Romans 8:18-30

Romans 8:18-30

Yesterday we ended with these words from v. 17 "If we are to share in his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Today we begin with v. 18, "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later." All creation is in decay because of sin. If you think about it, nothing gets better on its own--a field left untended goes to weeds. Even the tallest, straightest trees will eventually die. Some day God will bring about a new heaven and a new earth. Creation will be transformed, and best of all "God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us." v. 23

While we wait, the "Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness." We don't even know what we should pray for! And so the Holy Spirit prays for us in perfect harmony with God's will. vv. 26-27

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." This does not mean that everything that happens to us is good. Obviously, that's NOT the case which you know if you have lived more than 20 minutes! We know only too well that evil is present in our world. What this does mean is that God can use any circumstance for our long-term good. Notice that His purpose is not to make our lives easy or even to make us happy, but to fulfill His purpose for us. v. 28  That purpose is to become like His Son. v. 29 And so the good times AND the bad times are intended to mature us and make us more like Jesus.

God is eternal. He has known from eternity past that we would one day come into the world and that we would respond to the Gospel and trust God's perfect plan of salvation through His Son, Jesus. In fact, you were not a mistake or a surprise. God has ALWAYS known that you would be His child. Now don't get hung up on this. Remember that God's world is eternal, and ours is temporal, and so we cannot fully understand eternal things. But we CAN trust God and believe that what He says is true. v. 29-30