romans 8:20 commentary

So in suffering we should not be looking at the suffering, but at the glorious kingdom that shall come when our Lord comes to claim His own. This is a very difficult passage because it is so highly compressed, and because, all through it, Paul is making allusions to things which he has already said. He will establish that word unto his servants on which he has caused them to hope (Psalms 119:49), and heaven is therefore sweet; for, if hope deferred makes the heart sick, surely when the desire comes it will be a tree of life, Proverbs 13:12. Or, We groan among ourselves. At this point we enter upon a most important part of the epistle, on which we must dwell for a little. idolatry, WILLINGLY; but they were subjected to vanity UNWILLINGLY; for this proceeded from the just indignation and vengeance of God. When it rains, it is starting to leak. For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God ( Romans 8:19 ). The Christian waits, not for death, but for life. "For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. It is not so alone; but in His death, unto which I am baptized, I am dead to sin. . The adopting father went to the praetor, one of the Roman magistrates, and presented a legal case for the transference of the person to be adopted into his patria potestas. The same idea that he is presenting here is presented there in II Corinthians 5 , of that groaning earnestly, desiring to be free from this body that is limited and restricted and often seeks to bring me into bondage, the bondage of corruption.So we ourselves groan, we who are in these bodies do often groan earnestly desiring to be delivered. The kingdom of God is within you, and will be so to eternity. Now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear, the honour is now clouded; but then God will publicly own all his children. He first sums up what is disbursed for Christ in the sufferings of this present time, and finds they come to very little; he then sums up what is secured to us by Christ in the glory that shall be revealed, and this he finds to be an infinite sum, transcending all conception, the disbursement abundantly made up and the losses infinitely countervailed. This, however, will be put to the test by-and-by. Because he had violated that spiritual aspect of the law, though he had never committed adultery, yet he found that he desired his neighbor's wife and he realized that the desire was sin. . Because we possess the capacity to sin, when it is coupled with the determination to resist temptation to sin, the resultant Hence it is essentially founded on the gift not only of a Saviour who would interpose, in the mercy of God, to bear our sins, but of One who is already revealed, and the work done and accepted, and this known in the fact that God Himself has interposed to raise Him from among the dead a bright and momentous thing to press on souls, as indeed we find the apostles insisting on it throughout the Acts. (b) Christ is risen; therefore nothing can ever separate us from him. Such is the principle. The words Paul uses of God are the very words God used of Abraham when Abraham proved his utter loyalty by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac at God's command. In the rest of chapter 15 the apostle dwells on the extent of his apostleship, renews his expression of the thought and hope of visiting Rome, and at the same time shows how well he remembered the need of the poor at Jerusalem. This passed away with man when he sinned. I can say, "God, I bring John before you, oh, oh, oh . If I am thus pitied of God, if so truly and completely a justified man, if I am really an object of God's eternal favour, how can I have such a sense of continual evil?

For you have not received the spirit of bondage ( Romans 8:15 ).

"The man has not got anything like settled peace with God; perhaps he hardly knows his sins forgiven; but at least he is a saved soul." And he gives his reason: "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith." But it is interesting how that we so often find ourselves in that place of seeking to offer to God the works of our flesh. It had its smells of the kerosene heaters. When the world was drowned, and almost all the creatures in it, surely then it was subject to vanity indeed. If I don't know how to pray and I want to pray according to the will of God and here is my friend John over here and I don't know really how to pray for his situation. whereas the mind of the spirit is life and peace ( Romans 8:6 ). You can't put them in the same category. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, the old things have passed away and all things become new" ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ) and it is interesting how even our desires change so dramatically when we are in Christ. Corruption (phthora) is applied to the physical body in 1 Corinthians 15:42. Romans 13:1-14; Romans 13:1-14 urges their duties towards what was outside them, more particularly to the powers that be, but also to men in general. Paul knew that, and here he, as it were, endows creation with consciousness. You know, to me it is such a simple, beautiful thing. 15), "because we are not under the law, but under grace?" WebBenson Commentary Romans 8:19. Do this in remembrance of me. 2 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. No fresh revelations from God can nullify those which preceded them; but as the prophets looked onward to what was coming, so is the gospel already come, supported by the past. It is the unanimous vote, the joint desire, of the whole church, all agree in this: Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. I have rested in this verse over and over and over again.

If in Isaac only, it is a question of the seed, not that was born, but that was called. 2. 3. But Paul goes on from there. He is body, mind, and spirit. What the apostle had given him in fulness was the great truth, however fundamental it may be, that I am entitled, and even called on in the name of the Lord Jesus, to know that I am dead to sin; not that I must die, but that I am dead that my baptism means nothing less than this, and is shorn of its most emphatic point if limited merely to Christ's dying for my sins. If a man loves and trusts and accepts God, if he is convinced that God is the all-wise and all-loving Father, then he can humbly accept all that he sends to him. The notion that this passage (Romans 8:19-23) is a reference to all creation lower than the level of humanity "yearning in hope" is contrary to reason. Reference-Verse. The rest of the epistle takes up the practical consequences of the great doctrine of God's righteousness, which had been now shown to be supported by, and in no wise inconsistent with, His promises to Israel. This accordingly leads the apostle into the earlier portion of his great argument, and first of all in a preparatory way. The New English Bible translates this phrase, "was made subject to frustration. But then again he intimates that the nature of the gospel is involved in the publishing of the glad tidings. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. From this old tent in which I am living.

God, therefore, having not the least hindrance to the manifestation of what He can be and is in merciful intervention on behalf of the worst of sinners, manifests it is His righteousness "by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (ver. Psalms 19:1-14 is used in the most beautiful manner to insinuate that the limits are the world. And it is not the least part of their vanity and bondage that they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. He says that God's spirit witnesses with our spirit that we really are his children. The soul may feel the blood of Jesus to be a yet deeper want; but this alone does not give peace with God. For winds shall go forth from before me to bring every, morning the fragrance of aromatic fruits, and at the close of the. "I knew you in the wilderness," said God to Hosea about the people of Israel ( Hosea 13:5). The first was known as mancipatio, and was carried out by a symbolic sale, in which copper and scales were symbolically used. There is hardly any phraseology that tends to more injury of souls in these matters than a loose way of talking of salvation. In the gospel there is revealed God's righteousness. He wasnt caught in a moment of weakness as Eve was. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. But such thoughts altogether vanish now, because, as the Gentile was unquestionably wicked and abominable, so from the law's express denunciation the Jew was universally guilty before God. He shows that, on the responsible ground of being His nation, they were wholly ruined. God, therefore, had not cast off His people, but was employing the interval of their slip from their place, in consequence of their rejection of Christ, to call the Gentiles in sovereign mercy, after which Israel as a whole should be saved. Oftentimes, the good that he would do he didn't do. All the world was guilty before God. We are often so hard on ourselves and are in the position of condemning ourselves, but I can tell you one who is not condemning. Christians, being saved by faith, do not yet experience all that God has promised, but they look to the future with patience and confidence (24-25). Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Now Paul was as competent a judge of this point as ever any mere man was. It may be passion-controlled, or lust-controlled, or pride-controlled, or ambition-controlled. The righteousness of God flows from His mercy, of course; but its character and basis is righteousness. Ministers are helpers of the joy of the saints. I really think that Jesus was talking about what Paul had been talking about in II Corinthians 5 , that mansion is that new body that He has prepared for you. So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice faith-obedience obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. It could not therefore be the source or means of his righteousness. It is "revealed," and this too "from heaven." In this, as in other things, God hath made our present state a state of trial and probation--that our reward is out of sight. Every mouth was stopped; the Jew by his own oracles, as the Gentile by their evident abominations, shown already. 21). Inevitably, therefore, all men die; but the man who is Spirit-controlled and whose heart is Christ-occupied, dies only to rise again. That is Paul's argument, and, to him and to those who heard it, it was completely convincing, however hard it is for us to grasp it. ", No malign influences (powers) will separate us from Christ. What harm comes of the flesh; 13. and what good of the Spirit. That is a yet future experience that I am to have. God help us to comprehend what is the length, the breadth, the depth, the height, and to know that love of Christ that God has for us in Him.Father, we thank You for Your Word and for the glorious blessings and hope and strength and comfort that is ours tonight because of Your Word. Because, though my spirit was indeed willing, my flesh was weak. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Colonial style, surrounded by beautiful gardens. It is here that you will find a great failure of Christendom as to this. WebGreek Interlinear Layout for Romans 6:8 (TR KJV) Line-By-Line Order: Verse-Reference. Paul used figurative language to clarify and emphasize his point. After the first sin, however, God put man and nature at odds with each other. He at the same time unfolds the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and that of law. He is interceding in your behalf. Be it so then; it was a foolish nation by which Moses declared they should be angered. Thereby is identification with His death. Just what do you mean?" So because of the weakness of my flesh it could not make me righteous before God. Glory! And the blessedness of the gospel is, that it is (not merely an exercise of mercy, but also) divinely just. the creation was subjected -- Understanding that here the "creation" is speaking of "us" (v.18) as "aspiring to the full privileges of adoption, that the present state is not one of choice" [BN]. It was the Son of God not merely as dealing with the powers of the earth, Jehovah's King on the holy hill of Zion, but after a far deeper manner. And we know that all things are working together for good to those that love God, and are the called according to his purpose ( Romans 8:28 ). It is God who acquits. It is the adoption perfected and completed. To Paul life was not a weary, defeated waiting; it was a throbbing, vivid expectation. But we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Not my will, but Thine be done.". The same Spirit who gives hope for the future gives help in the present. If children, then heirs,Romans 8:17; Romans 8:17. The created world awaits with eager expectation the day when those who are the sons of God will be displayed in all their glory. A man may go to a physician, and be prescribed a course of treatment which at the time is unpleasant or even painful; but if he trusts the wisdom of the man of skill, he accepts the thing that is laid upon him. God is proved thus divinely consistent with Himself in Christ Jesus, whom He has set forth a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. Paul made the case just as airtight as he possibly could. Romans 8:26-27 form one of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament. Paul says to these haunted men of his age: "The stars cannot hurt you. Surely we can trust a loyalty like that for anything. That act denoted not even the washing away of our sins by the blood of Jesus, which would not apply to the case, nor in any adequate way meet the question of nature. Who hath subjected the same - Who has appointed his people to this condition. Hence, then, we find that the whole chapter is founded on this truth. This the gospel is filled with the assurances of. He says that Jesus is the son of David kata ( G2596) sarka ( G4561) ( Romans 1:3), that is to say, on the human side of his descent. And this not willingly, not of their own choice. But now to faith all this is gone not lightly, but truly in the sight of God; so that he may live on a Saviour that is risen from the dead as his new life. Did the Jew fancy that the gospel makes very light of Abraham, and of the then dealings of God? "I was beaten five times with rods and stoned three times and dragged out of the city. But what is testified by Christian baptism is Christ's death. 4). For years he was a sales engineer for the Southern County Gas Company, and then he went into the real estate business and was a realtor here in Santa Ana for many years. And in the area of the spirit and God's Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit that I am a son of God.Thus, I am united with God and joined with God and I have fellowship with God in the realm of the spirit, only when the spirit is uppermost. He says that the mind of the flesh is death, and that it is hostile to God ( Romans 8:6; Romans 8:8). God himself will be with them, and will be their God, Revelation 21:3. There is a basic emptiness of man apart from God. "All right, we conquered," and then was the great elation, rejoicing. All things here refers to glorification in eternity. In the fourth verse this could not be absent; in the first verse it ought not to be present. THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF LIFE ( Romans 8:5-11 ). Paul goes further; he goes on to speak of the spiritual experience of every Christian. Not only they--not only the creatures which are not capable of such a happiness as the first-fruits of the Spirit, but even we, who have such present rich receivings, cannot but long for something more and greater. I don't have to live as a subject to my flesh anymore. This, accordingly, is the essential spring of worship. Finally he comes to two other witnesses; as from the Psalms, so now from the law and the prophets.

To hold the truth in unrighteousness would be no security. Prayer is the instrument by which we cooperate with God in the accomplishing of His will upon the earth. (b) Over and over again he uses the phrase kata ( G2596) sarka ( G4561) , literally according to the flesh, which most often means looking at things from the human point of view. It is as if Paul said: "You think of Jesus as the Judge who is there to condemn; and well he might for he has won the right. Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-ammi were of awful import for Israel; but, in presence of circumstances so disastrous, there should be not merely a people but sons of the living God, and then should Judah and Israel be gathered as one people under one head. At the moment creation is in bondage to decay. Faith is the mother of hope. I understand that God is wiser than I am. To Him be the glory forever! We groan within ourselves, which denotes the strength and secrecy of these desires; not making a loud noise, as the hypocrites howling upon the bed for corn and wine, but with silent groans, which pierce heaven soonest of all. (ii) In Romans 8:38-39 Paul makes a list of terrible things. 10831108. At the same time he connects, in a singularly interesting manner, this disclosure of the principles of the eternal judgment of God with what he calls "my gospel." But oh, I am going to have an eternal weight of glory. By living it, a man is making himself totally unfit ever to stand in the presence of God. As Christ was, so the saints will be, declared to be the sons of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead, Romans 1:4; Romans 1:4. That must needs be a great, a transcendent glory, which all the creatures are so earnestly expecting and longing for. God has condemned the flesh. The creatures are often abused to the dishonour of their Creator, the hurt of his children, or the service of his enemies. But then it will be complete, when the Captain of our salvation shall bring the many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:10. . This is what made the gospel to be so sweet and precious, and, what is more, absolutely necessary, if he would escape certain and eternal ruin. Spirit, to Paul, represented a power which was divine. And this leads the apostle into the moral history of man the proof both of his inexcusable guilt, and of his extreme need of redemption. It is true, it is needful for man to learn; but in nowise is it good news.

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