The Spirit’s Help and God’s Unfailing Love
The way of sanctification
Romans 8:18-39
Paul vividly portrays the believer’s inner struggle, confessing in Romans 7:24-25:
This raw and personal confession captures the tension between our desire to serve God and the persistent pull of sin. It is only through Jesus Christ that we find deliverance, and this deliverance is made real in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Interestingly, in chapters 6 and 7, the Spirit is scarcely mentioned—appearing not at all in chapter 6 and only once in chapter 7—while the focus remains heavily on sin (17 mentions in chapter 6 and 14 in chapter 7). However, in chapter 8, this pattern shifts dramatically: the Spirit is mentioned 20 times, while sin is mentioned only 5 times.
Chapter 8 is a triumphant declaration of life, freedom, and victory in the Spirit. It offers hope and assurance for all who are in Christ.
In Romans 8:1-17 Paul declares that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who walk according to the Spirit, not the flesh. They are empowered to live lives that please God (Romans 8:8). The law couldn’t save us because of the weakness of the flesh. God had to send his Son to accomplish what the law couldn’t. Jesus, in the likeness of sinful flesh, took on our nature, yet He remained sinless. His sacrifice condemned sin in the flesh, enabling us to become children of God.
This fulfills the promise of Jeremiah 31:31-33, where God speaks of a new covenant written not on stone but on the hearts of His people through the indwelling Holy Spirit. This transformation empowers believers to live according to the Spirit, experiencing freedom and peace as God’s children.
Jeremiah 31:33 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people"
Having established that life in the Spirit brings freedom from sin and condemnation, Paul then addresses a crucial question: How do we persevere in a world filled with suffering? In Romans 8:18-39, Paul reassures us that our present sufferings are temporary and cannot compare to the glory that awaits us. He points to the Spirit’s help, the certainty of God’s purposes, and the unshakable love of Christ as sources of hope and strength.
This section invites us to lift our eyes beyond our trials, placing our confidence in God’s eternal plan. It reminds us that nothing—neither suffering, hardship, nor even death—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:18 "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
Paul draws a connection between suffering and glory. Like the old saying, “No pain, no gain.”
But no suffering can be compared to the glory we shall receive. And Paul, in his life knew a lot of suffering but still believed that the glory beyond this suffering is greater.
He was imprisoned multiple time, he was beheaded, he has a chronic illness “throne in the flesh”, which he described in 2 Corinthians 12:7
7" To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me."
So life will have suffering and may not be resolved by prayer, not because God does not love us. Not at all! God is love and nothing we do, nothing that can happen to us can separate us from His love.
Jesus in John 16:33 encourages us not to worry about the troubles of the world.
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
But all this suffering cannot be compared to the glory we will receive eventually.
Also in Matthew 19:29 is yet another promise from Jesus.
29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life"
Romans 8:19-25
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
In the above versus Paul is describing how the whole of creation is waiting for God to reveal the believers and return creation to perfection and glory again. I believe this is in the New Heaven and New Earth, in eternity.
But why is all creation groaning like a woman in labour? There are two reasons.
1) "Subjected to futility": Futility means pointlessness or uselessness. The world has been subjected to pointlessness, meaningless. Look around the world and you will find lots of people suffering from a sense of meaninglessness and uselessness in the form of mental illness and depression. It sometimes drive people to take their life. This is not of God, this is because of sin, that entered the world through one man, Adam.
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:14,
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. “There is no meaning to life, it is vanity” vanity in Greek was the same work as futility.
2) Bondage to corruption: this is the 2nd law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which simply tells us that things naturally move toward disorder unless energy is input to maintain order. For example:
· A clean room becomes messy over time unless someone works to keep it tidy.
· A hot cup of coffee cools down, as heat disperses into the surrounding air.
Verse 24 encourages us. We must never lose heart, because we know what is coming. Some day we will get a glorified body; we will be transformed in a twinkle of an eye. The essence of the gospel is the hope in Jesus, in His salvation and the hope that we will go to be with the Lord and the body, which is bond to corruption, will be glorified, and futility will go away. Our hope is founded in the surety of the knowledge that this will come to pass as stated in verse 25.
In 1 John 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
So our hope in Jesus works on us, changing us, transforming us until He comes back, and then our transformation is complete. Now we are a work in progress.
Romans 8:26-27
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Previously Paul told us how the Spirit testifies to our Spirit that we are God’s children, now he expands on that and that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Our weakness is not a temporary situation but an ongoing one. We are always weak, even if we convince ourselves that we are not. We are weak and constantly in need of His strength and power to overcome and have victory in this world. We sometimes think we are not weak anymore, and we rely on our own strength until we face a difficult season. We need to know we are always weak, and the Holy Spirit is here to help us in our weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9 "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'"
Our greatest weakness is that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. This is not the gift of tongues, because it is beyond spoken words which speaking in tongues is.
How difficult sometimes it is to know how to pray. We do not know what is the will of God, and that's why we need the Spirit to intercede for us without words. He knows us, our hearts and He prays according to the will of God.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
It doesn’t say that only good will happen to us, but no matter what happens in our lives, God will turn it into good. How? We never know until it happens! What we know is He will. He promised he would. That’s where faith starts and stops.
Ultimate good doesn’t mean happiness but to be formed in the image of Christ. promises that he will bring good to those who love God and those who are called (summoned) according to His purpose. Not to everyone!
We don’t know everything or why things (bad things) happen, but when we face bad things, we don’t understand, we should fall back on what we know. God is good and will use bad for good for His people as long as it is working according to his will and purpose.
Romans 8:29-30
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Paul now addresses a deeply complex issue—time. As humans, we are bound by time, experiencing life moment by moment, but God is not. God is eternal, all-knowing, and exists outside the constraints of time. He sees the end from the beginning and knows all things. Unlike us, God can speak of the future as though it has already happened. His foreknowledge is perfect and complete, allowing Him to declare events from an eternal vantage point.
Isaiah 46:10 beautifully captures this truth: "Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,'”
There will come a time when time itself will cease, and we will be in eternity. A concept which is our finite brains can’t fully comprehend. Verses 29 and 30 are from God’s perspective, a timeless perspective.
God never waits for us to come to Him, He already knows whether we did or not. He knew us, each of us, from the very beginning. He foresaw every choice we would make, yet His love for us remained constant. Based on His foreknowledge, God predestined us, chosen us, justified us, our sins were acquitted before we even committed them and glorified us.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
"With the Holy Spirit’s help, we are being transformed daily into the likeness of Christ. Though we are works in progress, the certainty of our glorification gives us hope and assurance. As Paul reminds us in Philippians 1:6, "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Romans 31-39
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 delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul declares no condemnation, but salvation. Nothing can separate us from God, but does that mean we become complacent or lukewarm. No, we still need to be diligent as in 1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." and in Eph 4:27 "nor give place to the devil."
In verses 35-37, Paul reminds us that life as a Christian is not easy on the contrary filled with continual spiritual warfare. But what can separate us from the love of Christ, nothing can frustrate or hinder God’s purpose for our lives. God will take to completion what he started in our lives.
We need to remember that tribulations (bad things) do not mean that God does not love us. God’s love transcends all these things. And God does not cause bad things but he will use them. God's love for us has nothing to do with us but everything to do with him. So, whatever we have done, has nothing to do with his love and we cannot do anything that will stop His love for us. We are not worthy and never will be but He still loves us, and that is an amazing fact that we need to understand and accept and let His Spirit transform us.
All things in life are stripped of any power to hurt us, to do any ultimate harm or upend His purpose which is to form us in the image of his son.
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