Romans Series # 39 May 22, 2002
Title: 6 Reasons Christians Can Be Certain Of Heaven. Part 1
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Introduction: Welcome to New Life in Christ. We are currently in Chapter 8 of Romans as we continue with message #39 of our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Romans.
Read Romans 8:26-39
Opening Prayer
Illustration: 20 years ago when I was had just joined the Army, I was given an airline ticket from West Palm Beach, FL to Montgomery, AL. The initial flight landed at the Atlanta airport and I had to leave that large jet and board a twin-engine propeller plane that held about 20 people for the short trip to Montgomery (or maybe Birmingham, I can’t remember for sure.) That short trip was the wildest ride of my life! We encountered some severe turbulence halfway through the trip. That little plane shook and moved like it was a paper airplane. Sometimes it seemed we would drop 1,000 feet in a couple of seconds. The women were screaming and the men were completely pale-faced. The question on everyone’s mind was, “Will I make it?” The pilot kept reassuring us that we would and I appreciated his reassurances but I also questioned the validity of his statements. In my mind, my question to him was, “How do I know I will make it?”
Sometimes life is like that plane ride. It can be filled with troubles that are like the ups and downs and turbulence of that trip. Sometimes in the midst of such turmoil we may question weather we will make it. We wonder if we will arrive at the destination that God has promised us. In other words, you and I want to know if we will really receive the inheritance and the glory of being God’s child that was elaborated on in earlier parts of chapter 8 of Romans. How can we be sure? How do we know that we will make it?
Answering these questions and thereby reassuring struggling and suffering Christians is the main purpose of this entire passage.
Paul wants all Christians to understand that we have no reason to doubt our future because God’s Spirit is praying for us perfectly. (Vs. 26-27) God is working in every bad situation for our good. (Vs. 28) God has predetermined that we will make become like Christ and share in His glory. (Vs. 29-30) We should not doubt our future because God is for us and not against us. (Vs. 31-32) We do not even need fear we won’t make it because of our moral failures. God is for us and no one and nothing can condemn us. (Vs. 33) Christians can be confident about making to heaven because Jesus sits at the right hand of God praying for us. (Vs. 34) We can also maintain a great deal of confidence no matter what we encounter in life because nothing can separate us from God’s love (vs. 35-39) – God is for us!
These verses (vs. 26-39) are clearly intended to convey to us who are genuine Christians the certainty that we will make it to God’s glory no matter what we encounter in this life, because God is for us. Our confidence is not in our own strength, wisdom, or ability to overcome but in the fact that God is for us.
I would summarize the message of this Bible text this way:
I. Christians can be certain of eternal glory because God is for us.
In the next couple of weeks, I will show you from this passage 6 reasons Christians can be certain of making it to glory. Tonight we will look at two of them.
Having established the general teaching of this passage, let’s now look at it in detail verse by verse.
Read Verse 26
1. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God’s Spirit prays for us perfectly.
This is the main message of verses 26 and 27, which will become clear in a moment. “In the same way” refers back to verse 25. The subject of this previous verse was on how our future hope helps to sustain us in turbulent times. In the same way as hope sustains us during hard times, the Holy Spirit helps us also during these difficult times. The Holy Spirit helps us because of our “weakness.” Certainly we are weak in many ways and the Spirit helps us in all of them, but the weakness being referred to here is our weakness or inability to know “what we ought to pray for.” We know how to pray (To the Father, In the name of Jesus, etc.), but we often don’t know what to pray for in particular. We don’t know what to pray sometimes because we don’t always know God’s will for a given situation.
It is not biblical to think that Christians should so understand God’s will that they will always know what to intercede for in a particular situation. The Apostle Paul clearly states, “We do not always know what we ought to pray for.” We cannot just assume God’s will is the same as what we want to happen. Sometimes we just don’t know what we should be praying for, though our inner desire should be for God’s will.
This ignorance of what to pray can lead to a type of prayer that is more of an inaudible groan than a clear verbalization. This does not mean that our prayers are ineffective. The Holy Spirit who inspires this groaning also translates them into effectual prayers for God’s will to be done.
Even though believers cannot specify their request to God adequately since they do not know His will sufficiently, the Holy Spirit translates these groanings and conforms them to God’s will.
Source: Bakers Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament by Thomas R. Schreiner. Page 446
1. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God’s Spirit prays for us perfectly.
Read Verse 27
“He who searches our hearts” refers to God the Father knowing what is in our hearts even when it can’t be expressed with words. If God the Father hears what is in our hearts, then certainly He is aware of and “hears” the Holy Spirit’s prayers. He “knows the mind of the Spirit.” In essence God hears and therefore accepts the prayers of the Spirit. These prayers are always heard and always answered because the Spirit “intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” We may not know God’s will but our Prayer Partner, the Holy Spirit, always does. Our prayers are not always answered because we sometimes pray outside of God’s will, but the Holy Spirit’s prayers are always answered.
Believers can be encouraged by the fact that the will of God will be accomplished in our lives, despite our weakness, because the Holy Spirit is praying for us. God is for us!
Read Verse 28
2. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God is working in every Christian’s circumstances for the good.
Illustration: One day a little boy is watching his Grandma make a cake. He watches as she places the cooking oil, eggs, flour and milk in a bowl and mixes the ingredients together. As he looks at the unappetizing concoction in the bowl he comments, “Boy what a mess!” At this point his Grandma comments, “Yes, it looks that way now, but when I’m through this mess will be a deliciously good cake.”
Sometimes we look at life like that little boy looked at that uncooked cake batter. It looks like a mess but we must keep in mind that God is working for us and therefore even what seems like a mess in life will turn out to be good. The Christian shouldn’t become discouraged or defeated by life’s trial. Rather we should be confident and hopeful in every situation. Why can we have this hope and confidence? Because “we know that in all things God works for the good…” We know that God is for us!
This verse doesn’t mean that all things are good. Disease, rape, war, sin, divorce, etc are by no means good! This verse does not means that God is the cause of everything that happens in our lives. This verse does not say that God causes all things or that all things are good. The verse says “In all things God works for the good…”
In other words, in His infinite power and wisdom, God is directing even the bad things in our lives toward a good purpose. We can be encouraged because God is working for us in every situation!
Illustration: Emeril Lagasse is the host of a well-known cooking show called “Emeril Live.” Emeril is known for his phrases such as: “Bam!’ and “Kick it up a notch.” Occasionally on his show he will allow an audience member to participate in the preparation and cooking of the recipes. Sometimes, being armatures, they really mess things up. These incidents look like cooking disasters but because Emeril is a master chef he is able to turn those disasters into delights. The amateur chef doesn’t need to be discouraged or fearful because they feel as if their mess is beyond repair. Why not? Because Emeril, a Master Chef, is working for the good. In a similar sense, but a much more powerful way, God is working for the good in our lives.
2. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God is working in every Christian’s circumstances for the good.
Now an important matter is what is meant by the word "good" in verse 28. Many people interpret “good” as meaning some earthly good. In other words they interpret this verse to mean that God withholds something now or allows us to go through trials now so that we can get something better later in life. For example, people might say that God only allowed you to lose your job so he could provide a better, higher paying job down the road. Many times we hear testimonies of how God took a bad circumstance and it actually worked for good of the person going through the trial, and by good we usually means some earthly good (better job, relationship, car, etc.) A good example of this thinking is found in the following story I found on the Internet which was uses as an illustration of Romans 8:28 in action.
Illustration: David Smallbone felt God leading him to promote Christian concerts in his homeland, Australia, where only 5 percent of the people believed in Christ. When too few fans filled his seats during one major tour, however, David took a $250,000 bath in red ink. Creditors repossessed his home, and the father of six looked for work elsewhere. A top artist offered him a job in Nashville, so the Smallbones sold their furniture and other possessions and purchased tickets to the United States. A few weeks after they arrived, however, David was informed that his position was "no longer available." He literally could not get out of bed for several days. When he and his wife explained to their children what happened, they all got on their knees and asked God to help them. Interesting things began to happen. God provided bags of groceries, a minivan, and odd jobs. Then the biggest surprise of all—a recording contract for David’s oldest daughter, Rebecca, age 15. She recorded her first album using an old family name, St. James. Flash forward to today. David promotes his own daughter’s sold-out concerts. Rebecca St. James has become one of the hottest Christian artists in America. All along—no surprise—God knew what he was doing!
Source : Christian Reader (January/February
2002), pp. 13-14; source: Luis Palau, It’s a God Thing, www.palau.org/godthing
Now I have no doubts that God was working in this situation and that God works in such wonderful ways in our lives, but I do not believe that this is what is what Paul meant when he said, “In all things God is working for the good…” Sometimes no earthly good comes out of bad circumstances. Sometimes you don’t get a better job, relationship, etc. It is not as if God had failed to do what he promised. We must understand the promises of God. We must understand what is meant by “good’ in this verse.
Paul describes what he means by God working in every situation for good in verse 29. In this verse he speaks about Christians becoming more like Christ. Paul is saying that we should not get discouraged by troubling times because God even works in these times for the real good, which is for us to become more like Jesus. We can rejoice and be confidant during trials because they help to develop Christian maturity, which is Christ-likeness.
Nearly everything in life has an ultimate goal. In football it is to win the Super Bowl. In politics it is to be elected to a high office. In the church it is to equip the saints. In Christianity the ultimate goal we are to be directed toward is becoming like Christ. That is the good God is working out in every circumstance. The goal is not to be happy, wealthy, or famous but it is to be like Jesus!
Christians can be encouraged in every situation, whether sickness, satanic attack, financial downturns, unfair treatment, false accusations, relational troubles, etc, because God is working in every one of them for His purpose of making us Christ-like. In this scenario, trials are not a reason to doubt our standing with God or our future, but a reason to be reassured because they are evidence of God working in our lives.
2. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God is working in every Christian’s circumstances for the good.
The great truth and reassurance of Romans 8: 28 does not apply to everybody. We cannot look to every one and say to every single person, “God is going to use this for good in your life.” It only applies to those who “love him and are called according to his purpose.” This phrase only describes genuine Christians. Genuine Christians alone truly love (agape) the real God as revealed by His Son Jesus Christ.
Some people may have feelings of affection for a god of their own creation or imagination, but feelings are not what is being referred to in this verse by the word “love.” Christians alone are “called according to his purpose" which is for us to be progressively be made like Jesus Christ and to share in his glory. (Verse 29-30)
Troubles and trials for the unbeliever should be perceived as something horrible because nothing good will likely come from them, but believers can see suffering from a different perspective. We know that God is working behind the scenes and will accomplish His will.
2. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God is working in every Christian’s circumstances for the good.
1. Christians can be certain of their future in heaven because God’s Spirit prays for us perfectly.
Conclusion: Sometimes in your Christian life you will hit some turbulence. Do not let it discourage you our cause you to fear. God will accomplish His purposes in your life. You will arrive at your destination because what God has begun He will complete. You may be weak and unable to know what to pray, but the Spirit is praying for you perfectly. You may be in some really tough times but the Almighty and Wise God is working and He will turn your disasters into a delight. You will make it! God is for you!
Closing Prayer.
