We have though about:
The Relationship between suffering and glory: glory is the result of suffering or suffering has as its consequences Glory. The relationship is not compensatory.
God uses suffering to bring us to glory, it is part of His sovereign plan.
- The suffering of the creature (8:18)
- The suffering of the creation (8:20)
- The suffering of the creator (8:32)
The Reason for Suffering
- We Desire His Glory
- He Displays His Glory
- We Discover His Glory
The Results of Suffering
Present - Hope (8:20,24,25)
Future - Glory (8:18,21,23)
It must be said that suffering does not inevitably result in hope.
Sometimes suffering leads people to drink, drugs and suicide.
What makes the difference?
The presence of the Spirit of God: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (8:23)
The Prospect of the Spirit (v23) - Hope
The Prayer of the Holy Spirit - Help
The Purpose of the Holy Spirit - Wholeness
The Prospect of the Spirit (v23) - Hope
His Holy Spirit is the first fruits of salvations transformation
His Spirit is the promise of more to come
Therefore the attack on the outer man by the barrage of suffering has a whole different perspective for the believer than it does for the unbeliever (2 Co4:26-18; 5:1ff)
That suffering and attack actually hits the very “bondage of corruption” (v21)
The fact that I possess someone who is the promise of more to come, transforms the meaning of suffering.
Suffering can destroy the body but not the soul
Suffering can bring a shadow of fear but cannot destroy love
Suffering can bring pain but cannot remove the eternal prospect of Gods salvation
Suffering may bring death cannot end eternal life
The Prayer of the Holy Spirit (v26) - Help
Here is the key to suffering transformed
Not just a different outlook / mindset on suffering (v23) but suffering radically transformed by the Spirits ministry!
I once took a knife and plunged it into the back of a woman, did they lock you up? No she couldn’t have been more grateful, the knife was a scalpel, the wound was around a black mark on the skin that turned out to be a cancer. Suffering when guided by grace can bring glorious results. Suffering cannot be judged in isolation from its outcome.
It is the Spirit who makes the difference
Suffering brings a sense of our ‘weakness’ (v20) : “infirmities” : powerlessness
This powerlessness the Spirit ‘helps’ (v26)
The help the Spirit gives is prayer help
So to utilise and experience that help I need to pray
Suffering has an effect upon me: “I groan” (v23)
But I groan with the Holy Spirit present
As I groan His Spirit knows my heart (v27)
His Spirit responds to that groaning appropriately (v26) - He groans too.
He knows and He is sensitive to my needs
Those groanings of the Spirit are intercessory and bring to God our need
The help is timely and appropriate to our need even when we haven’t asked for it.
The result is to bring our need and the help into conformity to “the will of God” (v27)
These groanings thus achieve Gods purpose for my life: ‘conformed to the image of His Son’ (8:29)
The Purpose of the Holy Spirit - Wholeness (8:29)
To transform and conform to Christ (8:29)
Relationship and resemblance
To glorify (8:30)
Notes from our bible study teaching series of messages preached systematically, verse by verse, through Paul's letter to the Romans. Free to download audio mp3 recordings of this sermon and other sermons are available at the end of this blog and on the website page.
Yours by Grace in Christ
Dr J Stewart Gillespie