Romans 8:18-30

 

Romans 8:18-30

When Comparison Is Good

While you’ve probably heard that “comparison is the thief of joy,” Paul uses comparison between our present sufferings and our future glory as a way to anchor our joy. He says that they’re so different, they’re not even worth comparing!

  • How are you prone to let comparison between the things that are right in front of you (or maybe the things that aren’t!) steal your joy?

  • What is the future glory that God’s going to reveal to you?

  • How does that help you live differently today?

Creation Feels the Fall

While we know that we feel the impact of the fall (sin, suffering, death, evil, chaos, etc.), so does every aspect of creation. The world itself is waiting for God’s people to show up in full.

  • Consider Adam, Eve, and their job in the garden in Genesis 1-3. In light of the fall, why would creation be waiting for God’s people to show up?

  • Paul says that creation is groaning with labor pains. What does that suggest about where creation is headed?

  • He goes on to say that it’s the same for you and me. If we were saved in hope, how does this change (and also not change!) our present?

  • What does hope require of us today?

When You Don’t Have Words

Paul is honest about the depth of the fall. Sometimes it’s tough to even know what’s wrong, what we want (or should want!), or what to even say. Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit - who knows both God and us better than we do!

  • Have you experienced that kind of “groaning” before that Paul describes?

  • What’s the Spirit do for us when we don’t even know what to pray?

All Things for Good

This is a pretty well-known part of Scripture. Paul’s saying that all things - present sufferings, groanings, decay, etc. - can work together our good.

  • How can Paul say that, and how can God do that?

  • What’s the progression of God’s work in the life of a believer: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified? What’s that mean?

  • According to Paul (v.29), what’s “the good” that Paul predestined us to?

  • How is that “good” something we actually can receive, get more of, and enjoy, no matter what we experience in life?

 
Not AshamedScott O'Donohoe