Romans 8:28 is one of those verses that Christians quote all the time. All things work together for good, right? But here's the question. What if Paul is doing something in that verse that most of us never noticed? What if the good that he's talking about is bigger than the way that we usually hear it? Because in Romans 8, Paul's not giving us a random inspirational quote. He's actually building an argument about suffering and hope and the Holy Spirit and the future of the world. So today we're going to slow down and ask, what does Romans 8:28 actually mean? Because it might not be what you were taught. >> >> Welcome back to Every Word. My name is Nate Sala and today we're studying Romans chapter 8 verses 18 to 30. If this is your first time watching, please do me a favor and like and subscribe to the channel. This just helps to get the teaching in front of more and more people. This episode is brought to you by Logos Bible Software. All right, let's read together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the The intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. 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 among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So last week we noted that Paul is retracing Israel's Exodus story through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 6 reflects the Exodus itself, passing through the waters and being freed from slavery, while Romans 7 mirrors Israel's wilderness experience, where the law exposes sin but cannot produce obedience. Well, Romans 8 then corresponds to God's dwelling among his people as the Spirit now indwells believers, uh leads them forward, and secures their inheritance just as God's presence guided Israel towards the promised land. In Romans chapter 8, verses 16 and 17, Paul says something interesting. Look at this. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. And then in verses 18 to 30, Paul zooms in on suffering and glory. This isn't a change of subject, ladies and gentlemen. This is all interconnected. So maybe it helps actually to see it this way. So we have the Spirit that gives life in chapter 8, verses 1 through 11. The Spirit marks believers as God's children, that's verses 12 to 16. Children share the family vocation, that's verse 17. And that vocation includes suffering before glory, that's verses 17 to 30. All right. But talk about suffering now? Right? Because Paul is showing that all Christians from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds share the same identity and destiny in Christ, including suffering. This undercuts any claim to spiritual superiority based on ethnicity or Torah, you know? Uh bearing that in mind, here are a couple of more important uh observation. Notice in verses 19 to 22, the concept of creation is personified and given human-like characteristics, right? So, the creation waits with eager longing. That's verse 19. The creation was subjected to futility. That's verse 20. Right? The creation will be set free from bondage. That's verse 21. Uh the creation has been groaning together. That's verse 22. Uh and what is the creation waiting for? Right? Paul says creation waits for the time when it will be set free from the uh its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. That's back up in here in verse 21. This is about the eschaton, friends. The end of days when Christ will return in glory and all will be redeemed. You know? Now, how do we know that? Well, because these concepts stand on top of promises from the Old Testament. And we'll explore that in a moment. But, not just the Old Testament. Notice in verse 24, Paul says this. Uh for in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees, right? Um what is this hope? Well, it's the eschatological hope of creation. All right? Now, hold on. Does that sound familiar to you at all? Paul says the same thing actually in uh Uh 2 Corinthians chapter 4, watch this. 2 Corinthians 4:17, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Mhm. The author of Hebrews says something similar in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. Three times in Romans 8:22, in verse 23 and verse 26, Paul uses the same root word stenazo uh which means groaning to communicate something of theological significance, right? And notice those parallels, right? The groaning of creation verse 22 the groaning of believers verse 23 and the groaning of the Holy Spirit, that's verse 26. There's a purpose for this, all right? And whatever that is, Paul wants to show us that the Holy Spirit is partaking in our own groaning. Douglas Moo says it like this, the Spirit joins with us in bearing the burdens imposed by our weakness. He is groaning because we are groaning. Now, the Holy Spirit is doing it for an intercessory purpose, right? To help us in our prayers, that's verses 26 and 27, but nevertheless his groaning parallels our own. And we need to understand that and wrestle with that. All right? Now, in Romans 8:28, Paul gives the famous line that we Christians love to quote so much, right? Uh for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. But did you notice that this is an outworking of the Holy Spirit's intercession? Okay? In verse 27 Paul has just suggested that the Holy Spirit and God work together for the benefit of the saints who sometimes don't know how they ought to pray. And then Paul mentions uh working together again. That means the Holy Spirit is still actively involved here in verse 28, interceding and working within God's purposes for his people. In other words, for those who love God, he is working through the Holy Spirit to bring all things, like weakness and suffering, but also all circumstances together for the good of his children. Once again, there is clear Old Testament precedent for this way of thinking. And we'll get there, all right? Finally, in verses 29 to 30, Paul uses covenantal terms that only make sense when read through the Old Testament story. And those terms are foreknew, predestined, and called. It's important to remember that Paul is not merely giving the church in Rome some kind of systematic theology in the abstract, all right? That's what we would do as modern Western Christians in the 21st century. That's not what Paul is doing here in this letter as a first-century ex-Pharisee and apostle of Israel's Messiah. Paul is actually communicating biblical theology by using the story of creation and the story of Israel as a literary framework to focus on the Messiah and the Holy Spirit. That means that we need to understand the Old Testament connections running throughout this passage. In Romans 8:19 and verse 20 and verse 22, Paul says that the whole creation is groaning. Remember that? He goes on to use a picture of a woman giving birth to describe this. So, he says, "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." All right? What a picture, okay? But where does Paul get the idea to personify creation in this way? The answer is everywhere. Did you know that in the Old Testament creation is regularly spoken of as if it can rejoice, it can mourn, it can groan, it can clap, uh it can testify and obey and resist and even anticipate redemption. In Psalm 96, the author writes this. Verse 11, let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the field, verse 12, exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Hmm. Well, that's interesting, right? Why is creation doing this? Well, because it is responding to God's redemption and judgment. Both Jeremiah and Hosea speak of creation mourning. Okay, look at this. Jeremiah 4:28, for this the earth shall mourn. Hosea chapter 4:3, therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish. Hmm. Why is creation mourning? Because of the sins of God's people. Wait a second. Isn't that what Paul was getting at here? Right? Creation is groaning because it was subjected to futility. That's Romans 8:20, not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And why has creation been subjected to futility? Because of Adam and the sin of Adam. Watch this. Genesis chapter 3:17, and to Adam the Lord said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife, because you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. Wow. Um this same pattern of the cursing of the ground, of the earth, is picked up again and again and again as God continues to judge sinful people. But also, the promise of redemption is applied to creation. Look at how Isaiah puts it when he looks ahead to the eschatological promise of God's redemption and salvation. This is Isaiah chapter 55 verse 12. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing. There it is again. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Now, this is not an exhaustive list by any stretch, but these types of passages are the well, so to speak, uh that Paul draws from in order to talk about creation groaning in Romans 8. All right. Now, in Romans 8:23, Paul says, "We ourselves, we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." Okay. Think about this from the Jewish mindset. In the Jewish mind, first fruits is not some kind of random word, right? It's an appointed ritual within the Passover season that marked the beginning of harvest. As a matter of fact, if you zoom out and you see first fruits within the greater, what's called the spring cycle, you can start to see a connection here. So, the first one is Passover. So, there's Passover, then there's unleavened bread, then there's first fruits, and then there's Pentecost. All right? First fruits opened the harvest and it started the counting period to Pentecost. It looked ahead to the coming harvest and it functioned like a pledge or a guarantee of things to come. Notice uh the sheaf's role in this ritual. Leviticus chapter 23 verse 10. Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, "When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted." All right? This sheaf, right, or omer, was the first visible portion of the harvest. It was offered to God and signified that the rest of the crop belonged to him. And as I mentioned, it also functioned as a pledge um as God's pledge that the full harvest would come. Now, in Romans 8:23, Paul says that the Holy Spirit plays the same role that the sheaf played. Think about that. Now, in verse 23, Paul also says that we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons. But wait a second. He just said that we were already adopted back in uh chapter 8:15. Look at this. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received, past tense, the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba Father." Hey, which is it, right? Are we adopted or not yet adopted? Well, the answer is it's both. Now, I don't actually have the space to cover this here, but there is an um already not yet dynamic embedded within the scripture. All right? And you would do yourself a great service to uh go when this video is over and look into this yourself, right? One example of this, although there's many, is the kingdom of heaven. So, the kingdom of heaven is here. This is what the the Bible teaches. It's real and it's right now. Well, at the same time, we await the kingdom's culmination when Christ returns. Okay? Now, I encourage you to really go do this, right? Pause the video or when this video is over, just go do your own study and use Logos to do it. All right? Again, Logos is the Bible software that I use to study the scripture, but watch this, all right? So, I just pulled up Factbook, okay? And I typed in the already and the not yet, and look at that. I have the whole category of study. It's collected right here at my fingertips, okay? I can look into the biblical passages. So, if you click here in biblical, it's just going to isolate where in the scripture you find this particular category of the already not yet. And now, I know that text is small, but look all the way down here on the bottom, Romans 8:23. That's where we are right now, right? Uh you can utilize the library and go into your uh the the library of books with your Logos subscription that explain this particular concept. By the way, all of this would have taken hours and hours, if not weeks uh and months to study. But, Logos pulls it all up for you instantly. So, again, you know, don't forget you can try this yourself and understand the already not yet right now. Logos is offering 2 months free to download and get into some serious study, and you should do it. It's a game-changer for you. Go to logos.com/everyword and try it right now. That's logos.com/ every word. All right. In keeping with this already not yet dynamic, Paul says that our adoption as children of God is here and real right now. But, we also await its culmination at the end with the redemption of our bodies, and that's Romans 8:23. Okay? But, where does Paul get this idea? Well, in Exodus 4, the Lord says something a bit strange. Watch this. Verse 22. Then, you shall say to Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son." And I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." Okay? Well, hmm. Think about what this is saying and think about when it's being said. When God says that Israel is his son in Exodus 4, Israel is not formally entered into covenant with him yet. Right? As a matter of fact, they had not been delivered from their bondage to Egyptian slavery yet. This is all before the plagues, before the Red Sea, before Sinai, before Torah, and before Israel obeys anything. Okay? So, what kind of sonship is God talking about here? It is a sonship that is present and real in that moment, though not yet fully realized until it is established publicly and covenantally at Sinai. You following me? That means that Sinai does not actually create the relationship, but confirms it. Okay? Think about it like this. Relationship precedes law, and adoption unfolds progressively according to God's purpose. All right? Now, with that in mind, go back and read Paul again in Romans 8:15 through 17 and Romans 8:23, and you should be able to pick up on that more clearly. In Romans 8:26, Paul says that the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. But, this is not disconnected from the previous retracing of Israel's narrative. It's It's still a part of it. That means that Paul is thinking of Israel's groaning in history. Look at Exodus chapter 2, verse 23. During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned hmm because of their slavery, and they cried out for help. And their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Okay? By the way, this type of groaning is not a sign of unbelief. It is a faithful lament of which God is fully aware. Why? Well, because he is deeply involved in his people's suffering. Can you see that? In Isaiah 63, the prophet says that he will recount the steadfast love of the Lord for his people, Israel. And in verse 9, this is what he says, "In all their affliction, God was afflicted." Does that not sound like Romans 8:26? Right? Where Paul says that the Holy Spirit groans with us. Are you seeing the pattern? In verse 28, again, this is the most famous passage, right? Uh the one we all know, Paul says, "For those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose." Well, this actually tracks with uh Joseph's interpretation of his entire life experience in Genesis chapter 50. Look at this. Genesis 50:20, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today." All right? Finally, I mentioned that uh certain terms that require, you know, the Old Testament to understand. You remember this? Now, I can't go down this uh rabbit trail with you. Again, this is something to explore, perhaps using Logos, right? But let me give you the passages very quickly. Let me give you an overview, and then I'll give you some um some information to look into yourself. So, number one, the term fornew. Remember this? It refers to God's prior covenantal choice to enter relationship with a people. The key passages are for that are right there. Okay, I encourage you to go, take a look in your own studies after this video is over, right? Uh number two, predestined, okay? God's This refers to God's purposeful decision about his people's vocation and their destiny. The key passages where we find this developed is right there. And I want you to go take a look at this on your own. Again, uh number three, called or calling. This is God's summoning his people into identity and mission and obedience. And again, the key passages are right there. All right? If you know this uh pattern or or sequence in the Old Testament, you see that this actually governs Abraham, Israel, uh Moses, David, Jesus Christ, and now us, the followers of Christ. Amen? There's a lot to chew on here. And I trust it will be able to glean a lesson for the original audience based on all of these pieces. Okay, so here's a question that we have not asked yet. Why is Paul talking about suffering? Right? Remember, this is a group of Christians from two disparate backgrounds that appear to be clashing over ethnic, um legal, and social disputes. They These were probably questions like um who are the true people of God, right? Uh does Torah still define covenant faithfulness? Uh do Gentiles need to become more Jewish, right? So so when we get to Romans 14 and 15, we're going to see this play out as Paul specifically acknowledges their disagreement over food laws and holy days, right? And mutual suspicion. It just seemed like a little bit of a hot mess in Rome, okay? So what does Paul do? Well, he designs to pastor them by reframing their internal conflict away from petty disputes and towards something far bigger and more significant. And suffering is the key to this particular reframing. Did you notice how Paul goes all the way back to the very beginning? Right? So again, just think about this. Here's his flow of thought, right? Creation was subjected to futility. Creation groans. We groan. The Holy Spirit groans. God is at work in all of this. Therefore, all things are working toward good. Now many of us have been taught to read Romans 8:28 as a promise about God arranging our personal circumstances for our individual good. But that reading actually misses Paul's point entirely. Paul went all the way back and began with creation. That means that we need to remember the creation account. Right? In the world that God originally made, before the fall, how does Genesis 1 say that God made it? You remember this? Genesis 1:10, and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:12, God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:18, God saw that it was what? Good. Verse 21, God saw that it was good. Verse 26, God saw that it was good. Are you noticing the pattern? In Genesis 1:31, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. So, if creation was subjected to futility, which is what Paul says in Romans 8:20, and the creation groans in verse 22, and we groan, right? And the Holy Spirit groans, and God is working all things together, ask yourself this question. What kind of good is God working towards? Think about that. Is it our personal good? Or is it the good that the world once was in the beginning? You see what Paul's doing here? Paul is pastoring a divided church by getting them not to uh zoom into their uh personal individual perspectives, but to zoom all the way out and to see themselves as participants in God's cosmic restoration project. He's essentially saying, "You're over here arguing about identity markers while God is in the middle of remaking the world." Friends, this is why Paul retraced the story of Israel's story of Exodus, um wilderness, uh covenant at Sinai. He's using it to discuss the Christians' Exodus from sin and death, you know, the law's inability to save and the spirit's role to do what the law could not do. But all of this has a grand purpose or a telos, the redemption of this broken world uh to restore it to what it once was, which was which is good. If the church in Rome can adopt this grand wider redemptive perspective and vision, guess what? Their ethnic and their cultural disputes suddenly look very small. And that makes sense, right? You know? I mean, think about that, right? Like creation precedes Torah and ethnic differences. Creation precedes Jew and Gentile altogether. You know? Everyone shares in Adam's fall and and and creation's groaning and uh the hope of resurrection and redemption. Nobody gets to claim superiority or the moral high ground in a groaning world. That actually leads to an important lesson for the original audience. Are you ready? Romans 8:28 is a reminder that God is at work restoring his creation to what it was meant to be. And that those who love him are part of that larger purpose. This isn't about God fixing a person's individual circumstances. It's about the lives of God's people being all caught up in his redemptive work for the whole world. And that entails suffering. But not without purpose. The good news for Christians is that according to Romans 8:29, all of this means that God's people will conform into the image of his son. And guess what? If his son suffered for the world, then God's people should expect to suffer. It actually proves that they are fellow heirs with Christ, and it gives them hope that they will one day be glorified with him. Amen. This is why Paul talks about suffering. Can you see that? The irony is that while these Christians in Rome are arguing, you know, with each other, the real issue is that everyone is suffering. You know, creation, humanity, even the people of God are suffering. But if they lift their eyes from their disputes, they're going to see that God is in the middle of remaking the world. And once they recover that grander vision, they're they're invited not just to affirm that vision, but to go and participate in it. Right? And boy, that solves a lot, does it not? And that still teaches us today. Right? So, look, you know, let me be real with you for a moment as I I think I'm starting to do a lot in these videos at the end here. Um I feel the weight of this reminder, you know, in light of the circles that I find myself in at the moment, right? Uh on the one hand, I'm surrounded by a YouTube content creator community that for our specific niche, tends to thrive on what I've come to call the clash culture mindset, right? This is where we find points of disagreement with someone else and their point of view and then we have to make a video in order to clash over it. You know? And look, I've done it. So so and many of my friends have done this, right? And I'm not even saying that it's wrong to do it in every circumstance. It actually can be very helpful if done properly. Um but what happens when Christians lock into this mindset with each other? Right? You know, I'll never forget the time I got together with a couple of uh pastors from other churches in Las Vegas and created a conference for the young adults community. So you know, in the beginning the idea was fairly simple. Let's just get young adults in the valley in the Vegas valley, right? And just bring them together for a night of worship and theology and apologetics training that provides answers to their current questions, you know, whatever circumstance they're in, wherever they find themselves in. Um but let's also too like introduce a sense of community and a belonging with each other. Uh where maybe these young adults don't feel that in the moment or they don't have that, right? And let's also give them the tools to maintain that community after the event is over. Okay? So the first event was a banger and it brought in if I remember like about 400 young adults from all over the Vegas valley and guess what? These people heard the gospel, uh they learned key biblical principles for their lives, and they maintained community afterwards. Okay? We hit every metric we had set for ourselves and we started planning to put on another event. But almost immediately I could see the beginning of that same mentality that plagued the church in Rome and it was happening with uh those of us pastors who were trying to plan the next event. Petty differences is what I'm referring to. I don't have to get into details, but these petty differences started popping up and it created quite a rift between the charismatics in the group and the cessationists in the group. Between those who appreciate contemporary worship in the group over those who want traditional forms of worship, right? Even between like secondary doctrines expressed on the stage. You know? And I don't want to make this sound, you know, more dramatic than it was. Like so the events continued and as far as I know, they're still continuing to this day in Las Vegas. And my prayer is that the event planners have learned how to navigate these issues well, you know? Um I bring all of this up to simply point out that the desire to clash over differences, uh that while real and valid, are not ultimate, are still happening today. They are secondary compared to the mission that God has given us and it's still it's still there. You know? It's still alive and well. This is why I love studying this passage so much. To me, Paul is basically dealing with two groups that clash in the same way that charismatics and cessationists do today. Right? Think about that, you know? Uh here's a great example. I've seen this with my own eyes, right? In um in some charismatic or Pentecostal circles, there can be this unspoken expectation that believers need to develop the art of private prayer language. Have Stop me if you've heard this one before, right? Uh they need to develop in the art of more subjective forms of communication with God, and that's ultimately a sign of real spirit spiritual maturity, right? Now, they don't usually say it like that out loud, but that's um it's implied. Okay? Cessationists would push back on this by emphasizing that the sufficiency of the scripture uh and the ordinary means of grace is what a Christian needs, not this other stuff, okay? Now, do me a favor, think about this. What would Paul say if he entered into this clash right now and he wrote a letter to this particular group, right? I think it would probably sound like Romans 8. Would it not? See, this is why Paul is so helpful to me and to us all. If I and my brothers and sisters can learn to reorient our gaze back to the ultimate goal, which is to participate with God in his redemption and restoration of the world, of his creation, we can learn to love each other and not allow our differences over secondary doctrine divide us. Amen? And don't hear me saying that theology doesn't matter. That's not what I'm saying, okay? Theology does matter, but Paul reminds us that even our theological convictions must serve the larger purpose of God's redemptive work of the world. Right? Put it this way. If Jesus returned right now, video's not even over with, he just returns, would he find his church more united or divided? Would Jesus find us working together as a kingdom of priests to accomplish God's will on earth as it is in heaven, or would he find us wasting so much energy and effort maintaining disagreement and clash and division? Look, you know, theology and doctrine matters. And and I can tell you about all the doctrines and creeds that I fundamentally affirm, right? So So again, let me be clear, right? Um we're all going to have to answer for this. Because we're all living in a time where this kind of disagreement and division has gotten way the heck out of hand. So, yeah, I'm chewing on this one. And it's got me thinking about what I can do, you know, from my vantage point. What I have been doing, you know, to to sort of rectify this or to deal with this issue, right? Uh to live up to the spirit of this lesson in my own life. But now it's your turn. Because this is where I have to leave you uh to chew and to think and to pray. Right? Don't forget to grab your two-month free trial of Logos. Just go to logos.com/everyword. You can also find my Wise Disciple bundle there that includes a lot of the commentaries that I prefer to study God's word with you. Um try it, really. Try it. See if it's for you. Maybe it's not, but you don't know until you try. logos.com/everyword. The link is below. If you want to learn how to study scripture the way that I'm doing it right now, tracing the arguments, asking better questions, noticing connections, all of those things in the unique way that I do it, I'm building the Wise Disciple Academy over on my Patreon where I'm personally training Christians to do this very thing every single week. So I hope to see you over there. Just click the link below and I'll see you on my Patreon. Finally, if you're interested in learning biblical Greek or Hebrew, you got to check out Biblingo. I partner with Logos and Biblingo only because they're so helpful to your studies. Make sure to click that link below for Biblingo, but make sure to use my discount code Wise Disciple 10 at checkout. All right, friends, next time we are closing out Romans 8 and making our way to chapter 9. And Paul is going to force us to confront a very important question. Who gets to decide who belongs to God? As always, keep your eyes on the scriptures and stay close to the Lord. Happy reading. And bye for now.