Who Can Be Against Us?
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26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verses 26-27
The Spirit helps us in our weakness - The Spirit is abundantly sufficient to overcome all difficult
The word “help” is translated from the word “Synantilambanomai” which conveys the meaning of helping by taking on part of, in this case taking on part of the burden
The weight of bearing our cross is far too heavy without the strength given to us by the spirit, especially when we are speechless in prayer
God knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit only carries out the will of God, so the intercessions of the spirit on the behalf of saints are heard to embolden us for God’s purpose
A puritan prayer I heard once was “Lord, please lighten my load or strengthen my back”
Verse 28
“Though the elect and the reprobate are indiscriminately exposed to similar evils, there is yet a great difference; for God trains up the faithful by afflictions, and thereby promotes their salvation” John Calvin
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The clause “for those who are called according to his purpose” is a modification by Paul to further clarify what he means by “those who love God”
Well see who those who love God are in verses 29-30
This gives us the great confidence of God’s sovereign rule over His creation and the events that take place within our lives and the purpose of such things
Verses 29-30
These verses are often refereed as The Golden Chain of Salvation
This is an inviolable sequence in which God saves His people
God foreknows His people - that is God knew us as persons and set His love upon us in times past
We know that this foreknowledge doesn’t simply mean that he knew OF US because by that logic all would have salvation according to this passage and would not harmonize with the rest of scripture nor the rest of the book of Romans
As we see in Romans 9:11-13
11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Those who are foreknown by God are also PREDESTINED - determined in advance - to be conformed to the image of His son, Christ Jesus
God’s elect will become more and more like Christ, we will experience sanctification, in this case referring to “progressive sanctification” which is the pursuit of personal holiness that is aligned our calling as Christians, there is also “definitive sanctification, which is in a simple sense our status of holiness that we have in Christ
Point being as we grow in our faith we will look for like Christ
This is so that Christ will be the “Firstborn” of many brothers - We are adopted into the Kingdom of God sharing in the inheritance with Christ - With Christ being the first of us
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
if predestined then also called
There are two types of calling in the Bible - The outward call and the effectual call - Paul is not referring to what we call the outward calling - Which is simply a call to repent and believe outwardly
We can see an example of this would be preaching - Not all who are called to repent and believe by a pastor are conformed to the image of Christ(i use the conformation because that is an evidence to other’s of God’s regenerative work in the believe’s life)
The effectual calling, which Paul is referring to, is the inward call is the call of God on His own
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
44 No one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Helko is the greek word used for “draws” in this passage, it is used 8 times total in the bible, 5 times in the book of John and all meanings of the word refer to a forcefully drawing, such as Peter drawing his sword in John 18, the hauling of a fishing net twice in john 21, in John 12 Jesus drawing “all people” to himself. The word is used in the book of acts in chapters 16 and 21 to describe the forceful dragging of another persons and the same meaning is applied in James chapter 2
This calling is a grace of God to really save His people and not merely give the chance of salvation
We are also justified, that is we are counted as righteous before God
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This justification is by faith thus logically we can start at the beginning of The Golden Chain of Salvation and see that those whom he foreknew would also have faith and in turn those called would respond in faith
Faith in what though?
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
We share the same faith as Abraham “fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised” through the works of Christ Jesus
This is not a simple belief in the existence of God, but a trust in God and who He says that He is
We will also be glorified, in this sense with Christ in the resurrection of our bodies - our sorrows and trials bring us no loss for as Romans 8:18 says
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
verses 31-39
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