The Good That Glorifies God and Transforms You (Romans 8:26-29)
Romans 8 • Sermon • Submitted
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The freedom given by the Spirit to those who are in Christ
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Freedom from sin and death
Freedom from a life of struggle and suffering
Freedom from a world trapped in evil
Not freedom from but Freedom to experience the companionship and ministry of the Holy Spirit as we encounter the struggles of life. We are not alone in our spiritual walk:
We are helped and we are prayed for.
Have you ever played a guessing game?
God does not only answer prayer, he is not a passive listener hoping that we will ask the right things
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.
How do we define GOOD?
That which is pleasing to God because it
glorifies God, models his righteousness, promotes his righteousness, produces his righteousness
The restoration of good in Genesis 2 and the good, not good, good.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Rebecca Vendetti - 5 things you never noticed about Romans 8:28.
1. Romans 8:28 says that God uses all things for our good, not that all things are good.
2. Romans 8:29 says that God wants us to be "conformed to the image of his Son."
3. All things work together for the good of those who love God.
4. God foreknew everything that would make you you.
Romans 8:29-30 says that "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son....And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
The whole of you is already known by God. And the the whole of you is already glorified.
5. It doesn't say that you necessarily will see the good in this life.
FB Thorn, First Baptist Church, Wichita, Kansas
The Hardest Text to Believe: Romans 8:28 The Hardest Text to Believe: Romans 8:28
What are the false assumptions upon which we have built; the underlying causes of our mental and spiritual confusion in times of crisis?
1. We have assumed that God is at the mercy of men.
The Hardest Text to Believe: Romans 8:28 2. We Have Assumed that Only the Things that Eliminate Hardship and Difficulty Are Working for Our Good
2. We have assumed that only the things that eliminate hardship and difficulty are working for our good.
The Hardest Text to Believe: Romans 8:28 3. We Have Assumed that Our Darker Experiences Are Always the Consequences of Our Sins and Mistakes
3. We have assumed that our darker experiences are always the consequences of our sins and mistakes.
The Hardest Text to Believe: Romans 8:28 4. We Have Assumed that God Has Left Our Troubles on the Liability Side of the Ledger
4. We have assumed that God has left our troubles on the liability side of the ledger. The truth is that for the Christian he has transferred them and placed them on the side of the assets. That is what our text means. “All things work together for good to them that love God.”
Paul has just written that in the midst of a sinful and evil world, in a world full of suffering, it is our hope in the return of Christ and our hope in the ultimate freedom that we will experience that gives us patient endurance.
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.
The Spirit opens our eyes to our sinfulness, our depravity, the true sources of evil in the world
The Spirit gives us the groanings - a desire for the good things, the glorious things that we shall experience when Jesus returns and we spend eternity with him.
Now Paul tells us that the Spirit does something more - he helps us. Not only does he make us aware that we are weak, he helps us in our weakness.
helps sun anti - a cooperative relationship
weakness - we do not know what to pray when it comes to the burden of suffering in the world and in our lives - a state of incapacity to do something
a state of incapacity to experience something
the groanings - not the gift of tongues because Paul says that this is for all believers but tongues is not for all believers.
alaletois means unspoken - the unspoken prayer of the Holy Spirit. We do not know God’s plans and purposes and therefore we do not know how to pray and so the Spirit intercedes and asks the Father on our behalf for the things that we need to fulfill the Father’s will
And so the Holy Spirit is asking for the things that he knows we need
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.
He is the Father - the Spirit is asking for exactly what the Father and the Son and the Spirit know you need
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.
We always use this in the context of suffering
the verb work is singular, the word all may be translated each
The intercessions of the Spirit - the fruit of the Spirit
It is the working of the Spirit and the circumstances of life that work together and we must see each thing as part of God’s will, part of God’s purpose so that we may fulfill the purpose of the Father. And that purpose is to glorify the Father, the Son, the Spirit and to proclaim the glorious gospel in the midst of each thing that we are going through.
Are you being blessed - glorify God
Are you being stretched - glorify God
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.
The ultimate work of the Father is to transform you that might conform, that you might be similar in form, that you in your imperfect but Spirit body might resemble the perfect sinless Son of Man in his sinless human body. The word image means that which has the same form or likeness of something else.
In our case we are being changed into the likeness of Jesus.
49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
And this is the work of the Spirit who gives you new life, who sets you free from the bondage of sin and who in ways we do not understand continually prays to the Father, asking him to do that which is necessary to make us more and ore like our savior Jesus.