Romans 8:26-39 (NRSV)
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes
with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart,
knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together for good
for those who love God, 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 within a large family. 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 are we to say about these things? If
God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own
Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us
everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus,
who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed
intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” [Psalm 44:22]
37 No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced 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.
Romans 8:26-39
deserves our close attention to its themes. Those in Christ, those walking in
the Spirit, are also those who can experience the assurance of divine presence
and love, regardless of the weakness and suffering they experience in this
world.
One needs to read Romans
8:26-28 in a way that closely identifies it with what Paul has just said in the
first part of this chapter. We see this with the word “likewise” at the
beginning. Paul has focused upon the presence of the Spirit through human
weakness as well as the groaning and suffering of creation. He ended by
stressing the hope the Spirit gives us. The Spirit groans for us, yes, and the
Spirit gives us hope by helping us in our weakness. Thus, as he continues that
theme, Paul expresses a profound “religious” or “spiritual” experience. He
stresses that although we experience all the weakness of the flesh, the Spirit
helps us. Even in our weakness, we pray. Regardless of the difficulty in which
we find ourselves as human beings and as followers of Jesus, prayer remains a
possibility and reality. The Spirit helps us in our prayers even when we are so
weak we do not know what to say. We can be grateful for this, for in our
weakness, we might ask God for anything out of our egoism, anxiety, desire,
passion, shortsightedness, unreasonableness, and stupidity.[1]
The Spirit is emotionally involved and eternally invested in our yearning for
the divine. In this sense, every successful prayer has an ecstatic element in
that the Spirit prays through us, even it should be unspeakable sighs.[2]
Since the Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Father knows what the Spirit is
saying on our behalf. The Spirit interprets our stuttering, stammering,
groaning, and yearning in a way that becomes praise and love. The Spirit makes
the pain of this life easier to bear by placing it in the context of hope. God
is not distant from us. God is immanent, with us, and for us, through the
Spirit. Even if we are inarticulate, the Father is aware of our needs through
the immanent experience we have of the power of the Spirit. The Spirit
intercedes “for the saints,” but only in accord with the will of God. When our words
are incapable of articulating our greatest needs to God in prayer, the Spirit
calls out to God for us.[3]
Paul will write of the Spirit in a similar way in I Corinthians 2:6-16, where
the Spirit is the way God communicates revelation, wisdom, and gifts. In 4:1-5,
judgment from God is what matters, in contrast to judgment from others. In II
Corinthians 3:4-6, Paul stresses that any competence he has is due to the new
covenant written in the Spirit that gives life. The closeness of the Spirit to
our weakness puts us in the position of those who hope when we do not see. We
can wait patiently during the night longing for morning to come. The Spirit who
helps us is the Spirit by whom God has poured into us the love of God in
Chapter 5.[4]
The Spirit is the personal center of Christian action. As such, those in Christ
re-center their lives away from self outside themselves to the power the Spirit
gives them. The Spirit becomes a personal center of power as those in Christ
walk in and live by the Spirit. Those in Christ have found the ground of their
lives beyond themselves.[5]
This leadership of the Spirit is of a personal sort. Those in Christ, those who
participate in Christ and are in union with Christ, live in the sphere of this
spiritual power. Paul is careful to provide moral and institutional guidance in
a way that provides some structure, but we must always be aware that he also
expected the power of the Spirit to provide leadership in new ways.[6] As
we continue to verse 28, God sees to it that the aspirations and sufferings of
those in Christ contribute to their good. How can this happen? Suffering
produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, all of which
finds confirmation in the love of God shown us in the personal presence and
power of the Spirit (Romans 5:1-5). Those who love God are also those whom God
has called to live in accord with the purpose of God. The purpose of God is
that which God has planned, resolved, and willed to do. One of the ways the
providence and sovereignty of God works itself in our lives is that God takes
the suffering and weakness of our lives and brings good out of it. In this
sense, nothing can harm those who love God in an ultimate way. The sovereignty
of God over our lives means that everything will contribute to our destiny as
determined by Christ. Evil is that which attempts to thwart the plan or purpose
of God. Our weakness, combined with our propensity toward serving self, is a
large part of the harm we inflict upon self, others, and creation. Of course,
even if human beings did not exist, plenty of suffering and pain would exist in
creation. Yet, God has not left creation without assistance. The Spirit is with
creation and with human beings in their suffering and weakness. Human beings
make a hundred small decisions every day that contributes to the evil and
suffering in the world. Yet, in response, we have seen human beings offer acts
of kindness and goodness. Some will misuse their freedom to perpetrate evil.
Millions will respond with using their freedom to re-dress wrong and contribute
to what is good in this world.
Thus, the theme of
Romans 8:29-39 is salvation and the love of God. Paul has taken the path of the
Spirit as the immanence of God in the midst of our weakness and suffering. He
now returns to the destiny of those in Christ. To put in terms of later
theology, he will move in Chapter 8 from his emphasis on pneumatology as life
in and walking with the power of the Spirit to Christology as defining the
destiny of humanity. The following verses will make more sense if we view them
in the context of the light of the promised full deliverance of creation by
God.
Romans 8:29-30
have the theme of the Christian called and destined for glory. Properly read,
Paul characterizes the plan of God for history in one sentence. Paul is
stretching human language here in order to express the providential care of God
for us. Thus, the Father knows beforehand (see 11:2) and decides beforehand (I
Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:5, 11) those whom the Father will conform to the
image of the Son. Thus, Paul gives further definition of what it means for God
to work everything for the good of those in Christ. Everything that happens has
the possibility of conforming us to the image of the Son. The movement toward
“good” is a process of forming Christlikeness in the lives of those who love
God. The risen Christ is the beginning of a large family of people who will be
with God in eternity. Paul refers to those whom God decided beforehand. Such a
decision occurs within the context of the ongoing work of God since the
beginning of creation and ends in the redemption of creation. In that sense,
this decision beforehand we understand best in the context of Romans 8 and the
thought of 9-11. Thus, we can also understand this decision beforehand as having
a close connection to the formation of those who love God into the image of the
Son. In the midst of human suffering and weakness, God has decided beforehand
what the outcome will be. Those who love God will gradually conform to the
image of the Son. In II Thessalonians 2:13-15, God chose them from the
beginning for sanctification through the Spirit. For these reasons, I must
disagree with John Calvin, who thought of this decision beforehand to relate to
individuals who would experience eternal life or eternal judgment.[7]
Such a view, rooted in Augustine, is an abstract view of election because it
separates the electing activity of God from the historicity of the divine acts
of election to which the Bible gives witness. We can see the abstraction of
this view as it focuses on individuals and separates them from the corporate
nature of the people of God. Christ is the first among many whom the Father
will bring into filial relationship with the Father through the Son.[8] God decided beforehand a plan that those who
love God have the destiny, through their weakness and suffering, to reproduce
themselves in the image of Christ by a progressive share in the risen life of
Christ. Paul is bringing the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of
believers into close parallel.[9] Therefore, God also called them. If God calls
them, God also pardons them their offences. God will also glorify such persons
in the fashion of the risen Lord. Those who love God and those whom God has
called bear the form of the Son. God incorporates people in the rule of the Son
by binding people to Jesus through the proclamation that awakens faith and sets
them on the course of formation into the image of the Son. Although Paul will
not directly connect this idea to the mission of the church, the responsibility
of the church is to develop this likeness in its fellowship and teaching.[10]
Paul has just said that creation awaits the revelation of the children of God.
Yet, that revelation has already appeared in the Son.[11]
The goal of election and the government of the world by God is that the elect
should find themselves formed into the image of the Son. This decision
beforehand by God has the design of offering assurance to those who love God
that through the weakness and suffering of human life and creation the purpose
of God will reach its desired end. The mission of the people of God is to
include all humanity in this relation of the risen Christ to the Father. The
aim of election is the fellowship of a renewed humanity in the rule of God.[12]
Romans
8:31-39 focuses on the decision of God to be “for us.” Yes, God loves us and is
ready to help us in our weakness. However, the focus here shifts to Jesus. We
know God is for us because the Father did not spare the Son, but gave him for
us so that we might find life.[13]
This passage points to a reality we all face. This world has an alien
character, for it is chaotic, destructive, and dangerous.[14]
Yet, above the weakness and suffering of this life is a divine Yes. This Yes
does not arise within us. It comes from beyond us and confronts us. This Yes
summons us to seek and find ourselves. We hear this Yes in Jesus Christ.[15] We
hear the pardon for our sins coming from God through the cross. No one can
accuse those who love God and respond to the call of God. No one has the right or power to condemn such
persons. The reason is Jesus Christ who died for us and who the Father raised
to new and resurrected life within the Trinity. The Son prays for us and with
us. In this way, the Son unites with the ministry of the Spirit within us. His
point is that nothing in the world can feel so alien to us because of its
dangerous character that it will separate us from the love Christ. He will list
some ways in which this world is dangerous. Scholars refer to these portions of
the letters of Paul as his “hardship” lists. I Corinthians 4:8-13 refer to his
team as weak, hungry, thirsty, ill-clad, buffeted, homeless, reviled, and
slandered. In II Corinthians 4:7-12, the team is afflicted, perplexed,
persecuted, struck down, and carrying in their bodies the death of Jesus. In II
Corinthians 6:1-10, they experience affliction, hardship, calamity, beatings,
imprisonments, tumults, labors, and hunger. In II Corinthians 11:1b-29, he
received 39 lashes, beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, in danger from
rivers, robbers, and the Jews and Gentiles. In II Corinthians 1:9, he says he
had received the sentence of death. In II Corinthians 12:1-10 he refers to the
thorn in the flesh as a messenger from Satan that harasses him. In this
passage, he refers to hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness,
peril, and sword. He notes that Psalm 44:22 sums up his experience in this
world, and the experience of many early followers of Jesus. For the sake of the
Lord, people are killing them all day long like sheep led to the slaughter. His
point is that regardless of the ways in which we experience our weakness and
suffering in this world, it will not separate us from the love God has shown us
in Jesus Christ. He even identifies the forces that may try to separate us from
that love, such as death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to
come, powers, height or depth, and anything else in creation. Paul is getting
poetic as he builds to this conclusion. Nothing will separate those who love
God and have responded to the call of God from the love of God shown in Christ.
In the process, he stresses the love of Christ for us cooperates with the love
of the Father for us.[16] He said in 5:5-11, in union with what he says
here, that the essential content of the history of Jesus in the fact of the
love God has for the world.[17]
[1] Barth, Church Dogmatics, III. 4 [53.3], 100.
[2] Paul
Tillich, Systematic Theology, Volume
III, 116-17.
[3]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 176.
[4] Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV.2 [64.4], 330.
[5]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 177.
[6] Paul
Tillich, Systematic Theology, Volume
III, 116-17.
[7]
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21.5
[8]
Pannenberg, Human Nature, Election and
History, 47-61
[9]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 77.
[10]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 372,
Systematic Theology Volume II, 208, 304.
[11]
Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 380.
[12]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume
III, 522-26.
[13]
Barth, Church Dogmatics, III.2
[45.1], 213.
[14]
Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV.2 [64.4]
278-30.
[15]
Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV.2 [64.4]
285.
[16]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
1, 423.
[17]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume
I, 422.
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