Today’s lesson falls in the overall outline of Romans in the following way:
Theme: The Righteousness of God (1:16-17)
The Need for God's Righteousness (1:18-3:20)
(1) General Statement Explaining Why Man Needs God’s Righteousness (1:18a)
(2) The Gentile Need for God’s Righteousness (1:18-32)
(3) The Jewish Need for God’s Righteousness (2:1-3:20)
God’s Provision of Righteousness (3:21-8:39)
The Method of God Making Us Right with Himself (3:21-31)
OT Evidence that God Makes Us Right With Him By Faith (4:1-25)
Results of Being Made Right with God (5:1-6:23)
(1) A New Relationship with God (5:1-2)
(2) A New Understanding of Suffering (5:3-5)
(3) A New Assurance in Judgment (5:6-11)
(4) A New Race of Mankind (5:12-21)
A Rejection of Lawlessness (6:1-23)
Experiencing God’s Righteousness Daily (7:1-8:39)
(1) The Way Not to Experience God’s Righteousness (7:1-25)
(2) The Way to Experience God’s Righteousness (8:1-39)
(26) And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (27) And He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
It is by no means an accident that the topic of prayer comes right after a major passage on suffering. Not only does Paul draw the same connection in Rom. 12:12 ("rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer"), this connection makes sense. The only way that you and I are going to be able to endure sufferings in life is through prayer.
According to Paul what is one area we are weak in (8:26)? How are we weak in this area?
How does God help us in this area of weakness (8:26)?
Fill in the blanks to discover how deeply the Spirit intercedes for us: "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with ______________ __________ ____________ for _______________."
How does the Spirit intercede for us? Most likely in two ways. First, He Himself prays directly to God for us. By this I mean that He directly approaches the Father and prays specific requests regarding areas in our lives which are important and which we ourselves might have actually overlooked.
Second, He Himself prays indirectly to God through us. How does this work? Most of the times we approach God in prayer with a list of requests which we've come up with on our own. They are not bad; it's just that these requests are not the requests that the Spirit Himself would make. What we need to do is search God in prayer to discover what it is He wishes we would pray in certain areas. When we do this, we are actually praying the prayer requests of God. Now this is not just something to strive for or to think of as being an impossible but worthy goal. This is what we are to do on a daily basis. When Jesus commands us to pray "in His Name," He means that we are to do this exact thing--pray the prayer that He Himself would pray. When we pray in Jesus' name then, we are praying to God on Jesus' behalf, on behalf of what Jesus Himself would pray.
(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. (29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren. (30) And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Having stated that God has made us right with Himself through Jesus Christ and having placed the Spirit within us as evidence that we are now right with God, Paul can draw no other conclusion than the following: "We know that God causes _________ ________________ to work together for ___________ to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose." No matter how hard things may be getting or where it looks like we are headed, all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.
According to v. 28 why is this principle not true for ALL people?
Verse 29 tells us how all things work together for the good of God's people. God works all things so that we might be "conformed to the ___________ of His ____________." That is God's goal for all mankind. Unfortunately though this goal will be realized only in those who have submitted themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
According to v. 29 because God conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ, what kind of relationship do we now have with Jesus?
In verses 29 & 30 Paul describes the different stages in our relationship with God: He foreknew us; He predestined us; He called us; He justified us; and He glorified us. It is easy to understand why the verbs "foreknew," "predestined," "called," and "justified" are in the past tense. Why though would the verb "glorified" be in the past tense since it refers to what will happen to us when Jesus returns?
(31) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (32) He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (33) Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. (34) Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died; yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. (35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? (36) Just as it is written: “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (37) But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers (39) 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.
Throughout Romans 1:1-8:30 Paul has been describing the awe-inspiring blessings God is graciously pouring out upon His people: freedom from the tyranny of the Law and from the tyranny of the sin nature; the freedom of the Holy Spirit; joint-heirs with Christ which involves being as much God’s sons as Jesus, a new divine nature, a new relationship with God, a radically transformed body like Jesus’, a radically transformed universe, etc. Are these blessings though tenuous or are they permanent? If any one statement in the Bible is true, it is definitely this one: “What God starts, God finishes.” Paul claims: “For I confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). These last 8 verses are Paul’s great assurance to you and me that our glorious future is guaranteed.
What does Paul ask in v. 31? What is his response?
Because God is for us, does that mean that nobody is against us, such as, Satan, his demonic hordes, anti-Christians, etc.? If that is not true, then what does Paul mean?
In v. 32 what has God done to prove that He is for us? (Paul is using an argument called from greater to lesser. In other words, if God will do the greatest thing for us, He will not withhold lesser things from us.)
Fill in the blanks to see where God gives us these things: “How will He not also __________ ___________ freely give us all things?”
In other words, because we are now with Christ, that is, identified with Christ, one with Him because His Spirit lives in us, God does not simply give all these things to Jesus but also to us: Jesus’ inheritance.
What does Paul ask in v. 33? What is his response?
It is as if Satan is saying, "God, they are guilty of this one offense," and God says, "Acquitted!" Then Satan says, "They are guilty of this other offense," and God says, "Acquitted." They keep going back and forth with God always repeatedly saying, "Acquitted!"
By this does Paul mean that because Jesus does not condemn that nobody condemns us? If it does mean that, how does it square with the truth that Satan condemns God’s people left and right?
Notice that Paul links the right to condemn with Jesus. The reason is that it would be unfair for the Father and the Holy Spirit to condemn us since they have never walked in our shoes. Jesus though has walked in our shoes and has every right to condemn us. Yet that is the one thing He does not do! He never condemns us. He's always praying for us.
In v. 34 what is Jesus doing for us right now which demonstrates He is for us?
Now go back to Rom. 8:26, 27 and Rom. 8:34. What are 2 members of the God-head (God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) doing for you and me right now?
Unfortunately many times we think that outward circumstances indicate what God’s attitude is towards us. In verses 35-36 Paul lists several negative circumstances which people believe indicate God is against us:
tribulation (affliction or external/internal oppression); distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword.
In v. 36 Paul uses the graphic image of a sheep being led to slaughter to help us understand the purpose of our sufferings. What situation does sheep being slaughtered refer to?
This helps you put your sufferings into perspective. Your sufferings do not mean God is angry with you. Instead they show that you are being offered up as a sacrifice to God. That only makes sense since the One we followed is the ultimate Sacrifice. If we follow the Sacrifice, surely we too should expect to be sacrificed. Our sufferings is the way we experience sacrifice. Like the early disciples we should then rejoice when we suffer because these sufferings prove that we are followers of Jesus the Sacrificial Lamb of God.
The Greek word used for “over” in “overwhelmingly” is literally hyper. We are hyper-conquerors, that is, super-conquerors because of Jesus in our lives. In other words, God’s people are not going down in defeat? How can they now that they have the Spirit of God‘s Son actually living in them to give them His victory? How can they when the Spirit and Jesus Themselves pray for us continually? We cannot win in our own strength; however, by relying upon the Lord, we can take hold of the victory He has come to give us.
I like the story which Reccord, the President of the North American Mission Board, told at the Evangelism Conference of the BGCT. He said there was this boxer who fought the fight of his life. The match lasted for 15 rounds. He took a real pummeling on the chin, in the gut, and even in the kidneys. At the end of the `15 rounds although He was battered, bruised, and bleeding, He was the only one still standing. The referee raised His fist in the air and declared Him to be the winner. When the conqueror arrived home, He went up the stairs to the front door where He was greeted by His wife. He took the championship belt and multi-million-dollar check and handed them both to His wife. Whereas He was the conqueror, she was the super-conqueror.
These last 2 verses are a little puzzling since Paul has not been speaking very much about love in chapters 1-8. He's been speaking about righteousness, faith, the Spirit, Law, flesh, etc., but with few exceptions not about love. Although he has not been focusing on love, love has been there all along. Some things just escape our radar screen even though it is there all the time. For example, because Iraqi radar could not pick up American stealth bombers, did that mean there were no stealth bombers there? No. They were there all along as the bombs demonstrated. Well, our radars have not been picking up on God's love during Rom. 1-8 but as these last 2 verses shows, it was there all the time driving God to make us right with Him through faith in His Son who died for us. 