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Notes on Romans 8

¶ ^8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[1]

 

Here Paul refers back to everything he has said in Chapter 1-7. ‘Condemnation’ can also be translated ‘damnation’. Sinners who do not repent in this lifetime are already under the judgment of damnation, and are hated by God. They are not “in Christ,” a far-reaching term Paul uses often. In effect, it means a believer is a part of Christ, receiving His life, being united with all other believers of all times and places. Being “in Christ” is to be beloved of God, saved, blessed, and possessed of every good thing God has for you. How do you get to be “in Christ”? Paul explains in Romans 6,

³Or, are you ignorant this, that as many as were given baptism into Christ Jesus,
            into His Death you were baptized?
⁴So then, we were buried with Him by means of Baptism into Death, with the result that,
            just as Christ was raised out of the Dead, by the Father glorifying Him,
            thus also we ourselves in the new state of life will finally begin to walk.
⁵For, since we have become men planted together in a death just like His,
            then indeed we certainly also will be in a Resurrection just like His.

He explains the concept again in Galatians 3, saying,

             ²³ But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

If you wonder if God is angry with you, if He condemns you, then you only need to know
if you are “in Christ.” To know if you are “in Christ,” you merely need to know if you were baptized. Do you trust the promise God made to you at baptism? Your rescue from sin and death does not depend on your wanting and your trusting, but upon God’s mercy in Christ. Baptism, Absolution, the Sacrament, and the Gospel give and assure you of this mercy, that it is already God’s gift to you.

 

² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin
and of death.

 

The “law” of the Spirit is how He ‘rules’ you. His “law” is mercy, peace, hope, blessings. “Law” is used in a wide, very general sense. That is how it is used here in 2a. In 2b, “law” is used in the sense of God’s Commandments, which stir up sin and bring death, as Paul has already said earlier in his letter to Rome.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit “of life.” Life comes from Him. He gives true life. He does this by placing you “in Christ” and keeping you “in Christ.” He does this by Baptism, preaching the Word by mouth or by the printed Word, by forgiving sins by way of God’s earthly Ministers, and by the Lord’s Supper. These are all sources of life for sinners, since God attaches sure promises of life-giving power to them. Please review Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. Romans Eight is the best place to learn about the Holy Spirit. He is mentioned more often here than in any other chapter of the Bible. {Greek grammar in Romans Eight does not always make it totally clear when the Greek word pneuma should be translated as ‘Holy Spirit’ or ‘spirit’ (= ‘soul’).}

“(T)he law of the Spirit of life” is also “in Christ Jesus.” So, apart from Christ, there is no life from the true Spirit of God, despite what pagan religions claim. Only for those “in Christ” does the Spirit rule so as to give life. Only for those “in Christ” is there freedom “from the law of sin and of death.” Sin and death ‘rule’ humans who do not believe the message of Christ, His prophets and apostles, and true preachers and teachers of His Word. Sin and death rule through God’s Law, which condemns and kills all who are apart from Christ and His life-giving Spirit.

 

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³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Here we have a perfect example of “Law” in it’s proper, narrow sense. If you had kept all God’s Commandments, then you would have gained eternal life by them. Yet no man, except for Christ Jesus, ever kept all the Commandments perfectly in thought, word, and deed. Our sinful flesh includes our evil thoughts, desires, and actions. All are centered in the flesh and indulge the flesh in godless deeds and wishes. For this, the Law of God damns us. So let no one ever make you believe that they are “living in God’s Will” as far as keeping the Commandments goes. Our sinful flesh does not permit it. We are too evil. However, Christ says, “This is the Will of God, that you believe Jesus Christ, Whom He has sent.” Again, by grace you are saved, not of works, so you won’t boast.

What we did not do, what we could not do, “God did.” How? By “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” Christ had the “likeness” of flesh in that He had real human flesh and blood, except without the sin. That is why the Virgin Birth was necessary. The absence of evil male desire, even in the holy union of God-pleasing marriage, was enough for the work of the Holy Spirit. See Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, John 1:13, Matthew 1:20,23.

Christ’s death was the “offering for sin” demanded by the Law. The OT rites looked ahead to it. His payment on the Cross “condemned sin in the flesh,”[2] so that our bodies and souls now live in hope. Rather than sinners being damned, sin was damned by Christ’s Coming and Atonement. So not our works of the Law, but Christ’s Work of Love, fulfills the requirement, the ‘righteous’ or ‘just’ demand of the Law. Christ’s Work has fulfilled IN US. So what we need to please God is already within us: Christ’s Holy Spirit is in you, the Baptismal Fountain of life, welling up into everlasting life, is within you. (John 4, 7; Revelation 7, 22) The just demands of the Law is fulfilled in believers, “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Paul just said in Chapter 7:

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ²¹ I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. ²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

The Holy Spirit uses Baptism, etc., to produce a new creature within us, one perfect and holy in God’s eyes. (Jeremiah 31:31-34!!) That New Man fights the flesh and its desires. That renewed Man within will one day triumph over sin and death, since Christ lives through that new creature. [Galatians 2:19-20] So, while the combined soul & flesh of your present earthly life often sins, the new, pure Man within walks in accord with the Spirit {or, ‘spirit’, as in, ‘soul’}.

 

⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

 

If ‘Spirit’ means “Holy Spirit” in verse 4, it probably means the same here. Either way Paul is saying pretty much the same thing. Either, “believers set their minds in accord with their life-source, the Holy Spirit,” or, “believers set their minds to live in accord with their newly reborn spirit-soul, which had totally pure desires, since Christ’s Spirit motivates their new life and soul within.” Either way, the result in daily life is the same. NASB takes the passage in the first sense:

 

⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,…

 

Consider Paul’s words in Galatians 5:

¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
¹⁷ For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

There is no middle ground. Either you are dead, apart from Christ, with your mind doing what the evil flesh wants;[3] or else, you are “in Christ,” doing what His Spirit wants, fighting the old desires of the mind and body of ‘flesh’. It is the same distinction of being under the Law, which condemns and brings death to humans, or of being under the Gospel, where Christ and the Spirit rule to give life to penitent sinners. For believers, the Holy Spirit brings Christ’s peace with the Father, and with fellow believers, even when it does not show outwardly. For even earthly arguments are healed in the unity of Christ’s Body, produced and sustained by the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

⁷ because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself
to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

 

How is the sinner converted to faith? Can he do it himself? Can a sinner, whose thoughts are only set on the flesh, turn to God for help? Can a sinner come to regret his evil? Paul says no. The hostility between God and man is only broken by Christ (Romans 5:6-11). Sinful man does not admit God’s Law is right and just, and will never subject itself to His holy commandments: “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” [Romans 3:20] “And the Law came in that the transgression might increase … .” [Romans 5:20] The Holy Spirit says no human can accept Christ, turn to Him, nor place himself under God’s will.

Luther’s Bondage of the Will proves natural man does not have ‘Free Will’ in moral things, but rather he is in bondage to sin. From his sinful nature, man can only sin {Genesis 6:5, 8:21, etc.}. Natural man “is not even able to do so,” that is, please God in any way. Turning to God, repenting, and seeking mercy must all be credited to the Holy Spirit, whom Christ has sent, and whose coming is only possible because Christ has taken away the sin of the whole world. {Adolph Hitler’s ‘great’ propaganda movie, Triumph of the Will, intentionally attacked Luther’s Bondage of the Will. Fascism & Nazism are deadly enemies of Luther. The modern myth that Hitler found Luther’s teachings helpful is a lie. Luther and Hitler could not be further apart philosophically.}

 

⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

In view of what Paul has just said, in 8:8 he obviously means that those who are existing (ontes, “being”) in harmony with the flesh and its desires cannot please God. They need the new Spirit-created Man to do this. They must be “in Christ,” which means that they have entered a new existence through Christ. We are no longer purely “in the flesh.” This is Paul’s meaning also in 1 Corinthians 15:

⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery;
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ ”O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

 

⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

 

Here, the “you” is emphatic. Paul says, “YOU, believer, are NOT in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” This confirms our view of verse 8. The newly-born spirit living in your mortal body lives by, with, and “in” the Spirit. The phrase “if indeed” should be translated “since indeed.”[4] See 8:1! Here’s a good example of Christ’s claim that there is NO other way to God and heaven except through Himself. If His own Spirit does not dwell within you, there is absolutely NO way you will be loved by God. Remember that on Missions Sundays!! Also, the Spirit is Christ’s Spirit, too, not just the Father’s.

 

¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

Believers are “in Christ,” and Christ is “in you.” See John 15. Christ dwells in us by His Spirit’s presence. We do not divide the Trinity. Christ living in us is the Spirit living in us is the Father living in us. We are nourished, watered by Baptism, and kept alive by our being grafted into the Vine (see Romans 11:11-24!). Though our mortal flesh will die, or at the very least be totally changed on Judgment Day (1 Corinthians 15, above), the spirit lives because of righteousness. Again, righteousness comes from God (1:16-17, etc.), being the gift of a “Not Guilty!” verdict for Christ’s sake. The New, Inner Man, recreated by the Spirit’s gifts which make Christ’s work effective in individual sinners, is alive because of what Christ has done. So our soul-spirit lives because of what Christ has done and what the Spirit does, in accord with the Will of the Father. As Paul says in Titus 3:

³ For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

 

Verses 9-10 are true of you, a believer. Thus, the resurrection of your mortal flesh, to pure, holy living with your Heavenly Father, is guaranteed. Christ and His Spirit will do it. He promises this, He will not fail. He says the same in Ephesians 1:

¹⁸ I pray that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might ²⁰ which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places … (RSV)

So, believers need not fear death nor the weakness of mortal flesh. If you wonder where God’s miracle-working power, such as Moses, the Apostles, and especially Christ showed, is now in the 21^st Century, Paul says it is INSIDE YOU ALREADY! Just because you don’t feel it every day does not mean this power is not there. Your destiny is eternal physical life with Christ!

This verse is why the Apostles’ Creed and Luther’s explanation of its Third Article credit the Holy Spirit with raising the dead on the last day, “giving unto me and all believers eternal life.” The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity work in complete harmony. The Spirit does not replace Christ nor overshadow Him. Rather, the Spirit keeps doing Christ’s work. By His power we do greater things than Christ (John 14:12-17, 16:5-15). For when did Christ ever bestow the Holy Spirit by the waters and Promise of Baptism? Yet the Church does that. When did Christ ever preach to a billion people a day? Yet the Church, by the Spirit’s power, does that every day. So, the Spirit does the same work of Christ, not a ‘better’ work than Christ.

 

¶ ¹² So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³ for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

Having all our sins forgiven does not give us permission to sin all the more! You must actively crucify the flesh and its evil desires daily. You must use Baptism’s waters and Promise to drown your old, evil self within, “so that a new man might daily come forth and arise, and live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” [S.C., Baptism, IV] We have been removed from sin and death. Why return to those cruel slave-owners? The flesh brings death, but the Spirit brings life. You have the Spirit’s power to fight the Old Man. Continuing this struggle preserves life. We need no lazy saints. You must actively help the Spirit and His leadings. Yet we must also remember Baptism’s promise, which should encourage us all the more to fight sin in our lives:

 

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³ Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6, RSV)

 

During your fight to do God’s Will (see Romans 7:18-25!!), always remember that God’s promise to you is that sin will NOT have dominion over you. Christ’s Spirit promises to help you. Ultimately, you are in your Heavenly Father’s hand, and no one is able to snatch you out of His hand. (John 10:27-29)

 

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¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

 

Paul does not say “sons” here because he or God does not like daughters. 8:16 should make this plain. You ladies and girls are viewed of equal rank as ’sons’ of God. This equality under the Gospel led many First Century A.D. women to flock to the Christian faith. For both male and female, regarding the article of Justification, are of equal worth before God (as Galatians 3:28 shows; but, this does not mean that we all DO the same things in the Kingdom!!). Further, showing that radical feminists are the WORST grammarians, the Greek word ‘uioi also has a generic meaning of ‘children’, without reference to their sex. In view of verse 16, that is the proper meaning here.

Living under sin, death, and the Law, slavery was the only course. Fear of death and living in this cursed world brought about this sad state. Now we have all, male and female, received the “adoption as sons” of God. We all get the first-born son’s share and portion, for we receive the share of Christ. You know this, because Baptism and the Promises of the Word reveal that Christ’s Spirit leads you to life.

To cry out “‘Abba!’” in prayer echoes a tiny child just learning to speak, a toddler just learning life’s mysteries and realities, crying out to a loving father for help, comfort, and for explanations why pain, happiness, and confusion exist. It is a cry that a trusting infant makes to a loving parent. Christians of any age must make similar prayers; not demands, no arrogant presumption that we know better than God, rather, a full trust that our Father will give us the good gifts of life we need, even though we don’t understand. So, why doesn’t it rain when you think it should? Why do people get laid off after 20 years on a job? Why must a loved one suffer or die? Prayers for answers to such questions must be like those of a child crying “Abba!” We probably won’t understand our Father’s answer, but we can trust His love and protection. In this way Paul is leading us to a discussion of how Christ’s Spirit will be with us and protect us even during suffering.

As children, don’t be surprised when God treats you like a child. He won’t always explain His actions, because you won’t always understand. He won’t always give you what you ask in prayer, because sometimes sinners act like whining little brats. Yet He will always love you. He will give you what you really need.

 

¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

If you ever doubt your salvation, or whether God really does love you for Christ’s sake, and you are doubting the Promises of Baptism, and the Pastor’s absolution, and the clear promises of mercy and the free gift of eternal life in Scripture, then trust God’s Spirit, who never lies. The Holy Spirit Himself says you are God’s children, and heirs of eternal life. He says this, agreeing with the new spirit-soul within you.

Since you’re His child, you are His heir. An heir does not earn his inheritance: he’s born into it. By Baptism, you are born again into God’s inheritance. It is purely by promise so that it will be sure. If you have to earn the inheritance, it is wages, not a gift. So then, God makes you heirs as a free gift, so that you will be certain to receive it, for God Himself promises to keep you written into the will and testament.

What is your inheritance? Everything that Christ possesses as the Son of God. You are heir to the Universe and all its power and riches. Above all, you are the heir of a Father who loves you and treats you tenderly, as He will for eternity in the Heavenly mansion which Christ’s death has prepared for you. Yet in this world Christ’s portion is suffering. He was rejected, humiliated, mocked, beaten, and killed. We receive His full inheritance. Yes, bliss in the next Age, but often suffering in this Age. The world will treat you as it treated Christ:

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. … (John 15:18‑20)

Glory is your inheritance. So is suffering. We receive all Christ has. While we await the fullness of the glory to be ours, we must endure the suffering. Yet Paul is now about to describe how Christ and His Spirit will be sure to get us safely through the pain of life, and safely into the Age to come.

 

¶ ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

 

Only Christians can deal squarely with suffering. Neither Christ nor His Spirit ever promise that if we have ‘enough’ faith we will chase all our problems away. Some cancers do not get cured. Some auto accidents don’t get prevented. Poverty will always be in the world. Tragic events will always occur. The wages of sin is always death. God is deadly serious about His views on sin. Though the Gospel reigns, the Law and its curse still exist. The judgment upon Adam and Eve still stalks mankind. Do not expect God to exempt us from the earthly suffering we have brought upon ourselves and our fellow humans by our sins. Yet ultimately the mighty glory of full salvation will overshadow this Age of death.

 

¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

 

Here we certainly have a commentary on Genesis 3, where the LORD God spoke:

¹⁶ To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you shall bring forth children;[5]
Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying,

‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life…
            ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread,
            Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken;
            For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

The reason rain does not fall from the sky at the ‘right’ time, volcanoes and earthquakes level cities and provinces, solar and cosmic radiation burn peoples’ skin, and bacteria and viruses kill, is that mankind sinned. By sin we sold the world into death. God therefore forced the whole creation into this futile fate, so that He could also bring life to all creation again through Christ. Yet He did this amid hope, knowing that He would restore us to the state of Genesis One and Two. Then decay will be past, and God will make all things new, where only life from Christ will be found.

Until then, we suffer ‘birth pains’ together with the whole creation, awaiting the joy of the new life expected. The whole universe waits to see YOU revealed, with all the elect saints, as God’s beloved sons and daughters. As Christ says, Matthew 24: “For there will be raised up nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and earthquakes throughout localities; but all these things are a beginning of birth-pains.” The creation must suffer and collapse. God’s whole purpose is so Christ can return to destroy evil, and free His elect, whom He has chosen from eternity.

 

²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 

Christians, in whom the Spirit lives, are not exempted from this curse. Though we have the first fruits of life, the Holy Spirit, Who Himself is the down payment of everlasting life already within, we nonetheless also within groan & sigh in pain and despair, in spite of the Spirit’s presence. Our mortal flesh, cursed in sin, must also die or be destroyed. Yet there is hope for us: we wait expectantly, in the certain hope that our mortal bodies will be bought back and redeemed from this tragic situation.

At Romans 3:24, Paul said we are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” ‘Redemption,’ to be bought back from death by the life Christ gave on the Cross, is both a present reality, though its full physical effect has yet to be realized. The redemption of our body is the resurrection of the flesh, perfect and holy, immortal and sinless, at Christ’s Second Coming.

This ‘redemption’ of our bodies Paul here equates with “our adoption as sons” of God.
In 8:15 he had said, “you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” So now our adoption as sons, where both male and female receive the full inheritance and blessings of our heavenly Father, causes us to pray in confidence, not in fear, despite our present sufferings. Ultimately this same spirit of adoption will give our mortal bodies new life for eternity, at home with our Father in heaven.

 

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²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

 

We need to wait because this is how God has chosen to rescue us from this age of sin and death: “for in hope we are being saved.” That is, God is rescuing us at the present time, often unseen and unfelt, even by believers. What God wants most of all is for us to trust and believe what He says. That is all He wanted of Adam and Eve, and of Abraham and Sarah, that is all He wants of you. For now salvation[6] is given to us not in plain sight but in hope. God still wants us to trust what He has done in Christ, and await the final conclusion to this Age: the Resurrection to life for all who trust in Jesus. If we had the full redemption and adoption of even our bodies, there would be nothing for which to trust or believe God. We would have it already. Yet trusting our Father is what we need, not a million dollars, not more food and clothing than we know what to do with, not present cure for all our illnesses and weaknesses. We need to believe Christ. That is true life, and the point of all Scripture. This hope in God produces the patient endurance which keeps faith alive, as Paul had said:

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

 

¶ ²⁶ And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 

Amidst this same hope, the Spirit prays for us amid weakness and groanings. Even the most fervent prayers of saints often miss the mark. Why should God spare the life of a baby or save someone from cancer now, rather than at the Resurrection on the Last Day? In God’s plan it may be best for death or disaster to occur now, rather than to have a worse, eternal fate hit later. God’s Law won’t allow sin to go unpunished. The wages of sin is death. Man is still doomed to return to the dust. Not a jot or tittle of the Law can be set aside. The most innocent baby, the most gentle adult, the most Christ-like church-goer, by nature all stand under the curse of the Law, and must submit to the Law’s sentence: death.

Yet at times even the most fervent prayers of the saints overlook this. A prayer to the God of the Gospel is also a prayer to a God of the Law. Only His Spirit can search this God’s heart. Only He can know what is His pure and holy will, in harmony with His anger over sin and His love for Christ’s sake. So the Spirit speaks to the Father for Christ’s sake, pleading Christ’s goodness and merits, with groans of pain which cannot be put into the words of human prayers. He prays in harmony with God’s perfect justice and His full mercy in Christ. Only the Spirit can balance God’s demands that sin be punished and His will that all sinners receive life and mercy through Christ. Ultimately, His prayers are for the sake of the saints, all who believe and desire God’s love in Christ. For these He even uses death and suffering as tools to bring God’s children safely home in eternity.

Here follows some of Luther’s comments on these verses:

The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered …. These are prayers which no man can describe by words, and which no one can understand except God alone. The groanings are so great that only God can rightly regard and appreciate them. … It is not an evil sign, but indeed the very best, if upon our petitions the very opposite happens to us. Conversely, it is not a good sign if everything is granted to us for which we pray.

The reason for this is the following: God’s counsel and will tower high above our own counsel and will, as we read in Isaiah 55:8, 9: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Hence, when we ask anything of God and He begins to hear us, He so often goes counter to our petitions that we imagine He is more angry with us now than before we prayed, and that He intends not to grant us our requests at all. All this God does, because it is His way first to destroy and annihilate what is in us before He gives us His gifts; for so we read in I Samuel 2:6: “The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.” Through this most gracious counsel He makes us fit for His gifts and works. Only then are we qualified for His works and counsels when our own plans have been demolished and our own works are destroyed and we have become purely passive in our relation to Him.

The proud (unbelievers) desire to he like God. They want to place their thoughts not under God, but next to His, just as though they were perfect (as God is). But that is much less possible than for the clay to tell the potter into what shape he should form it.

So we read in Isaiah 64:8: “O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” But those who have the Holy Spirit do not despair but have faith when they see that the very opposite of what they asked for happens to them. The work of God must remain hidden in any other form than that which contradicts our thinking and understanding. Thus God permitted St. Augustine to fall deeper and deeper into error, despite the prayers of his mother, in order to grant her much more in the end than she had asked. This He does with all His saints.[7]

With Dr. Buls, we quote Kretzmann at length concerning this text:

“We are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of the faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. …Our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance; He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christian finally converge, the salvation of our souls. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers’ hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body.

 

²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.[8]

 

Paul defines “those who love God” as “those who are called according to His purpose.” The Church is defined according to the Gospel, not the Law. You cannot love God unless He first has mercy on you for Christ’s sake. You must first be saved before you begin to love God in the way the Law really demands.

So, we love God because He “called [us] according to His purpose.” Christians are “called” (“elected” or “chosen”) by God’s choice. He selected us for mercy through His Son’s deeds. He did not see any good in us, but chose to love us because of what Christ did for us. In Chapters 9-11, Paul says believers once were among the damned, but God purified us by Christ. He then confirmed us as members of His People, the Church, where we have the Holy Spirit and all God’s blessings. This “call” to salvation does not mean God also “called” some humans to damnation, as we’ll see below.

God’s “purpose” means He predetermined that He would save many sinners, as He promised Abraham (Genesis 15, etc.). God’s foreknowledge (verse 29) is the plan as to exactly how He would save many sinners. He laid out His plan ahead of time, checked the details, and made the plan so it would not fail. His “purpose” was that He would condemn all humans for their sins, then save all believers for the sake of Christ. He saves believers BECAUSE OF CHRIST, not BECAUSE they believe or perform good works. Christ’s coming, crucifixion, and resurrection is God’s purpose and plan.

God works all things, great and small, for the good of believers, whom He has foreknown and predestinated to be like His Son. He directs world history to protect His Church: the Flood, the collapse of the Bronze Age empires just before the rise of the Kingdom of Israel, the four empires of Daniel (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome). He controls all secular events for the sake of the Elect. He uses all events to serve His purpose: saving us. (Yet this is not ‘fate’ as the pagans think). Everything in your personal life God uses to guide you safely to heaven. Even death serves God’s plan: your sinful body, with its mind & desires of the flesh, will be destroyed, so that God can raise it again immortal, glorious, and incorruptible at Christ’s Return.

 

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²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to become conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; …

 

“Those whom He foreknew” are “those who are called according to His purpose,” (v. 28). “Foreknew” does NOT mean God looked into the future, saw that these individuals would one day believe, so He saved them in view of their eventual belief in Christ. “Foreknew” [proegno] means “determined beforehand,” “appointed ahead of time,” and “had in mind before.” The verb “foreknew” tells us that God planned ahead of time, before the world began, to save all believers. This reassures believers that God’s plan will not fail, and that all things are going according to the plan. Amid suffering and death, Satan tempts us to believe that God is failing to keep His promise, or perhaps is not in control of our future. The teaching of predestination tells us Satan is still a liar. Rather, as in the Book of Revelation, we are assured that nothing in heaven or on earth can or will happen to spoil God’s plan to save us for Christ’s sake.

Further, “He also predestinated [believers] to become conformed to the image of His Son.” “Predestinated” does not mean “doomed,” or “fated.” “Predestinated” [proorisen] means “looked ahead,” “marked out ahead of time,” “definitely designed beforehand,” “pre-ordained,” and “limited beforehand.” The eternal decree of election does not specify individuals, but marks out two groups of mankind: the saved and the damned. The Law damned all sinners. Yet in His mercy, for Christ’s sake, God “marked out ahead of time,” within definite boundaries, a place for a special People: believers, those whom God would save because of what Christ did in His lifetime, by His death and by His Resurrection. Christ removes sinners from among the damned by His Holy Spirit working through the prophets, Apostles, and the Means of Grace. He places them within the definitely limited boundaries of His Kingdom, the Church, the True Israel.

This is why “double predestination” is impossible. If the unbelievers were doomed to remain damned, no one would be saved. It is from among those damned by the Law, those despised by God because of their sins, that Christ ‘elects’ the saints for salvation.
The Holy Spirit says, Rom. 9:22-26,

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea,

“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’

And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them,

‘you are not My people,’

There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

The individual “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” are not doomed to stay that way. That is the whole point of this passage. Many among them will become “vessels of mercy.” Those vessels whom once He hated, become loved. Those once aliens to God’s people become the sons of the Living God. This transfer of individual sinners from among the damned into the Elect is also shown in Romans 11:16b-24, where Paul writes,

… and if the root be holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches;
but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand
by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

Paul also discussed the Doctrine of Election / Predestination when he wrote to the saints of Ephesus:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, ¹⁰ that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. ¹¹ In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

¹³ In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. [NKJV]

So then, “predestination” or “election” of the saints does not doom individual unbelievers. Predestination assures us that God’s plan to save believers is certain. His plan is carefully laid out. The boundaries of His Kingdom, the Church, cannot be violated by Satan, the world, or even the sins of believers, as long as they repent and turn back to Christ for mercy. While a few individual believers have rejoined the group of the damned (such as Judas, some Pharisees, etc.), countless millions of sinners, once among those hated by God, have been redeemed by Christ and transferred into the People of God, who are predestinated, foreknown, and elected unto salvation.

How, then, can you know that you are saved? The Formula of Concord explains:

The eternal election of God is to be considered in Christ, and not outside of or without Christ. For in Christ, the Apostle Paul testified, Eph. 1,4f., He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, ... This election, however, is revealed from heaven through the preaching of His Word, when ... Christ says, Matt. 11,28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ... Thus the entire Holy Trinity, God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, directs all men to Christ, as to the Book of Life, in whom they should seek the eternal election of the Father. For this has been decided from eternity, that whom He would save he would save through Christ., as He Himself says, John 14,6: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. ...

Therefore, whoever would be saved should not trouble or harass himself with thoughts concerning the secret counsel of God, as to whether he also is elected and ordained to eternal life, ... But they should hear Christ ... that it is God’s will that all men should come to Him who labor and are heavy laden with sin, in order that He may give them rest and save them ... {Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, Article XI, paragraphs 65, 70.}

For Christians who are of weak faith, {timid,} troubled, and heartily terrified because of the greatness and number of their sins, and think that in this their great impurity they are not worthy of this precious treasure and the benefits of Christ, and who feel and lament their weakness of faith, and from their hearts desire that they may serve God with stronger, more joyful faith and pure obedience, they are the truly worthy guests for whom this highly venerable Sacrament [and sacred feast] has been especially instituted and appointed; as Christ says, Matt. 11,28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Also Matt. 9,12: They that be whole need not a physician, but they that be sick. Also [2 Cor. 12,9]: God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. {Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration,  Article VII, paragraph 70.}

So, if you are worried about the eternal fate of yourself, family, friends, loved ones, neighbors, etc., direct them and yourself to where Christ is found in mercy: in His Word of forgiveness, and in the Sacraments where He has promised to be merciful to you. When the Pastor absolves you of your many sins, your sins are forgiven before God in Heaven. As the Formula of Concord states so well, you find God in His mercy in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, where Christ gives and sheds His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. When the waters of Holy Baptism were poured out upon you, Christ promised He gave His Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. By Baptism, St. Peter says the call of God is extended unto sinners:

³⁸You must repent, and you must be given baptism, each one of you,
            based upon the Name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins
            and so you will receive the gift, the Holy Spirit;
³⁹because this Promise is for you and for your children,
            and all those far away as many as the LORD your God may call.

Believers, those whom God has called, are predestinated to become “like forms”[9] of Christ’s “image.” “Image” (or, “icon”) comes from the Greek verb eiko, “to be like.” An eikon is the imprint left in clay by a hand. The actual hand is not there any more, but you see exactly what it looks like by the image it left behind. So an “icon” means: a likeness or portrait; an image in a mirror; an image in the mind; a representation, exact image; a material image, likeness, or effigy.

The same Greek noun is used by Christ in Matthew 22:20, where He shows Caesar’s “image” on a coin. Paul uses this same word earlier, in Romans 1:23, where he says men have worshipped an “image” of corruptible men and animals. The same word is used of the Second Beast of John’s Revelation. There, the “image” of this Beast, the spiritual Antichrist, symbolizes every form and appearance of Satan’s false teachings, which have no ‘physical’ properties, within the visible congregation of the saints.

Paul calls Christ “God’s exact image” (2 Cor. 4:4) and “the image [eikon] of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). In Christ “all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form [morphe], and in Him you have been made complete” (Colossians 2:9‑10a). When God, Who is a Spirit (John 4:24), takes physical human form, Christ is what He looks like. God as Spirit has no material form. So, when God in Christ became fully human, the exact representation of the only God is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, the material image of the immaterial God is the Man Christ Jesus.[10]

The Epistle to the Hebrews says the same thing:

^1:1 While in many places and in many ways in days of old God spoke to the fathers by the prophets,
² upon the Last of these Days He did speak to us by His Son,
Whom He set up as Heir of all things, Through Whom He made these ages;
³ Who is the Shining Splendor of His Glory and the exact expression of His very Essence, …

In Christ, God restores us to the very same “image of God” in which He created Adam in Eden. This “image” is spiritually restored now for those in Christ. Believers “have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:10). Eventually, we will physically regain this image, being among “many brethren” of Christ, the firstborn, the “first fruits” of those raised from the dead (Colossians 1:15!). “Just as we bore the image [eikona] of the earthly man, so also we will bear the image [eikona] of the heavenly Man” (1 Cor. 15:49). This is how glorious you will be at the Resurrection (see verse 30!). The Father is sinless, perfect and immortal. Christ is of the One spiritual essence as His Father, being His Only-Begotten, and also His exact, physical image. You are predestinated to be made into the same essential form as Christ: physically human, yet also sinless, perfect, and immortal. A happy fate, indeed. {See Formula of Concord XI, on Predestination.}

 

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³⁰ and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

 

Those in the previously marked-off group of the redeemed God also ‘called.’ This call is an invitation or summons to appear before God, and live with Him for eternity. To ‘call’ also means to name, as the LORD says in Isaiah of His people, “‘I have called you by name, you are Mine.’” From this Greek word we get the term ‘Church’, the ekklesia, those “called out” from among the damned, into the saved, for God to do something special with you: love, save, help, and protect you. Since it is God’s call, based upon His promise, it cannot fail.

Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed provides the best explanation as to how God calls sinners unto life everlasting in Christ:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

Those whom He predestinated and called, these He also “justified” or “declared righteous.” This means God pronounces you “Not Guilty!” of your many sins, because Christ has paid for them and blotted them out from God’s Judgment Book. Paul dealt with this in great detail in Romans 3-5.

Those whom God predestinated, called, and justified, “these He also glorified.” The Greek words for “glory” and “glorified” basically mean the way someone or something appears outwardly. When used of God it means terrifying, glowing brilliance and majesty. How then does that apply to us? We certainly have not a ‘glorious’ physical appearance in this lifetime. Another meaning of “glory” applies here: “invest with dignity and majesty.” In God’s eyes, we are no longer repulsively sinful. Since we are washed clean by Christ’s Blood, we are sparkling and beautiful in His sight. So in Eph. 5 Paul can say, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (RSV) We can now stand in God’s very presence, even in His glory of Mt. Sinai, knowing that we conform to Christ’s glorious image, being sinless, perfect, and holy by His Blood.

 

¶ ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

 

Now comes the ‘punchline’ to Chapters 1-8. If the Almighty God, who should have damned us, is instead on our side, who can successfully be against us? When we hated Him and were His enemies, Christ died for us. Now Christ has removed us from the group of His Father’s enemies, what won’t He do for us now. What good gift or deed will our loving Father withhold from us? Satan deceived Adam and Eve, seducing them into believing that this Merciful Creator would withhold good things we need or ‘deserve.’ In reply to Satan’s Great Lie, Paul says: “How will the Father, also along with giving us His Son, NOT freely give us everything good?” The idea that God would give us His greatest treasure, His Beloved Son, and then keep back lesser gifts like food, clothing, and love, is absurd. Christ “was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification,” so that all God’s good gifts would be ours as well.

On this passage, also consider Genesis 21, Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac, his own son. H. C. Leupold sums up Genesis 21 in this way:

Under God’s providence this event becomes a type of the sacrifice on Calvary. [First,] God does not expect man to do for Him what He is not ready to do for man. Abraham and all men are expected to give up their dearest possession to God. God on His part gives up His dear Son. In Abraham’s case the type is all the more to the point because Isaac is an only son, even as Christ is the Only Begotten [Rom. 8:32]… This reads like an allusion to this chapter: “He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all[, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?] A proper exposition of the passage must, therefore, point to this type that is involved as necessarily belonging to the exposition. [L,636-637]

The whole Old Testament has one purpose: to lead God’s ancient people to Christ, the Seed of Eve, Whose own virgin birth was pictured in the miraculous birth of Isaac (Romans 4:16-22, 9:6-9), and Who was the True Son of Promise. So, when we look at Genesis, or any passage of the O.T., we must look for Christ. Genesis 21 gives us a vivid picture of Christ, the beloved Son, taken to Mt. Moriah, and slain. Of course, God spared Abraham’s son, Isaac. He did not spare His own Son, as Paul says here.

Christ and the Spirit also give us “all things with Christ” through His Church. Christ has the Church baptize sinners for the forgiveness of sins. During their new life as members of the One Christian Church, the Spirit forgives sins for Christ by calling Pastors to be Christ’s under-shepherds. They forgive sins, and feed the flock of Christ on the Word of God, especially the message of God’s love and mercy in Christ. They also administer, as God’s “stewards,” “butlers,” if you will, the Holy Meal of Christ, feeding God’s children on the Body and Blood of Christ, as a down-payment of the Resurrection, and the Heavenly Meal with our Father for eternity.

 

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³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns?

 

God’s “elect” cannot be charged with sin under the Law, we’re “justified:” God Himself says we are “Not Guilty!” No one can be a “condemner” of God’s People. Revelation 12 says this is the reason God’s Kingdom has already come:

¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:

“Now has come the salvation and the power
and the Kingdom of our God and the rule of His Christ,
because the accuser of our fellow Christians,
the one accusing them before our God – day and night – has been thrown out;
¹¹ and they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb
and because of the word of their testimony;
and they did not love their life but were willing to die
¹² For this be glad, you heavens, and those who live in them.
Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great anger,
knowing that he has little time.”[11]

 

In John’s Revelation, the elect are always shown ruling amid suffering, as Paul explains in verses 35-39. Also, Since God does not condemn us, we must be careful not to condemn hypocritically fellow believers, as Christ tells us (Matthew 7:1-4):

“Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

When we point out a fellow Christian’s sins, it must only be to lead them to repentance:
“If your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.” (Matthew 18:15) Scripture also frequently commands us to point out false doctrine, false teachings, and false teachers in the visible congregation of saints in the world. Yet this must be done for the sake of those misled by the false teachers, and not to pretend those who have a full picture of the Gospel are morally or spiritually superior. Wolves in sheep’s clothing must be publicly identified, warned against, and excommunicated. Yet those whom these false shepherds deceived must not be condemned, but gently led back to the pure, soothing waters of the Gospel of Christ. We must never charge them with sin whom God has publicly declared “Not Guilty” (= “justified”) by the blood of Christ.

{^34a}Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Here we have a summary of everything Christ did and does for us. His death as a Man was needed to pay the price of the sins of mankind. The death of God-in-the-Flesh was of infinite value, so it applies to all sinners. His Resurrection was needed in order that sinless His Life, and the “Not Guilty!” verdict His death on Calvary brings, would also apply to all sinners. His Resurrection is our guarantee of a physical Resurrection in the body in which we die, just like Christ’s Resurrection.

Now He is ascended to Heaven, there reigning with equal glory and honor with His Father once again, in the glory which they shared before they created the Universe. Being at His Father’s right hand of power, He now asks for and hands out His Father’s gifts. Christ and the Holy Spirit are doing the same work: the Spirit prays for us from within us, while Christ prays for us before His Father in Heaven. Again, the Spirit’s work in this world is not better or different than Christ’s work. They both work for the same goal: taking sinners from among the damned, and placing and keeping them safely within the People of God, who’ve been predestinated to conform to Christ’s image.

 

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³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

When will God stop loving you? Never! Only the Law could separate us from Him, and Christ has satisfied its demands. We are now secure in our Father’s love: Tribulation will not stop God from loving you. The word means “pressure, affliction, stress and trial.” This is the “Tribulation” spoken of in Revelation! This “Tribulation” occurs at the same time as we reign in Christ, during this present evil age. This “pressure, affliction, stress and trial” produces hatred of God among unbelievers. Among the elect it produces hope, patience, and perseverance. Nor can “narrow straits” or “distress” stop God’s love. Neither can “pursuit” by God’s enemies stop His love, just as He kept loving David when he fled from his sons (Revelation pictures us as kings like him: reigning through Christ, yet always pursued by enemies). “Hunger” or “scarcity” will not stop God’s love for us as He promises in the Sermon on the Mount. “A lack of enough clothing” cannot either. Nor can “danger” or “peril,” for God will raise us with Christ. Finally, neither can a “sword,” which governments may wield against us for evil purpose, rather than for good purpose as God intends (Romans 13). These things will come because the devil, the world, and our own evil nature hate the new creature God has created within us in Christ. Suffering and death cannot be avoided, even among the elect. God’s Word said it would be so (Psalm 44:22). God has forced the creation into the futility of death (8:19-23), so in accord with His good pleasure we must follow Christ into His death, so that we may also follow Him into eternal life. Christ Himself promises the same:

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

Christ’s here answers the question, “How can we be sure that all those whom God wants to save actually get saved?” Christ promises His true voice will be heard. The Holy Spirit does this through the Word and Sacraments, entrusted to the Church. Christ, the Father, and the Spirit are one essence, and accomplish the same goal: making His love effective in a fallen world, despite sins and sinners. The Elect will hear this message and respond to it by the Spirit’s power. Despite false teachers and deceitful doctrines, Christ’s true Word will be heard by His sheep.

 

³⁶ Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long;
       We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 

We are counted “as sheep for the slaughter” by the world. This is Paul’s way of saying that the world treats us like it treated Christ. He Himself was the Lamb sacrificed on Mount Moriah as a guilt offering for our sin. He was led silent, for His role as Savior, as the sacrificial Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world,” does not permit Him to charge anyone with sin, even His own murderers. He wanted His killers to repent and believe that He came to die, so that they might live forever. So, as we are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son,” we must share His sufferings that we might also share His Resurrection and Life Everlasting. Even in Heaven, as we see in Revelation Five, Christ will appear as the “Lamb who was slain,” that we would never forget just how God came to love us so.

Though the world thinks we are sheep to be slaughtered, this means we belong to God for eternity. Despite these troubles and even death, we are win an overwhelming victory through Christ and the Father’s power, who have loved us before the Creation. The concept is so unique that Paul had to invent the word hypernikomen to express this total victory over anything that causes us grief and death, even our sins.

 

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

The world, and at times we ourselves, think that death, suffering, and misery show that God’s love has grown cold. Yet the Christian amid such suffering should see God’s tolerance of death, etc., especially the slaughter of Christians (such as Moslem murders of Christians in the Sudan, Indonesia, etc.), as one more manifestation of His great patience toward us sinners, and His desire that every sinner should repent and turn to Christ for mercy. So, while even while we pray for God to “deliver us from evil,” we also pray His will be done. If His will means we suffer so that more sinners will turn to Christ, let us say a hearty “Amen!”

Because of Christ, Paul was totally persuaded[12] and confident that nothing will sever us from God’s love in Christ. The old enemy “Death” cannot separate us from God’s love in Christ. Not even “living” in  this evil world, which often seduces pagans into great vice and impenitence, can keep us from our Lord. Not even the evil angels and their demonic rulers, powerful though they be, can keep our Savior from helping us unto salvation. Not things which are already in our personal lives, nor anything we fear could happen to us, can stop God’s love in Christ. Not earthly or spiritual powers can do it. We may be in the height of the sky (or joy), or in the depths of the earth or sea (or despair), yet God’s love will come to us for Christ’s sake. Nor does any other created thing have the ability to separate us away from the love of God. Why? Because it is love “that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God loves no human apart from Christ. He is only patient and tries to win unbelievers to Christ because of His Love for His son. On the Last Day, neither the Father, the Son, nor the Holy Spirit will have compassion on the unbelievers. For this reason the Church is sent to rescue unbelievers through by using the gifts which the Spirit gives: the Word & the Sacraments.

Yet God’s love in Christ is eternal. It was planned before Creation. It will continue after Judgment Day. It is present now through Christ’s Holy Spirit. For you who are called in Christ, only love will come from your Heavenly Father. May Paul’s message of comfort bless and keep you unto that Great Day, when Christ will wipe every tear from your eye, reunite you with all the saints, and show you the fullness of God’s mercy for you. Amen!

 

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Formula of Concord, Article XI,
Of God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election

The Pure and True Doctrine concerning This Article.

2] 1. To begin with [First of all], the distinction between praescientia et praedestinatio, that is, between God’s foreknowledge and His eternal election, ought to be accurately observed.

3] 2. For the foreknowledge of God is nothing else than that God knows all things before they happen, as it is written Dan. 2, 28: There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

4] 3. This foreknowledge extends alike over the godly and the wicked, but it is not the cause of evil, neither of sin, namely, of doing what is wrong (which originally arises from the devil and the wicked, perverse will of man), nor of their ruin [that men perish], for which they themselves are responsible [which they must ascribe to themselves]; but it only regulates it, and fixes a limit to it [how far it should progress and] how long it should last, and all this to the end that it should serve His elect for their salvation, notwithstanding that it is evil in itself.

5] 4. The predestination or eternal election of God, however, extends only over the godly, beloved children of God, being a cause of their salvation, which He also provides, as well as disposes what belongs thereto. Upon this [predestination of God] our salvation is founded so firmly that the gates of hell cannot overcome it. John 10, 28; Matt. 16, 18.

6] 5. This [predestination of God] is not to be investigated in the secret counsel of God, but to be sought in the Word of God, where it is also revealed.

7] 6. But the Word of God leads us to Christ, who is the Book of Life, in whom all are written and elected that are to be saved in eternity, as it is written Eph. 1, 4: He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world.

8] 7. This Christ calls to Himself all sinners and promises them rest, and He is in earnest [seriously wills] that all men should come to Him and suffer themselves to be helped, to whom He offers Himself in His Word, and wishes them to hear it and not to stop their ears or [neglect and] despise the Word. Moreover, He promises the power and working of the Holy Ghost, and divine assistance for perseverance and eternal salvation [that we may remain steadfast in the faith and attain eternal salvation].

9] 8. Therefore we should judge concerning this our election to eternal life neither from reason nor from the Law of God, which lead us either into a reckless, dissolute, Epicurean life or into despair, and excite pernicious thoughts in the hearts of men, for they cannot,
as long as they follow their reason, successfully refrain from thinking: If God has elected me to salvation, I cannot be condemned, no matter what I do; and again: If I am not elected to eternal life, it is of no avail what good I do; it is all [all my efforts are] in vain anyway.

10] 9. But it [the true judgment concerning predestination] must be learned alone from the holy Gospel concerning Christ, in which it is clearly testified that God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all, and that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and believe in the Lord Christ. Rom. 11, 32; Ezek. 18, 23; 33, 11; 2 Pet. 3, 9; 1 John 2, 2.

11] 10. Whoever, now, is thus concerned about the revealed will of God, and proceeds according to the order which St. Paul has observed in the Epistle to the Romans, who first directs men to repentance, to knowledge of sins, to faith in Christ, to divine obedience, before he speaks of the mystery of the eternal election of God, to him this doctrine [concerning God’s predestination] is useful and consolatory.

12] 11. However, that many are called and few chosen, Matt. 22, 14, does not mean that God is not willing to save everybody; but the reason is that they either do not at all hear God’s Word, but wilfully despise it, stop their ears and harden their hearts, and in this manner foreclose the ordinary way to the Holy Ghost, so that He cannot perform His work in them, or, when they have heard it, make light of it again and do not heed it, for which [that they perish] not God or His election, but their wickedness, is responsible. [2 Pet. 2, 1ff ; Luke 11, 49. 52; Heb. 12, 25f.]

13] 12. Thus far a Christian should occupy himself [in meditation] with the article concerning the eternal election of God, as it has been revealed in God’s Word, which presents to us Christ as the Book of Life, which He opens and reveals to us by the preaching of the holy Gospel, as it is written Rom. 8, 30: Whom He did predestinate, them He also called. In Him we are to seek the eternal election of the Father, who has determined in His eternal divine counsel that He would save no one except those who know His Son Christ and truly believe on Him. Other thoughts are to be [entirely] banished [from the minds of the godly], as they proceed not from God, but from the suggestion of the Evil Foe, whereby he attempts to weaken or entirely to remove from us the glorious consolation which we have in this salutary doctrine, namely, that we know [assuredly] that out of pure grace, without any merit of our own, we have been elected in Christ to eternal life, and that no one can pluck us out of His hand; as He has not only promised this gracious election with mere words, but has also certified it with an oath and sealed it with the holy Sacraments, which we can [ought to] call to mind in our most severe temptations, and take comfort in them, and therewith quench the fiery darts of the devil.

14] 13. Besides, we should use the greatest diligence to live according to the will of God, and, as St. Peter admonishes, 2 Pet. 1, 10, make our calling sure, and especially adhere to [not recede a finger’s breadth from] the revealed Word: that can and will not fail us.

15] 14. By this brief explanation of the eternal election of God His glory is entirely and fully given to God, that out of pure mercy alone, without all merit of ours, He saves us according to the purpose of His will; besides, also, no cause is given any one for despondency or a vulgar, wild life [no opportunity is afforded either for those more severe agitations of mind and faintheartedness or for Epicureanism].

False Doctrine concerning This Article.

16] Accordingly, we believe and hold: When any teach the doctrine concerning the gracious election of God to eternal life in such a manner that troubled Christians cannot comfort themselves therewith, but are thereby led to despondency or despair, or the impenitent are strengthened in their wantonness, that such doctrine is treated [wickedly and erroneously] not according to the Word and will of God, but according to reason and the instigation of the cursed Satan. For, as the apostle testifies, Rom. 15, 4, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Therefore we reject the following errors:

17] 1. As when it is taught that God is unwilling that all men repent and believe the Gospel.

18] 2. Also, that when God calls us to Himself, He is not in earnest that all men should come to Him.

19] 3. Also, that God is unwilling that every one should be saved, but that some, without regard to their sins, from the mere counsel, purpose, and will of God, are ordained to condemnation so that they cannot be saved.

20] 4. Also, that not only the mercy of God and the most holy merit of Christ, but also in us there is a cause of God’s election, on account of which God has elected us to everlasting life.

21] All these are blasphemous and dreadful erroneous doctrines, whereby all the comfort which they have in the holy Gospel and the use of the holy Sacraments is taken from Christians, and therefore should not be tolerated in the Church of God.