Romans 8:18 -39 "THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED IN US~
“THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED IN US”
Romans 8:18
Sunday Evening, August 22, 2010
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
8:18: “For I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Before sharing his
glory, we must be prepared to participate in his sufferings, drink from his
cup, pick up our cross and follow him.
The Lord brought us
to Himself, saved us from sin through the blood of Jesus; imparted
righteousness to us through declaration; sanctified us through the washing of
the Word; delivered us from sin; delivered us from the law; filled us with His
Holy Spirit; gave us gifts of the Spirit to help us grown into maturity;
adopted us as sons, presented us to the world as His Son; then placed His glory
on us.
Up until this point
in Romans, everything has been deposited in our account before we earn it. We have been his guests all the way. However, in Verse 18, Paul has another “reckoning”. The path to glory lies through pain as we die
to our own carnality. Jesus was made
perfect through sufferings. We are not
exempt from this program. If we fix our
eyes on our problems, we will despair.
If we fix our eyes on the present problems of the world, we could
despair. But if we shift our eyes on
Jesus, we can press through and use the problems as a stepping stone into His
Present Glory.
Because there is a
D-Day (Day of the Lord), there will be a V-Day (the Day of Victory). In every adversity, affliction or sorrow, we
can learn to count it all joy.
8:19: For the
earnest expectation of the creature (all creation) waits for the manifestation
of the sons of God.”
Paul personifies the
creation making it speak as though it were living. It is!
All creation has one song sung in perfect harmony, “Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus”. Jesus redeemed the earth from
the curse as well as the redemption of the souls of men. Every curse was broken at the Cross by the
appropriation of Faith, the Holy Spirit and the Blood.
The Holy Spirit has
been moving in his church to bring those who will follow Jesus into maturity; and
thus his revealed Glory through them. I
believe we are coming into that day when Father God is going to display His
Glory to the whole world through these called out ones in the manifestation of
the many sons of God. Heb. 2:10: For it
became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifies
and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren.”
We are going to
dazzle. Charming Charlie’s doesn’t have
enough glitter to even compare with the Glory that will be revealed in
you. We will appear with Christ in glory
in breathtaking beauty. The present
“sign” of the fashion of wearing a lot of jewelry is just a “sign-of-the-times”
of how the Bride is going to be dazzling in the Glory of the Lord.
8: 20-21: “For
the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him
who has subjected the same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Solomon figured this out and wrote about it in
Ec. 1:2: “Vanity of vanities, says the
Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity”
What’s the redemptive
purpose of creation? Everything is
dying. Yet the very struggle to survive
hints that the world hopes for better days.
How did the world get itself into this mess? Adam again is clearly to blame. Luke 19:40: “And he answered unto them, I tell you that, if these
should hold their peace, the stones would immediately
cry out.” For the time being,
God uses the corruption to bring his sons to maturity. It is his program. When the fullness of time comes when the sons
of God will be revealed, it will also transform the world of nature, fulfilling
the O.T. Messianic promises of a renewed earth (Isa. 35) “The
wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall
rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It
shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of
Lebanon shall be given unto it, the Excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall
see the glory of the Lord, and the Excellency of our God.”
Present adversity did
not make Paul stumble, but faded into comparative insignificance---so real to
him was the unseen age to come of the future glory of the Church and the
revelation of the Lord’s Kingdom on earth.
He is the church’s firstfruits, a specimen sheaf cut and brought as sure
evidence that a whole field of such sheaves is waiting to be harvested. The twelve apostles were commissioned to
bring forth “the church”. The 21st
century apostles are commissioned to bring the church into the Kingdom.
At the fall, God
enslaved nature to frustration and decay, but such was not to be its permanent
state, for God even then envisaged its emancipation. When man fell, that which he was given
dominion over was dragged down by the fall. Nature is dependent upon God’s glorification
of the Church. In poetic idiom, “creation cranes its neck” (eager expectations). “It is nothing short of a universal law that
suffering marks the road to glory” (Sanday and Headlam).
The church in so far as
they are physically part of the material world share nature’s many pains, but
they too look forward to release from infirmity, to the renewing of their
bodies so that they are like that of the risen and exalted Son. (Phil. 3:21) “Who will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all
things unto himself.”
8: 22-23: “For we
know that “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until
now. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
There are two
groanings, (1) the groan of creation. (2) the groan of the Christian. The Christian’s groan is often with
impatience. The unredeemed world system
lives in terror of dying. We know that
death merely ushers us into the presence of the father. We are God’s ministers to a dying world. We should have a tender understanding toward
unsaved men and animals not a superior condemnation.
8:24-25: “For we
are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why
does he yet hope for? But if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it?
Never let satan lie
to you and cause you to think you are not saved. We know we are saved. Believers are saved by faith. Faith is a fact. Hope
is a Certainty and Love is a Reality.
We are to rule and
reign with Jesus in his 3-fold office of Prophet, Priest and King. We are the recipients of God’s revelation of
Jesus Christ, as ruler of the kings of the earth and the wearer of the high
priestly vestments.
Patience is the hope
that God will bring to completion what he has started in us and we can extend
that same grace to each other. We don’t
want to be ashamed when we stand before Jesus.
Therefore, we seek to live a life that will honor Him.
8:26-27: “Likewise
the Spirit also helps our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for
as we ought; but the Sprit itself makes intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. And he that
searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes
intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
The Spirit does not
despise our weakness and frailty, but makes them the means of His pleading the
Church’s interests before God. We often
do not know how to pray for ourselves or even what is best for us, but the
groans become the very voice of the Spirit in intercession. This is the Lord scrutinizing the whole
conscious and unconscious make-up of every man.
The Lord understands the deep sighs because it is the Spirit pleading
for the Lord’s own purpose in our lives.
He is co-operating with the Lord in all things to bring about a good
end.
When the Holy Spirit
takes over our prayer life, then through a mysterious process, we find
ourselves saying things that are absolutely inspired. Our spirits are lifted to a glorious
exultation and joy that feels like we will explode. He is interceding and helping us to pray
divine help for our weakness.
Heb. 4:12b: The
Word of God is…a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Jesus reads our hearts. That is
another reason he will not permit us to judge one another. God accepts the cry of the heart even when we
don’t know the words.
Eloquence and long
prayers mean nothing to the Lord.
8:28: And we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to His purpose.”
Paul is saying that
God has limitless “love works” to make everything that happens to us work out
for our good. When the Lord releases his
“love works” toward us, all of satan’s stealing, sabotaging, and schemes to
steal the Lord’s purpose from our life will fall to nothing. The Holy Spirit carries out God’s plan, not
satan’s schemes. The Spirit co-operates
with those who have been summoned by God and assigned a role in His redemptive
purposes. God’s eternal plan was to
create for Himself a family modeled upon His Son.
8:29-30: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also
called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them
he also glorified.”
The Lord decided long
ago whom He would appoint for this destiny.
He summoned them, made them right with Himself and illumined them with
his glory. Paul may be echoing Isa. 45:25,
where “justify” and “glory” occur together describing a single activity. “”In the Lord shall all the off spring of
Israel be justified (enjoy righteousness, salvation, and victory) and shall
glory.” (Amplified)
2 Cor. 3:18: “But we all, with open face beholding as in
a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
2 Cor. 4:6: “For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In verses 8: 29-30,
there are five actions God takes to bring us to the image of Christ. The process is foreknew, foreordained,
called, justified and glorified. Man’s
part in the process is not in view here.
All these things are done by God.
Also, all of the verbs are in the past tense. Thus to God’s mind they are all done. C. S. Lovett teaches that the two words of
love and purpose solve the riddle of free will and predestination.
We were chosen
because we already loved him and therefore fitted the eternal purpose. We were justified by God imparting Christ’s
death and life to us. Our glorification
is two-fold:
(1)
Being like
Jesus – being who we are---the sons of God.
(2)
The glory we
will wear when we appear with Jesus.
The whole story was
finished before the foundation of the earth.
8:32: “’He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him also freely give us all
things?
Paul is reaching the
summit of the mountain top with a grand climax inspired by God’s outworking of
His purposes. Paul lifts up his heart in
a lyrical assertion of security and triumph.
He is making a deduction from his earlier sermon in chapter five. Both stress the love of God in allowing His
son to die, the death; and risen and exalted life of Christ; God’s being on our
side; the Christian attitude to adversity; and the past being a guarantee of
the future. The Christian’s reaction to
all the foregoing truths if first a sense of complete security. “The
Lord is with me; I will not be afraid
(Ps. 118:6).
In the remainder of
this chapter, Paul asks four questions.
The first in Verse 31, “What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
The forces that
oppose are satan and his demons. None of
the powers and principalities in the spiritual realm arrayed against us is
mightier than Jesus. Jesus said in John
10:29: “No man is able to pluck them out
of My Father’s hand.”
8: 33-34: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of
God’s elect. It is God that
justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, Yea rather, that is
risen again, and who is even at the right hand of God who also makes
intercession for us.”
God’s chosen need
have no fear of any accusing finger at the judgment day, since God has dealt
with their sin. Isa. 50: 7-9 is a
promise that Paul claims for the Church.
The Judge Himself, Christ Jesus, will not condemn, seeing that it is He
who carried through the mighty saving acts of death and resurrection, who now
sits triumphant as His people’s King (Ps. 110:1). The exalted Servant there continues His work
of intercession (Isa. 53:12).
8:35-36: “Who
shall separate them from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed
all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Adversity is not a
threat. His love will never let go of
His own, whatever strains and pressures are brought to bear on them. Paul
is riding on a triumphant chariot.
8:37: “Nay in all things, we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.”
If we merely resist
satan and take ground, we are conquerors.
But if we exploit satan’s attacks, we are more than conquerors. God using the devil to bring forth a race of
tested people.
8: 38-39: “For I
am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor thing to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death cannot separate
because it is swallowed up in victory, nor life because for all its infirmity
and decay, it is yet the scene of Christian service (Phil. 1:20). Death holds
no fear for us. Life is more dangerous
than death. The loving Lord guards and
guides through all the unknown contingencies of the present and future. Angels and demons and powers; the hostile or
potentially hostile forces behind the material universe, have been stripped of
the power to harm by Christ’s victory (Col. 2:14; 1 Pet. 3:22).
Height and depth in
Hellenistic Greek were astrological terms for the highest and lowest points
reached by a star. It was a widespread
contemporary belief that men’s lives were fated by the positions of the stars
as spirit-powers. Paul asserts that all
such fears are groundless for the Christian.
We do not look to a horoscope for our guidance. We have the Holy Spirit. Creation was implicit that there is no factor
or force in the universe that is not under the control of the God who made it---and
He is for us. The truth that God is
creator of all gives added assurance to the redeemed (Isa. 40:28).
Paul has used logic
starting with the fact that we are sinners and ending with the five link chain
that binds us to the eternal purpose of God.
Paul knew he was
bound to a God who loved him eternally.
Nothing he had suffered could alter God’s love. His love does not change. Change belongs in time not in eternity. Right now “change” is the war cry of the
spirit of anti-christ.
Carolyn Sissom,
Pastor
Eastgate Ministries,
Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.
Bibliography: F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary ,
Leslie C. Allen; C.S. Lovett’s Lights on Romans; Sanday and Headlam; Dake’s
Annotated Reference Bible; Matthew Henry’s Commentary; Bible Study Notes
prepared by Carolyn Sissom on Romans in 1987.