spirit means.
1. It does not mean to desert the use of our faculties of moral perception or of moral judgment.
Although there doubtless are occasions in which the believer, being filled with the Spirit, acts in a wholly unanticipated way; and although there may be times when he will be carried quite out of himself in ecstasies of joy or love; and although the believer walking by the Spirit will normally be conscious of the almighty power within, of triumph over the world and the flesh: nevertheless the feet of the believer will never be swept from the path of conscious moral determination. He will always know that so far as decisions of moral matters are concerned, he has still the sense of moral accountability, or, perhaps better, responsibility. The believer's own conscience will protest against any such letting go of himself as has been unfortunately found throughout Church history when people have submitted themselves to such ecstatic states that moral judgment and self-control were cast to the winds.
We do indeed read of most remarkable experiences, and that in deeply approved saints, in which their spirits were overwhelmed by the vision of Divine things, and we must adduce that in such experiences they were rapt and ecstatic; but never to the losing of that self-control which, we read in Galatians 5:22, is a fruit of the Spirit. Even in the exercise of the gifts spoken of by the apostle in I Corinthians 12 to 14, it is definitely declared, "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets."
It is in the abandonment of the sense of moral responsibility into unscriptural surrender of the mental and spiritual faculties,--into other control than self-control directed by the Holy Spirit, that such awful extravagances have occurred in Church history.
2. To be led by the Spirit does indeed involve the surrender of our wills to God. But God, on His side, does not crush into fatalistic abandon those very faculties with which He has endowed men. On the contrary, the surrendered saint immediately finds His faculties marvelously quickened,--his faculties both of mind and of sensibility. All the powers of his soul-life (which include his intellect, tastes, feelings, emotions, and recollective memory) are renewed. His will being yielded to God, God now "works in Him to will" as well as "to do of His good pleasure,"--in which the surrendered saint rejoices.
But while it is indeed God who works in us even to will, yet it is true that walking in the Spirit is still our own choice: "If ye by the Spirit put to death the doings of the body"--we read. The Holy Spirit is infinitely ready, but God leads rather than compels.
There is deep mystery, no doubt, in the great double fact of God is working in us to will, and on the other hand, of our choosing His will, moment by moment. We can only affirm that both are taught in Scripture, and we ourselves know both to be blessedly true.
Verses 14, 15: For as many as are led by [the] Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye received not a spirit of bondage again unto fear;--Let us look first at the words "sons of God"; and second at what is meant by being "led by the Spirit"; third, let us see that our being thus in the Spirit's sphere and control is the proof of the reality of our sonship.
1. "Sons" means "adult-sons," sons come of age (see footnote, verse 15). The term, when referring to saints, is applied in Paul's epistles both to Christ (Rom. 1:3, 4, 9); and to those associated with Him since His resurrection (Gal. 4:4-7); therefore to His own saints, sealed by the Spirit--those sons whom God is "bringing unto glory."
2. Being "led by the Spirit" does not refer here to service, nor to "guidance" in particular paths. It refers to that general control by the blessed Spirit of those born of the Spirit, living by the Spirit, in the Spirit. He is the sphere and mode of their being, and is their seal unto the day of redemption.
3. That our being thus in the Spirit's sphere and control is the proof of the reality of our sonship, is evident from what has been said; but let us avoid the thought that assurance of our sonship is based on our perfect obedience to the Spirit. Nothing is based upon us. If one of God's true saints disobeys, it is the office of that same Spirit to convict him of his sin, interceding in Him "according to God" (Rom. 8:27), while Christ intercedes for him above (I John 2:1).
Israel received a spirit of bondage when they were placed under the Law. And how sad that perhaps the most of Christians regard themselves as under the Law and so under bondage. In this they are like the world, which fears Christ as (they think) a hard taskmaster. Now the result of a spirit of bondage was fear. When Israel walked in the wilderness with Jehovah dwelling in darkness in the holy of holies in the tabernacle, they were taught to fear. For Jehovah was teaching a sinful people His holiness and separateness from them, and how to draw near Him only by sacrifices.
But when Christ came, all was different. He came not noticing or marking sin. Quickly the common people became glad. Proud religion called Him "a friend of publicans and sinners"--and He was. We have no words to express the limitless graciousness of God manifested in the flesh--in Christ.
But how much beyond even those favored to see "the days of the Son of Man" on earth is the position of those in Christ Risen: sin put away forever, released from the old Adam life and responsibilities, and now the Spirit sent witnessing in our hearts--the very Spirit of God's Son. A spirit of fear and bondage is as out of place now as if one caught up with Christ in the Rapture were afraid to face God, in whose Son he is!
Ye received a spirit of adult-sonship, [177] whereby we cry Abba, Father!
Verse 16: The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are born-ones of God.
The manner of communication between the Holy Spirit and our spirit is a profound mystery. Indeed all man's vaunted knowledge is challenged by Jehovah's word to Job: "Who hath given understanding to the mind?" We do not speak now with the mere purpose of ridiculing man's vaunted knowledge, but simply to state facts. Human philosophy and science know absolutely nothing about the quality or nature of spirit.
God, in this passage in Romans, does not address Himself at all to human intellect, but to the consciousness of His saints. [178] The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit. There is no certainty comparable with this!
"With our spirit"--We are not told that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit, as if the knowledge that we are God's children were some unheard of, undreamed matter to our own spirits. But He beareth witness with our spirit, showing that the child of God, having had communicated to him God's own nature (II Pet. 1:4), Christ's own life (I Cor. 6:17), is fundamentally, necessarily conscious of the glorious fact of filial relationship to God. Along with this consciousness, the Spirit indwelling witnesses, enabling us, moving us, to cry, "Abba, Father." There is life before this, just as the new-born babe has life and breath before it forms a syllable. It is significant that the Spirit indwelling is the power whereby we cry, Abba, Father,--by His enlightenment. His encouragement, His energy.
The operations of a man's mind either in philosophy or in science constitute an eternal quest for certainty. The conclusions of philosophy are based upon theories and hypotheses and are always being challenged and perpetually overthrown by succeeding new schemes of philosophy. And even the dearest discoveries of science await new explanations--of the very constitution of the universe they are invented in.
But with the child of God--the born-again family, there is no such uncertainty! A child of God knows. And the blessed Holy Spirit, by whose inscrutable power he was born again, keeps forever witnessing with his consciousness,--and that through no processes of his mind, but directly, that he is a born-one of God.
This is most natural and could not be otherwise. Children in an earthly family grow up together as a family, their parents addressing them as children, their brothers and sisters knowing them to be such. It is the most beautiful thing in the natural world!
How much more certain, yea, how much more wonderful and beautiful, is the constantly witnessed relationship of His children to God: the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are born-ones
[179] of God. Believers will find themselves calling God Father, in their prayers and communion. This witness will spring up of itself in the heart that has truly rested in Christ and His shed blood.
Conversely, if we find ourselves always in our prayers saying Lord, Lord, and never Father, we should be concerned, and should go back to the beginnings of things,--that is, to the record concerning our guilt, in Romans Three, and our helplessness, and to the fact that God has set forth Christ as a propitiation; and resting there, in His shed blood, we should boldly call God Father, and cultivate that habit.
Nor, in our judgment, should Christians permit themselves habits of address in prayer not authorized and exemplified in Scripture. Our Lord Jesus prayed saying, "Father," "My Father," "O righteous Father." He did not say, "Almighty God," nor did He use the name "Jehovah," as Israel did in the Psalms and elsewhere. He said, "Father." And He said to us, "When ye pray, say, Father." (Note Luke 11:2 in the Revised Version.) "We have our access," says Paul, "in one Spirit unto the Father." "To us there is one God, the Father" (I Cor. 8:6). Today, also, some devoted Christians address God as "Father-God." But why not say, "Father," as our Lord directed and the Spirit witnesses? To say "Father-God," makes the first word an adjective!
Some may say, "It is foolish and unnecessary to make such discriminations." But if God "sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father," we speak to the Father as did our beloved Savior Himself. This is infinite grace, and should be appreciated and cultivated by us. Moreover, if you were going into the presence of the King of England, you would take thought for a proper form of address. How infinitely rather when you address God!
Verse 17: If born-ones, then heirs--We have noted that the word for children here, tekna, is different from the word for adult-sons (huioi) of verse 14. The word indicates the fact that we are really begotten of God through His Word by His Spirit, and are partakers of His nature. Heirship is from relationship. The young ruler who came running to the Lord saying, "What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" was a perfect example of a legalist. Indeed, Nicodemus, beloved man, "understood not these things"--of being born again. Now, if a man is really a child of God by begetting and birth, he becomes indissolubly God's heir! This is a fact of such overwhelming magnitude that our poor hearts hardly grasp it. It is said of no angel, cherub, or seraph, that he is an heir of God. Believer, if you will reflect, meditate deeply, on this, I am born of God; I am one of His heirs! earthly things will shrink to nothing. Now, J. D. Rockefeller, Jr., has inherited his father's wealth: why? Because he was his father's born son. The young ruler said, "What must I do to inherit?" a contradiction in itself!
Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ--I could not have the presumption to write these words if they were not in God's holy Book. That a guilty, lost, wretched child of Adam the First should have written of him, a joint-heir with Christ, the Eternal Maker of all things, the Well-beloved of the Father, the Righteous One, the Prince of life--only God the God of all grace could prepare such a destiny for such a creature!
And, we may humbly say, perhaps, that God could only do this by joining us in eternal union with His beloved Son, as the Last Adam, the Second Man; having released us from Adam the First and all his connections, at the cross, and having placed us in Christ Risen, in all the boundless and everlasting rights of His dear Son, whom He has "appointed heir of all things!" Ages after ages of ever-increasing blessing forever and forever and forever, lie in prospect for believers--for the joint-heirs!
If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.--Here two schools of interpretation part company, one saying boldly that all the saints are designated, and that all shall reign with Christ; the other, that reigning with Christ depends upon voluntary choosing of a path of suffering with Him. Well, the Greek word eiper translated "if so be," will support either of these interpretations. [180]
"That we may also be glorified together." This is the key to our question: WHO are to be glorified with Christ when He comes? In Chapter Five Paul says (and that of, and to, all the saints), "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." And in II Thessalonians 1:10 we read, "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed." And in I Corinthians 15:23: "Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's, at His coming." And again (Col. 3:4): "When Christ our life shall be manifested, then shall ye also [evidently all the saints!] with Him be manifested in glory." Again (I John 3:2): "Now are we [all the saints] children of God . . . We know that, if He shall be manifested, we [all the saints] shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is!"
Such passages leave no room at all for a "partial rapture!" All the saints will share Christ's glory.
Now, as to places in the Kingdom, what reward we shall have, what responsibilities of kingdom government (in the 1000 years), we shall each be able to bear, or be entitled to, our "suffering with" Christ Jesus, seems to determine. "If we died with Him [as did all believers] we shall [all] also live with Him [in glory]; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (II Tim. 2:12, R. V.)
Now the Greek word used in Romans 8:17 for "suffer with" (sumpascho) is used just once more in the New Testament: in I Corinthians 12:26: "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." Here Paul is speaking of the Body of Christ into which all believers have been baptized by the Spirit (I Cor. 12:12, 13): "As the [human] body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ; For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one Body." Here note all believers are in this Body. And then, verse 26: "Whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it." Here (and mark again this is the only occurrence of the word besides Rom. 8:17) "suffering with" is not a voluntary matter, but one necessitated by the relationship. If someone should tread upon your foot, your whole body would be exercised. So it is with Christ and His members.
Now as to the other word, of II Timothy 2:12: "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him"; this word is entirely different: but (and note this), the subject of which it treats is different. Being a joint-heir with Christ, and being a member of His Body, and therefore, sharing necessarily those sufferings that every member of a living Christ will suffer in a world where Satan is prince, is one thing; gaining the ability to have victory over Satan and the world, entering gladly into the conflict those sufferings involve, and enduring, is perhaps an additional thing, fitting one for reigning with Christ, though all His members are joint-heirs with Him.
(Notice "endure"--(Gr. hupomeno)--of II Timothy 2:12 in several instances: Heb. 12:2, 3, 7; Jas. 1:12; 5:11; I Cor. 13:7.)
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope: 21 because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For unto [a state of] hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
25 But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Verse 18: The word I reckon (logidzomai), is a favorite with Paul. It expresses faith in action. Paul had known abundant sufferings: read II Corinthians Eleven, and all his epistles. But like our Lord, "the File-Leader" (archegos--Heb. 12:2) of the column of believers, who endured the cross in view of the joy set before Him, despising the shame, Paul "reckoned" in view of the coming glory: which should be the constant attitude of all of us.
The sufferings of this present time--"This present time"; it is necessary to have God's estimate of these days in which we live or we will be deluded into man's false thoughts. Note: "this present evil age" (Gal. 1:4); "the days are evil"; "this darkness" (Eph. 5:16; 6:12); "the distress that is upon us"; "the fashion of this world is passing away" (I Cor. 7:26, 31).
Are not to be compared with the glory--These Words need to be pondered in view of passages like Heb. 11:35-38; "tortured . . . mockings and scourgings . . . bonds and imprisonment, stoned . . . sawn asunder . . . tempted . . . slain with the sword . . . went about in sheepskins, in goatskins . . . destitute, afflicted, evil-treated . . . wandering [through] the earth." In spite of the horrors of the days of Nero, Diocletian and the rest; and the nameless terrors of the Spanish Inquisition: the "glory which shall be revealed" so swallows up these brief earthly troubles, that they shall not be named nor remembered in that day when Christ shall come.
It is difficult, impossible, to depict in language all of, or any real measure of, what is meant by the glory which shall be revealed toward us. In fact, as we know, we are to be glorified with Christ, to share His glory, and appear with Him in glory. [181] In Colossians 3:4 we read, "When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory"; and in II Thessalonians 1:10: "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed." Such passages show that not only will the saints behold Christ's glory, but, beholding, they will share that glory, and be glorified with Him. This is the great object before God's mind now, to "bring many sons unto glory" (Heb. 2:10), that they may be conformed to Christ's image (Rom. 8:29).
In constant view of that glory to be revealed in and through the Church, the sufferings which God called the saints to go through, no matter what they were, seemed as nothing.
Verse 19: For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.
The world knows nothing of this astonishing verse. All the saints should always have it in remembrance! Man's philosophy and science, taught in their schools, continually prate of "evolution" and "progress" in the present creation. And they go back in pure imagination millions of years and forward millions of years, telling you confidently how things came to be, and when, and what they will come to be; but they know nothing. Here God tells us unto what creation is coming--for what it is waiting: "earnestly." Whether inanimate things on earth (for even the rocks and hills shall sing for joy shortly!) or whether the moving creatures on earth or sea; or whether, may we say, the hosts on high--all are waiting in expectation for that "unveiling of the sons of God." For the word here translated "revealing" is apokalupsis, a removal of a covering,--as when some wonderful statue has been completed and a veil thrown over it, people assemble for the "unveiling" of this work of art. It will be as when sky rockets are sent up on a festival night: rockets which, covered with brown paper, seem quite common and unattractive, but up they are sent into the air and then they are revealed in all colors of beauty, and the multitude waiting below shout in admiration. Now the saints are wrapped up in the common brown paper of flesh, looking outwardly like other folks. But the whole creation is waiting for their unveiling at Christ's coming, for they are connected with Christ, one with Him, and are to be glorified with Him at His coming.
Verse 20: For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope:
Now God, in His infinite wisdom, thus subjected the creation, [182] --that is, the earth. "The whole creation" must refer to the earth, for the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the holy angels were not "subjected to vanity"!
Vanity--Here look back to the garden of Eden, and to Adam's first sin, the judgment of which fell not upon the man, but we read: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." Here we find God subjecting the whole creation to "vanity,"--that is, to unattainment. The book of Ecclesiastes dwells long, with a mournful tone upon this vanity, this unattainment; things "putting forth the tender leaves of hope" only to have the "sudden frost" of disease and death end earthly hopes. "Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding," as David said in his great prayer (I Chron. 29:15).
Not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope--God had a vast plan, reaching on into eternity, and "hope" lies ahead for creation: for the Millennium is coming, and after that, a new heaven and earth.
Verse 21: Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption--Now although we who are in Christ are new creatures, yet God has left our bodies as the link with the present "groaning" creation. Meanwhile, how "the bondage of corruption" appears on every side! Death--are not all creatures in terror of it, seeking to escape it? Every decaying carcass of poor earth-creatures speaks of the bondage of corruption." What ruin man's sin has effected throughout the creation, as well as upon himself! It was God's good pleasure, that when man sinned and became estranged from his God, all creation, which was under him, should be subjected to the "bondage of corruption" along with him, in decay and disease and suffering, death, and destruction, everywhere,--of bondage, with no deliverer.
Into the liberty of the glory of the children of God--As Paul shows) we already have liberty in Christ,--the liberty of grace. The "liberty of the glory of the children of God" awaits Christ's second coming. How blessed it is to know that into that glorious liberty, creation, which has shared "the bondage of corruption," will be brought along with us!
Contrast the state of creation now with the Millennial order described in Isaiah 11:6-9: The wolf dwelling with the lamb the leopard with the kid; the calf, the young lion, and the fatling together, and the little child leading them. The cow and the bear feeding, their young ones lying down together; the lion eating straw like the ox; children playing over the serpent's hole: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea."
Verse 22: For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
We know--Always this is the expression of Christian knowledge. This earth's poets, philosophers, scientists, face to face with death with a capital D,--in every crushed ocean shell, in every rotten log, in the very minor keys in which the voices of beasts and birds are pitched, seem never even to get a glimpse of the bondage of corruption in which all creation is groaning; but talk in sprightly ways of "progress," of "evolution"! How far from understanding the creation around them are human beings all,--except Spirit-taught Christians! "Their own poets" write thus,--of a "groaning creation":
"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven--
All's well with the world!"
To think of writing "All's well," in a world where all are dying! Christians, and only Christians see the present creation with new vision, as the work of their dear Father. As Wade Robinson's hymn says,
"Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green!
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o'erflow,
Flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine."
Groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now--Ever since Adam's sin, the curse lies on all the earth. The earth and the creatures are away from God. All is estranged, consequently "groaning" and "travailing" are everywhere. (But travailing, though painful, looks toward a birth!)
Until now--No "evolution," "progress,"--but the opposite,--until Christ shall come with the "liberty of the glory."
Verse 23: And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body.
Let us note that the Spirit does not take us out of sympathy with groaning creation, but rather supports us in such sympathy! Being ourselves, as to the body, in a groaning condition,--"longing to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (II Cor. 5:2) we are able to sympathize with the creatures about us, which is a precious thing! No one should feel as tender as should the child of God toward suffering creation. No one should be as gentle. Not only should this be true about us as concerns unsaved people: as Paul says, "Be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men," but, I say, we should be tender and patient toward animals, for they are in a dying state--until our bodies are redeemed.
What a marvelous position, then, is the Christian's! On the heavenly side, the side of grace, in Christ, sharing in His risen life, delivered from sin and law and all worldly things. On the other hand, not yet partaker of glory (though expecting and awaiting it), but kept in an unredeemed body,--not fitted yet for heaven: and in which the longing spirit, knowing itself "meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light," can only "groan"!
This groaning is not at all that of the "wretched man" of Romans Seven. For not only is spiritual victory known; but the "redemption body" is longed for and awaited as that which the Lord's coming will surely bring!
Thus, then, does the Christian become the true connection of groaning creation with God! He is redeemed, heavenly; but his body is unredeemed, earthly. Yet the blessed Holy Spirit as the "firstfruits" of coming bodily redemption, dwells in him. Thus the believer and the whole creation look toward one goal the liberty of the coming glory of the sons of God! [183]
Ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan--Here then is a wonderful scene: (1) new creatures in Christ, whose citizenship is in heaven; (2) the presence of the Spirit within them as "firstfruits" of their coining inheritance--witnessing of it, giving them to taste of its glory; (3) a state of groaning despite all this; (4) a waiting for bodily redemption.
Waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body--The instructed Christian, knowing that his body belongs to the Lord, and is not yet redeemed, longs for, yearns for, groans for that day when his body will be placed in a position of openly acknowledged sonship and glory, even as his spirit now, is. Till that day he cannot be satisfied.
This scene is deeply touching. One who, redeemed, belongs in heaven, yet kept in a body in which he groans with groaning creation. Then--amazing goodness! the blessed Spirit, we may say, represents God's tender feeling toward His creation, abiding, as He does, in us the while our bodies are not redeemed. We repeat and repeat that the Christian's hope is not disembodiment, or mere "going to heaven." For, knowing that "our citizenship is in heaven; we patiently wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory." There is an element, we fear, of cowardice, as well as of unbelief in setting our hope on "getting to heaven," and leaving, so to speak, our body behind. God began with man's body in Eden (Gen. 2); and He will end with redeeming our bodies. The heart of God and of Christ,--yea of the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:11) is set upon that. Let our hearts, also, be set upon it.
Verse 24: For unto [a state of] hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
This places us, along with all creation, in hope. For, as verse 24 announces, unto [a state of] hope were we saved. There is a longing for and expectation of something better, no matter what spiritual blessing comes to the believer. This that is longed for, is, of course, "the liberty of the glory," that belongs, by God's grace, to the children of God (verse 21). Creation will share this "liberty." Therefore we have a double feeling toward creation: sympathy with its suffering, and joy in its prospect of sharing the "liberty of the glory" into which we shall shortly come.
Verse 25: But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Now hope is expecting something better! The very fact that we have not seen it realized as yet, begets within us that grace which is so precious to God--patience. But note, it is not patience in the abstract that is set forth here: but patient waiting for the coming liberty of the glory of the children of God.
26 And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered! 27 and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God.
28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, to them that according to His purpose are called ones. 29 For whom He foreknew He also foreordained conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born among many brethren! 30 and whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Verse 26: And in like manner also--We have just read that "we that have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves," waiting for that blessed day of "the liberty of the glory of the sons of God." These words "in like manner," refer to that operation within us of the Spirit, which makes us in real sympathy, one with the groaning creation about us. "In like manner," then, with this truly wonderful help, the Spirit "helps our infirmity,"--in its ignorant and infirm dealing with God. Note, the word "infirmity" is singular number: for we have nothing but infirmity! We know not how to pray as we ought. Oh, beware of the glib and intimate chatter of the "Modernist" preacher in his prayers! He would flatter both the Almighty and his hearers, and most of all, himself, in his "beautiful" and "eloquent" addresses to God! Not so with Paul, and the real saints of God, who have the Holy Ghost. There is with them the sense of utter and boundless need, and along with this the sense of ignorance and inability. Yet, still, bless God! there is, with all this, the sense of the limitless help of the Holy Spirit!
The Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered--We know that Christ maketh intercession for us at the right hand of God, but here the Spirit is making intercession within us: The Spirit, who knows the vast abysmal need of every one of us, knows that need to the least possible particular.
Groanings which cannot be uttered--expresses at once the vastness of our need, our utter ignorance and inability, and the infinite concern of the blessed indwelling Spirit for us. "Groanings"--what a word! and to be used of the Spirit of the Almighty Himself! How shallow is our appreciation of what is done, both by Christ for us, and by the Spirit within us!
Which cannot be uttered--Here then, are needs of our, of which our minds know nothing, and which our speech could not utter if we could perceive those needs. But it is part of God's great plan in our salvation that this effectual praying should have its place--praying, the very meaning of which we cannot grasp. Men of God have testified to the spirit of prayer prostrating them into deep and often long-continued "groanings." We believe that such consciousness of the Spirit's praying within us is included in this verse, but the chief or principal part of the Spirit's groaning within us, perhaps never reaches our spirit's consciousness.
Verse 27: And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God.
It is God the Father here that is "searching the hearts." How we used to shrink from the thought of such Divine searching! But here God is "searching hearts" to know what is the mind of the indwelling, holy Spirit concerning a saint, to know what the Spirit groans for, for that saint; in order that He may supply it.
For in the plan of salvation, God the Father is the Source, Christ the Channel, and the Spirit the Agent.
Because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God--We feel that the introduction of the words "the will of" before the word God, merely obscures the meaning. "According to God"--what an all-inclusive, blessed expression, enwrapping us as to our salvation and blessing, wholly in Divine love and power. We know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit makes intercession in us, "according to God," according to His nature (of which we are partakers); according to our needs, which He discerns; according to our dangers, which He foresees--according to all the desires He has toward us.
Verse 28: And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good--The words we know are used about thirty times as the expression of the common knowledge of the saints of God as such, in the Epistles: (in Romans, five times)--indicating always Christian knowledge; also I Corinthians 8:4, I John 5:19,--and John 21:24, are perfect examples. Lodge members, having been "initiated," go about as those that "know." The Christian is traveling to glory along with a blessed company that can say "We know," in an infinitely higher and surer sense. [184] And here, what a knowledge! that to them that love God all things work together for good!
Now as to them that love God John tells us in his first Epistle, "We love, because He first loved us"; and, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us"; and "We know and have believed the love which God hath in our case." Real faith in the God who gave His Son, will, Paul tells the Galatians (5:6)), be "working through love." Only those can and do really love God whose hearts have been "sprinkled from an evil conscience"--delivered from fear of God's just judgment. The question therefore, comes right back to this: Have we believed, as guilty lost sinners, on this propitiation by the blood of God's Son on the cross? Is that our only hope? If so, I John 4:16 becomes true: "We know and have believed the love which God hath in our case," and verse 19 follows: "We love, because he first loved us." We cannot work up love for God, but His redeeming love for us, believed in, becomes the eternal cause and spring of our love to God.
Now we find in Romans 8:28 a great marvel: all things work together for good to these believing lovers of God. This involves that billion billion control of God's providence,--of the most infinitesimal things--to bring them about for "good" to God's saints. When we reflect on the innumerable "things" about us,--forces seen and unseen of the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds; of man at enmity with God; of Satan, and his principalities and powers, in deadly array; in the uncertainty and even treachery of those near and dear to us, and even of professed Christians, and of our own selves,--which we cannot trust for a moment; upon our unredeemed bodies; upon our general complete helplessness:--then, to have God say, "All things are working together for your good,"--reveals to us a Divine providence that is absolutely limitless! The book of Proverbs sets forth just such a God: for it describes the certain end, good or bad, of the various paths of men on earth--every minute detail ordered of God. So also Ephesians (1:11): "The purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will"; and David: "All things are Thy servants" (Ps. 119:91); as also the whole prophetic Word,--yea, the whole Word of God; for the God of Providence is in all of it!
For good--Dark things, bright things; happy things, sad things; sweet things, bitter things; times of prosperity, times of adversity. The "great woman," the Shunammite, with her one child lying at home dead, answers Elisha's question, "Is it well with the child?": "It is well." "A soft pillow for a tired heart," Romans 8:28 was called by our beloved Brother R. A. Torrey.
To them that are called according to His purpose--We come now up on the high, celestial mountains of Divine Sovereign election, and find those who love God are further defined as those that are "called" (not "invited," [185] but given a Divine elective calling) according to His Purpose. Meditation upon the purpose of the eternal God greatens every soul thus occupied. God is infinite; man, a bit of dust. If God had a purpose, a fixed intention, it will come to pass, for He has limitless resources,--as David says, "All things are Thy servants."
We have been dealing in the first part of the chapter with the human will and its consent to walk by the Spirit. Not so from the 28th verse to the chapter's end. It will be all God from now on! Purpose means an intelligent decision which the will is bent to accomplish. The Greek word, prothesis, is used twelve times in the New Testament. As to man, the word is seen to indicate what he is entirely unable to carry through, as in Acts 27:13: They supposed "that they had obtained their purpose," but the ship was wrecked. In the saints, their purpose is carried on by Divine grace, often with many failures: Acts 11:23, "He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord." And in II Timothy 3:10, Paul refers Timothy to that "manner of life, purpose, faith," which the apostle had shown at Ephesus, a purpose carried out to final victory in finishing his course. But, as he says, "By the grace of God I am what I am."
In God, however, purpose is absolute,--wholly apart from contingencies. In the very next occurrence after Romans 8:28 we read, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand"--everything subordinated, and the end predicted. We read also in Ephesians 3:11 of a "purpose of the ages" which God has ordained and will carry through, just as our salvation is referred to as "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the times of the ages" (II Tim. 1:9).
Therefore we beg the reader in examining the great verses 29 and 30, to distinguish the things that differ, utterly refusing to confuse or mix them: (1) First, we shall find many Scriptures in which the consent of man's will is asked, and blessing is contingent upon his consent; and some ("rocky ground people) will receive the Word "immediately with joy, and for awhile endure," but in time of tribulation or persecution "fall away." (2) Second, we shall find plainly written in Scripture the purpose of God according to which He works effectually; and all His elect are brought safely in, and there is no separating them from His love which was given them in Christ Jesus, in whom they were "chosen before the foundation of the world."
Now do not seek to mix these two things; and still more emphatically we say, do not try to "reconcile" them! Profitless controversy and partisan feeling will be the only result. Who told us to "reconcile" in our little minds, these seemingly contradictory things? Have we ceased to believe where we do not understand?
Every system of theology undertakes to subject the words of God to categories and catalogs of the human intellect. Now, if you undertake to "reconcile" God's sovereign election with His free offer of salvation to all, you must sacrifice one truth or the other. Our poor minds may not "reconcile" them both, but our faith knows them both, and holds both, to be true! And Scripture is addressed to faith, not to reason.
Verse 29: For whom He foreknew He also foreordained conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born among many brethren.
For whom He foreknew--This for looks back at the word purpose, and opens out that great word before us.
And first we have, foreknew. This foreknowledge of God.--what is it? In seeking its meaning we dare not turn to men's ideas, but to Scripture only. [186] In Amos 1:2 to 2:8, Jehovah gives in detail His exact knowledge of the sins and of the coming judgments of Syria, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab; and then also of Israel. But to Israel He says, "You only have I known, of all the families of the earth." What did such language mean? That He had acquaintanceship with "the whole family which He brought up out of the land of Egypt." Of Israel again--especially the godly Remnant, He speaks: "God did not cast off His people which He foreknew." Now, even of Christ it is written in I Peter 1:20, "He was foreknown indeed before the foundations of the world." This is the same Greek word as in Romans 8:29. Now Christ was the Eternal Son of God, the Eternal Word. But, "The Word become flesh": that occurred when He came into the world. And as thus manifested, "He was foreknown." It was not a mere Divine pre-knowledge that He would be manifested; but a pre-acquaintanceship before His manifestation,--with Him as such! From which "foreknowledge," or pre-acquaintance, flowed the most intimate prophecies of Him, His lowly coming, His rejection, and the manner of His death. All this is wrapped up in this word foreknowledge!
He also foreordained--Foreknowledge is first--by the God that "calleth the things not being, being" (4.17, Gr.). Then, the marking out a destiny befitting such foreknown ones. The words "to be" need not be here: but we may read, foreordained conformed to the image of His Son. Here we come to words of plain meaning, but limitless reach! Christ the Son, for whom and by whom all things were made; Christ the Son, the appointed Heir of all things; Christ the Son--center of all the Divine counsels! Christ the Son, God's Son, the Son of His love! Conformed to His image,--nothing lacking, nothing short: like Christ--conformed to His image: in glory, in love, in holiness, in beauty, in grace, in humility, in tenderness, in patience! Our very bodies at last alive unto God! For we know that this also shall be: "When Christ, our life shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory!" And thus to be with Christ, like Him forever and ever! Only God can show, and only simple faith respond to, grace such as this!
That He might be the First-born among many brethren--In Christ, like Christ, brethren there with the First-born! This is the highest place, shall we not say, that God could give creatures! God puts us there: and of Christ it is written, "He is not ashamed to call them brethren"; because we are "all of one with Christ! (Heb. 2:11). "This, in fact, is the thought of grace, not to bless us only by Jesus, but to bless us with Him".
Verse 30: And whom He foreordained, them He also called--Since we are here considering God's unfolding of His purpose (of verse 28), we must regard called from God's side,--who counts things not being, being. Further, calling is here that determination by God of the sphere and mode of life those should have whom He foreknew and foreordained. This "calling" belongs to Eternity past; as "calling," for example in II Thessalonians 2:14; Gal. 1:6, belongs to experience in present time.
And whom He called, them He also justified--God does not here speak of that entering upon justification by faith--of which this Epistle is full. For only believing souls are accounted righteous, justified, as we well know. Yet in God's counsels are all His elect already before Him, accounted righteous--justified. This is wonderful truth: and its power to stay the soul will be seen in the last part of this great Chapter!
And whom He justified, them He also glorified--This is the necessary end of this amazing series--glorified! Thus must these foreknown ones be ever, before God, since God foreknew them in Christ. None has yet been glorified in manifestation. Indeed, Christ Himself has not yet been "manifested"; although He has entered into His glory. And it is in this glorified Christ that God chose us long ago,--before the foundation of the world! God, who could thus connect us with Christ, can also say of us, I have glorified them! And so the saints go on to a glory already true of them by the word of their God!
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He that even spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? [It is] God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth? 34 Christ Jesus [God's own Son] is the one that died,--yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who is also making intercession for us! 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written,
On account of thee we are killed all day long:
We were reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!
38 For I am persuaded, 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, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Concerning this great passage, Bengel says, "We can no farther go, think, wish." Olshausen emphasizes "the profound and colossal character of the thought"; and Brown says: "This whole passage, to verse 34 and even to the end of the chapter, strikes all thoughtful interpreters and readers as transcending almost everything in language."
Paul here arrives at the mountain-height of Christian position! And that, so to speak, by way of experience. He does, indeed, in the word "us" bring all the saints with him. There was first our state of awful guilt--and Christ's work for us, and justification thereby. Then came the knowledge of indwelling sin, and the Spirit's work within us, and deliverance from sin's power thereby. Now he has arrived upon the immovable mountain-top of Divine sovereign election, and he sees God Himself for us! Not at all meaning, here, God merely on our side in our struggles, but God's uncaused unalterable attitude with respect to those in Christ. God is for them: nothing in time or in eternity to come has anything whatever to do with matters here. Our weak hearts, prone to legality and unbelief, with great difficulty receive these mighty words: God is for us. Place the emphasis here where God places it--on this great word "for." God is for His elect. They have failed, but He is for them. They are ignorant, but He is for them. They have not yet brought forth much fruit, but He is for them. If our hearts once surrender to the stupendous fact that there are those whom God will eternally be for, that there is an electing act and attitude of God, in which He eternally commits Himself to His elect,--without conditions, without requirements; whose lives do not at all affect the fact that God is for them--then we shall be ready to magnify the God of all grace!
Verse 31: What then shall we say to these things? By "these things" Paul evidently indicates not only the whole process of our salvation by Christ, from Chapter Three onward, with that great deliverance by the help of the Holy Spirit set forth in this Eighth Chapter; but he also points most directly to what He has been telling us of the purpose of God: "Whom He foreknew, foreordained, called, justified, glorified!" Now it is a sad fact that many dear saints have said many poor, even lamentable things, to these things of Divine sovereign foreknowledge and election. Some, indeed, will not hear "these things," as Paul sets them forth. Let us not be of this company! What shall we say to these things? To doubt them is to deny them: for God asserts them--from foreknowledge to glorification. To question whether they apply to us is to question--not election, but the words "whosoever will," of the gospel invitation. You can let God be absolutely sovereign in election, and yet, if you find the door opened by this sovereign God, and "whosoever will" written over it by that same sovereign God, by all means enter! Set your seal to this, that God is true, by receiving His witness (John 3:33). Do not allow any "system of theology" to disturb you for one moment! What will you say to these things? Say, with Paul: God is for me: He spared not His own Son--for me! This question, What shall we say to these things? is a testing word, as well, as a triumphant word.
Concerning "these things," if we simply rejoice, with Paul, saying, "God is for me, who is against me?" it is well! But if we cannot rejoice in Divine, sovereign foreknowledge, foreordination, and calling, this also is the fruit of subtle unbelief and self-righteousness. "I know," said Spurgeon, "that God chose me before I was born' for He never would have chosen me afterwards!" Let us not be of the Little-faiths, or of the Faint-hearts; but let Mr. Greatheart himself, even Paul, set forth the case: If God be for us, who is against us? This "if" does not imply doubt, but amounts to since. We are expected to have heard understood, and believed all the previous marvels of our salvation written in this epistle. The conclusion is: GOD IS FOR US. The Creator of the universe, the Upholder of all things, the Redeemer God Himself, for us!
Therefore the challenge: who is against us? Paul knew as none have ever known, the power and malignity of Satan and his hosts, the persecuting energy of the haters of the gospel, the relentless watchfulness of the Roman Empire-- that had flung justice to the winds, and crucified Paul's Lord, and ever stood ready, upon occasion, to seize him. Yet he challenges all! It is not a question of logic, as the King James puts it: "Who can be against us?" But it is a direct challenge in the lists: to all and any in the whole possible universe: literally. If God for us--who against us?
Verse 32: He that even [187] spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all--This is the God who is for us; and this is the proof! Spared not--what that word shows! Of the infinite price of redemption! of the measureless unconquerable love of God that would not be stopped at such frightful cost! "His own Son"; His only Son; His well-beloved Son,--from all eternity! And for us! Ah, how wretched we are, even in our own sight! guilty, undone, defiled, powerless, worthless,--for us all! Verily, "the most miserable of sheep!" (Zech. 11:7).
Then, delivered Him up--We remember immediately the same word in