Romans 8 Verses 28 to 30 Image and Destiny November 3, 2024

Romans 8 Verses 28 to 30 Image and Destiny November 3, 2024 Lesson 6 Sacred Life Series Class Presentation Notes AAAAAA

Background Scriptures:

• Philippians 1:6 (NASB)

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

• Genesis 1:26-27 (NASB)

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

• Matthew 6:9-15 (NASB)

9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

10 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

11 'Give us this day our daily bread.

12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.']

14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Main Idea:

• The image of God points us to a future with God

Study Aim:

• To learn that being made in the image of God reflects His desire for a future relationship with Him.

Create Interest:

• In the context of the truths that follow in Romans 8, these three simple words “And we know” (8:28a) express the Christian’s absolute certainty of eternal security in the Holy Spirit.

• Paul is not expressing his personal intuitions or opinions but is setting forth the inerrant truth of God’s Word. It is not Paul the man, but Paul the apostle and channel of God’s revelation who continues to declare the truth he has received from the Holy Spirit.

• He therefore asserts with God’s own authority that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we know beyond all doubt that every aspect of our lives is in God’s hands and will be divinely used by the Lord not only to manifest His own glory but also to work out our own ultimate blessing.

o Do you believe this statement? Why? or Why not?

Lesson in Historical Context

• The glorious message of Romans is that God assures deliverance (freedom) from struggling and suffering—through Christ. This is the whole point of all that has been written before. Man, desperately struggles against the pressures and forces both within himself and alien to himself. He struggles against the weight and discouragement of trials; against the pollution and corruption of life; against the relentless accusations and bombardments of conscience and law; against the pain and decay of his body; against the striking fear and hopelessness of an eternal judgment hereafter. He struggles against the unknown and against pain, hurt, sorrow, loneliness, alienation, aging, death, and hell (see Ga. 5:17). Somehow, through his suffering and struggle throughout life, he feels that his suffering and struggling are due to a wrong relationship with God. Open for discussion and continue😊

• Therefore, man views his many problems as really being one supreme problem: how to get right with God. If he can establish the right relationship with God, he feels sure God will help him through his trials and take care of his future hereafter.

• This is the very message of Romans. Man needs to get right with God, for he is under the condemnation and wrath of God (Ro. 1:18–3:20).

o Man needs a right relationship with God; he needs to be justified, that is, declared righteous by God (Ro. 3:21–5:21).

o Man needs to be freed from the struggle of sin, for sin corrupts and leads to death (Ro. 6:1–23).

o Man needs to be freed from the bondage of law (spiritual legalism); for the law enslaves, accuses, condemns, and strikes hopelessness within the heart (Ro. 7:1–25).

• “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Ro. 7:24).

o “I thank God [that] Jesus Christ our Lord” shall free me from struggling and suffering (Ro. 7:25a; see Ro. 8:1–39).

• All the discussion in Chapter 8 up to this point has now moved to the summit. Those who love God and are called by Him will definitely be freed from the bondages and corruptions of this life and ushered into glory.

o God assures this. Nothing, absolutely nothing, shall prevent God’s settled plan and purpose from coming about in the life of the believer.

 God’s settled plan and purpose for the universe shall be consummated.

Bible Study:

Romans 8:28

28 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.

• Verse 28 is a widely quoted and often misunderstood passage. It is sometimes interpreted to mean that good fortune favors nice people, or that things are not as bad as they seem and that everything “will work out in the end.” But this is to confuse wishful thinking with Christian faith.

• This verse is surely one of the best-known texts in the Bible. On it believers of every age and place have stayed their minds. It has been likened to a pillow on which to rest our weary heads.

• We note that verse 28 begins with the statement “And we know”. Verse 22 began likewise. So here are two assertions of Christian knowledge, one about the groaning creation and the other about God’s providential care.

• Paul makes a solemn affirmation, We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Interestingly, Paul seldom speaks of human love for God as he does here. This is probably accounted for by the fact that he was reluctant to attribute to humans the quality of agapē which was so characteristic of God (e.g., 5:5–8)

o Romans 5:5-8 (NASB)

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

• At any rate, the statement is not a general law of life. It is a theological statement valid for those who have been called according to his purpose, which is embodied in Jesus Christ.

• It does not mean that all things are good. They are not, and to call evil good is a grievous error under any circumstances.

o It means that for those who love God no evil may befall them which God cannot use for their growth and his glory. Paul includes yet another syn-compound, meaning “working together with.”

o God works in all things—even horrible things—to accomplish his eternal will. This verse testifies to God’s sovereignty, not to the beneficent outworking of circumstances.

 God does not will all things, but he is at work in all things. Similarly, Paul enjoins believers to give thanks “in all circumstances,” not for them (1 Thess. 5:18).

Let’s take a little deeper dive into this verse for clarity😊

• The words “all things” go well beyond the great events of the world. God does control the events of the world, but He controls much more. He rules over “all things”—all the events and happenings that occur in the life of the believer. He works “all things” out for good in behalf of His dear child.

• The words work together (sunergei) mean to create and eliminate, place and replace, connect and group, interrelate and intermingle, shape and forge, press and stretch, move and operate, control and guide, arrange and influence.

o The words “work together” are also present action which means that all things are continually working together for good. God is in control of the believer’s life. Daily, moment by moment, God is arranging and rearranging all things for the believer’s good.

• The word good (agathon) means for the ultimate good.

o We cannot see the future;

o We cannot take a single event and see all the lines and ramifications that run from it.

o We cannot see all the things that result from one single event, much less see the results of every event.

 But God does; therefore, God takes all the events of our lives and works them out for our ultimate good.

• Note: There is, however, a limitation on this glorious promise, a limitation that desperately needs to be noted. God works all things out for good only for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

o This fact is graphically seen in the Greek. The clause “to those who love God” is placed first in the sentence: “But we know that to those who love God all things work together for good.” Scripture makes sure the point is not missed. God only looks after the affairs of the person who loves Him.

Thought to Soak On:

• Think about it for a moment, for it is the only reasonable conclusion. If a person does not love God—does not place his life into the hands of God—how can God take care of him/her?

• If the person turns his back and walks away from God, how can God look after him/her?

o God is not going to force His care upon any of us.

o He is not going to make mechanical robots out of us, forcing us to live at His beck and call. Such is not love; it is only mechanical behavior.

 What God wants is love that flows from a heart that chooses to love Him. The choice is ours: we either turn our lives over to Him in love, or we continue to take our lives into our own hands.

• Note also the words, “called according to his purpose.” The believer’s deliverance is purposed by God. God calls him for the glorious purpose of being saved from the struggle and sufferings of this life.

o “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Th. 2:13–14).

Thoughts to soak on as we continue:

• Verse 28 is a much-loved promise for many who have learned by it to trust God in the many varied and often troubling circumstances of our lives. The world is still groaning, and we with it; but God is with us in this groaning and will bring it out for good.

• This belief broadens out into Paul’s climactic statement, in verses 29 and 30, of God’s purpose for all his children. As with Israel in the Old Testament, so Paul understands those who have now been brought into fellowship with and through his son to have been ‘foreknown’.

• They did not choose God, but he chose them, in a mystery which Paul does not attempt to penetrate, either here or elsewhere. Instead, he concentrates on that which God planned and purposed for them: that they should be shaped into the pattern or model of Jesus, the true ‘image of God’, becoming thereby genuinely human as they join the family as younger brothers and sisters of the truly human one. Let’s look a little deeper😊

Romans 8:29 (NASB)

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

• What has become a passage of controversy, should actually be a passage of comfort and encouragement. For whom he did “foreknow,” He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. What is this all about? What does Paul mean here?

• These are mighty affirmations which are closely knit together and stretch from eternity—through time—to eternity.” “Before the foundation of the world” God purposed to create a holy people in Christ.

o Ephesians 1:4 (NASB)

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

• It is that eternal purpose which is fulfilled in time when God calls and justifies men and which is consummated in eternity when He finally glorifies them. Thus, the whole scheme of redemption—from election to final glorification—is utterly in God’s hand. There is no place for either chance or arbitrariness, for it is all the purposeful activity of the God who reveals himself as holy love.

• The word “foreknow” comes from the Greek word proginosko which means “to know before.” It helps form our English word “prognosis” which means “the act or art of foretelling the course and termination of a disease.”

• Foreknowledge states that God knows everything that will happen before it happens. Before creation, God knew every event in Heaven and earth.

o Psalm 139:4 (NASB)

4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.

o Acts 15:18 (NKJV)

18 "Known to God from eternity are all His works.

• God in His sovereign power and knowledge can see into the future and He knows who is going to respond to the message of salvation. God foresees the faith of everyone who is saved and going to be saved.

o Nowhere in the Bible does it say or imply that God knows all before hand only because He has foreordained and caused it.

o Some may ask, “How can the Lord be sure what He foreknows will happen or that something will not intervene in man’s affairs to change the outcome of the future?” The answer is God is all-knowing.

o That is why the Lord is certain. We can’t completely understand all this because we are finite in our thinking. God is infinite and knows the future. He has shown us that He knows the future.

• God has in His sovereign rule given man moral responsibility to be exercised by his free choice to do right or wrong if he desires.

o The responsibility for men’s actions are upon men! God’s foreknowledge does not affect man’s free choices or will. Men are still making their own choices and God knows what choices men will make. His foreknowledge is not based on His decrees. Men have a choice in coming to Christ and serving Him.

o John 7:16-17 (NASB)

16 So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.

• Why doesn’t the Lord put an end to suffering and sin? The answer is again, men have a moral responsibility to the Lord. From Adam to the present, all have sinned by their free will, not by an imposed divine decree as Calvin said. Sin is an act of self, of a person’s will and choice that comes from the heart. Men can choose to do evil or good.

o Matthew 15:19 (NASB)

19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

• I know God loves me. He’s elected me. Therefore, He’s going to see me through and usher me into eternity. At the same time, however, I recognize it’s not because of my righteousness or anything I am or have done that causes Him to elect me into the kingdom. Quite the contrary. We are all trophies of His grace. Angels will scratch their heads with their wings and marvel perpetually at the grace and goodness God demonstrated in choosing a guy like me. You see, wanting to illustrate His grace to all of creation through all of the ages to come, the Father chose not righteous people, but sinners and rebels and stiff necked people like you and me.

• “He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,”

o This word “predestinate” applies only to saved people. It means “to mark out beforehand for a special purpose or blessing.”

 Those who trust Christ are destined for blessing.

 God does not predestine people to Heaven or Hell. This is NOT taught in the Bible. How could God be merciful and loving toward those whom He has predestined to Hell? This would be a contradiction in His character. God does not want anyone to go to Hell!

1 Timothy 2:3-5 (NASB)

3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

• There is no reference to Heaven or Hell in Romans 8:29. There is a reference to Christlikeness. We are to be “conformed” to the image of Christ. The word “conformed” is from the Greek word summorphos {soom-mor-fos’}.

o It means “having the same form as another.”

o We are going to be like Christ one day with a glorified body.

o God does not predestinate one to be saved and another to be lost. This is not a scriptural teaching. If a man goes to Hell, its because He does not know Christ as His Savior.

 John 3:18 (NASB)

18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Thought to Soak On😊

• Predestination means “when God saves you, He is going to see you through.” He will complete what He started in you.

o Philippians 1:6 (NASB)

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

• The word “perform” is from the Greek word epiteleo {ep-ee-tel-eh’-o}. This word means “to bring to an end, accomplish, perfect, execute, to complete successfully.”

o God will successfully finish what He has started in our lives. This is the meaning behind the word “predestination.”

o It means the redeemed will become like Jesus Christ (vs.29). Predestination deals with sanctification, not salvation. It is a term referring to people who are born again.

o Predestination deals with the Christian’s future. The Christian will be like Christ.

 1 John 3:2 (NASB)

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Romans 8:30 (NASB) Paul is batting cleanup here for our benefit😊

30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

• The believer never need faint in times of suffering and trial because he knows that God is at work in the world (Rom. 8:28), and that He has a perfect plan (Rom. 8:29).

• God has two purposes in that plan: our good and His glory. Ultimately, He will make us like Jesus Christ! Best of all, God’s plan is going to succeed!

• God’s plan started in eternity past when He chose us in Christ.

o Ephesians 1:3-5 (NASB)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

• He predetermined that one day we would be like His Son. Nowhere are we taught that God predestines people to be eternally condemned. If they are condemned, it is because of their refusal to trust Christ.

o John 3:17-21 (NASB)

17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

20 "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

• Those whom He chose, He called.

o 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (NASB)

13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

14 It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• When they responded to His call, He justified them, and He also glorified them.

o This means that the believer has already been glorified in Christ.

 John 17:21-23 (NASB)

21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

22 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;

23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

• The revelation of this glory awaits the coming of the Lord.

o Romans 8:21-23 (NASB)

21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

In Closing

• How can we Christians ever be discouraged and frustrated when we already share the glory of God?

o Our suffering today only guarantees that much more glory when Jesus Christ returns!