It might be that your life is fraught with afflictions, yet others seem to fare ever so well. For sure, life is not balanced. Nothing can be more varied than our experiences. What I have may be my neighbor’s critical need, and what I do not have may be my neighbor’s point of abundance. Life is treacherous. But whatever your circumstance, it is essential to remember that God assures believers that he is always with us. He is not absent or aloof about our situations and locations. He does not treat us based on our spiritual prowess but on his gracious provisions (Romans 8:31).
The Believer’s Greatest Excitement
Our excitement should never be founded on the things of this life—simple, perishable successes or rankings. Life consists of much more than what one has. A believer’s greatest excitement is in the fact that there is now no condemnation. No matter how helpless we feel against sin—doing the evil we do not want and not doing the good (Romans 7:19), there is not one sin that could ever be strong enough to make Christ lose his hold on us (John 3:18-19; Galatians 3:13). This is the great assurance God achieved for us in the person and work of Christ. He (Christ) did what no amount of obeying the law could ever do—lived a perfect, sinless life. All that we could never be, Christ became for us so that we could know the joy of being set free. In turn, we are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5). Oh, that we might tremble at the warning that those who set their minds on the flesh are dead! Those who are in the flesh (the unbelieving) cannot please God.
We cannot be in the flesh and in the Spirit at the same time (Romans 8:8). The witness of Scripture is that anyone who does not have the Spirit of God (to mean is not born again) does not belong to God (Romans 8:9). The good news in the gospel is that we who are born again have a different story. Though we live here on earth and battle with the things of the flesh, we are essentially dead to sin but alive to God (Romans 6:11). Our life in the Spirit means we are actively alive to God by his Spirit, and we experience new life—even in our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).
Looking at your life since the Lord saved you, what would be your most damning sin? Understand this day, you who has placed your faith in Christ, that in Christ you stand acquitted. You are righteous, not because you have done good deeds, but because we have been made so (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is not a work of man but the miracle of salvation that no man can boast about (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our being in Christ and living by the power of the Spirit affords us the greatest excitement there could ever be in life and in death: that we are not condemned.
The Believer’s Greatest Endorsement
Paul moves on to explore our greatest endorsement, found not in titles or worldly commendations, but rather in the fact that we are heirs with Christ. All that the Father bequeaths the Son is ours too. Our inheritance is spiritual, not physical. The fact that Christ is the King of glory and owns all things in this life should never be taken to mean we have a right to this world’s wealth and honor. If any naming and claiming should happen, let it be for the life our Master lived. Our inheritance is not perishable, material wealth; it is Christ himself (Romans 8:17).
Paul says that our debt is not to the flesh, to live according to it, simply because there is no condemnation. We’d be deceived if we lived so (Romans 8:12-13). Once we respond to the call of Christ, we are adopted into the fold as brothers to Christ. We call God “Abba, Father!” We are no longer foreigners and strangers to the provisions of grace (John 1:12). In Christ, we are sons of God (Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1).
Are you a son in the Kingdom? This world’s fame and glamour will perish. Whatever inheritance our parents leave us will never truly satisfy. When this life is past, fellow believer, what will you be left with? Money? Health? Wealth? Success? No! Our rest is in knowing that we are co-heirs with Christ. It matters not how lowly our earthly life has been.
Not so for the unbeliever. Anyone who is not born again has no position as a son in the Kingdom of God, no matter how good they might consider themselves to be.
The Believer’s Greatest Expectation
When faced with this world’s pain, trials, and injustice, could we still hope? All other gods we could exalt in our hearts will only temporarily satisfy. However, Christ promises the believer something beyond this life—the glorification of our bodies (Romans 8:18). Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
Peter, in his first epistle (1:6-7), affirms this hope and confidence, reminding us that all the miserable things that bring us pain—brokenness, sodomy, rape, abortion, physical abuse, racism, nepotism, depression, mental disabilities, sicknesses, and even death—are all just for the present time. They are light, momentary, and for a little while. Death releases us from them. For the believer, they work out for us an eternal, immeasurable weight of glory.
Nothing happens to the saints without meaning. Even the worst experiences prepare us for a glorified life at Christ’s return. When Adam sinned in the Garden, all creation was made to exist in a lower state. Everything, including us, is waiting to be as we were made to be (Romans 8:22-23). Such is our great expectation: the assurance that all we see now is not all that there is for the saints.
Paul reminds us that when the trials come like an avalanche, almost causing us to lose our hold on Christ, we are not alone. The Spirit is with us. He intercedes for us in our times of weakness (Romans 8:26-27). The Spirit helps us when we don’t know what to pray for, interceding with groanings too deep for words. There could never be a stronger foundation for our expectations. This life’s present sufferings should not silence our eternal hope.
Do you feel trapped in hopelessness? Lift your eyes and you’ll realize it’s all temporary—glory calls out to us in Christ (Romans 8:28). No matter your circumstance, all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Not some things—all things! Though our outer shells waste away, our inner beings are renewed daily (2 Corinthians 4:16). It is our eager expectation that we shall one day be glorified.
The unbeliever has no such hope, however easy their earthly life might seem.
The Believer’s Greatest Encouragement
Finally, Paul gives us the greatest encouragement, found not in the many times things went right or our prayers were answered, but in the constant love of God. The failure of modern, unbiblical, emotionalist gospel is that it turns a relationship into a transaction. When life doesn’t go as expected, or abundance is elusive, the believer is made to feel as if God has withdrawn his blessing. That’s the heart of a false gospel.
There is no greater encouragement than to know that no matter what we pass through, God’s love for us is everlasting (Romans 8:38-39). Jesus assured us that we are in his and the Father’s hands, and from there no one can snatch us (John 10:28-30). God did not withhold his Son from facing the torment of Calvary—he gave him for us (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Even when we were dead in sin, God made us alive with Christ and seated us in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-7).
You may ask, “Will I make it? Will I overcome?” Paul says we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:37-39). Others may label you awkward, backward, boring, or unskilled because of your faith. Whatever they call you, one thing remains: God’s love for you will never fail. We will get to the city yonder, not by our own strength but because Christ holds us fast.
Being in Christ and living in the Spirit affords us the greatest encouragement imaginable—God’s love for us never fails. If you haven’t believed, you possess no such encouragement, no matter how dignified you might be in this world. Here lies the answer to your greatest need: God’s love for you, that while a sinner, Christ died for you (Romans 5:8).