Romans Week 28 March 12, 2023

Introduction

All right good morning y'all last week we talked about how God has given us a new life because of the gospel based on his profound promises. And the wonderful thing about this is we can depend on God more than any human being ever. God has greater capacity and willingness than anyone to keep his promises.

As we start today I want you to imagine the work of a Potter. How many of you have ever taken a pottery class or worked to actually make something out of clay? A good Potter who is most certainly not me will take a lump of clay and through creativity and hard work overtime form this clay into a work of art. In the middle of the process that Claire will look like a lump of clay it will look misshapen. But, at the end the clay will be a beautifully formed base or pot. And the beauty of the peace will be a reflection of the glory and the skill of the Potter.

In the same way you and I may feel like we are broken pieces like we are miss shapin like we don't look the way we think we should look and our lives don't look the way we think they should look but if there's anything that this passage should remind us it should remind us to look to God and his capacity to work as a Potter in our lives shaping us.

The Gospel gives us new life based on the purposes of God

Romans 8:26–30 ESV

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.

Remember last week we talked about the power of Hope. We talked about the reality that as Christians we are called to hope. We are called to believe in the work God does.

Think about it hope sustains anyone when they are going through a time of suffering. We went through the craziness of Leukemia in the hope that we would win.

So hope certainly sustains us but the Holy Spirit also does more than sustain, He helps us when we are weak.

The bible actual teaches about this power

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

God will send us a Helper—the Holy Spirit!

God has sent us the Holy Spirit!

John 15:26 ESV

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

John 16:7 ESV

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

The Holy Spirit is actively at work in our prayer and in ministering to us.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

When we are weak and trembling, confused about the purposes of God in our sufferings or our confusion, the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. The Father searches our heart, “not to know what [our] conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is”

Isn’t that a beautiful description of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

don’t you love that turn of phrase?

Romans 8:26 ESV

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.

Haven’t there been times in your life when you felt pains you couldn’t express with words? Frustrations you couldn’t figure out how to express? God’s spirit is in us, interceding on our behalf to God. He is our connection to God while Jesus is the One standing before God intereceding for us.

Romans 8:27 ESV

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.

The priority of the purposes of God

Romans 8:28 ESV

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.

OK when we read this passage we need to remember the power and importance of the purposes of God. God's purpose should be our priority as a believer. And far too often we are only looking out for our purposes for plans that match with what we want to do. For goals in life that we want to accomplish. But God calls us to live differently.

Ephesians 1:11 ESV

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

We are predestined to an inheritance

Ephesians 3:11 ESV

11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,

God has purposes in mind that go far beyond our lives.

He calls us to an eternal perspective.

What we need to grasp as we embrace the life that God gives to us as believers is that this new life in the spirit involves some suffering. But the refreshing part of following God is that nothing happens outside of God's plan for our good. This is not to say that God is culpable for sin or guilty of it. We live in a broken world with suffering and people experiencing the consequences and the devastation of sin. But God's plan for our existence in this world our presence in the world does involve us going through some suffering.

So in short what this verse is saying is that not that God makes Christians have good and easy lifes. And this is not a verse that we can use to just calm someone down who is suffering. But instead this verse should be a challenge to us to trust in God's long term capacity. We should see Romans 8:28 as a challenge to trust in the purposes of God.

I guess in short we need to remind ourselves that God's going to have purposes that are different than ours. We need to remind ourselves that God's going to have plans that are different than our plans. And we need to trust that the plans and purposes that God may be accomplishing will not always be immediately evident to us. In the same way that our children don't understand all the plans that we make other parents because they can't understand those plans we don't understand all the plans that God makes because we can't. We can't understand his purposes and sometimes we just have to trust him with our health with our job with our aches and pains and more

Why and how God saves us.

Romans 8:29–30 ESV

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.

If you ever ask yourself a question why God provided salvation for us why he went through the process of giving Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross why why why. Then these two verses provide both the reason why and the method how God went about provide insulation first of all the reason why:

God wanted bring many of us into His family!

God's purpose ever since Adam and Eve was to have humanity walking in fellowship with him. Adam and Eve walked in the garden and talked to God. In salvation God is bringing humanity back into his family back into relationship with him We are made to be children of God. Through Jesus through salvation we are made to be the first born among many brothers.

God wanted to add to His family. He wanted to bring us into relationship with Him.

But God wasn't interested in just Jesus having brothers and sisters his interest was that they would be conformed to his likeness. They would be made like him.

Romans 8:29 ESV

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.

God used adoption to bring us into His family.

but just like any adoption has many steps so also did the process of God adopting us into his family involved several steps. I like how one commentator lays them out.

Let’s walk through this cloud of theological terms from this passage.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Foreknowledge: God’s setting his love upon (choosing) those who would be conformed to his Son’s image

This first principle from verse 29 is simply the reality that God looked ahead and knew us. Commentators throughout history have wrestled with what this actually looks like. Does God pick people for health? Suffice it to say this passage among many others demonstrates God's capacity to look into the future and know who will turn to him. God demonstrate 4 knowledge.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Predestination: God’s determining the destiny of those upon whom he has set his love.

Then there is also this word in verse 29 that God predestines those to be conformed to his image. Or rather the image of his son. And this is the more specific term that demonstrates a God predetermines destiny. God has that capacity and power.

If you doubt God's capacity to predetermine and see choices of humanity then I suggest you sit down sometime with a sales professional or I could tell you there will be certain times of day and seasons when people will get their phones fixed. Am I predestining it or am I predicting something that will happen.?

God is infinitely knowing. Therefore he has the capacity to pre know our destiny to predetermine what we will do.

Romans 8:30 ESV

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.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Calling: God’s effectual call from death to life those upon whom he has set his love

Of course moving into the next verse we see this phrase that talks about God calling those he predestines. God inviting us to respond. God demonstrating the that there is somehow a capacity in us to exercise our free will to respond.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Regeneration: God’s quickening, making alive, the spirit of those who are called so that they can believe

This phrase does not found in this passage talks about God's the power to make us different to grow us.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Faith: God’s gift of faith (Eph. 2:8–9) exercised by the regenerate.

In order to for us to respond to the work of God we have to exercise faith.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Repentance: The turning from sin of those who have believed (this step is often combined with faith into a step of faith-repentance, or repentance and faith).

What follows faith is repentance isn’t it? Once we believe in what God is doing and has done we respond with repentance.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Justification: God’s declaring as righteous those who have repented and believed.

I love this marvelous word! It speaks of freedom.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Adoption: God’s inclusion of the justified in the family of God.

But God wasn’t just the judge declaring the freedom, He is the Father welcoming us into His family.

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Sanctification: God’s work through the Holy Spirit to conform those in the family of God into the image of his Son.

God’s got a plan to not leave us the way we were!

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Perseverance: God’s insuring that those who are effectively called complete their pilgrimage of faith.

This means if God had the power to predestine you to salvation, to bring change to you and more, He certainly has the power to enable you to persist

Romans E. A New Life: Based on the Purposes of God (8:26–30)

Glorification: God’s fulfillment of his purposes—the making of fallen sinners into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, for eternity.

This is the en result of God’s work of salvation. We are glorified in Heaven with Him!

You know this passage has been debated for centuries. Some people lie in the camp of humans demonstrating tons of free will to do everything and our faith is entirely a result of our choices. And then there's a whole other group of people who believe as we largely do in this church in God's power of predestination. We see God's power throughout the Bible demonstrating his capacity to predetermined and predestined our future is really.

But if there's one thing that should be evident to each and every reader of this passage it's this: it's all about the work of God.

Irregardless of how you translate the words for new or predestined it's still the action of God working. God is the one who foreknew, God is the one who predestined, God is the one who calls, God is the one who justifies, God is the one who glorifies, God is the one who is designing and putting together this world and our place in it. This is about the mighty work of God. This is about God's capacity as the father over his family to bring life and hope and change to us that is far more dependent on his working than anything we could ever bring to the table.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this message we talked about a Potter shaping clay. And I don't know where you are. Don't know if you feel close to being a complete base or you feel pretty misshapen about where your life is but regardless of where you are no that God has a purpose God has a vision for your life.

Anyone who has gone through the process of adoption knows it takes many steps. There are many aspects to bringing a child into your family. Since the beginning of creation God saw you and planned that you would become part of his family. And through the many steps of God's adoption process he has brought you into his family. Confused here some adoptions can be very tenuous. Some adoptions can fall through at any point or even after the adoption. You and I have been adopted by the most powerful being in the universe. If he has called you to be part of his family no one can stop him. No one can undo what he has done. No one can take you out of his hand. You are allowed by God.

But what you and I must remember as we go about our life is that the Christian life is about the purposes of God. It is about the plans of God. And the wonderful thing that we can hold on to and that can give us peace is the reality that God's plan and purpose are for us to become part of his family to be Co heirs with Jesus. But what we must also remember is that God's purposes are not always going to be things that we can understand. The pains and processes he allows us to go through to make us who he wants us to be will not be things we can always get in the moment. We have to trust him. We have to look to see what his purpose is. So incourage you this week trust in the purposes of God rest in the reality that God has adopted you into his family live by the power of God's Holy Spirit. Have a wonderful week.