MORE THAN CONQUERORS
Romans 8:18-39

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Read Romans 8:18-30

Already and Not Yet

• Justified
• Sanctified
• Indwelling Spirit
• Freed from sin and death
• Children of God
• Mortal
• Subject to passions
• Suffer from evil
• Persecuted

Hope and Spirit

1. We share in the suffering of creation
2. Hope to share in glory also
3. The intimacy with the Spirit also sustains us
4. God loves

Sharing in Glory

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 – Made into his likeness
• 2 Peter 1:4 – Participants in divine nature
• Theosis – “Making Divine” – a process of atonement involving justification and sanctification
• So, the freedom in the glory of the children of God.

  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

   3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

  Theosis (written also: theiosis, theopoiesis, theosis; Greek, meaning divinization, or deification, or making divine) is the process of a believer in emulating the life example of Jesus Christ and of following the gospel of Christ in one's daily life; the process of seeking to become more holy. According to this doctrine, the holy life of God, given in Jesus Christ to the believer through the Holy Spirit, is expressed beginning in the struggles of this life, increases in the experience of the believer through the knowledge of God, and is later consummated in the resurrection of the believer when the power of sin and death, having been fully overcome by the atonement of Jesus, will lose hold over the believer forever. - "Theology and Mysticism in the Tradition of the Eastern Church" from The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church

  St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, "God became man so that man might become God." (On the Incarnation 54:3, PG 25:192B).

Romans 8:28 [in Greek]

1. All things work together for good.
2. God works all things together for good.
3. God works in all things for good.

   Osburn in the Westminster Theological Journal, 1982
   1. Traditional reading – KJV and other older English translations: Problem is that it is universal optimism. God isn’t truly the subject. Paul is not saying that calamity is good because it all ends up for the good. Calamity is not good and it is part of a system that is corrupt (the groaning creation), but God’s love does not fail in the face of calamity. God will cooperate with us for good, despite the circumstances.
   2. Has been suggested but may not be grammatically correct.
   3. God is the subject of the verb sunergei.

Read Romans 8:31-39

First Question

• If God is for us, then who is against us?
  – 8:32 – Answers the question with a question
  – God, like Abraham, did not spare his son
  – Why would God be against us?

Second Question

• Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?
  – Not Jesus – he is risen and exalted
  – He intercedes for us
  – 8:1 – There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Third Question

• What can separate us from God’s love?
  – External circumstances are not signs of God’s disapproval
  – Quotes Psalm 43: We are like sheep being slaughtered for your sake.
  – We are like Christ
  – We are more than conquerors
  – Nothing is more powerful than God’s love and his expression of that love in Jesus Christ

  Why can’t we be so bold as to tell each other this? What are we afraid of? Are we afraid that people will run loose with this? What’s the alternative?

  (Paul has already addressed why free and uncondemned people wouldn’t live under sin.)

  Our evangelism and gospel has to proclaim why there is no condemnation. If we cannot do that, then we do not have "good news." We might as well be honest and say that God is against you and your only hope (though a slim one) is to appeal to His good side.

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Evening Sermon, 11 January 2009

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