The final verses of Romans 8
decidedly bring to a close a large section of Paul’s argument in Romans.
Throughout these 8 chapters, Paul has been laying out rather systematically his
understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He identified the problem of the
human condition; that no one is righteous because we are all, Jew and Gentile
alike, powerless before the overwhelming force of sin. But God has acted
decisively in the person of Jesus Christ, revealing a righteousness apart from
the Law. This righteousness is possible because the resurrection of Christ and
the gift of the Holy Spirit have inaugurated a new age, an entirely new epoch
in history. We are able to participate in this new reality by means of baptism
and our own willingness to walk according to the Spirit. Due to the presence of
the Spirit in this completely new age, we are able to fulfill the righteous
requirements of the law in a way that was not a possibility prior to Christ. Furthermore,
this possibility of holiness is a sign of what God intends to do for all of
creation; remaking it and setting things right so that all of creation is
transformed and God’s righteousness and peace reign in the world.
Of course, Paul knows that
remaking has not been completed yet. It has only just begun in the communities
of Christ followers springing up around the Roman Empire ;
little colonies of new creation taking root in the midst of the old. But that
old creation with all of its ways of destruction and sin, injustice and
unrighteousness is still quite prevalent. It is so prevalent, in fact, that
more often than not, one might find it difficult to see the presence of the new
creation at all. It might be easy to begin to wonder if such a hope for things
to be made new is only a fool’s dream. In the midst of so much tragedy, so much
hunger, pain, grief, and injustice, can we really say that God is doing a work
of new creation among us? Paul’s answer is not only a resounding yes but also
an assurance that the very things we might imagine are signs of our separation
from Christ are actually opportunities to be conformed to his image. This, I
think, is the heart of what Paul intends to communicate in the final verses of
Romans 8.
Most telling in this regard
is the quotation in v. 36. It follows the central question of this passage in
v. 35.
“Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘for your sake we are
being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’”
Surely, this list of dangers
combined with the image of helpless sheep is not a comforting thought. Paul
first cites all the marks of the old creation in our world, all the things that
might cause us to wonder if the Spirit of Christ is really doing this work of
new creation among us or not. Paul follows this question with a quotation from
Psalm 44 which lists some of the very same concerns before God. The Psalmist
says that God has forgotten and rejected his people, leaving them to the
affliction of their enemies and selling them for a low price. In fact, in the
verses immediately after what Paul has quoted, the Psalmist calls upon God to
wake up! In times of suffering, it is easy for the faithful to wonder if God
has gone off and taken a nap. Otherwise, why wouldn’t God be here doing
something about our plight?
But Paul understands
suffering differently. Rather than seeing suffering as something that
represents our separation from Christ, he claims it is actually something that
brings us closer to and makes us more like the Christ who suffered himself.
Contrary to Psalm 44, Paul says “No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us!” Paul ironically claims that it is by our
suffering that we actually conquer because it is in those losses that we become
more like the Christ who conquered sin and death by his suffering.
Once again, context is
exceedingly important at this point. Without it, we may very well misunderstand
and dismiss Paul in a number of ways: as a naive optimist who utters platitudes
about a suffering he has never himself experienced, as a determinist who thinks
everything comes pre-planned with no choice left for us, or as a masochist who
sees suffering as inherently good. But what we know of Paul won’t bear out any
of those caricatures. Paul was a man who knew suffering in all its ugliness but
came to see it differently in light of Christ.
We must also remember that
Paul was speaking into a culture in which all these things... tribulation,
persecution, famine, etc... are sure signs of abandonment by one’s god(s).
Almost certainly, Jesus’ own suffering was one of the reasons why Paul
initially rejected Jesus as the Messiah. If Jesus had really been the Messiah,
he would not have succumbed to such a humiliating death. But when Paul accepted the one who suffered as the Christ, he
recognized that meant also accepting that the way of the Christ was the way of
suffering. Contrary to the popular belief of Paul’s day, Paul had come to
see in Christ that suffering was not an obstacle somehow contrary to God’s
nature but that it was essential to truly knowing the heart of God. In repeated
and various ways, Paul reminds us throughout his writings that if we are to
know Christ we must share in the fellowship of his sufferings.
So when Paul says that “for
those who love God all things work together for good,” he isn’t saying
everything will be always be peachy or your suffering isn’t really that bad or
that you should look a little harder for the silver lining that explains how
this seemingly bad thing is really a good thing. He is saying that your
suffering isn’t for nothing. He’s saying that your suffering isn’t a sign that
you are doing life wrong. He’s saying that if the one faithful Jew, the one who
got it right it, the one who was the very presence of God in the world suffered
too then maybe when you suffer you are closer to the heart of God than you
realize.
And when Paul says that
“those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers,” I don’t
think he is saying that God chose a few individuals from before the foundation
of the world that would be saved while the rest of us are damned. I think he is
saying that the God who has known you from before you were born is the same God
that has called you to this fellowship with Christ and that same God will see
that fellowship through to its completion.
It is fitting that Paul ends
the first half of this magnificent epistle in this way; re-imagining suffering
in light of God’s love. In 1:16 Paul said “I am not ashamed of the gospel...”;
a bold claim for a message with something as shameful as a crucified Messiah as
its protagonist. But for the last 8 chapters Paul has been explaining to us why
it is not a shameful message; namely, because in it the righteousness and love
of God are revealed. The love of God revealed
in the cross of Christ has turned the meaning of shame and suffering upside
down. Shame and suffering have been filled with new meaning as they have been
filled with God’s own self, becoming God’s own instruments of righteousness and
restoration in our world. The cross, once a symbol of torture and God
abandonment, has become the very sign of God’s presence for those who call
Jesus “Lord.”
And in that same act of re-purposing shame and suffering, God in Christ has also reworked what it means
to be holy and righteous. To put it another way, these verses about suffering
are not a mere addendum tacked on to the preceding verses about holiness and
new creation. Christ’s suffering gives shape to what Paul means by holiness and
new creation. To be holy is to lower one’s own status for the sake of another
as Christ did for us. To lean into the new creation is to subvert the power
structures of the old creation by seeking the well being of those “below” us rather
than the favor of those “above” us. Reaching back earlier in Paul's letter, this is what it means for the righteous to live out if faith(fullness). This is the righteousness apart from the law for which Paul has been arguing.
To live life in such a way,
will surely be costly to us but, Paul argues, if all these things.... the cross,
death, sin.... have not kept us from the love of Christ then indeed “Who will
separate us from the love of Christ?” If this is the length to which God goes
to be with us then indeed “Who can bring any charge against God’s elect?” In
our suffering, our weakness, our vulnerabilities, even in death, we are not
defeated, abandoned, or put to shame. We are more than conquerors because the
Messiah, the Son of God has suffered these things for us and suffers them with
us still. When we suffer for and with others, we are ushering God's new creation into existence.
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