Romans 8:18-39 –
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Introduction
I have entitled this sermon “Your Extraordinary Hope in Suffering”. By Extraordinary I mean “unusually great”. All of you, at one time or another, and many of you right now, are experiencing sufferings and trials of many kinds. You may be gripped by physical illness and weakness; you may be facing an onslaught of discouragement or temptation from the evil one; you may live in relationships with problems that seem insurmountable; the evil one may remind you again and again of your past failures; you may be grieved in your heart because of the evil you see in the world; you may be suffering because you are a follower of Christ; there is no end to the kinds of suffering you may be experiencing.
Suffering is hard, but shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus prepared us for this. And Jesus Himself suffered. He suffered for us. He set an example for how we can respond to suffering. And He calls us to endure suffering in faith.
Hebrews 12:1–3 says: 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Jesus calls us to follow Him, enduring suffering with joy, and as we will learn today, Jesus calls us to not lose hope in our suffering.
But, sometimes our suffering overwhelms us. Sometimes we lose sight of any glimmer of hope. My desire today is to point you to the Extraordinary hope that is yours in Christ! If you are a Christian, your hope in Christ is unusually great. There is nothing ordinary about our hope—it’s the kind of hope that pulls us through suffering. Its greater than we can begin to imagine. I want you to see it, and to savor it, and to live in light of it. God doesn’t promise to always remove the suffering, but He does promise to sustain you with hope as He carries you through it! In no way do I want to minimize the suffering you are facing; instead, it is my desire for you to understand that the hope that is yours is far greater!
Our text of Scripture this morning is Romans 8:18-39. Today I want to highlight from this text 3 reasons for your Extraordinary hope in suffering, and I want you to see 3 key questions and answers that fortify that hope! But let me be clear first and foremost: this hope is for the person that Christ has saved, the person that is born again, who has been justified by faith, and who has (objective) peace with God. This hope is anchored in and built upon the person of Jesus Christ who redeemed us through His shed blood, and whose righteousness is ours by faith.
If you are here this morning and you are not trusting in Jesus for your salvation, I urge you to run to Him today, put your faith in Him, that you too may have this Extraordinary hope.
3 Reasons for Your Extraordinary Hope in Suffering
There is one thing that must be said before we look at reason #1, and it’s this: Romans 5:3-5 teaches us that “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”. God is present and at work in our suffering. And He promises to be doing good things in the lives of His children in the midst of suffering. In fact, our hope is refined in the furnace of afflictions. Suffering leads us to put our hope in Christ! Our hope isn’t tied to our circumstances in life. Our hope isn’t tied to other people and their opinions of us in life. Suffering leads us to see that our hope is tied to and built upon Jesus Christ. In fact, in suffering we learn to identify with Christ and His sufferings! In Romans 8:16-17 we learn that “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”. For Jesus, suffering came before glory! It’s that way for us too. So, in our flesh we may fight against suffering, we may not want to accept suffering, we might lose sight of anything good in our suffering, we may be overwhelmed by our suffering, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can accept and even rejoice in our suffering because of reason #1.
Reason #1: Our present sufferings don’t begin to compare with the glory that will be revealed to us when Jesus comes again (Rom. 8:18-25).
If we suffer with Christ, we will also share in His glory. And that glory will make any suffering in this lifetime seem pale in comparison. What does the glory that will be revealed to us when Christ comes again look like? In short, that glory will be the most beautiful and satisfying thing you will ever see! John Piper says, “God’s glory is the radiance of his holiness, the radiance of his manifold, infinitely worthy and valuable perfections”. And when Christ comes again, His glory will be fully revealed to us! God will give us eyes to see and savor Him in all of His breathtaking beauty in an unhindered way. I Cor. 13:12 says it best: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known”.
In this lifetime we wait for glory. We long for it. In fact, verse 23 says “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” The Holy Spirit was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but still, Jesus experienced deep agony as He was preparing for the Cross. Yet, He was able to pray “not my will, but yours be done”. Jesus endured suffering. Jesus trusted and obeyed His Father’s will, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In fact, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. I think it was the joy of doing His Father’s will. As believers, it’s important to know that real genuine life giving hope doesn’t mean we aren’t honest about our sufferings. It is when we are honest about our sufferings that we are more prepared to run to Jesus for help, and He will give us the kind of help to endure and persevere in the faith.
That is the promise given to us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. God promises to help us endure, or to persevere in the Faith. We don’t stop believing when suffering comes. But we must be honest about the hardship in such a way that we run to Christ for help. There we find help to cling to that certain and sure promise of glory—and eternity spent in the presence of Jesus.
Verses 24-25 then says this: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience”. What is hope?
Hope is a certain and confident expectation that God’s glory will be revealed to us when Christ comes again. Again, as verse 18 says “…I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. Paul is not minimizing the sufferings in this lifetime. Paul understood suffering. He suffered plenty in his lifetime. Instead, he is saying that seeing and savoring the glory of God for all eternity is infinitely better! He says this so you will persevere in your faith, giving you courage and patience in what can be sometimes “long sufferings”.
Let me attempt to illustrate present sufferings in contrast to future glory. Present sufferings might be compared to the excruciating pains of a woman in labor. Not pleasant. I remember thinking that what Shelli experienced in her labor was more excruciating than anything else I have ever seen. But the gift of a child makes all those labor pains a price worth paying! I witnessed Shelli cry out in labor pains for a season (a long season), but there were inexpressible tears of joy with Josh and Jess in her arms.
Our present sufferings don’t begin to compare with the glory that will be revealed to us when Christ comes again! There is a great hope for you in suffering!
Reason #2 (for extraordinary hope in suffering): The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26-27).
How? One of the ways is this: “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you don’t know how to pray? Have you ever been in a situation where you are so overwhelmed by your trial that you don’t even have the strength to pray? Be encouraged, the Holy Spirit is interceding for you! This reveals that our hope, ultimately, isn’t tied to us hanging on to God but God hanging on to us! The Spirit searches our hearts, and He knows what we need. The Spirit also knows God’s will for us perfectly. And He intercedes on our behalf!
Do you grasp the weightiness of that? We get encouraged when our brothers and sisters pray for us, and rightly so. How much more should we be encouraged in our sufferings when we know that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to God’s perfect will! And God the Father always gives what the Holy Spirit asks for, because the Holy Spirit is always praying according to the Father’s will!
You are not left alone! The Holy Spirit is with you. He knows you far better than you know yourself. He also knows your Heavenly Father perfectly, and He is actively and faithfully praying for you in perfect agreement with God’s will.
Reason #3 (for Extraordinary hope in suffering): God makes all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28-30).
Not everything that happens to you is good. We will share in Christ’s glory if we share in His sufferings. The English definition of the word “suffering “ is a state of ongoing pain, distress, or hardship”. But God is so wise and powerful that He can use that pain, distress, and hardship to bring about good in your life through it! What is that good that He will bring about? Verse 29 says “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers”. How confident can we be in God’s ability to use sufferings to conform us to the image and likeness of Jesus? How certain can we be that God will make all things work together for our good? Verse 30 says: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified”. The word “glorified”, grammatically, means it’s a past completed action. However, though we are not yet glorified—because that will happen when Christ comes again—it’s as good as done because God said He will do it!
God is up to something good in your life! Even in suffering! He is at work to form the character of Christ into the character of your life, more and more. God is so wise and good that He can take hard times and use them to bring you to greater maturity in Christ. Your suffering is not pointless! Do you believe that? Can you rest in the care of your Lord and Savior? Can you be content in Christ, even in the midst of your trial? You can be absolutely certain, that no matter what is happening in your life, even if what you are facing isn’t good—even if what you are experiencing brings pain, distress, and hardship—your life won’t be defined by your pain, but by your sovereign Lord who is infinitely wise and loving and good and is at work doing GOOD things in you and through you. Faith is living in light of that truth even if you don’t see it physically and even if you don’t feel it emotionally.
We must fight to live in light of Christ and His promises! Jerry Bridges has said:
“Trust is not a passive state of mind. It is a vigorous act of the soul by which we choose to lay hold on the promises of God and cling to them despite the adversity that at times seeks to overwhelms us.”
We have talked about 3 reasons for Extraordinary hope in suffering. Now let’s talk about…
3 Questions & Answers that Fortify Your Extraordinary Hope in Suffering:
Question #1: If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31-32). The answer is, no one. Absolutely no one.
Answer #1: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? That is the character and the promise of God. The gift of Jesus to meet our greatest need is proof that God is a lavish giver of good, really good gifts. Yes, we are forgiven. We have the hope of glory. We also live in this age with the promise of His faithful presence with us. The Spirit is constantly with us, comforting, enabling, transforming, and keeping.
Question #2: Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? Who is to condemn? (Rom. 8:33-34)
Answer #2: It is God who justifies. Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Today, we know that God is for us, not against us. And if God is for us, no one can be against us.
Question #3: Who/What shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom. 8:35-39)
Answer #3: Nothing! We are more than conquerors through him who loved us!
Romans 8:35–39: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Gospel makes it abundantly clear that we really do have an unusually great hope in Christ who will transform us through our sufferings and take us to glory! You can be absolutely certain of this!
Therefore (Application):
- You have every available grace to be content in Christ, even in your suffering. True contentment comes when you accept your suffering, and are fixed on the hope that is yours in Christ.
- You have no good reason to give way to grumbling, despair, or self-pity. I’m not saying that you won’t be tempted to grumble. But if you start feeling sorry for yourself it should alert you that you have lost sight of the hope that is yours in Christ.
- In you sufferings, you have the perfect opportunity to experience the truth that Christ is enough to truly satisfy your soul. Your sufferings are intended to drive you to Christ, and to fix your hearts on the hope that is yours in Him!
- You have every reason to be filled with hope and joy. In this lifetime God is with you, and in the lifetime to come, because of what Christ has done for you, and because of what the Holy Spirit is doing for you now, you will see and savor for eternity all of God in His breathtaking beauty!
Don’t lose sight of your God given Extraordinary hope in the midst of suffering!