Romans 8:17-39: Life and Glory Through God’s Love
In the first part of this chapter, the apostle Paul tells of the goodness of the grace of God and how it overcomes the inner battle we have with our sin nature. The way it does that is to make us aware that we do not have to worry about trying to do good.
We just give ourselves to God and he takes up the slack in our lives by making us dependent on him, not our own performance. He ends by saying that we are children of God and, as such, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. If we suffer with him, we will also share in his future glory.
Suffering is not a pleasant thought, nor is it something we want to do. However, we follow a man who suffered and died for what he believed in. If we want to follow him, we have to be prepared for suffering (Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted 2 Timothy 3:12).
But we also have to realize that what little suffering we do here is nothing compared with the glory that he has waiting for us. There is no comparison.
That glory is what all creation has been working toward from day one. When we immerse ourselves in that glory, suffering and all, we overcome everything this world can throw at us.
We not only conquer, we more than conquer. Our conquest goes into the next world.
Our conquest is based on the fact that God will love us forever, that nothing can come between us and his love, not even ourselves. We live this short life for him, and gain eternity as our reward.
SOME QUESTIONS ON THIS PASSAGE FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE STUDY;
1. Suffering is no fun, everybody knows that. But when it happens to us here on earth, it is happening at the center of our world. After all, we all feel things that happen to us more than things that happen to others. How does the comparison to future glory make suffering better?
2. V19-22 – Paul uses childbirth labor pains to give us an idea of what the coming of Jesus and grace is like. Why do you think he did that?
3. How is the creation liberated from bondage to decay? What does that mean?
4. What do you think it means to groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons? Do you ever feel that yourself?
5. What are the firstfruits of the Spirit?
6. How do you think hope can save somebody? All of us hope for stuff. Or is that the same kind of hope?
7. Have you ever felt the Spirit helping you pray? How does he do that? Is that the same as praying in tongues?
8. V28 – Does that mean that everything that happens to us is good? Sickness, premature death, financial ruin, rape, other tragedies – how can God work those for good? Why doesn’t he just remove them?
9. V29 – What do you think it means to be predestined? The Calvinists say that your salvation is predetermined before you are born. Is this the same thing?
10. The Universalists say that God loves us too much to ever condemn us to hell, that everybody will be saved in the end. Does the everlasting love of God mean that he will save us anyway, no matter what we do?
11. What do vv38-39 mean to you?
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