The apostle distinguishes between those in their number who might be unregenerated and those genuinely born again. As John wrote of the unregenerated people in the church, when a crisis came "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they are not of us" (I John 2:19).

Doubtless there were those in the church at Rome who were considered to be Christians but who had never been born again. Of course they were living after the flesh. Their ultimate doom will be banishment from the presence of God and the glory of His might.

Those led by the Spirit are sons of God. Others who do not put themselves under His influence may be church members, but they are not sons of God. The born again believer has received the spirit of adoption, crying out to God, "Abba," or "Father." Paul, writing to the Roman church in Greek, here used both the Aramaic (abba) and the Greek words for father.

In verse 16 the apostle brings before us the ministry of the Holy Spirit in witnessing to the Father in behalf of the born-again ones. The witness of our spirits is that we have had the experience of the new birth: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (II Cor. 5:17). The Spirit not only declared through the Scriptures that one who has had this experience is a child of God, but also testifies before God when we have had that experience. Thus the testimony of the Spirit corroborates that of our own souls that we are the children of God.

(Vs. 17) If we are children of God, we are His heirs and joint heirs with Christ. As children fall heir to the property of their parents in this life, so do God's children fall heir to the things of God throughout all eternity.

But there is a proviso added: "If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him." People are to be rewarded according to their deeds and actions. But let it be remembered that we are saved by the grace of God through faith. Whatever rewards we receive depend upon our suffering with Him, making sacrifices for Him and for His cause. I am afraid that many will have very small rewards. If the redeemed will not suffer for him now, they will not have the privilege of reigning with Him in glory when He returns. Let us be diligent about our Father's business, laying up our treasures in heaven.

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? 25 But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it" (Romans 8:18-25).

Having given us the assurance that those who suffer with Christ shall reign with Him, the apostle proceeds in this passage to give some idea of the glory that shall be revealed to us when our Lord returns to lift the curse from the earth and create anew the heavens above and the earth beneath in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind (65:17).

During the Tribulation Period the heavenly bodies connected with this earth will be wrecked and the earth made a desolate waste of chaos everywhere. Our Lord, when He comes, must create them anew so that there might be a millennial reign of glory. This is what Isaiah affirms, as can be seen by reading the above quotation in its context. The verses preceding Isa. 65:17 show the desolation and suffering of that time. Those verses following it show the earth as it will be when the heavens above and the earth beneath are created anew and Jerusalem is created the joy of the whole earth. It is to this that Paul is referring in our passage from Romans.

The extreme sufferings and privation to which the devout, consecrated Christian may be subjected during his life are not worthy to be compared to the glories that will be revealed when Jesus prepares the earth for His reign of glory. The entire creation is personified--as one looking forward expectantly in faith to some great event--in this case, "the revealing of the sons of God."

The Lord promised, at the time of man's sin and when the curse was being placed upon earth, that the Redeemer would come, delivering the world--a promise which will become a reality when our Lord returns. Earth is described as an expectant mother, in labor to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The period of travail in the strictest sense of the term is the Tribulation Period, as revealed in such passages as Isa. 66:7-9 and Jer. 30:6, 7. Paul's language here echoes that of the Old Testament prophets.

Not only nature, but those who have the fullness of the Spirit are thought of as being in travail and groaning in pain, looking forward to their "adoption," or the redemption of their bodies. Paul borrows from the legal phraseology of the Greco-Roman world in using the word adoption. Among patrician families, it was the custom to commit a son to a tutor who assumed all the responsibility for the training and welfare of the child until he reached his majority. At that time, in a special ceremony, the pedagogue or teacher would turn his pupil back to the father. This was always a glad occasion for the family and was spoken of as adoption.

With this in mind, the apostle speaks of the Christian receiving his adoption when the Lord returns. We now have the bodies of our humiliation--bodies that are subject to the frailties and weaknesses incident to life. At the Rapture which occurs before the Tribulation, the dead in Christ will receive their glorified, immortalized bodies and the living saints will have theirs changed into immortal bodies.

The Christian's gaze, therefore, is forward, not backward--always recognizing, of course, what was done for us on Calvary by our blessed Lord. We anticipate the receiving of our redemptive bodies at His return and the close fellowship we shall enjoy with Him and all the redeemed. The "earnest of the Spirit" which we have now and all our spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus are simply foretastes of what shall be ours when He returns.

"And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; 27 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: 30 and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:26-30).

Man, by the fall, became depraved--he is dead in trespasses and sins--but God loves the world! Presupposed in these verses is the fundamental teaching that God sent His only begotten Son, who voluntarily suffered and died to provide a means of redemption for us (II Cor. 5:19a); that Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit and was filled with Him from birth; and that the Father, through the preaching of the Gospel, is imploring that men be reconciled to God. We see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit active together in an effort to redeem man.

Because we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit intercedes in behalf of all of God's people. What, then, is the force of the first phrase in this passage, "in like manner"? In vs. 19 the earth was personified and represented as groaning and travailing, looking forward to the time of final deliverance. Similarly, the universal groaning of believers is expressed in vs. 23: "And not only so, but ourselves also ..." "In like manner," the Holy Spirit, groaning in an intercessory ministry for the suffering people of God, is presented in vss. 26,27. He too is yearning for the time of deliverance when the curse will be lifted and the glory of God will encircle the earth as the waters cover the sea.

The Holy Spirit assists us in our infirmities. Just what is meant by this? Some feel that because we do not know what is going on in the minds of men, what Satan and his evil spirits are planning, what God is working through angelic agencies in our behalf or His objective in permitting a crisis to come upon us, that this means we are in an infirm, limited position and unable to pray as we ought. Realizing this, the Holy Spirit, with the most intense love for us, is constantly engaged in prayer. Other commentators think that the apostle was talking about the moral and spiritual infirmities of the flesh. They are of the opinion that the Holy Spirit gives strength and power to our spirits and thus helps our infirmities. This thought is taught in the first eleven verses of this chapter, as well as in many other places in the Scriptures, and may be what is intended here. "Groanings which cannot be uttered," by which the Spirit expresses Himself, are beyond the comprehension of mortal mind. But the Father, who searches the mind of the Spirit, comprehends the intense petitions that He is constantly offering in making "intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Thus we see the great ministry in which the Holy Spirit is now engaged in behalf of the Lord's people.

The Father is intensely interested in every petition made by the Spirit in behalf of the saints. The Lord Jesus Christ is our intercessor or advocate who pleads our case before the Father upon the basis of the efficacious, meritorious blood which He shed in our behalf (I John 2:1,2). The Holy Trinity is revealed as engaged in a continuous, efficacious ministry in behalf of the children of God.

(Vs. 28) In the midst of the turmoil and disappointments of life there is nothing that brings hope and encouragement to the believing heart more than the doctrine that God is supreme, overruling all and making everything that comes into the life of His children contribute to their welfare for time and eternity. Though the best and oldest manuscripts do not have the word God as the subject of this verse, the thought is clear that it is God who is working all things according to the purpose of His will, for so the Apostle Paul declared in Eph. 1:10,11. Regardless of the origin of an attack upon any child of God, by the time it reaches him the Lord has converted it into a source of blessing. If we could only, by faith, thus view everything sent against us, our lives would be holy and pure; we would rejoice at everything, regardless of how distasteful it might be to us (compare James 1:2, 3).

The next verses show us the "blueprint" of the lives of the saved, from eternity to eternity. All whom God foreknew, He foreordained to be conformed unto the image of His Son. Everyone foreordained is called; each one called is justified; the justified will be glorified. The number glorified is the exact number foreknown--it can be neither increased nor diminished. Thus we find that one who is saved is saved for eternity. Praise God, our salvation does not depend upon our own efforts, but upon the meritorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been called and justified, we are certain of immortal and eternal glory. The Lord is working everything that comes our way for the advancement of our spiritual nature, so that we may be prepared for the great exchange of worlds when the time comes.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth;" (Romans 8:31-33).

What shall we say to all of the things which we have learned? We see that God is for us, and if so, then who can be against us? Nothing can be against us! God will not permit it. Satan, our great adversary, has to receive permission from God before he can touch any of the Lord's servants, as we see from Job 1 and 2. God did not even spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. Since He has thus proved His great love and concern for us, we may conclude that He will freely give us all things that pertain to life and godliness, for time and eternity. Satan is the great accuser of the brethren, for he hastens into the presence of God whenever any of the Lord's people make a mistake or sin (Rev. 12:10); but it is God who has justified us.

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34).

Who can condemn us? No one. Christ, by His all-sufficient atonement, settled the sin question once for all. We have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once for all (see Heb. 10:8-18). God has pronounced the believer acquitted and justified. He is blessed; his sins have been forgiven; God does not impute unrighteousness to him after that (Ps. 32:1,2). There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us, was raised again and is seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. In view of that complete, perfect atonement made by Christ, the Father's great love for us and the intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35-39).

We have been made more than conquerors through Christ who loves us and gave Himself up for us. Our eternal destiny is fixed and settled. Nothing can disturb that relationship--none of the evil spirits in the universe, nor things present, nor things to come. We are forever His children. Praise God for the marvelous, wonderful salvation which is ours through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

In appreciation of our position in Christ, we will walk accordingly. Our liberty in Him should never be interpreted as license. We are not under law but under grace; however, when people abuse their privileges in Christ the Lord must punish them, for every son whom He receives, He chastens (Heb. 12:6,7). But this is done for correction and spiritual development, that the child of God might be prepared to answer the great summons when it does come--whether by death or by the coming of the Lord for His saints.