Romans 8

Let us turn to the word of the Lord, to Chapter 8 of the Letter to the Romans. And I also want to encourage—well, I want to welcome our brothers and sisters who are visiting us this morning as well. As Gregory did, I add my own word of welcome. We are delighted to have all of you here.

We welcome you this morning if you’re visiting us, and we hope that you feel right at home with us.

We hope you feel at home, and we remind you that we always have some light refreshments, a simple reception at the end of the service beside the elevator, where you can stop by and meet some of the smiling brothers and sisters from the hospitality ministry. So we invite you to join us. Stop by, without any shyness. We are not going to charge you; we are not going to ask for your Visa card or anything like that. Above all, we want to greet you and let you know how happy we are to have you with us.

Chapter 8 of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Why do we call it a “letter”? I am thinking now of the brothers and sisters who do not know much about the Bible. It is called a letter because the Apostle Paul often wrote to the churches he had founded—treatises, writings in which he explained aspects of the Christian life to them. They were not personal letters as such, although they included personal elements; rather, they were instructional letters about how they should be educated in the Christian faith.

So we are studying the letter, or epistle, to the Romans—that is, to those Christians who lived in Rome, both Jews who had converted to the Gospel and people from other nations, including Romans who had converted to the Gospel. The Apostle Paul’s beautiful Letter to the Romans deals with salvation and its nature. The emphasis is that we are saved by God’s mercy, by God’s love, by grace—not by works that we perform.

Now, in Chapter 8—interestingly, before we read, you will remember that several months ago I actually began and preached about three sermons based on Romans Chapter 8. When I began preaching, my intention was simply to stay there and preach once about a wonderful chapter, and it turned into three sermons. And from there the idea was born: Wow, why not preach through the Letter to the Romans? I generally have not preached through a book, and wow, I got myself into quite a predicament because Romans is a very substantial, profound, and complex letter. So what I did was, in a way, begin in the middle and then go back to the beginning; and now, some three, four, or five months later, I am in Chapter 8, where I began.

But if you are like me—I do not even remember what I preached last Sunday—I simply want, in light of everything we have read and learned, to revisit Chapter 8 now so that we can appreciate it better. I myself appreciate Romans Chapter 8 much more now, after having forced myself to study the preceding chapters more deeply. Because, again, the Bible is a whole; it is not... it is a system, and everything depends on everything else. If you know the whole—we will never know it completely—but if you know the essentials, you can better appreciate the other parts.

Here in Chapter 8, verse 1—I am not going to read the entire chapter—Paul says:

“Therefore, now”—always remember, that “therefore” indicates what? That it is connected to something that was just written before—“Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...” Say amen. That is wonderful, isn’t it?

“...those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible for the law, because it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and on account of sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit...”

Let us stop there because this is simply a passage representative of everything else found in the chapter. Remember that in Chapter 7 the Apostle Paul developed the thought that the law—even though its content is good, that is, the Jewish law, God’s commandments, though they are good—is actually incapable of justifying man. On the contrary, the only thing it manages to do is two things: 1) point out man’s inability to save himself by obeying the commandments, because we all sin, we all fall, we all fail, and we all violate God’s law. And the only thing that could gain us entrance into the Kingdom of God, if it depended on our own works, would be a perfect life, which no human being is capable of living. Therefore, the law serves only to point this out to us: You cannot save yourself through your own good works.

Second, Paul says that, strangely enough, the law, or the commandments, often serves to exacerbate and intensify our tendency to sin. Why? Because, as I said last Sunday, what is forbidden always tends to fascinate human beings, and when someone says, “Do not do this,” it is like, wow! The flesh says, Ah, I want to do it to see what it feels like. Right? There is a fascination within human beings with what is forbidden, sinful, hidden, and concealed.

The more taboos there are surrounding a behavior, the more appetizing and attractive it becomes. So, in one sense, the more commandments God gives people, instead of helping them, it makes them stumble—and that was precisely God’s intention.

Now, again, why is that? In Chapter 7, in the second part, the final part of Chapter 7, Paul speaks about himself and about his struggle, which represents the struggle of every human being. Why? Because there is within us a tendency to violate God’s law. It is as though there were a secret law inside us, a dimension in which, on the one hand, we want to do good, we want to obey God, we want to be good, we want to behave properly; but there is another law within us that inexorably leads us into sin. And before we know it, we have already violated God’s law, and we fall and suffer, but it is already too late. That is human nature, and all of this is what he describes in Chapter 7, for example:

“...so then, when I want to do good, I find this law: evil is with me. Wretched man that I am,” he says in verse 24 of Chapter 7, “who will deliver me from this body of death?...”

And that is why the law cannot save man. Commandments, religion, and moral precepts are not enough for us to have peace with God. Someone had to come and pay the debt we had incurred. Our insufficiency had to be covered by something or someone, and that person is Christ Jesus. He paid the price for our insufficiency. He took on a form of flesh that had to be crucified and killed, and He went up to the cross; and in His flesh, in His body, He paid all the debts of every one of us. Amen. That is what Chapter 7 says.

So that is why, in Chapter 8—notice this. In Chapter 7 Paul ends on a very frustrated note: “...wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, because I am bound to sin?...”

But then, in Chapter 8—Chapter 8 is designed to comfort us, to calm us, to reassure us, to tell you: Look, it is true, you are a scoundrel, but you know what? There is a solution to your problem. That is why Paul says, “Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, once we have admitted that we have failed, that we have sinned, that we have offended God, we can rest assured because if I am in Christ Jesus, if I have received Jesus as my Lord and Savior, if I have accepted Him as my propitiation for sin, God says, Do not worry; all is well between you and Me. There is no condemnation for you, no death penalty, no prison, because I have forgiven you through My Son Jesus Christ. What wonderful assurance that is!

Now, being in Christ is something very complex. What does “being in Christ” mean? Well, he adds here, “...those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit...”

In Chapter 8 there will be a very strong emphasis on the contrast between living in the flesh and living in the Spirit. How do you know whether you are in Christ? By your priorities, by where your mind is, where your interests lie, and where the emphasis of your life is. Being in Christ means that the material world, time and space, and the things of this life are no longer as important to you as they were before. And a mature Christian, a Christian who is in the Spirit, can be measured by how much attention he gives to the things and cares of life, and how much attention he gives to the things of the Spirit.

That is why Paul says, “those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit...” In verse 5 he continues to clarify what it means to walk in the flesh. He says, “...for those who are of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are of the Spirit, on the things of the Spirit; for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace...”

The person who has truly had a profound encounter with Jesus and now lives by the Spirit and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ is a person who, ideally, still lives here on earth—well, because there is nowhere else for him to be—but knows that he is a pilgrim and a stranger on his way to the heavenly homeland. He is only passing through here on earth.

That is why the Apostle Paul, if you read the Epistle to the Philippians, is in prison in that epistle and possibly does not know whether he will get out of prison, because they may execute him. But he says, Do you know what, brothers and sisters? If they kill me, you know what? So much the better for me, because I will go to be with Christ. And the life I now live on earth, Paul says, I live simply because I am useful to the cause of the Gospel; but in reality, I would like to die because I know that to die in Christ is much better, because it means being in the Spirit, being in Christ Jesus. And that is what enabled Paul to contemplate with great equanimity the possibility of being executed, of being in prison, and of enduring all the hardships of ministry: the things of this world no longer mattered so much to him.

And to me, that is what Paul represents. In another passage he says, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He also says that “...your life is hidden in Christ Jesus.” He says that “you are no longer your own, but belong to another.”

How many of us here can say...? Do not raise your hand—that we truly live for eternity now, that we live for Christ, that what matters to us now is advancing the Kingdom of God, that we say: Well, look, let my talents, my gifts, my time, my body, my money—let everything be for the Lord, let it be for the Kingdom of God. I will keep what I can, I will live, I will enjoy what I can; but if there is a need in the Kingdom of God, I will say, “Here I am.” Amen, because that is what matters most to me.

How many of us can live that way? Because that is the only thing that guarantees that we can truly be filled with the power of God and enjoy the resources of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 9 says, “...but you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, the body is indeed dead because of sin, but the Spirit lives because of righteousness...”

We must ask the Lord: Father, every day, help me to live more for You and for Your ways, for Your Kingdom; may my priorities always be in the heavenly homeland. That is what it means to die in Christ, to die to the flesh, to die to sin, and to die to the law.

To the person who lives that way, God says: I am pleased with you. I approve of you; there is no condemnation for you, no wrath for you. You have escaped the condemnation awaiting those who do not know God.

In other words, once you have given priority to the Lord and set your heart on the things of the Spirit, you are blessed; you are free from condemnation. So one of the benefits of living in the Spirit is being free from condemnation.

Then, in the second part of the chapter, right there in that chapter, verse 14 says—here another section of the chapter begins—it says: “...for all who are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God...”

An important idea is introduced here: When you die to the flesh, when you die to the world, you die not only to dead religion, to the condemnation of sin, and to all these things, but you now receive a new status. Before, you were a child of wrath, cannon fodder; condemnation awaited you at the end of your life. Now, you know what? You receive a new status, a new title: son of God or daughter of God.

What does the Apostle John say in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John? He says, “To all who believed in Him, those who received Him were given the right to become”—what?—“children of God...”

You go from being a bastard or a slave to the flesh and sin to being an adopted child of the Kingdom of God. God now adopts you as His child and calls you His child. He no longer calls you a slave or an outcast.

So that is wonderful, isn’t it? It says, “...for you have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear....”

The person who lives by mere religion and religiosity is a person who has not known the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Spirit. He is always anxious, trying to please God, to do something that will make him acceptable before God. And Paul says, you know what? When you receive the Spirit within you, that confirmation that you are a child of God, it gives you freedom, it gives you confidence, it gives you security.

There is another passage where he says, “...where there is love, there is no fear, because perfect love casts out fear....”

When someone knows that he is right with God, he can be at peace, he can sleep peacefully, he can face death with equanimity. There are many people who do not want to die, you know? And they think about death and begin to tremble and sweat; they are afraid to die.

I believe that the Christian is not afraid of death, does not live in fear, because he already knows that everything is right with God, and when he departs from here, he enters the heavenly homeland, he enters a life that is altogether much better. That is what allows us to face death with equanimity and laugh in its face.

As Paul says, where, O death, is your sting? Where, O grave, is your victory? It was taken away. Death’s claws and nails were taken away. We do not live in fear because we are right with God; that is why we are no longer slaves to commandments and religion either, but are free in the Lord.

It says, “...you have received the Spirit of adoption—verse 15—by whom we cry out, Abba,...”

When I was in Israel a few months ago, I heard the little children; I could at least make out that word, Abba, as they spoke to their father. It means something like Daddy, dear Daddy. For a Jew to say “Daddy” to God was impossible, because the Jews’ idea of God was of this God who made the mountains tremble, the God whom Moses saw, right? Fire, brimstone, lightning and thunderbolts and earthquakes and thunder. And that was the Hebrew’s concept of God. Christ changed that concept, and now we can approach the Father with confidence; we can climb onto His lap and kiss Him and cling to Him because He has adopted us and has received us as His children.

There is a famous photograph of John F. Kennedy, the well-known president of the United States, in his grand presidential office, meeting with a group of great dignitaries, while his two very young children were there, coming in and playing in the office with him. And that photograph became famous throughout the world because it was like a family scene unfolding in a very official and very grand setting, right? These little children entering the office of the president of the United States, who was also their father. Glory to God.

You know what? You can come confidently to the throne of God. You can say to the angels, excuse me, and to the archangels, forgive me, but I have to speak with my Daddy. Hallelujah! Say, glory to God. Amen.

Why? Because we have received the Spirit of adoption. We have a title that says son of God, daughter of God; there is no longer slavery, there is no condemnation for us; we have received the title of adopted children. In other words, that is the second element, right? First, there is no condemnation; you can be at peace, you can be secure. There is no death for you either, because God has given you life through the Spirit of Christ; but there is no slavery either, because you are now a child of the King, and a child cannot be a slave.

Verse 16 says: “...the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God....”

That is the key. Brother, I hope that you can hear that voice within you, the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you, daughter, son, you are adopted; the devil cannot come to condemn and accuse you because the Lord has already set you free. Do not allow Satan, or your own guilty conscience over deeds done in the past, or whatever it may be, to make you think that you are not a child of God. You are a child of God as long as you desire to be a child of God in Christ Jesus; you are a child of God.

This week I was speaking with someone from this congregation—I do not know whether he is here, and I am not revealing any confidence—and arguing with this dear brother who loves the Lord so that he will believe that he is a child of God, that there is no demon that can separate him from the grace of Jesus, that he is not a corrupt being, that he is not a despicable being, that he is not a demon-possessed person; because if there are impulses within him to love the Lord, and fear of not pleasing Him, that means that the Holy Spirit is saying to him, I am within you. Because if he were comfortable with sin and had no doubts of any kind, then I really would be concerned. But as long as someone feels the desire to please God and asks himself whether or not he is pleasing God, that means that the Holy Spirit is working in his life.

The Spirit of God bears witness. Brothers and sisters, let us not allow psychological or emotional things to rob us of that confident assurance. When you feel—and if you are a child of God, you are a Christian, you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior—and you hear a voice within you saying, God does not love you, God does not want you, you offended the Lord, you are worthless, and so on, rebuke it in the name of Jesus, because that is not the voice of the Spirit of God. That is the voice of your psyche, it is the voice of your emotions, it is the voice of your past, or it may even be the voice of the devil, causing you to doubt.

The believer’s assurance is by faith, not by emotions. Amen. One day you are going to get up with a headache on a Monday morning, depressed because there are five days left until the week ends, and you are going to feel like a sinner; you do not know whether you are saved, you think you are going to go to hell, you do not know whether God loves you or not. Do not worry; put that aside and say, “I am a daughter of God; I am all right.” The Spirit within me, even though my flesh and my emotions deny it, says, “I am a daughter of God because I have received the Spirit of adoption.” Okay, so let us not doubt that.

In other words, we also receive the Spirit of adoption. You know what? If you are a child, that also means something wonderful for you: you are also what? An heir. Glory to the Lord. It will not be like our case, where what our children are going to inherit is our debts. No. When you inherit with God, you inherit all the riches and all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He certainly has money, brothers and sisters. He owns the atoms used to make the paper used to make money. Just imagine.

In other words, that is the wonderful thing: you know that, as a child of God, you have a bank account from which you can draw at any moment. You have God’s blessing. You have resources in heaven. It is very important for you and me to understand that. We have an inheritance as children of God.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, chapter 1, a passage to which I always refer. In chapter 1, verse 18, Paul prays that believers may know:

“...that we may know what is the hope to which God has called us and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

You are rich. Tell the person next to you, “I am rich,” whether you are a woman or a man; say it and believe it in the name of Jesus, even if the Visa card says otherwise, but believe it. You are rich in the Lord if you dare to believe it and to live that way, to ask the Father, to come confidently. The Bible says, “...you do not receive because you do not ask....”

You have to move with that confidence. You have to ask the Lord to transform your mouse’s mind into a lion’s mind. Amen. Do not live thinking in terms of a tiny little spoon. No, take the largest ladle and serve yourself, because your Father has much to give you. Have confidence in the Lord. Undertake great things. Hold on to great dreams. Cultivate great visions. Dare to envision a full life. Do not think that your children are going to be hardened criminals. No, think: they are going to be doctors, they are going to be physicians, they are going to be teachers, they are going to be social workers. Do not think negatively. Do not always be thinking about thunder and lightning and storms. Think that God has good things for your life. Change your way of thinking, and that will change your way of living. Expect good things, and good things will come into your life.

Many of us are like those little devices in bathrooms designed to attract bad odors, and because we have bad thoughts and bad expectations, we continually attract bad things. Things keep happening to us: our car was hit, we came down with an illness, we lost money, whatever it may be. Why? Because there is something in us like a subconscious expectation that something bad is going to happen. And if we have a little moment when we feel happy, we feel guilty because we feel happy. That is how badly programmed we are.

And God says, Change the program. You are a child; there is no condemnation for you. There is no slavery for you. You have a great inheritance, so look toward life. Brothers and sisters, I believe in that: the magnetic attitude, the attitude, the expectation of good that attracts good. The sense of well-being that comes from saying, I am a daughter of God. Say that to yourself from time to time, even if people think you are crazy as you walk along the road or drive on the highway: I am a daughter of God, I am a son of God. I am not a slave. God has given me an inheritance. I am going to receive good things from my Lord because I no longer live in the flesh; I live for the Spirit, and I live in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

That is why it says here, “...we are heirs—verse 17—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ....”

Now here is a part that we do not like very much. It says, “...if indeed we suffer together with Him....”

That is where we quickly get off the bus, right? “...if indeed we suffer together with Him, so that together with Him we may also be glorified....”

Remember that there have been several occasions when I have pointed out to you that not everything in the Christian life is merely pretty, lovely, good, sweet, and gentle. There is also a price to pay. Paul says, “...I want to know Him, and I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection and in the power of His sufferings as well....”

We must die in Christ in order to rise in Christ. We must die to the flesh in order to enjoy the benefits of living in the Spirit. In other words, always remember that sufferings will come into your life because you are identifying with Christ, so Jesus’ own journey will also be repeated in your life. There will be times when God, in order to prepare you for what is coming, will have to tighten the screws a little here and there. It is like those braces they put on children to straighten their teeth, right? All of us are like children whose teeth are sticking out when we enter the Gospel. We are rather ugly; we are displeasing to God, and the first thing God does is send you to the spiritual dentist. He tells him, put some braces on them, and they tighten them; and from time to time God comes and tightens them a little so that you may finally have that lovely smile that will characterize you as an adopted daughter or son of God.

And that is how it will be: from time to time God will have to tighten your screws a little, make you suffer a little, put you on the treadmill so that you lose a few pounds of fat, so that every day you may be more “like Christ Jesus.” We have to suffer a little.

Many of us, brothers and sisters, in order to be set free from the fleshly forms of slavery within us, will have to be crucified; we will have to sweat out the sin. There is no other way for it to happen. But look, submit to God’s operation. Submit to the surgery of the Holy Spirit. When you come out of there, you will come out purified, blessed, strengthened, thanking God because He subjected you to His discipline. Do not be afraid. Tell Him, Father, I need to sweat out this sin. Put me in Your oven, but make sure I do not come out too toasted either, okay?

But do not be afraid of God. Surrender yourself to the Lord and ask Him to do His work in your life, and He will do it. Because from time to time you have to identify with Jesus’ sufferings so that you can become like Christ.

Remember that we have to go through the same process. Christ was crucified, and God raised Him up. Likewise, when you are crucified, God will raise you up as well. God knows what you need. Submit to the Father’s discipline. Tell Him, Lord, deal with me, because I want to be glorified together with Christ Jesus.

That idea of being glorified seems to touch the Apostle’s mind and lead him into another section of this chapter 8, which begins in verse 18. It causes him to meditate on the future glory we are going to receive, because he seems to have stumbled upon this concept that we are glorified, and that causes him to make a mental association with the glorification of the believer at the end of time.

Then verse 18 says: “...For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not comparable with the glory that is to be revealed in us....”

Here is another, more positive element of the assurance possessed by the Christian who is in Christ Jesus, and it is this idea, brothers and sisters, that one day our bodies will be glorified. One day we will be redeemed from everything bad in this world; one day we will enter a realm where there is no weeping, no sickness, no suffering of any kind, no more wrinkles, but Christ will have already healed every tear of ours.

Here in the world we are going to suffer from time to time. You see, many times we preachers like to leave people feeling very happy, and we tell them only the good things about the Gospel. Now, God does not say that you will not suffer in this world. You are going to go through hard times; you are going to have your problems. From time to time, you are going to stumble in your Christian walk; you are going to suffer from illnesses. But you know what? God says, “Do not worry; one day I will wipe every tear from your eyes.”

That enables the believer to go through life’s problems with greater equanimity and greater confidence. While we are in the world, brothers and sisters, we will have affliction. Remember that being a Christian does not exempt you from sin, suffering, illness, or hardship. But the Lord’s design is that one day all of that will end. While you are here, you go through it with gladness and joy because you know that you have already won the victory. No problem in this world has the power ultimately to take away the joy of the Lord from you.

It says: “... I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not comparable with the glory that is to come.”

When you go through this world suffering in different situations, think about what awaits you: blessing and eternal life. That is what enables us, for example, to feel peace when we lose our loved ones, even though we feel a certain pain, because we know that they are enjoying the presence of the Lord, for there is no comparison. We think about the sufferings of our loved ones here—their limitations and imperfections—and when we look ahead, we see them already redeemed in the Lord: healthy, joyful, young, happy, and perfected. And that is also what awaits you.

That is what gives us confidence and joy in being members of the Lord’s family. You know what? That state of temporary imperfection and suffering is not typical only of us, the children of God; creation itself, the world we inhabit, is corrupted in the same way. We are like great princes who are now forced to walk around as though we were ordinary workers, and creation is the same. The creation we inhabit is not the creation God made. It is an impoverished creation. It is a creation that is also awaiting the day of its redemption.

That is why Paul says here, “... for the earnest expectation of the creation—verse 19—is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, because the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it to futility in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, because we know that the whole creation groans together and labors with birth pangs together until now....”

Do you understand, brothers and sisters? That is why it is so difficult in this world to have a perfect life or to say that we escape the sufferings and bitter experiences of this world unscathed. It is because we are in a world that is inherently and inescapably imperfect and is designed to make us stumble and bring us some kind of suffering. Poor creation cannot do any more than that. It is like asking someone who does not know how to cook to prepare a good plate of food for you. They will tell you, “I can’t; I don’t know how.” Creation cannot give you anything good. Human life cannot give you perfection.

So, as long as you are in this world, know that you are going to have problems and difficulties. It is like those mirrors at amusement parks that you stand in front of and, because they are deliberately distorted, make you look chubbier, shorter, or thinner. And you say, “That is not me.” That is what the world you inhabit is like. The world you inhabit is a twisted world. There are going to be problems; you are going to have problems with your husband; your children are not going to be as perfect as you would like; and every job is going to have its problem. Forget about it.

Every marriage is going to have its cross. Every body is going to have its degree of discomfort, suffering, imperfection, and illness. That is just the way it is. Everything this world gives brings problems with it, and part of the Christian’s joy is learning to live with equanimity amid that imperfection—and amid the imperfection that we ourselves have within us.

In fact, I believe that a mature Christian is a man or woman who is surrounded by imperfection, including his or her own, but who has developed an attitude full of grace, love, mercy, and peace. Few things bother such a person; few things make that person lose composure; few things lead that person to rebel, protest, or create problems, because that person already lives with eyes fixed on eternity. Such a person knows that this world offers nothing, that this world is a problem, and lives in it because it must be lived in; but that person’s gaze is fixed on the day when his or her life will be redeemed, when the world will be redeemed, and when that person, too, will enter into the fullness of the inheritance he or she has in Christ Jesus.

God encourages us and calls us to rest in Him, because this world is completely fallen and completely imperfect. The last part is verses 28 through 37, I believe—the final section of this Chapter 8. I have rushed through it because it is a great, great deal of material. Here we have one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture, brothers and sisters, where Paul concludes with a great, great declaration of victory for the Christian. This more or less sums up everything else. And it actually concludes the theological section of the Epistle to the Romans. From that point on, Paul will address other matters, but there he finished his entire discussion about salvation and all of this, and instead moves into another aspect—two subjects: first, the election of Israel; and second, the life we must live as Christians in our daily conduct.

But Paul concludes here by saying: “... And we know—verse 28—that all things work together for good to those who love God, that is, to those who are called according to His purpose....”

In other words, that more or less says it all. Everything that happens in your life—any situation that comes into your life—if you are in Christ Jesus, I want you to know that God is using it all to bless your life, even though that may seem impossible. For there are situations in our lives in which, look, if someone tells us that this is for our good, we would slap anyone who said it at that moment, you know? Never tell a person who is going through trauma, “Oh, this is for your good,” because many times they will tear your head off. Wait until the shock has passed, and then try to explain to them what that means.

But in reality, objectively speaking, brothers and sisters, if we are in Christ Jesus, we can rest assured that God is arranging for every situation we go through ultimately to work for good—even the devil’s evil intentions to make you stumble, even the errors of your flesh, even the evil intentions of your enemies, even the illnesses that may afflict your body, even the financial reversals that may occur in your life, even marital failures. Everything, my brother, my sister. God says, “If you are in My Son, I am going to make sure that this evil, perverse, twisted world, impoverished by sin, works for your benefit and your blessing.”

That is why we need God’s perspective. We need to say to Him, “Father, change the way I interpret the events of life so that I may always see the golden lining in all my experiences.” Whatever happens in your life, ask God, “How can I benefit from this?” That is what redeems life’s pains and tragedies. When you are going through a problem, ask Him, “Father, You have told me that everything that happens in my life will somehow work for my good. What good can I draw from what has happened in my life?”

If it is an illness, perhaps God is allowing that illness so that you can become more humble and, through the imperfection it brings to your body, remember, after all, who are we? If you do not want to grow old, have wrinkles on your face, gain a little weight, or whatever it may be, say, “How can I become more humble through this?”

If your debts are growing and you do not know how to pay them, say, “Lord, how can I learn to waste less of my money or tighten my personal budget so that I can live more within my financial means?”

If it is a friend’s betrayal, ask the Lord, “Father, how can I learn to depend less on people and to understand that sooner or later every human being betrays, makes a mistake, or acts unjustly—and therefore not depend so much on people’s friendship, but depend more on You?”

If it is a marital problem, ask the Lord, “Father, how can I be a better husband or a better wife to my spouse? What are You telling me through this difficulty? What can I change to improve my marriage, and how can I learn to live more for You now and less for human circumstances?”

Whatever the situation, brothers and sisters, whatever the problem—even if you received a bad grade on the exam—say, “Father, how can I learn, perhaps, to study a little more, or simply to know that although I failed now, next time You are going to give me a better grade, and that I must learn to trust You and not give up when things do not go well at the time I want them to go well?”

For sometimes God wants you to develop patience through trials, to develop faith, and to say, “No, I am not going to stay down. I am going to get up and keep moving forward.” Many of us give up far too quickly, and if something does not go well for us, we immediately become depressed and quit. Many of us have a long trail of projects we started but never finished because we never developed persistence.

Now, in Christ Jesus, God tells you, “Look, when you fail, get back on the horse and keep moving forward, because I want to form you into a man or woman who knows how to stick with the things you undertake.” God can use everything that happens in your life for good—even that great trauma: if you were sexually abused, if your parents mistreated you, if you lived in poverty as a child, if you were unable to study even though you wanted to and dreamed of accomplishing something. God can use all those things to make you a better man or woman of God, because those things can help you become a better counselor to someone and have more mercy on others.

In other words, brothers and sisters, whoever is in Christ cannot lose. Whoever is in Christ cannot fail, because God has already arranged for everything to result in blessing and good.

I conclude with verses 37 through 39 of Chapter 8: “... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors....”

Say, “More than a conqueror. I am more than a conqueror through Him who loved us, Christ Jesus.” Whatever may happen in your life, God makes you more than a conqueror. God has made you His child, made you free, made you an heir, made you more than a conqueror, and also made you a person who learns from everything, derives benefit from everything, and can grow in everything and become better every day.

“... For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Glory to the Lord. Give the Lord a great round of applause. Hallelujah! Amen, amen.

Let us stand, brothers and sisters. I hope that this morning you leave here with this great assurance. In the first seven chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul has been speaking about the dangers and vicissitudes confronting human beings, all the traps that exist in the world. It is a sinister world, but whoever is in Christ Jesus emerges from every situation as more than a conqueror.

We have a Father who has said, “I have adopted you, and no one will snatch you out of My hand. No demon, no accident, no cataclysm, no flood—nothing will be able to separate you from My love,” says the Lord. “I have engraved you on My hands, and you are like the apple of My eye.”

So, brother, dwell in that assurance. For the one who does not know Christ, there are problems, uncertainties, and things that will have neither explanation nor redemption. But for the child of God, everything has a solution; there is hope in everything. Never despair. Never abandon hope, because God always says, “There is a solution; there is a way out. I am with you. Even the terrible wounds of the past I will turn into something good for you.”

Father, help us dwell in that assurance. Help us be confident that we have a benevolent Father, a loving Father, a Father full of mercy, powerful enough to make sure that we always get an A on the exam and that we always come safely through all our trials and predicaments.

Thank You for the work of Christ Jesus. Thank You that there is no condemnation when we are in Him, because the law of death through religion and sin no longer applies to us. Instead, we have life in Him; we have redemption; we have adoption; we have an inheritance; we have a relationship with our Father; we have the status of adopted children; we have the hope of a redeemed, glorified life, a new body, and a world in which we will live where there are no dangers and no wild beasts to threaten us. Thank You that we can dwell securely in Christ Jesus.

We worship you and bless you, Lord. Thank you. I want to ask whether, this morning before we leave, there is anyone.