Romans 8 Footnotes

8:9 Paul identified the indispensable constituent of those in Christ: the Holy Spirit (vv. 15-17). There are no Spiritless Christians. They are no longer “in the flesh” but are freed from a merely human, powerless life. The Spirit grants spiritual life to believers at the point of salvation. The Spirit indwells believers (v. 11) and provides them the capacity to please God and to put to death the sinful behaviors opposed to the life of Christ (v. 13).

8:20-23 Evil in the world resulted from human sin and selfishness (Gn 3:17). Now the creation struggles in “bondage to decay” and groans, awaiting its restoration. Christians still corrupted by sin await the redemption of their bodies. Christians value the creation as God’s handiwork and groan with it in eager anticipation of the better days of the new creation (see 2Pt 3:13; Rv 21:1).

8:28 Paul did not say all things are good—an absurd claim in view of both natural tragedies and human atrocities. When suffering, Christians might conclude either that God does not love them or that he is not sufficiently protecting them. Paul thus insisted that in all things God works to accomplish what is good for his people. Clearly God does not always spare them from tragedies, illnesses, and other adverse circumstances of life—these are part of existing on a planet under sin’s effects; moreover, he doesn’t always shield them from their opponents’ persecution (v. 36). Yet in any of these difficulties—and Paul listed some awful ones (vv. 35,38-39)—God is working for his people’s good.

Prosperity theology maintains that good means God always physically heals or protects trusting, praying believers from tragedies. But this teaching runs counter to the tenor of this passage and to the Bible as whole. In fact, to say that God always prospers his people borders on heresy, calling into question God’s working of his sovereign purposes through his people’s suffering (5:3-5; see Jms 1:2-4,9-11). Rather than promising escape, Paul intended here to provide hope for the afflicted. God will accomplish “good”: his loving purposes for his creation. This good concerns believers’ final salvation.

Despite any alleged evidence to the contrary, nothing can separate God’s people from his perpetual love.

8:29-30 Paul assured his readers that God would accomplish his saving purposes for them. He listed five distinct aspects of salvation, each building on the former. “Foreknew” denotes possession of prior knowledge, which humans or God may possess. God has previously known who his people will be. Some argue that when predicated of God, this is a special knowledge, equivalent to election: the Hebrew word for “knowing” implies establishing an intimate relationship. While God knows his people in a special way, it is not certain Paul here intended foreknew to equal elect, since he knew and used terms for election elsewhere in Romens (8:33; 9:11; 11:5). Besides, how might God have had a special relationship with people before they even existed? In either case, certainly God intimately knows his church (see 2Tm 2:19).

Beyond God’s foreknowledge of his people, he has “predestined” a general outcome for them: being “conformed to the image of his Son,” so that at his coming Christ will exult with his many brothers and sisters who bear his family resemblance. So God calls these his own people (9:24-26); he invites them to be his. Before the bar of justice, God declares them “justified,” or “not guilty.” At Christ’s return, God will glorify his people, restoring the glory diminished by sin (3:23; 8:17).