Romans 8:26-30
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 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. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Matthew 4:18-22
The Calling of the First Disciples
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
I’m a bit of a Roman history buff. I may have said that to you before. I don’t know if you know anything about Roman history. When I was a younger lad, I used to love reading about it, and I put music on in the background to make it even more atmospheric. Do you know Mars by Holst, The Bringer of War? That was always very good to put on in the background as you read about conquering nations.
And so I want you to imagine that this is back in the Roman Empire days, early on, and imagine that you are a young man named Tiberius. You’ve seen the glory of the empire grow under Julius Caesar, and then under his heir, Caesar Augustus. Everyone thinks that Augustus will choose as his heir his grandson, Gaius—but no, it’s not Gaius. Surely his heir then is going to be Lucius, the next in the line—but no. The Roman emperor Augustus comes to you and says, “I have chosen you to inherit the title of emperor and the rule of the whole empire. And to guarantee this, I will give you all the legal titles and recognitions now, even before I die.”
The point of Romans 8, and of this particular chapter, is that the Lord God has said to us, “I have chosen you to be heirs of my eternal kingdom. And I’ll put things in place even in the here and now to guarantee that that’s the case.” And although the Roman Empire was indeed glorious at its height, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is infinitely more glorious.
We heard in our gospel reading of Jesus being transfigured as a little glimpse into what it would be like for all of us if we put our trust in Christ when he returns. He will reign in endless joyful majesty. And the amazing thing is we are promised in the Bible that we will reign alongside him. All the beauty of a glorious sunset, or the power of the most powerful rulers on earth, are a drop in the ocean compared to Jesus’s beauty and power—and the amazing fact that he will share it with us.
And so, in our passage from Romans, Paul starts in verse 28 to say, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Because there will certainly be times when we wonder if it’s true that God has chosen us. Bad things will happen to us or to those that we love. Our faith often wavers. The gospel seems to be in retreat. But Paul bids us remember: in all this, the all-powerful God is working for your good. One day you will see and know exactly how he has done so. In the meantime, rejoice in this truth.
Remember that Tiberius was given legal evidences of his future inheritance. For example, Octavian Augustus gave him the power of a tribune for life, so that it wasn’t just people thinking, “Maybe Tiberius is going to be emperor, maybe he isn’t.” No—Augustus made it perfectly clear that Tiberius was set to take over from him. If ever Tiberius doubted his future, he could look to the present evidences.
And we must do the same, because if we want to be sure of our future inheritance, we need to look at the evidence in the present. The temptation will be to focus on our internal states—how we feel. And often we don’t feel terribly holy. We don’t feel like our faith is terribly strong. That’s why Tiberius wouldn’t have focused on the way he felt; he’d have focused on those legal realities he knew were the case. And we must do the same—to focus on the legal realities of our faith, not inside us, but outside.
And where do those come from? Well, we look to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus—those historical facts that are the bedrock of our faith. These are the external, objective guarantees of our future glory. Elsewhere, Paul describes even the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts as another guarantee, or seal, of our inheritance.
And so, an extremely important question each of us must ask ourselves is this: do we have the Holy Spirit in our lives? Again, there are certain evidences the Holy Spirit is at work within us. One of them is wonderfully expressed by the words from the old hymn that goes like this:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.
A sure evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit is that we love the cross because our sin is nailed to it. The Holy Spirit does one thing above all others: he shows us the glory of the crucified Jesus. So if we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will rejoice in what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We will mourn for the huge burden of sin that nailed him there. But we will also say, “Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul—my sin is taken away.”
Paul goes on to elaborate on the end result of our inheritance—what we have to look forward to, if you like. For he says, “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” As Christians, our glorious future inheritance in heaven is not ultimately a place, but a person.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about heaven like that, but the Bible teaches that heaven isn’t a cloud you sit on playing a harp. Heaven is a person. We were created to share in the eternal life and love of the Holy Trinity, being united to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, through the third person, the Holy Spirit.
Paul is saying that our present life is but short preparation for this final outcome, when we will be radically united to Jesus. He will share all that he is, all that he has, with us. It’s not just shining clothes—more importantly, it’s his relationship to the Father.
This is how I like to think of it. I wonder what experience would be so impactful for you that you would think it worth it to be tortured and crucified on a cross. I wonder what on earth you would think would be worth that level of pain and suffering. My point is this: the love of God the Father was so overwhelming, so overriding for Jesus, that it was more than worth his while to be crucified for it.
Imagine love that powerful. Jesus says, “I have the infinite love of the Father on one hand, and the short-term suffering of the cross on the other—it’s a no-brainer.” As we’re told later in the Bible, “For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Jesus knew such powerful love from the Father that it enabled him to go through the worst torture the world has ever seen.
And this is the wonderful point that Paul is making. In heaven, as we are united to Jesus through the Holy Spirit, we will know first-hand that level of love.
Finally, Paul says this: “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Notice that Paul describes a process which is ongoing for us as if it’s in the past tense. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not glorified yet—look at me! So why does Paul describe an ongoing process as though it has already happened?
The point is that God ensured it would happen before he even created the universe. It’s a done deal, as they say. A modern Christian hymn puts it beautifully like this:
Loved before the dawn of time,
Chosen by my maker,
Hidden in my Saviour.
I am his and he is mine,
Cherished for eternity.
If we belong to Jesus, God chose us as his heirs before the Big Bang. And because he is God, he has brought about a universe in which all who trust in Jesus will be glorified. We can be as certain of that as we can be of our own existence.
This is why the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion in our Church of England say this: “The godly consideration of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons who feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ.”
To all who love Jesus, Paul says: be thoroughly and completely comforted. Can you be sure that God created you? Absolutely you can—100%. Then be just as certain that he will glorify you, as surely as he glorifies Jesus.
But note what the article goes on to say: “For those lacking the Spirit of Christ, the sentence of God’s predestination is a most dangerous downfall.” In other words, far from being a comfort to those who lack the Spirit—and therefore lack Christ—the fact that God chooses his heirs unilaterally is a bitter taste in the mouth.
I think the first reason for this is that those who lack the Spirit can’t bear the thought that God overrides human autonomy. Such a person says, “No, no, no—if I’m going to be glorified, it has to be because I’ve chosen it on my terms, not because you have, God.”
The second reason that this whole idea of God’s choosing us is such a bitter doctrine for someone who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit is that such a person can’t even understand what Paul is saying here. We’re told elsewhere in the Bible that we need the Holy Spirit to understand this kind of thing anyway—otherwise it’s just mumbo-jumbo.
So for us this evening, if we know we have the Spirit in us because we say, “Jesus Christ is Lord—he died for me, my sin of the glorious thought is nailed to the cross,” then next time we’re tempted to despair, or to lose heart, or to feel desperate, we need to look at Jesus—his transfiguration, his crucifixion, his resurrection—and say, “God will give me that glory.”
And if you’re not sure whether you have the Spirit or not, please don’t continue with your life until you are. There is nothing more important than the prospect of where you are going to spend eternity.
Jesus himself told us it’s not true that everyone goes to heaven by default—and he should know. So we need to be sure, before we meet Jesus face to face, that we have been united to him by his Spirit.
Now is the time to choose. When we die—or if he reappears in the next five minutes, or the next five years, we don’t know—it’s too late when he appears in glory. Now is the time to make sure that we have put our trust in his saving death.