Romans 8:26–39 brings us to the solid ground of Christian assurance: our future glory is not hanging on our wisdom, willpower, or ability to “get it right,” but on God’s unshakable commitment to finish what He began. In this episode, we look at how the Spirit prays for us in our weakness, how God weaves everything in our lives toward our inheritance, and why nothing—absolutely nothing—can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
In this week’s episode, we explore:
- What Paul means by “our weakness,” and why not even knowing how to pray is part of the evidence that we cannot make ourselves holy
- How the Spirit intercedes for us with “groanings too deep for words,” praying wisely and precisely for what we truly need when all we can manage is “God, help”
- How Romans 8:28–29 has been misunderstood—and why “all things work together for good” means God is committed to our inheritance and holiness, not our comfort or ease
- The “golden chain” of foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified believers, and how the past tense “glorified” highlights the absolute certainty of our future
- Why this passage dismantles the anxiety of trying to stay on God’s one “perfect will” track, and instead shows that God is present and at work in every circumstance we face
- Paul’s courtroom logic: if God has justified us and Christ Himself intercedes for us, there is no one left with the authority to successfully accuse or condemn us
- How Paul’s list—tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword—along with Psalm 44, shows that suffering, even unto death, is not a sign of abandonment
- The sweeping promise that nothing in life or death, no spiritual power, no present or future event, no place we can go, and no created thing can sever us from God’s love in Christ
- How all of this ties back to Paul’s larger argument against legalism: self-reliance gains us nothing, while resting in God’s Spirit secures everything we most deeply long for
By the end of the episode, listeners will see that their glory really is guaranteed—not because they have avoided all the “wrong turns,” but because God Himself is weaving every step, every sorrow, and every failure into the path that leads to their inheritance. You’ll be invited to release the burden of legalism, let go of fear that you might somehow fall outside God’s plan, and rest in the Spirit’s perfect intercession and the relentless love of Christ that nothing can break.
Paul argues that because of the activity of the Spirit, we can have confidence that everything that happens to us is in our own best interests.
In Romans 8:1-11, the Apostle Paul claimed faith in Jesus solves the problem of our sin.
His goal in this section is to explain how salvation can come about through Christ when it couldn’t come through the law. The law could not make us righteous, because the law didn’t solve the problem of our sinfulness. But because of God’s grace, He gives us His Spirit and it is through the Spirit of God we are actually made righteous.
Romans 8:12-39 is an exhortation against legalism, Paul is encouraging the Romans to give up the mentality of seeking to be sanctified through our own resources. The point of the section is that we should seek holiness through trusting in God, not through trusting in our own resources, self-reliance, legalism.
Romans 8 :12-14 is the summary statement: Trusting yourself to gain holiness (legalism) leads to death in our present experience; Trusting in the Spirit of God to gain holiness leads to life in our present experience.
Romans 8:15-30 discusses two things that are true about those who trust the Spirit of God to make them righteous.
- The Spirit of God produces within believers an agonizing grief over sinfulness and a longing for righteousness. This grief over sin and longing for righteousness is tangible evidence of belief (Romans 8:15-25).
- We can have confidence that everything that happens to us is in our own best interests because of the work of the Spirit (Romans 8:26-30).
For more detail and explanation, please listen to the podcast.
Next: 14 Romans 9:1-13 Is the Gospel too Good to be True?
Previous: 12 Romans 8:12-25 Grief over Sin
Series: Romans: Justification by Faith
Study: Romans Resources
Season 2, Episode 13
Page Views: 1,482