God Assures Deliverance from Struggling and Suffering

Introduction: Predestination, Man’s Struggles and Suffering

The glorious message of Romans is that God assures deliverance (freedom) from struggling and suffering — through Christ. This is the whole point of all that has been written before. Man desperately struggles against the pressures and forces both within himself and alien to himself. He struggles against the weight and discouragement of trials; against the pollution and corruption of life; against the relentless accusations and bombardments of conscience and law; against the pain and decay of his body; against the striking fear and hopelessness of an eternal judgment hereafter. He struggles against the unknown and against pain, hurt, sorrow, loneliness, alienation, aging, death and hell (see Gal. 5:17). And somehow, through his suffering and struggle throughout life, he feels that his suffering and struggling are due to a wrong relationship with God.

Therefore, man views his many problems as realty being one supreme problem: how to get right with God. If he can establish the right relationship with God, he feels sure God will help him through his trials and take care of his future hereafter.

This is the very message of Romans. Man needs to get right with God, for he is under the condemnation and wrath of God (Rom. 1:18-3:20). Man needs a right relationship with God; he needs to be justified, that is, declared righteous by God (Rom. 3:21-5:21). Man needs to be freed from the struggle of sin, for sin corrupts and leads to death (Rom. 6:l-23). Man needs to be freed from the bondage of law (spiritual legalism); for the law enslaves, accuses, condemns and strikes hopelessness within the heart (Rom. 7:l-25).

Rom 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Rom 7:25a Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (see Rom. 8:1-39).

All the discussion in Chapter 8 up to this point has now moved to the summit. Those who love God and are called by Him will definitely be freed from the bondages and corruptions of this life and ushered into glory. God assures this. Nothing, absolutely nothing, shall prevent God’s settled plan and purpose from coming about in the life of the believer. God’s settled plan and purpose for the universe shall be consummated. He has determined two supreme things (Rom. 8:29).

=>  Believers shall be conformed to the image of His dear Son (v. 29).

=>  His Son shall have many brothers, among whom He is to be honoured as the first (the most preeminent) Person (v. 29).

I.   Assurance 1: God works things out for those who love Him (v. 28).

II.   Assurance 2: God has determined to fulfil His purpose for the believer (v. 29).

III.   Assurance 3: God has set the glorification of the believer - once for all (v. 30).

IV.   Assurance 4: God has acted for the believer, not against him (vv. 31-33).

V.   Assurance 5: Christ does not condemn the believer (v. 34).

VI.   Assurance 6: Christ protects the believer from the severest circumstances (vv. 35-37).

VII.   Assurance 7: Christ protects the believer from the most extreme experiences and forces (vv. 38-39).

I.   Romans 8: 28   God Works Out Things for the Believer

God works all things out for those who love Him. This is the first assurance of deliverance. What a comforting declaration! Scripture actually declares that “in all things God works for the good” for the believer. Think about it: nothing could assure the believer any more than God working all things out for his good. Note four things.

1.   The words “all things” go well beyond the great events of the world. God does control the events of the world, but He controls much more. He rules over “all things” — all the events and happenings that occur in the life of the believer. He works “all things” out for good on be half of His dear child.

2.   The word “work” (sunergei) means to create and eliminate, place and replace, connect and group, interrelate and intermingle, shape and forge, press and stretch, move and operate, control and guide, arrange and influence. The word “work” is also present action which means that God is continually working all things together for good. God is in control of the believer’s life. Daily, moment by moment, God is arranging and rearranging all things for the believer’s good.

3.   The word “good” (agathon) means for the ultimate good. We cannot see the future; we cannot take a single event and see all the lines and ramifications that run from it. We cannot see all the things that result from one single event, much less see the results of every event. But God does; therefore, God takes all the events of our lives and works them out for our ultimate good.

4.   There is, however, a limitation on this glorious promise, a limitation that desperately needs to be noted. God works all things out for good only to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

a.   This fact is graphically seen in the Greek. The clause “of those who love Him” is placed first in the sentence: “But we know that to those who love God all things work together for good.” Scripture makes sure the point is not missed. God only looks after the affairs of the person who loves Him.

Thought 1. Think about it for a moment, for it is the only reasonable conclusion. If a man does not love God - does not place his life into the hands of God - how can God take care of Him? If the man turns his back and walks away from God, how can God look after him? God is not going to force His care upon any of us. He is not going to make mechanical robots out of us, forcing us to live at His beck and call. Such is not love; it is only mechanical behaviour. What God wants is love that flows from a heart that chooses to love Him. The choice is ours: we either turn our lives over to Him in love, or we continue to take our lives into our own hands.

b.   Note the words, “called according to his purpose.” The believer’s deliverance is purposed by God. God calls him for the glorious purpose of being saved from the struggle and sufferings of this life.

Note a significant fact. The believer’s position and behaviour are both involved in the call of God.

=>  Positionally, God chooses the believer by setting him apart through the Holy Spirit and through belief of the truth.

2 Th 2:13-14 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

=>  In behaviour, God calls the believer to a life of purity and holiness.

1 Th 4:7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

The point is this: God delivers the person who is positioned in Christ and who lives a pure and holy life. The person who truly loves God and is living a godly life is the person who experiences all things being worked out for his good. It is the godly person who loves God that will be delivered from the struggling and suffering of this corrupt world.

1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Psa 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

Isa 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isa 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Thought 1. Contrast the unspiritual, carnal attitude of Jacob and the spiritual attitude of Paul.

=>  Jacob said, “Everything is against me!” (Gen. 42:36).

=>  Paul said, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28).

II.   Romans 8: 29   Godly Purpose of the Believer’s Life

God has determined to fulfil His purpose for the believer. This is the second assurance of deliverance. Note three significant points.

1.   This passage is often abused and misused. It is not dealing so much with theology or philosophy, but more with the spiritual experience of the Christian believer. If the pure logic of philosophy and theology are applied, then the passage says that God chooses some for heaven and others for a terrible hell. But this is simply not the meaning God intends for the passage. What God wants believers to do is to take heart, for He has assured their salvation.

God knows the suffering that believers go through daily (see Rom. 8:28-39). God “foreknew” even before the foundation of the world (v. 29). But no matter how great the suffering, no matter how great the opposition, no matter how great the struggle, God is going to complete His purpose for believers. God has “predestined [believers] to be conformed to the likeness of His Son,” and absolutely nothing can change that. Why? “That Christ might be the firstborn [have the pre-eminence] among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).

God loves His Son in the most supreme way possible. God has ordained that His Son shall have many brothers (adopted brothers) who will love and serve Him as the firstborn, that is, as the first Person or the most preeminent Person of the universe. God has ordained that Jesus Christ shall hold the highest rank and position: that He be the exalted Head of all creation and the One to whom all men look (see Col. 1:15, 18). Therefore, God is going to allow nothing to permanently defeat believers. God is going to allow no fallen child of His to ever remain down permanently. God is going to fulfil His purpose in every child of His, and nothing can stop His purpose. Jesus Christ, His Son, will have a multitude of brothers and sisters who worship and serve Him throughout eternity.

2.   Believers will be conformed to the likeness of God’s dear Son. The words “conformed to the likeness” (summorphous tes eikonos) mean both an inward and an outward likeness.

a.   “Conformed” (summorphous) means the very same form or likeness as Christ. Within our nature — our being, our person — we shall be made just like Christ. As He is perfect and eternal — without disease and pain, sin and death — so we shall be perfected just like Him. We shall be transformed into His very likeness.

b.   “Likeness” (eikonos) means a derived or a given image. The image of Christ is not something which believers merit or for which they work; it is not a likeness that comes from their own nature or character. No man can earn or produce the perfection and eternal life possessed by Christ. The likeness of Christ, His perfection and life, is a gift of God. To be conformed to the likeness of God’s Son means...

•   to become a participant in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

•   to be adopted as a son of God (Eph. 1:5).

•   to be holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:4; 4:24).

•   to bear the image of the heavenly: which is an imperishable, immortal body (1 Cor. 15:49-54; see 1 Cor. 15:42-44).

•   to have one’s body transformed just like His glorious body (Ph. 3:21).

•   to be changed (transformed) into the same likeness of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18).

•   to be recreated just like Him (1 Jn. 3:2-3).

3.   Note what it is that assures the believer’s deliverance from the suffering and struggling of this world. It is two things.

a.   The foreknowledge of God. The word “foreknew” (proginosko) is used three different ways in Scripture. It means...

•   to know something beforehand, ahead of time.

•   to know something intimately by loving and accepting and approving it.

•   to elect, foreordain and predetermine something.

The present passage is interpreted differently by scholars. Note that the second and third meanings are much the same. When a person is loved and approved, selection or election is involved. The person becomes a very special or select person.

Again, the point to see is not the pure logic of the theological or philosophical argument. This is not God’s purpose in this passage. God’s purpose is to assure the believer: the believer is going to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, and nothing can stop the glorious process. God foreknew the fact, saw it even before the world was ever founded. He has always loved and approved the believer, electing and ordaining him from the very beginning (see Foreknowledge, Acts 2:23).

Acts 15:18 That have been known for ages.

Rom 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Rom 11:2 God did not reject his people [Israel], whom he foreknew.

1 Pet 1:18-20 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

2 Tim 2:19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

1 Pet 1:2 Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

b.   The predestination of God. The word predestination (proorisen) means to destine or appoint before, to foreordain, to predetermine. The basic Greek word (proorizo) means to mark off or to set off the boundaries of something. The idea is a glorious picture of what God is doing for the believer. The boundary is marked and set off for the believer: the boundary of being conformed to the likeness of God’s dear Son. The believer shall be made just like Christ, conformed to His very likeness. Nothing can stop God’s purpose for the believer. It is predestined, set, and marked off. The believer may struggle and suffer through the sin and shame of this world; he may even stumble and fall or become discouraged and downhearted. But if he is a genuine child of God, he will not be defeated, not totally. He will soon arise from his fall and begin to follow Christ again. He is predestined to be a brother of Christ, to worship and serve Christ throughout all eternity. And Christ will not be disappointed. God loves His Son too much to allow Him to be disappointed by losing a single brother. Jesus Christ will have His joy fulfilled; He will see every brother of His face to face, conformed perfectly to His image. He will have the worship and service of every brother chosen to be His by God the Father. The believer’s eternal destiny, that of being an adopted brother to the Lord Jesus Christ, is determined. The believer can rest assured of this glorious truth. God has predestined him to be delivered from the suffering and struggling of this sinful world. (See Predestination, Jn. 6:37; 6:39; 6:44-46 for God’s part and man’s part in salvation. See Death of Jesus Christ, Acts 2:23; Predestination, Grace, Rom. 9:10-13; See Rom 9:14-33.)

Eph 1:4-5 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

Eph 3:11-12 According to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

III.   Romans 8: 30   Glory of Believer

God has set the glorification of the believer, once-for-all. This is the third assurance of deliverance. It must be remembered throughout this passage that Scripture is talking about the genuine believer. A genuine believer is a person who sincerely believes in Jesus Christ and diligently seeks to please Him by living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Tit. 2:11-13). It is the genuine believer whose glorification is predestined, set forever and ever by God. The true beiever can rest in this glorious truth, for God has done three wonderful things for him. God has called, justified and glorified him. Note that all three steps are in the past tense; all three steps are something already accomplished. The believer’s glorification has already taken place in the plan and mind of God. God already sees believers glorified; He already sees believers in His presence. It is assured and predestined - already written down in the annals of heaven, never to be erased.

Again, does this mean that some are destined to hell and some to heaven? No, a thousand times, no! This is not the purpose of this Scripture. God’s purpose is to give enormous assurance to the true believer: he shall be delivered from the struggling and suffering of this sinful world. He is going to be freed — if he is a true believer — freed from all the sin and shame, failure and shortcoming, pain and death. He is going to be glorified right along with God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

1.   God has called the true believer. Some time ago the Spirit called and stirred the heart of the true believer to come to Christ. The believer responded to the call. Scripture definitely teaches that the believer had a choice. He could have chosen to respond or not to respond. (See Rev. 22:17.) Thank God he responded and came to Christ. Therefore, the call was effective; the call worked. The believer did respond to Christ. (See Draw, Jn. 6:44-46 for God’s part and man’s part in salvation.)

Mat 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

2 Cor 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Rev 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

Isa 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Isa 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

2.   God has justified the believer. Again, note the past tense. Justification has already taken place for the true believer (see Justification, Rom 5:1).

Thought 1. The point is clear. If the believer has been truly called, if he has been truly saved, then his deliverance from struggling and suffering is assured. His deliverance is a past fact and it is set eternally by God. No matter how deeply the believer senses his shortcoming and failure, his struggle with the sin and suffering of this world, he is a child of God. Every time he comes short or stumbles and falls, he needs to get up and begin all over again. He must not become discouraged and defeated, self-accusing and incriminating, feeling unworthy and undeserving, unwanted and rejected. Such a state of mind is one the most useful strategies of the devil — a strategy which he uses to defeat believers by the multitudes. God has called the believer, so he must arise and begin to diligently follow Christ once again. Every believer who is walking about defeated — no matter how great his fall — should arise right now and turn back to Christ. This is our call, our duty.

1 Cor 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 John 2:1-2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Paul the apostle, who was a converted murderer, is a dynamic example of this victorious attitude, the very attitude needed so desperately by all believers.

Phil 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (see Job 17:9; Ps.84:7; Pr.4:18; Heb.l2:4).)

3.   God has glorified the believer. This, too, is past tense: the glorification of the believer is an accomplished fact, a fact that has already taken place in God’s mind and plan. God already sees and counts the believer as glorified in His presence for eternity (see Glory, Rom. 2:7; Honour, Rom. 2:7; Immortality, Rom. 2:7; Glory of God, Rom. 3:23; Glory Jn. l7:22 for what the believer’s glorification involves).

Rom 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

2 Cor 4:17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Eph 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

Phil 3:21 Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

2 Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

Col 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

1 Pet 5:1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed.

Rev 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Psa 73:24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. ♣

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