Yes, suffering. Nobody likes it. We’d much rather avoid it, and instead focus on the uplifting ideas of salvation and triumph in the Spirit.
Well, I’ve got bad news for you—part of the Good News of the Gospel is that suffering plays an essential role in our salvation. So yes, what Paul proceeds to tell us in the second half of Romans 8 is that the Good News of the Gospel uses the bad news of suffering within the overall plan of God’s salvation. Simply put, in Christ, even bad news can turn out to be a good thing. Let’s find out how.
Romans 8:18-21: A Transformed View of Suffering
Given everything that Paul has said about the Torah, Faith, and the Gospel itself, he now turns his attention to address the concept of suffering. No one likes to suffer, but the fact is, everyone will go through suffering in this life. But for Paul, the certain hope of us sharing in the future glory of Christ inevitably and radically transforms our view of suffering itself. Or in other words, given the reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection as the beginning of the New Creation and the resulting “Already/Not Yet” worldview of the Gospel, the Christian’s understanding of present suffering is seen in a whole new light.
Paul states in 8:19-21 that creation itself is looking forward to us being revealed as the children of God. Why? It all goes back to Genesis: mankind was made in God’s image, with the purpose of ruling over and caring for God’s creation. But because of sin, not only was mankind subjected to futility and death, but so was the entirety of creation. Therefore, with the redemption and glorification of mankind to be re-created into God’s image and made able to fulfill God’s original purposes, so too will creation itself be redeemed and re-created—and it will finally be ruled over and taken care of the way God intended all along. For just as the corruption of humanity meant the corruption of creation, so too will the glorification of a re-created humanity mean the glorification of a re-created creation.
Romans 8:22-25: Suffering, Labor Pains, and a New Creation
Paul thus equates the suffering within the present creation and within ourselves to a mother giving birth (8:22-23)—the labor pains are excruciating, but they have a purpose: they bring about a better and fuller kind of life. Just as a new-born baby experiences a different and fuller kind of life than it had within the womb, so too will we, and all creation, experience the fuller “resurrection life” when Christ returns and the New Heaven and New Earth are established.
This present existence is still “life in the womb,” and we await the re-birth of all creation. But what we’re experiencing now are the birth-pangs, not the fullness of the New Creation—and so, Paul says, we wait patiently for the labor to be over and for the New Life to begin. But that New Life is certain, and therefore our hope is sure (8:24-25). This is the certain hope of the New Creation: when we will be revealed to be sons of God, when we will be completely free from slavery to death and decay, and when we will experience the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:26-28: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Our Present Lives
Given that imagery of childbirth, Paul then addresses the role of the Holy Spirit in our present lives to bring about the ultimate glorification of those faithful to Christ who walk in the Spirit (8:26-27). In our weakness and in our pain, when we don’t know what to pray for, or even how to pray, Paul reassures us that the Spirit is at work in the midst of our sighs and groanings. In effect, Paul equals our desperate groanings during the times we are in despair to the groanings of a woman giving birth.
Just as creation “groans” in its expectation of the New Creation, the Spirit, if you will, articulates and translates our desperate “groanings” to God, so that even those deep prayers within our spirit that we cannot really articulate ourselves bring us closer and closer to our future redemption and glorification. And with that, Paul reassures us that all things work together for the good of those who love God (8:28)—yes, the Holy Spirit is able to take even our present sufferings and make them the means by which we are transformed and glorified in Christ.
Romans 8:29-30: It’s Not About Predestination! It’s All About Mike Ditka!
Finally in 8:29-30 Paul says something that often gets misconstrued as an endorsement of predestination: “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. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Pretty simple, right? Wrong…
To make this simple, let me allude to the Will Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming. In the movie Will Ferrell plays a little league boys soccer coach who enlists the help of Super Bowl winning coach Mike Ditka to help him coach the team. When he introduces Mike Ditka to the team, Ditka launches into a terrifying yet inspiring speech:
I’m a coach who knows about winning! I’m gonna push you guys like you’ve never been pushed before! Some of you are gonna wish I was dead! I eat quitters for breakfast and I spit out their bones! Now, this is gonna be the hardest and most difficult thing you ever attempted in your entire life! But you know what? When it’s over, you guys are gonna be champions! By God, you’re gonna be champions! Alright! Everybody up! Let’s kick some butt!
So what does this silly scene in this silly movie have to do with what Paul is saying here? What Mike Ditka was saying to those boys was not that he predestined them to be on the team. Rather, he’s saying that since they signed up and joined the team, with him as their coach, despite the pain they were going to suffer through practice, they were destined to be champions. Therefore, Paul is not saying that God chooses beforehand who gets saved and who doesn’t. Paul is saying that those who “join God’s team”—who hear God’s call and put their faith in Christ—those are the ones who God justifies (i.e. makes righteous), and ultimately glorifies. Paul is giving an inspirational speech to those undergoing suffering in order to encourage them that God will make good on His promises. By God, you’re gonna be champions!
So let’s go out there and kick some butt…
Romans 8:31-39: All Praise to God! You’re Gonna Be Champions!
And so, with that kind of Gospel, with that kind of hope, certainty and assurance of God making good on His promise of salvation, glorification, and a New Creation, Paul just can’t contain himself. He thus breaks out in a full-fledge doxology of praise in 8:31-39. The whole passage is straightforward and understandable, given everything that Paul has said in these first eight chapters. The conclusion, therefore, might be the most inspirational speech in the New Testament:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”) No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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!
Translation? By God, you’re gonna be champions! God has “predestined” those who put their faith in Christ, and who suffer for his sake, to ultimately be glorified with him. God wins, and you’re on the winning team. It’s time to celebrate, even in the midst of our suffering.
