Guest Editorial: Holding on for better: Lessons from Romans 8

With as much discouragement as there is these days, we need some encouragement. Paul offers more than just “some.”

Some of life’s seasons stretch us far beyond what we feel we can handle. Romans 8:18-30 speaks directly into those seasons, not by minimizing the pain, but by lifting our eyes toward something greater.

Consider what the Apostle Paul teaches us about suffering, the Holy Spirit, and the unshakable plan of God.

Is suffering real for Christians?

One of the most important things Paul establishes in Romans 8 is suffering is not imaginary. We are not to pretend everything is fine or put on a fake smile and act like life is easy. Paul acknowledges the weight of real pain.

Chemo and radiation. Bankruptcy court. Hospital waiting rooms. Depression that steals your appetite and dims the light of your life. Financial pressure that comes through no fault of your own. These are real seasons, and God meets us in them.

What Paul does say is this: The suffering of this present time does not carry the same weight as what is coming. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (v. 18).

The word “consider” in the original Greek means to calculate, to balance the books. After Paul runs the numbers, present suffering does not compare to future glory. What he’s leading us to is a perspective rooted in promise. Because of this, we can hang on to hope when life is hard.

And life gets hard enough to groan over.

Why is all of creation groaning?

Romans 8 presents three distinct groanings. The first belongs to creation itself.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the curse of sin did not stay contained to humanity. It rippled outward into the created world. Thorns on roses. Natural disasters. Disease. Environmental decay. The world is not the way God made it to be. When God created, he looked at what he made and called it good. What we see now is a world under a curse.

But Paul does not stop at the curse. He points to hope. Creation was subjected to futility “in hope” (v. 20). The world is broken, but it has not been abandoned. The consequences of sin are real, but not forever for the believer.

Think of a house being renovated. Furniture shoved aside, holes in the walls, flooring torn up. Walking in, you might think it is uninhabitable. But the mess is evidence that something is happening that does not yet appear. The mess precedes the masterpiece. God is not finished with this world.

Why do believers still struggle even after being saved?

The second groaning belongs to believers. This is where things hit home.

“Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (v. 23).

Our spirits have been saved, but our bodies still live in a fallen world. That is why a person can be saved and still fight cancer. Still lose a job. Still grieve a loved one. Still experience conflict in their family.

Salvation does not exempt us from the difficulties of living in a broken world. But here is the key difference: Believers do not groan without hope. We groan with hope, because we carry the first fruits of the Spirit.

What does ‘first fruits of the Spirit’ mean?

The first fruits of the Spirit are like earnest money on a house. When a buyer puts down an earnest money deposit, it signals serious intent. The builder pulls the house off the market, because a real commitment has been made.

God has given believers the Holy Spirit as that deposit, a taste of what is fully coming. It is God’s way of saying the promise is real, the purchase is secured, and full redemption is on its way. That full redemption includes the body.

Christianity is not about escaping the body. It is about the redemption of the body. God does not despise what he made. He intends to restore it completely. No walking canes. No cancer. No chronic pain. No depression. A brand-new glorified body. That is the hope Paul is pointing toward.

What do you do when hope feels weak?

Paul anticipates the honest question. What about the moments when even hope feels like it is not enough? That is where the third groaning enters, and it is the most comforting of all.

“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (v. 26).

The Holy Spirit groans on our behalf. He does not watch from a distance. He gets into the foxhole with us.

The word “helps” in this verse carries a rich meaning in the original Greek. It paints a picture of someone who comes alongside, gets in the same position, and lifts together with you. Like a three-legged race where two people are tied together and must move in coordination, the Holy Spirit coordinates us to himself and walks us through life’s hardest seasons.

What happens when we don’t know how to pray?

There are seasons when words fail completely. When the heart is broken into pieces and getting out of bed feels impossible, the Holy Spirit knows how to pray when we cannot.

We often ask God for the wrong things. When finances are tight, we ask for more money, when we might need more wisdom. When a relationship is broken, we ask God to change the other person, when the change might need to start with us.

We do not always know what we truly need. But the Holy Spirit does. He intercedes according to the will of God, not according to our limited understanding. He takes our groanings, even the ones too deep for words, and brings them before the Father perfectly.

Does God really work all things together for good?

Romans 8:28 is one of the most quoted verses in all of Scripture, and it deserves to be understood carefully: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The word “know” here is experiential knowledge. Not academic. Not theoretical. The kind of knowing that comes from walking with God through hard seasons and watching him come through.

This is not a promise that everything is good. Some things are not good. But God works all things together for good. Every trial. Every setback. Every season that felt like it was going to break you. None of it is random for the believer. No suffering is wasted. No tear is meaningless.

God is like a master conductor at a symphony. When the orchestra is warming up, it sounds like chaos. But when the conductor steps to the podium, he knows exactly when to bring in each instrument. He takes what sounds like noise and shapes it into something beautiful. God does the same with the chaos of our lives.

What is the ‘good’ God is working toward?

Paul defines the good in verse 29, and it is not what we might expect: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

The good is not a bigger house or a better job or a more comfortable life. The good is being shaped into the image of Jesus Christ. Every trial, every bout of sickness, every moment of feeling completely overwhelmed is being used by God to form us into something that looks more like his Son.

And the promise does not stop there. Verse 30 gives us what theologians call the golden chain: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Notice: “glorified” is written in the past tense. In God’s economy, it is already done. The ending has already been written. From foreknowledge to glory, not one link in that chain is missing.

Present suffering is real. But it is not final. The Holy Spirit is at work. God’s plan is on track. And better is coming. Hold on.

Ron Session is senior pastor of Shiloh Church in the White Rock area of Dallas. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.