This was my half of a joint sermon delivered on Romans 8:28-39 at East Side Grace Brethren Church in Blacklick Ohio on Sunday June 12, 2022. My oldest, dearest Ukrainian friend Vladimir Gorbenko delivered the other half of the sermon. I'm sorry I can only share my half here!
God For Us: the Heart of the Gospel
8:28 -- WHY do we like this verse so much?
'Cause it tells us, in a sense, "Everything's gonna be okay," and that's music to our ears.
We naturally long to know that everything will ultimately work out fine--even better if it's gonna work out GREAT.
And I'm not fixing to tell you that Romans 8:28 doesn't tell us that.
It does.
Amen. Go in peace.
😏
But of course there's more....
Imagine you're an intrepid explorer (for some reason they're always "intrepid", aren't they), like, say, a Marco Polo. Off you go on a harrowing journey through wild lands full of fearsome mysteries and unimaginable hazards, enough to write a whole book about even without getting to your destination! But then you get to the fabled mountain you've been seeking, and you can't believe it, you're really there. You scale this mountain, aching with anticipation for the moment you'll stand up there on the summit and look down from its magnificent heights, exulting in triumph. But surprise! You reach the top, and it's not the summit at all but the threshold of a still greater one ahead. You're stunned; you never imagined there could be anything higher still. But, remember, you're "intrepid," so with a deep breath you pull yourself together and plow on, clambering your way up this new mountainside to find what lies on the other side. But when you get to the top of that one, the summit beyond the summit, surprise again: there is no other side, it's a not a mountain peak at all but a whole new country stretching out as far as you can see, beautiful beyond all your earthly experience, bursting with color, life and vibrancy you never thought possible. A world of new adventures where you were expecting nothing more than the end of your adventure. But this is no ending, it's a beginning that will never end, a place where, yes, sure, "everything's gonna be okay"--but so much more than "okay."
This is the pattern I see in Romans. From chapters 1-7 Paul leads us on the harrowing trek through the historical realities of human sin and spiritual devastation, the awfulness of divine wrath, the hopelessness of the flesh, and the unthinkable (but magnificent) price it finally demanded of God Himself to salvage us, drag us out of that pit, save us. And that alone would be enough of a story. The apostle has made his point: we got ourselves into a nightmare and God extracted us from it, praised be the name of the Lord, amen and go in peace. Paul could have signed off Romans at the end of chapter 7 and, frankly, that would have been more than enough for us to run with, more than we deserved. But no, after the arduous trek across wild, dangerous lands we reach a mountain and its dreamed-of glorious summit, and with a fresh surge of adrenalin we scramble up its side to get the view from there. That's chapter 8.
At the start of chapter 8, our expeditionary guide Paul announces, "THEREFORE NOW...there is no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus." The funny thing about "therefore" the way Paul says it here is, it doesn't really flow out of anything. 9 times out of 10, including in the Bible, when anyone says "therefore" it comes right out of something they just said, like "It's raining; therefore we won't have a picnic." Not this time, though! This time it's a "therefore" that seems to come out of nowhere, not obviously connected to anything. But of course it does come from somewhere: it comes out of the whole seven chapters Paul just wrote; it comes out of the who-o-ole HISTORY OF THE WORLD and the unstoppable juggernaut of redemption coursing through history at God's sovereign will and grace. So when Paul says, "Therefore now" in Romans 8:1, he's saying, "Because of ALL THAT, we're NOW, therefore, in a new world. Because it was ALWAYS GOD'S HEART to GET us here, it's happened—we ARE here, children of God. Can you believe it?"
You know, God doesn't change, but history does. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, but we're not, nor are the times we live in. The prophets of old longed to see our day, but we see it. Things have changed. It wasn't always possible to say, "Therefore there is now no condemnation;" but now it is, because the words after it have materialized: "...to those who are in Christ Jesus." It's HAPPENED. We're there. Hallelujah.
And that's the first summit, the mountain peak that turns out not to be the final peak at all but the threshold to a still higher summit. Our expeditionary guide Paul leads us on through chapter 8 to a mysterious mountaintop still looming ahead, and after another scramble up that second mountainside, we reach 8:28, expecting again to come to a peak where we can peer down deep into valleys we came up from but, surprise, surprise, we're gazing instead into a magnificent new country stretching endlessly before us: "And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Those "who have been called according to his purpose" in 8:28 are "those who are in Christ Jesus" in 8:1. And the God in 8:28, intricately, impenetrably coordinating and orchestrating, moving behind and underneath and through ALL THINGS--yes, all things, everything that happens and ever has happened, including all the things that are terrible and awful and painful--the God relentlessly operating to finally bring His cherished children whole and hearty into the never-ending country of Christ, that is the God of Romans 8:1 Who stood there with open arms at the first summit, the threshold of glory, announcing, "We've arrived, children, we're there: here in My Son, because of what I have wrought in Him, there is now therefore no condemnation to you." In 8:28 "And we KNOW" elevates "Therefore NOW" from 8:1 to a whole new level, to that second peak and summit that turns out, to our stunned amazement, to be the entrance to a never-ending country.
The same God Who proved that no matter what anything ever looked like in the whole past history of the world He was always driving the project of His grace forward, this is the God we can now KNOW will keep on doing precisely that. For how long? Forever and ever. He's the God Who's eternally for us, as it was always in the divine heart to be, no matter what things we still have to go through, still have to suffer. And how do we know? Because He proved it by surrendering His Son to get us into His mountaintop country, His forever kingdom—so it's inconceivable He could ever do otherwise or be different than that. That's the whole point of this glorious, getting-acquainted ramble our expeditionary guide Paul takes us on, just a little ways into this mountaintop country, from 8:28 to the rest of the chapter. Our guide says, "Look, over there, do you see it: the Father's purpose, to conform us to the very image of His Son, so that forever and ever when Jesus is with you He's with family—in a way the word "family" never even compared to before. And, look, over there, gaze at God for you, turning every possible opponent or foe into utter nonsense! And, wait, what's this jewel audaciously, lavishly set by the roadside for every child of this mountaintop country to embrace: it's the love of Christ that can never be ripped or torn away from you!"
Like I said at the beginning, there's more, always much more. Now (8:1) "there is no condemnation"—and that would already be enough, and a good deal more than we deserve; but now (8:28) we KNOW, too, here on the upper summit, that just as God DID work in all things, through all history, to get us HERE, He goes ON "working in all things" to get us THERE—and that too would already be enough and a good deal more than we deserve. But as we gaze out at the endless horizons that the Father has unveiled through the Son, it only gets better, if such a thing can be imagined. ALL THINGS that we and all human history have come through, the Father steered and channeled into the Son's transcendent triumph over sin, death and condemnation. That's the glorious mountain peak of 8:1. And then, (8:28) ALL THINGS that you and I ARE going through now, the Father keeps on steering and channeling into the blessedness predestined to us in the same Son. And THEN, as we gaze into the endless mountaintop world stretching out before us, the reality dawns that ALL THINGS in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, mighty and meek, good or evil, ultimately fall in submission, or defeat, before the same Son's all-conquering love that holds us in its invincible grip and, yes, makes us, too, as if we deserved it, super-excellingly conquerors over ALL THINGS in union with the Son.
THAT, brothers and sisters, is what "all things" lead to—"all things," whatever they were, whatever they are, and whatever they will be—because they will never overcome the all-conquering love of the Risen Son, Christ Jesus, who IS "God for us," who IS the love of God at the heart of the Gospel.
