I once had a man corner me and lecture me about the importance of memorizing Scripture. He told me that he had memorized over 500 verses of Scripture over the past few years, and I think he was waiting for me to give him a cookie . . . So I asked him if he knew all 500 verses in context. The phrase “deer in the headlights” fit this occasion. I hated to crush this guy (not really . . . he was being rather smug about the whole thing), but I wanted him to think about the whole discipline of Scripture memorization and to consider the danger of learning the Scriptures without a proper appreciation for the context of the passage.
One of those verses oft memorized is Romans 8:28 . . . so let us discover the beauty of this verse in its context.
Romans 8 is the crescendo of Paul’s letter to the Christian church in Rome. It was written to a group of believers around 55-60 A.D. as Paul was returning to Jerusalem at the completion of his third missionary journey. It is clear that Paul knew several of the recipients of the letter, but we know from the words of the letter that Paul had never been to Rome.
This letter, widely acclaimed as the greatest exposition of the Christian faith, begins with the establishment of the “gospel” message—a proclamation of good news. The essential nature of the message as recorded in the opening chapters of the letter is that God, in His love for humanity, has justified, or cleared humanity of any and all guilt through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. It was the crucifixion of Christ, that is, the shedding of His blood, that covered our sins and established our righteousness. Our part is merely to believe the “good news”.
For those who believe this gospel, Paul declares that “no condemnation now exists” which is a great message for one who recognizes the just nature of God. Furthermore, Paul declares that those who are “in Christ Jesus” and those who are “led by the Holy Spirit” are essentially adopted as the children of God . . .
“All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:14-15)
And here is where the context of Romans 8:28 starts to take shape. This identification of believers as “God’s sons” carries with it a familial identity with the Son of God—Jesus Christ—such that Paul declares . . .
“The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:16-17)
From this passage we see a framework of time in the experience of the believer. Paul speaks of the suffering of the Roman Christian in the indicative mood which is the standard form of a verb. He uses the Greek verb “sumpascho” which is a combination of the prefix “sum” (with) and the verb “pascho” (to suffer). What he is saying is that at the present time, there is suffering . . . suffering as a result of the fall and as a result of persecution for bearing the name of Christ, thus our identification with Christ’s suffering. The end of this temporal model is the hope of being “glorified with Him”. Paul uses a similarly constructed verb, “sundoxazo” (a combination of “sun” and “doxa” which means “glory”), but he uses it in the subjunctive mood. This mood conveys the idea that the action is something that might happen, but Paul uses it in the aorist (past) tense, thereby creating the idea of an assured, actualized hope . . . what theologians call the “already, but not yet” concept of salvation.
So this passage paints a picture of a chasm of time. It depicts the journey of the believer from conversion through a time of suffering into glory. It is this time of suffering (“pascho”) that Paul is referring to when he writes . . .
“We know that all things work together for good . . .” (Romans 8:28)
One theme that Paul, and Christ for that matter, seems to employ for our journey on this side of glory is the metaphor of pregnancy. I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first child. We had no clue what exactly to expect. There really is no precise, normative experience of pregnancy, Amen? We stumbled our way through the nausea, the cravings, and the discomfort. We knew there was an end to this thing, but we really struggled with what to do while we were in the middle of the chasm between conception and birth.
But the experience of our assured hope of glory is just like the joy of holding your first child . . .
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
So what transpires, or is transpiring, as we journey through this life? Paul has some amazing thoughts on this issue . . .
“For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.” (Romans 8:19-22)
This is a strange, abstract point of view, but what does this passage say over and over again? Three times Paul alludes to this birthing metaphor. Paul declares that the “whole creation” is groaning for the “birthing”, or the glory of the believers. Are the trees groaning such that God can hear? Are the waves groaning? What about my dog? This is weird stuff, but what if it is really true? What if God perceives a cry from His creation that speaks of the day when humanity is brought into glory? And what if the expanse of all the galaxies in the universe were aligning themselves to groan for that blessed day?
Oh, how small our minds must be!
But it is not just the creation that groans for our glory . . .
“And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope we were saved . . . if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:23-25)
Have you really ever groaned for that day? We are not big “groaners”, are we? We want, we crave, we desire . . . but to groan seems a little beneath our standard of dignity, right? Let us remember that we are reading someone else’s letter. We are not enduring the suffering that was present in the church in Rome, are we? My point is not that we have no need for groaning, it is simply that we have no urgency for it. The church in Rome was begging to find its way out of their time of suffering and into that incomparable place of glory. We, on the other hand, in our comfortable churches, if we were honest, would say that we would prefer to have the opportunity to live out our dreams and our expectations in this life . . . to get a great job, to get married, to have kids, to retire, and to die at a ripe-old age.
How we comfortable Christians must disappoint our God!
But these Romans, along with Paul, longed for this day. Paul says that they live their lives in eager anticipation of the day when they will be “adopted” . . . the day when this worldly orphanage will lose its grip on the true children of God. It is a day of salvation, not just relocation. It is a day that we must wait for with patience, and for the Roman believers the tension of the idea of being patient and waiting was, and would increasingly become, a literal life and death struggle . . . a struggle that the author of Hebrews dares his readers to win . . .
“But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life.” (Hebrews 10:39)
So what is God doing as we journey through this life?
“In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. and He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Could it be true that God, in His manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is joining in the groaning? Is His desire for the glorification of humanity compelling the base pleading of groaning? And how would that even work?
First, Paul tells the Roman church that the Spirit “joins to help in our weakness”. Paul uses the Greek verb “sunantilambanomai” to convey the action of the Spirit as he finds us struggling to groan. The word literally means that the Spirit “takes hold with” but the implication is not that he shares in the action, but that he takes control of an action for which we are completely incompetent to accomplish. Picture a young boy trying to tie a necktie . . . an infant trying to color inside the lines . . . you trying to pray (or groan) according to the will of God. So the Spirit “takes” control of our groaning, and He prays for our benefit in accordance with God’s will.
But that is not all, second, Paul tells the church that the Spirit not only “helps” our groanings, but that he “intercedes for us”. It is a mistake to simply view this as the Spirit praying to God for us. If that was all that Paul was saying, he would have used the Greek word “proseuchomai”. Instead, Paul wrote that the Spirit “huperentugchano” . . . that is a mouthful, but as you break it down it literally means “for us in hitting the mark”. The Spirit takes our meager efforts at groaning and directs them to God with “unutterable groanings” so that they are perfectly in sync with the will of God . . . and we would be wise to simply sit still in this moment!
So creation groans in ways only God can perceive.
We ourselves groan in profound, fallen weakness.
The Spirit of God groans on our behalf in perfect agreement with the will of God.
. . . all in the context of this “present time” of suffering, and all with a hope of our glorification.
So now we understand why Paul can speak with such certainty . . .
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
So find yourself in the story. Listen well to the groanings of the “whole creation”. Find an urgency for your own groaning in the story of God. Rejoice in the love of the Presence of God groaning before the Throne in ways that no one could dare to express.
Then rest in the assurance that all things, even the suffering of this present life, along the path of this journey are working together toward your glory as sons and daughters of the living God.
