Glory: A Survey of Romans 8:18-39

Author’s note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series about the book of Romans. To see other Romans resources, click here.

There are two certainties in the Christian life: suffering and glory. In the first verses of Romans 8, Paul highlights aspects of both. Glorification with Christ is a future certainty, but it does not happen unless the Christian suffers with him. One of the ways in which Christians suffer is by ‘putting to death the deeds of the body’. This is painful, bloody business, and it begs a question: Is it really worth it? What do we stand to gain, and to lose, by following Christ?

Expectation for Adoption (8:18-25)

Paul’s answer is thought out and meticulous. Logizomai gar hoti (“For I reckon that…”)— Paul has run the numbers, balanced the books, and come to the conclusion that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” Put the two figures side by side, and the one doesn’t even count in comparison with the other. It’s like weighing a dust mite against a brick of gold.

In verses 19-30 Paul will give two lines of evidence to support his assessment, that future glory really is this glorious.

The first line of evidence is the groaning that God’s creation and God’s people share. We should understand verse 20 as a parenthetical remark, so that the thought goes like this: “For eager longing of the creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God (for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it), in hope that the creation itself will be set free…” Read and translated in this more literal way, Paul personifies the hope of creation. Creation waits for the time when God’s people come into their full glory, because at that time, creation will also be set free from bondage to corruption. This corruption refers to the curse and all the effects of sin.

Paul presents this as something that we all know— ‘the whole creation has been groaning together.’ Again, Paul is personifying the inanimate, but what he says rings deeply true. We know that the world is not the way it should be. The ‘pains of childbirth’ in which creation groans is likely an illustrative way to say this, but it brings to mind the curse of Genesis 3.

Together with creation, God’s people are also groaning. What we are groaning for is ‘adoption.’ But haven’t we already been adopted? Yes, but we do not yet enjoy all that adoption entails. In particular, the apostle highlights the resurrection of the body as something which we anticipate.

The apostle implies that our inward groanings are because of, or at least related to, the Spirit given to us. This makes sense. Because Christians have the Spirit, they are not content with the present broken world, and they groan for future glorification and the fellowship with God which they will experience then.

All of this groaning is evidence that future glory will far exceed present suffering. Creation and Spirit-filled Christians have a deep sense of longing for what will be because we inherently know that it is far better than the brokenness of the present.

The Certainty and Goodness of God’s Will (8:26-30)

The second line of evidence is that the Spirit is also groaning, though in a different way. While Christians are known for their prayers, they do not always pray for the right things. Sometimes, in our desire to escape the brokenness of the world, we pray for things which God does not will.

The Spirit helps us in this weakness. He prays for us, ‘with groanings too deep for words.’ Because he knows God’s will, he asks for things that are in line with God’s will – ‘according to the will of God’. Because this intercession is in line with God’s will, we know that God answers such requests.

This is hope for believers because, in a way that doesn’t exactly make sense to human minds, God is moved by prayer. While God has his will, it is put in motion through prayer. Because the Spirit intercedes for us according to his will, we have this certainty that God’s plans for us are being accomplished. God the Spirit is asking, and God the Father is granting.

What this means is that ‘all things’ that happen to us are in accordance with God’s plans for us. The Spirit himself is praying that ‘all things’ according to God’s will would happen to us, and these ‘all things’ are just the things which God intends to work for our good.

The Greek is not entirely clear. It could be translated [God] works all things together for good or all things work together for good. Either option is acceptable, and the end result remains the same. Believers know that everything that happens to them is in line with God’s will for them (vv. 26-27) and those ‘all things’ are going to result in good (v. 28).

This is further spelled out in verses 29-30, where we see that God has a plan for the elect that stretches from eternity to eternity. The ‘good’ which all things work is ‘to be conformed to the image of his Son.’ This is not a promise that all things will result in our ease, prosperity, or temporal happiness. Instead, it is a promise that God is making us like his Son, so that we are those whose bodies will rise again in the resurrection and so that we are fitted to be co-heirs with Christ.

This plan begins before time, for even before we existed, God set his love upon us. This is the meaning of the word foreknew. It is not merely intellectual data which God knew beforehand; it was an intimate relationship which God initiated with us in advance. Since Christ was slain ‘before the foundation of the world,’ this means that God’s love for his elect is something that was settled even before Genesis 1:1.

From foreknowledge, God’s elect are also predestined (to a glorious state), called (receive the summons of the gospel and are irresistibly but willingly led to it), justified (declared righteous), and ultimately glorified. Paul uses the present tense to describe our glorification, even though it is a future reality, because of the certainty of this state.

Thus, all things are moving us on toward God’s perfect plan for us, which he initiated prior to creation. This plan was to choose a people and raise them to a very great height, co-heirs with Christ. Surely, then, no suffering can be accounted of any worth when God is up to such marvelous activities!

The Invincibility of the Elect (8:31-39)

As we survey the greatness of God’s plan for the elect, we are astonished by what God is doing. All the events of world history are playing out for the benefit of the elect, for whom God has been working since eternity past. This means that nothing will thwart his will or hinder our glorification.

The questions that Paul rhetorically asks can be separated into two groups. The first group (vv. 31-34) asks what can turn God against us and leave us with a guilty verdict. This is the legal question, and Christians have no reason to worry. It is certain that no foe can bring a charge that will stick. God is for us, he is the one who justifies, Christ has paid the penalty, and the Son of God himself is our full-time advocate. This means that God is on our side, working for our good and giving us all that we need. Positionally we are right with God, and those who are in God’s camp need fear no evil or lack.

The other question is about what can separate us from the love of Christ. This is the relational question. What can get between us and Christ’s love? Paul lists seven things we may be tempted to think could tear us away from Christ. More specifically, it is not so much these things themselves, but our response to these things. They are exactly the sort of things which might make us doubt Christ or pull us away from Him. Paul goes a step farther. Quoting from Psalm 44:22, Paul asserts that it is exactly these sorts of challenges which not only theoretically assault believers, but which historically do assault believers. In other words, this is not a vain question. The history of Christ’s people is that we will face such things.

But Paul remains unconcerned. Not only will these things not separate us from Christ’s love, we are actually super-conquerors over these things! This is surely because of what Paul said in verse 28. Not only do these things not harm us, they are actually working for our good!

Paul is persuaded that even ten all-encompassing situations will be unable to separate us from God’s love. These items include death (terrible as it is), life (which in some situations can be worse than death), angels and rulers (and Paul is undoubtedly referring here to evil spiritual forces that wish to destroy us), things we face in the present, things we face in the future (including the fear of such things), powers (of all sorts and types), high obstacles, low obstacles, and any other created entity.

Finally, the reference to the ‘love of God’ in verse 39 reminds us that God the Father does not just tolerate us. He himself is affectionate to us. Christ’s love, indeed, has been highlighted, and since we are in Christ, we are recipients of his love. His love is not given grudgingly. Indeed, as we saw earlier, God himself foreknew us. He set his love on us from eternity past, and nothing shall separate us from it.

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