Surrounded and Sent – Romans 8:28-30

What this episode covers

Introduction In his book, Idols for Destruction, historian Herbert Schlossberg writes, “The Bible can be interpreted [indeed, all of history can be interpreted] as a string of God’s triumphs disguised as disasters… The Kingdom of God advances from triumph to triumph, with all of them disguised as disasters.” Case and point—the cross of Christ. That quote makes me think of a story I’ve heard Pastor Doug Wilson tell many times. During the Korean War, in one particular battle, a company of U.S. Marines found themselves in a desperate situation. They were vastly outnumbered. Enemy forces had closed in from every direction. They were surrounded—cut off, outgunned, and facing what looked like certain defeat. When their commanding officer, Lewis “Chesty” Puller, realized what was going on his response was unforgettable. He said, “We’re surrounded. Good. That simplifies things. Now we can attack in any direction.” You see, what looked like a disaster… he interpreted as an opportunity. What looked like defeat… he reframed as advantage. Not because the situation itself was good—but because he knew who his men were, what they were capable of, and what they had been called to do. And he knew how important it was to not lose hope. It would be easy for us to look around at all of the sin, decay, and chaos in the world and feel as though defeat is inevitable. On any given day, the world, the flesh, and the devil, sin and death, and evil of all kinds can make us feel as though we are surrounded on all sides with no hope of victory. But Christians do not live by sight… We live by faith. Our hope is not in what we see but in the promises of God. And God has promised victory. God has promised triumph. God has promised glory. And our lives, and our loves, and our ordinary faithfulness are at the heart of all of that. And that’s what we’re going to see in God’s Word today. So look with me at Romans 8:28-30. Context At this point many of you are probably wondering what my opening illustration has to do with our passage today. In Reformed circles our passage is often referred to as the golden chain of salvation—a passage that lays out much of the order of salvation—predestination, calling, justification, and glorification… And while that’s true, and we hit on much of that last week, in context there’s actually more going here than just salvation… This text isn’t merely talking about how we are saved and the glories of heaven. It’s actually giving us direction and hope for our every day lives right now. Remember the context leading up to this—Paul has been talking about groanings and weakness. He’s been talking about our need to be delivered from our personal wretchedness and the body of flesh (the whole sinful body politic of our lives), the creation’s desire to be delivered from the futility that came in and through the Fall, and our own groanings tied to the Fall, our weakness, and all the sufferings that we encounter in this broken world. But he’s also said that the creation is eagerly waiting for our revealing… Which means not only our perfection and final glorification on the final Day, but our embrace of obedient faith every day. And this has been at the heart of what Paul has been saying in Romans 8… Our deliverance from our wretchedness has already come in the person and work of Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We have been redeemed and set free in Christ, and we are no longer slaves to sin, Satan, or fear, but we are sons and daughters of God, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, enabled to walk by faith in line with God’s Word. We must no longer live according to the flesh, but by the Spirit we must put to death the deeds of the body, and thus truly live. And because we are no longer slaves to sin, we can. By the Spirit we can pray rightly and we can live rightly. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, Christ in us the hope of glory, enables us to l

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