Romans Chapter 8

 

THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL                                    

Just wait till you see what is coming in this chapter. What a terrible waste it would be if you missed any of it. So let us not waste any time. We will begin by looking at the first four verses of chapter eight, Romans 8:1-4 NLT:

2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.
3 The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
4 He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

The Scripture says that everybody born into the world falls into the same category. We are all born with a sin nature. Remember Romans 3:23?

23 For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

It is part of all of us and there is no getting rid of it on our own. Sin takes peace and joy away from us and in its place we find trouble and pain. Our leader and roll model for that sin condition is Satan. Ephesians 2:1,2 NLT tells us:

1 Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins.
2 You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

You can readily see that this sin nature we are all part of by being born, if untreated, is going to cause some real problems as we progress through life. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:13 NLT:

13 But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will go on deceiving others, and they themselves will be deceived.

Job made this situation pretty clear when he said in Job 5:7 NLT:

There can be no real peace in such a condition. We must all face the inevitable realities of disease and death. We struggle to make relationships work. We are simply in bondage to a number of miseries in life because of the overpowering presence of sin and Satan. One of the most haunting verses in the Bible is found in Hebrews 10:26,27 NLT:

For those who never come to faith in the saving act of Jesus Christ there is nothing at life’s end that awaits them but judgment and wrath. I know that is a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow because by their standards they see themselves as good people, not deserving such an end. In fact most such people absolutely refuse to believe that God could do such a thing. Well, we are not here to argue that point. It is our function here to teach you what the Bible says. It is between you and God whether you want to believe it.

Now into this darkness comes a bright light, a light of hope, a promise offered to everyone who has this sin nature. That hope is expressed in Romans 8:1 NLT:

In the midst of the judgment for sin that is a very comforting verse. Here we have a promise from God given to each of us individually that should fill us with hope. The reality in this verse is that there is no condemnation for those who accept Christ as their Savior. That is really good news because the Bible tells a whole lot about condemnation for the unsaved. Such as in Romans 5:18 NLT:

18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.

And also 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9 NLT:

5 But God will use this persecution to show his justice. For he will make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering,
6 and in his justice he will punish those who persecute you.
7 And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels,
8 in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power

The reality of mankind’s situation is that they are under condemnation and according to Romans 3:8 that condemnation is just. And it is right for God to condemn those guilty of sin. Let us go back again to chapter three of Romans and read verses 9-18, Romans 3:9-18 NLT:

9 Well then, are we Jews better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.
10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is good— not even one.
11 No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies.” “The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “They are quick to commit murder.
16 Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them.
17 They do not know what true peace is.”
18 “They have no fear of God to restrain them.”
19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to bring the entire world into judgment before God.
20 For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.

Not even the Law of God could change this reality. Although the Law of God is holy, just, and good according to Romans 7:12, it could not prevent the condemnation of human beings. In other words, God could provide the best rules for behavior, the best standards for living, the best road map for righteousness, and with even all that laid down very clearly, it still could not change the fact that humanity was condemned. In fact, all the Law could do was to show humankind how condemned they were and how just the condemnation was. Because of their sin nature people were simply not capable of keeping the Law. And that reality has applied and will continue to apply to every person ever born with the one exception of Jesus Christ.

Now even though human beings are condemned because of their sin, guess what? God never wanted that. Look what John wrote in John 3:16-21 NLT:

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18 “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.
19 Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
20 They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.
21 But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”

God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn it, but to save it. In Christ, God provided a way of escape. But the escape was not in the teaching of Christ, nor was it in the good life of Christ, although that was certainly meaningful. Rather, it was in the death of Christ.

The Greek word used for “condemnation” in Romans 8:1 refers to the paying of a penalty after a person has been sentenced. It focuses on the punishment, the imprisonment, and the execution rather than the verdict. It is not the kind of condemnation we might see in a court when the judge says you are condemned to a certain sentence. It is the condemnation in the sense of actually paying the penalty. So we are being told in Romans 8:1 that there is no penalty to be paid. There is no execution to take place. There is no prison to be put into because the believer’s penalty has already been paid. The believer is freed from bondage. The believer is freed from any need to pay for anything they have done wrong.

14 For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them.”
17 Then he adds, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.   (NLT)

The reason that there is no longer any condemnation is because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. We are not under condemnation because we have been made free from the Law. The “life-giving Spirit” is of course a reference to the Holy Spirit. So it seems pretty clear that Paul is introducing us here to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Life, the Life-giver, and the Sustainer of Life. When Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus in John 3:5, He said:

5 Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”

It is the Holy Spirit who gives life. It is the Holy Spirit who energizes the new birth, and that is exactly what we have in view here. The Holy Spirit is designated as the “Spirit of Life,” because He is the one who brings about conversion. The power the Holy Spirit exercises in a person’s life brings life out of death. The Holy Spirit replaces the law of sin and death with the Spirit of Life. The Holy Spirit frees the person from the law of sin and death. We have been set free from the law of sin, free from the law of death because the Holy Spirit of Life in Christ has given you a new life through the Gospel. Though there will be sin in our lives, that sin will never overcome the life that is there. It will never cause it to die because our new life comes from the Spirit of life and the Spirit remains to do His life giving work.

3 The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.  (NLT)

We have no condemnation because we have been freed from it. We have been freed from it because Jesus took our place. What was it the Law could not do? The Law could convict us of sin. The Law could stimulate sin. The Law could call us to judgment. But what could the Law not do? It could not break sin’s power. But Jesus could keep all of the Law perfectly, and because He did that, God looks at us as if we have also kept the Law perfectly because we are in Jesus as the result of our faith. Then Paul continues in verse 4, Romans 8:4 NLT:

4 He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.
12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God,
13 while we look forward to that wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.
14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.  (NLT)

This leads us to a very important theological truth. Everything that is a fact is also a responsibility. It is a fact that if I am a Christian I will commune with the living God. It is also a responsibility that I have a prayer life. It is a fact that if I am a Christian, the Spirit of God will teach me. It is also a responsibility that I read the Word of God so that I can learn the truth. It is a fact that if I am a Christian I walk in the Spirit. It is also a responsibility for me to yield more and more to the Spirit’s guidance.

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. (NLT)

Those who have been saved have been given a new nature with a new direction. They are now moving in the direction of the Spirit of God. Romans 8:6 NLT:

6 If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

A person who does not know Jesus as Savior and is seeking after the pleasures of his/her flesh is living in a state of death. They are dead. This is a spiritual deadness, an estrangement from God. They are totally unable to respond to God as Paul pointed out in Romans 7:5:

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death.

When we say the Spirit of God has changed our nature, that means that He has taken us from being dead to being alive. Alive to what? Alive to God. Alive to spiritual truth. Alive to understand the things that an unsaved person can not understand according to 1 Corinthians 2:14-16:

The believer can sense God’s world, His love, and His power, and we can sense His ways. It also says in Romans 8:6 that we have peace. Not only are we aware that God is there but through our relationship with Him we have peace. So the contrast between believer and unbeliever is quite clear. The believer is not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and so seeks the things of the Spirit and walks in the Spirit. Does he/she do that all the time? No, not all the time. But before he/she was saved they never did it. In order to get the best perspective we can of this struggle, let us look at Galatians 5:16-26 NLT:

16 So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you will not be doing what your sinful nature craves.
17 The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.

The believer has been given the Holy Spirit, given new life. We are no longer inclined to satisfy the flesh. But is the flesh still there? Does it still tempt us? You bet it does. When are we going to get rid of it? At our death when we are immediately transported to Heaven. But until then we are going to have a battle on our hands. And in the Galatians passage we just read we were told that if we want to win we need to respond to the Holy Spirit and not the flesh. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and not to Satan.

 

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The reason we consider Romans to be the most fascinating of all the books in The Bible is that within its sixteen chapters we find, in a condensed version, the entire message of the Bible. And there is no other book that reveals that message as clearly as Romans. Unfortunately, if you do not have a working knowledge of the Old Testament and the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will not be able to grasp the absolute wonder of the book of Romans, but believe us what you do get will change your life. Romans chapter eight also begins with one of the top ten fascinating verses of the Bible. In verse 1 Paul writes:

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Once you truly believe, you are in and you will not ever be tossed out because now you are one with Christ and your salvation and eternity are assured. Remember what we read in Hebrews 10:17,18?

17 Then he adds, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.
18 Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

You see the work of Christ was so complete that He perfected us forever. He offered one sacrifice for sin forever. When the accomplishment of Christ’s act on the cross becomes the reality in our lives, there will never be any condemnation. Now that does not mean that the believer will not ever sin again because he/she will sin, but that sin will not bring condemnation, as John tells us in 1 John 1:5-10 NLT:

5 This is the message he (Jesus) has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.

And here is the verse you must all understand:

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

So let us review the first six verses of chapter eight and then we will continue with verse 7.

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.

In other words the Holy Spirit of life in Christ has given you a new life through the Gospel Message.

3 The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

Those who have been saved have been given a new nature with a new direction.

6 If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

The believer can sense God’s word, His love, and His power. It also says in Romans 8:6 that we have peace. Not only are we aware that God is there but through our relationship with Him we have peace. Romans 8:7 NLT:

7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

Even back in Paul’s time we see there was tremendous resistance to the rule and sovereignty of God. Verse 7 tells us that the person who is focused on worldly pleasures alone has a mind which is resistant to the things of God. Then Paul writes in Romans 8:8 NLT:

8 that is why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

Those who hold to the philosophy, “Life is all about me,” which, incidentally is the dominant theme of our time, can never please God no matter how good they may try to be. You might ask, “Well, I know some atheists who give a lot of money to their favorite charities, Isn’t that doing good?” It is good from a human standpoint, but God knows the heart. Someone may give $10,000 for cancer research, and yet submit an income tax return that does not accurately reflect their true income. That same person could be cheating on his wife or husband, or ignoring the children, or any number of other things. According to God the only things one does that please Him are those things that are done in accordance with His will and for His glory. Giving $1 to the church to help feed the hungry or carry the Gospel message to the lost when you only have $10, and doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, that would please God. When Curt Schilling was interviewed after game 6 of the ALCS playoff series, He gave all the credit to God rather than telling everybody how great he was. That certainly pleased God. But anyone who has not received Jesus as Savior or at least called upon the name of God to help them understand the process for pleasing God, will not please God under any circumstances.

And you know what? People are all created by God for the purpose of pleasing Him. We all have it built right into our programming to use a computer analogy. If we do not function according to the way we were designed, we will not run as efficiently as we could, and there is a good likelihood that we will break down, just like an eight cylinder car that someone tries to run on five cylinders. We will sputter and jerk and frequently be in for repair. If we cannot please God, our life is not going to experience the kind of fulfillment we could have by living according to His will for us. Romans 8:9 NLT:

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)

The Greek word used for “living in” in this verse was used in a context meaning “to make His home in you,” When Jesus makes His home in you, that is evidence of a saved nature, and if you have received Jesus as your Savior, you are no longer controlled by your sinful nature but by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit has not made His home in you, you cannot belong to and be one with Christ, and you cannot truly be saved. If your life is not giving evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God, if there is not delight in your heart for the things of God, then the Holy Spirit is not there. And what is it that a person needs to demonstrate within their lives to know that they are saved? The presence of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not present in your heart it does not matter what you claim, you are not saved and you do not belong to God. So verse nine is a call to self-examination, just like the one we find in 2 Corinthians 13:5 NLT:

5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you, it means you have failed the test.

When you take this self-examination ask yourself these questions:

Can you remember feeling those things? If you can, those feelings were produced by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit. He is there if those feelings have ever been there. Now we will move on to verse 10, Romans 8:10 NLT:

10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.

Those who receive Jesus as their Savior have a spiritual resurrection now and someday they are going to have a bodily resurrection as well. If there is any question in your mind about the word, “resurrection,” It means your body will rise from the grave and be united with your soul in a physical body that no longer contains a sin nature. If you are saved, you will have the same kind of body as Jesus had when He rose from the grave. So if you have any images of going to Heaven and existing as a form of gaseous substance like Casper the friendly ghost, you can put those ideas to rest (no pun intended). You will have a physical body very much like the one you have now. This new heavenly body, however, will be perfect in every way. It will never get sick, never get sad, never get tired, and never die. And you will not spend your time floating around on a cloud playing a harp, but you will be having the time of your new life, enjoying everything you do to the utmost and doing it all to the glory of God. Just as Jesus regenerated believers spiritually, He will regenerate them physically as well.

Now all of this work that God is doing in us is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. We have talked about the Holy Spirit before and will many times again. Some of you may have some questions about who the Holy Spirit is and just what He does. The Holy Spirit brings to the believer all of God. In a genuine sense, the Holy Spirit is our representative sent from God to be with us constantly during our lifetime (John 14:16). The Holy Spirit is God in you. How can God be three in one? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? I do not know and neither does anyone else. But the Bible clearly states this is the nature of God. God wants to be near you, so He has devised a way to come and live within you so that He can make you as good as you want to be. Anytime we ask God for something that God knows is good for us, He will grant it. When we ask for something and He knows that something is bad for us, even though we think it would be good for us, He does not give it to us. The Holy Spirit interprets that will of God to us and also communicates the thoughts of our heart to God. Listen to the promise we find in Romans 8:26,27:

26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

This is also something you are never going to figure out while you are on this earth. You have no idea how many people do not like to pray because they do not think their words are grand enough or they cannot put thoughts together that will please God. Well fear no more because no matter what you say or how you say it, your prayers, your words go through the filter of the Holy Spirit and He translates the feelings of your heart into words that sound most eloquent before God. Think of it this way: the Holy Spirit is God walking next to you every moment of every day. He will protect you, provide for your needs, and teach you, if you only ask. When you pray you might even want to think of Him as sitting in a chair next to you or directly across from you and saying, “Come on Ed. I love you so much. I want to know everything that is in your heart so that I can give you everything I know is the very best for you.” The Holy Spirit is God and the power of God is always available to us.

This takes us to verses twelve and thirteen of Romans 8, Romans 8:12,13 NLT:

12 So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.

If we have received Christ as Savior, we no longer need to follow those things we know are sinful, for that is the part of our life we no longer want to pursue thanks to the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit now living within us. In verses twelve and thirteen we see that because of the great gift we have been given, we now have a great responsibility. We have a responsibility to wage war against the temptation to sin that will always be with us until we die. And now you have all the power of God living within you to win that war. Do you remember what we said earlier? That we believed in a very important theological truth, and that truth was that everything that is a fact is also a responsibility. That also applies to faith. The faith and salvation we are given by God is a free gift. Once we receive that free gift, we owe a great debt to God and that debt is to be responsible to live within His will. Those who are not saved do not have such responsibility because, if you will remember, they cannot keep the Law of God because they do not have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them. A person who is saved has the responsibility to do the leg work and God gives them the power to accomplish what He requires of them. God also handles the miracles when they are necessary.

When the Holy Spirit of God is in you, the full power of God comes with Him. The Spirit of Christ dwells in you and empowers you to do what Christ would do. All you need to do to have the full power of God available to you is to submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading as Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-16 NLT:

14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gives us power to overcome sin and even covers us with the Armor of God as we learn in Ephesians 6:10-18 NLT:

10 A final word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power.
11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil.
12 For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
13 Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm.
14 Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.
15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared.
16 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.
17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.

Keep in mind that sometimes there are obstacles in our lives that keep that power from working to its fullest, even when we seek to the best of our ability to activate it. In those cases we must take steps to remove those obstacles. Those obstacles could be our own willfulness, a desire to control our own lives, or some deeper psychological obstacles. We can again, however, call on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us become aware of the nature of the obstacle that may exist. God wants those obstacles removed from our lives as much or more than we do. He wants to show us which steps to take in order to allow the Holy spirit to break through those obstacles. So He will answer the prayer to show us what steps to take to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of our living in victory. We must then take whatever action we feel we are being led to in order to remove the obstacle. Then, as we continue to submit to the Holy Spirit, He strengthens us “in the power of His might” giving us the victory over sin in our lives.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to let the Word of God fill your entire life. When you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you, you will find yourself thinking His thoughts, feeling His feelings, and obeying His will. You will ask minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, “Holy Spirit, fill me. Please give me your thoughts. Put your words in my mouth. Please, Holy Spirit, control me. Show me what you would have me do or say in this situation.”

Quite frankly you are controlled by whatever fills your mind. You probably have heard the old computer saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Whatever you put into your computer, your mind, is going to be reflected in your behavior. Whatever, or whoever, controls your mind will control your behavior. If you allow the Spirit of God to control your mind, then you will have a mind that is intent on obeying the will of God. That will result in godly behavior. When we here the words, “to be filled with the Spirit,” that does not mean to fall over backwards in some kind of trance. It does not mean you flip out into some kind of out of body experience. It simply means that you place yourself under the control of the Holy Spirit of God so that He fills your life. All you have to do is say, “God, take over. I am putting you in control of my life, thoughts, and will.” “Filled” here means to be submissive, to be totally under the control of the Holy Spirit. We see the results of such submission in selected verses beginning in Ephesians 5:18-20 NLT:

18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.
19 Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.
20 And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verses 5:25-6:4
25 And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her
26 to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word.
27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife.
29 No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church.
30 And we are his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”
32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
1 Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do.
2 “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise.
3 And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, “you will live a long life, full of blessing.”
4 And now a word to you fathers. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.

In other words, if you allow yourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will affect every relationship that you have. Now let us look at a similar passage in Colossians 3:16-21 NLT:

16 Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
17 And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.
18 You wives must submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
19 And you husbands must love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 You children must always obey your parents, for this is what pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers, don’t aggravate your children. If you do, they will become discouraged and quit trying.

Skipping to verse 23 we continue reading to 4:2:

23 Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.
25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites who can get away with evil.
1 You slave owners must be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.
2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Being controlled by the Holy Spirit and being controlled by the Word of Christ go hand in hand. If you want to live a Spirit-filled life, do not look for some out of body experience. Simply get your life under the control of the Word of God. As you saturate your heart and mind with the truth of the Word of God, it will begin to show in Spirit-controlled behavior. You must saturate yourself with the Word of God so that whenever situations come at you, your involuntary trigger responses are godly.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHILD OF GOD

As I began preparation for a sermon one morning, I was sitting in the waiting room in the service department of a car dealership, praying that I would not be advised that our car would cost us several thousand dollars in repairs. As is common in almost any public waiting room nowadays, there was a television turned on. That always irritates me because I do not like to listen to most of the trash that is on television these days and, in addition, I prefer to read or work while I am waiting. And the program they had selected for the viewing pleasure of their customers was one reflecting the elegance, class, and maturity of a sophisticated audience. It was one we find so typically on so many networks today. I cannot be certain, but I believe the name of the program was, Divorce Court. As I entered the waiting room, sat down, and opened up my laptop, the husband and wife on the program were arguing with one another, calling each other names, and making very insulting references to the character, ancestry, and personal appearance of the other. Imagine how romantic it must be to hear someone say, “I only married her to shut her up,” or “I only married him because I could not find anything better.”

The husband had been having an affair with the downstairs neighbor. Another neighbor had told the wife about it. She threw him out of the house and as she drove away in her car, he jumped on the hood. She drove forty miles per hour to the police station while he was hanging onto the hood. He then went to live with his “mama” and within a few days began an affair with her neighbor. A few days after throwing her husband out, the wife had another guy move in with her. She had two children, a ten year old and a five year old. She had a full time job which meant that she had to leave her children with the new boy friend. On and on the story went and all the time the judge was snickering and making sarcastic comments to both the husband and wife.

Now to show you how human I am and how controlled I can be sometimes by my sin nature, I went to the manager’s office and in my most condescending manner and tone said, “Can you have someone turn off that crap on the television!” He had several people in the office with him and everyone appeared stunned. As I returned to my seat I could not help wondering if they were stunned by what I said or that I thought so little of their programming selection. Someone came and changed the channel to the Cosby Show and turned down the volume. I noticed almost immediately that I was able to work without distraction because, even though I could still hear the TV, I was not drawn to it like I was when I heard all the yelling, screaming, arguing, and sarcasm that was going on in the previous program. Betty could probably give you a clinical explanation for this, but it seems to be fairly obvious that we are able to function much better in a calm environment than in a stress filled environment. You may consider that to be a conclusion that almost anyone could come to, but you would not think so if you walked into almost any business office, retail establishment, manufacturing facility, or home. Almost everyone is working in and living in a stress filled environment and it is destroying their quality of life.

As I sat there, I could not help remembering one of the points we made earlier in this study. Whatever you put into your computer, your mind, is going to be reflected in your behavior. Whatever, or whoever, controls your mind will control your behavior. If you allow the Spirit of God to control your mind, then you will have a mind that is intent on obeying the will of God. You will then be a person who allows the Holy Spirit to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control in your life. If you allow your mind to continually be filled with programs like Divorce Court, and associate with people who live their lives like those people on Divorce Court, your life is going to be filled with anger, hatred, jealously, greed, resentment, dishonesty, lust, perversion, and any number of other debilitating behavioral patterns, just as were the people on Divorce Court.

We ask you now to think on the things that you fill your mind with as we review the first thirteen verses of Romans chapter eight, and we think that will help you understand whether or not you are in step with the Holy Spirit of God.
Life in the Spirit

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.
3 The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
4 He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
6 If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
8 that is why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)
10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.
12 So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.

These verses are simply saying that because God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and became the perfect penalty for sin by dying in our place, we are given the free gift of salvation simply by believing in what Jesus did for us. When we make such a confession of faith and ask for forgiveness of our sins, God sends the Holy Spirit to live within us and provides the power necessary for the believer to be obedient to God’s will, if the person asks for that power. Those who do not have such faith in the work of Jesus do not have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them and thus are not able to live lives pleasing to God. The only exception to this would be if an unbeliever calls upon God to reveal Himself and help him/her understand the truth that is necessary to have a relationship with Him (Matthew 7:7). Those that believe will find joy and peace both in this life and in Heaven. Those who do not will find no lasting peace and joy in this life and will spend eternity in the most lonely and painful emotional confines of Hell.

We tried to emphasize earlier just what the Holy Spirit does for the person who receives Jesus as their personal Savior. He frees us from our bondage to sin and death. He enables us to fulfill God’s Law. He changes our nature and makes us all new on the inside. And someday when these mortal bodies we now live in are resurrected, He will make us all new on the outside as well.

Being controlled by the Holy Spirit and being controlled by the Word of Christ go hand in hand. If you want to live a Spirit-filled life, simply get your life under the control of the Word of God. As you saturate your heart and mind with the truth of the Word of God, it will begin to show in Spirit-controlled behavior. You must saturate yourself with the Word of God so that whenever situations come at you, your involuntary trigger responses are godly.

This is not going to happen by only attending a weekend service at church and occasionally making it to a Bible study. You must seize every opportunity to grow in the Word. When I first became a Christian, I felt a strong desire to learn everything I could about the truth of God’s Word. As the Spirit led me into the Word and began to teach me, I found that I just could not get enough of it. Since that time almost twenty years ago, I have spent several hours almost every day reading and studying God’s Word. When I tell people this, they look at me as if to say, “Get a life. Look at all the things you have missed out on by spending so much time studying the Bible?” What they do not know is that it was by studying the Bible that I was given a life.

If they only knew what they are missing out on. When you dwell on the Word of God, you get to know the mind of God. When you have that you receive something that you would not trade for all the power, money, riches, good looks, and athletic ability in the world. If I were to sum it all up, I would say that the Holy Spirit places a sense of assurance in your heart. Life is not without problems, pain, strained relationships, and financial hardship, but through it all you have this deep sense of assurance that God is going to provide for your every need. You feel the deep assurance that He loves you as His child and longs for intimacy with you. You sense you are going to be with Him in Heaven for eternity. You sense you are going to share in Christ’s inheritance and rule with Him. You know that this assurance is never going to go away as long as you submit yourself to the Holy Spirit of God and remain in the Word of God. What a great way to go through life.

I still have problems in my life but I trust that God has me going through them for a good purpose. I know that He will never give me more than I can bear. If you do not have a similar feeling, you are missing out on oh so much. And if you do not develop this saving relationship with Jesus before you die, you will spend eternity wishing you had.

Now let us pick up our study of Romans 8 at verse 14, and we will read Romans 8:14-16 NLT:

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

This has to be one of the richest passages in all of Scripture. It speaks about our relationship with God, and the key word is adoption. We are children of God in verses fourteen and sixteen because we are adopted by God in verse fifteen. Some people look at the word adoption and assume it refers to something with a second class status. But in the first century it was quite the opposite. Adoption in the Roman Empire was considered a great honor. In fact, for the most part, it demonstrated such affection for a person that the one doing the adopting went to great lengths to bring someone into their family and give them all the rights and privileges, including an equal share of the inheritance, that was due each of the biological heirs. For example, in the Roman culture, if a father looked upon his children, particularly his sons, and he did not see among his natural born sons one that he thought worthy of inheriting his name, title, offices, and estates, he would go outside his family to find a son who was worthy. This father would then adopt him into the family based upon his virtue, character, and talent. That adopted son would then take precedence over all his natural sons who did not qualify at the level of requirements that the father had established.[fn]

So the word adoption was a word filled with love, mercy, and grace. Those people who are saved have been given such a great honor and privilege. According to verse fifteen they have received the Spirit of adoption. They have been made the sons and daughters of God. We who are unworthy have actually been brought into God’s family as His sons and daughters. Do you know what that makes each and every believer? Royalty. Believers are the sons and daughters of the king. It is by the power and through the Holy Spirit that we have been made sons and daughters of God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption. He is the one who has placed us into the family of God and who has then confirmed in our hearts that we are children of God.

Now I believe there is one other point that needs to be highlighted regarding the Roman policy on adoption. There were four major changes that occurred in the life of the adopted child:

1. The adopted child lost all relationship to his old family, and the child then gained all rights to the new family. What a great analogy of salvation.

2. The child became an heir to the new father’s estate and his rights were not affected by the father’s naturally born children. The adopted son was at least co-heir with the rest of the children, and could even be the sole heir if that was the father’s wish.

3. The former life of the adopted child was completely wiped out. All of his legal debts were cancelled. The adopted child was given a new name. It was almost as if he had just been born. We find here another great analogy for salvation. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and are adopted into the family of God, all your past debts (sins) are cancelled and you become a co-heir of all that the born Son, Jesus, possesses.

So we can say as believers that we are under no condemnation. Why? Because we have been adopted into God’s family and all former debts are cancelled. We now belong to God and the Holy Spirit of God confirms that adoption in our hearts. It is the Spirit of God who opens our understanding, who enlightens our mind to understand the Word of God. As we read our Bibles, the Holy Spirit of God helps us to understand its teaching so that it becomes a part of us with the power to change us and make us holy.

The unsaved person cannot understand the Bible because it needs to be defined and spiritually explained according to 1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT:

14 But people who aren’t spiritual cannot receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they cannot understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

The Holy Spirit is there to help us at all times in our daily battles. He injects thoughts, convictions, impulses, and direction into our mind, heart, and will to get us going in the right direction. If you fall into a sin, you will hear His voice saying, “Why did you do that? You knew it was wrong.” And He can make the conviction so painful that that you never want to do it again. That is why Paul could write in Galatians 5:16 NLT:

16 So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you will not be doing what your sinful nature craves.

The Holy Spirit is walking on a path. In the above verse, Paul is telling us to get on the path as well and walk in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit. If we do that, we will not want to fulfill our sinful lusts and desires.

We will now move on to the section of Romans 8 that includes verses 17-30. The great hope of every believer is Heaven, the presence of God, and being transformed into the likeness of Christ. Let us begin by looking at Romans 8:17, and we will begin with verse 15 so we have some continuity from where we left off:

15 So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family—calling him “Father, dear Father.”
16 For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.
17 And since we are his children, we will share his treasures—for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  (NLT)

3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.  (NLT)

This is getting exciting, is it not? Just think, if you are a believer, you will enjoy every spiritual blessing available in Heaven.  As a believer, there will be nothing in Heaven that you will not have. You will even have everything that Jesus has. You will not be God, but you will enjoy all the things that He is permitted to enjoy. Can you imagine anyone who would not want to get in on this promise? Now let us continue in Romans 8:18 NLT:

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.

Any suffering that we experience as believers in this world fades into nothingness when compared to the future glory of Heaven. Believers know it will be okay there and everything that is wrong here will be made right in Heaven. All the injustice will become justice. All the poverty will become riches, and all the pain and heartache will be gone. You might want to think about that if you are ever going through a very difficult time.

Now let us just shift gears here for just a moment. With all this talk about salvation and all the wonderful things that come along with it, some of you may be wondering, “What if you do something bad and lose your salvation?” Can anyone answer that question? Is there anything you can do to lose your salvation? What did we go over and over again in Romans 8:1?

There is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ!

Once you are saved, you are saved forever. You are an heir forever. If you still have doubts, look at Ephesians 1: 11-14 NLT:

11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
12 God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God.
13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.
14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

A believer is sealed permanently, branded as God’s possession forever. Nothing can break that seal. Verse 14 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the down payment so to speak, or the first installment, or perhaps even the engagement ring of our inheritance, until we receive the balance of our inheritance when we are given a new body for our soul in Heaven . When you were saved, you were purchased by God, but you have not entered into the full inheritance of that purchase yet. However, you are guaranteed that you will, and that guarantee is the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the engagement ring promising you that marriage, promising that you will receive that inheritance. We find the same message in Philippians1:6;

6 And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.

When God begins a good work, He finishes it, and He does it by the agency of the Holy Spirit. We will enter into the fullness of our inheritance because it is guaranteed to us by the Holy Spirit of God. A person simply cannot lose their salvation. Now if someone claims they were saved at one time and now are not, they were never really saved in the first place.

Now let us continue with Romans 8:19 NLT:

19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

What we have waiting here is the entire created universe with the exclusion of human beings and angels. Paul is referring to the material earth, sky, land, water, grass, flowers, animals, etc. And just what is creation waiting to see? Just look at the end of verse 19: the revealing of the children of God. That is when all sin will be gone, our sinful human nature will be gone, and we will be standing in blazing holy pureness before our Lord and Savior, Jesus. So creation is looking and waiting and anticipating that full glory, when the saints (believers) will shine as stars forever. And just as a point of information, a lot of people think saints are very special people who earn special recognition from the Church and are appointed to sainthood because they are so good. That is nothing but a man-made distortion of The Bible.[fn] Let us look at Romans 1:7 NRSV:

7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Also Romans 12:10-13 NRSV:
10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Also 1 Corinthians 1:2 NRSV:
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Additional references can be found in Ephesians 1:1,18 and Philippians 1:1. A saint is a believer in Jesus Christ who has been granted salvation by God because of their faith. I am Saint Ron. My wife is Saint Betty. You are a saint as well, if you are a believer. No one in the family of God is granted any title or blessing over and above anyone else. We are all equal in the eyes of God and as we mentioned earlier we will all be granted equally all the blessings of Heaven. And what a day it will be for the believer when they walk through the gates of Heaven.

                                       
GOD JUST KEEPS ON GIVING AND GIVING AND GIVING

Did you, or do you, still daydream about having so much money and freedom that you could buy anything you want, and do anything you want? Lots of people do, and we could call that day dreaming, or we might call it hoping. You are about to see that the hope that awaits you, if you are a Christian, could make such a daydream a reality and even give you much more than you ever dreamed of. 

Now just why is it that the creation is waiting with an eager longing as we read in verse 19? We see the answer in verse 20, Romans 8:20 RSV:

20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope.

Futility means aimlessness or the inability to reach a goal, an inability to achieve a desired result.[fn] In other words nature cannot be what it was meant to be. It cannot fulfill its reason for existing. Do you remember back in Genesis when God originally created everything. He looked at it and said that it was good (Genesis 1). There were no weeds in the Garden of Eden. There was no sin. There was no curse. Adam did not have to toil. He simply enjoyed all that God created. So did Eve. The earth was perfect. But then it was made subject to futility because Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God, and now it can no longer achieve its original purposes. In Genesis 3:16-19, God said to Adam and Eve, who had sinned and disobeyed Him:

16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”  (NLT)

Because of sin, creation became the victim of decay, corruption, frustration, and futility and it can no longer achieve its purpose. So we have smog, garbage, pollution, and environmental problems. This condition was not something the creation caused itself. Creation was a victim of the sin of humanity. Then verse 20 tells us that this has happened because of the One who has caused it to be subjected to futility, and that someone was God. God cursed the earth as we just read in Genesis 3. When God pronounced a curse on mankind, He pronounced a curse on the very same environment that He created. Why did He do that? He did that so that we might very clearly understand the tremendous effect and evil of sin. He did it so that we could see that sin does not just pollute the one who sins, but the effect of one’s sins are endless. The sin of one man and one woman polluted an entire universe. So we learn here that nature’s destiny is inseparably linked to the destiny of mankind. When mankind is restored to the glorious place that God has for His children, creation will be restored with them.

Now there is an excellent chance, according to the Bible, that Heaven is going to be right here on this earth and it is going to be remade in pretty much the same way God originally created things. Nature or creation is waiting with an eager longing because then it too will be freed from the bondage of corruption. There is an intimate connection between mankind’s sin and the decaying universe. You might remember studying the law of entropy in science class. That law states that there is disintegration everywhere.[fn] That law is the result of the curse God placed on mankind and the earth in Genesis 3. The theory of evolution, in our humble opinion, is a gross distortion of the truth. We are not on an upward trend and never have been. We are on a downward trend, and that truth can be seen all around us. We are on a trip from absolute perfection to total disaster, and the whole thing is going to end when God knows that the last person who is willing to commit to Christ has done so. And according to the Bible it will not be pretty for those who have chosen to reject Jesus.

So creation is longingly awaiting this time, in hope. Creation has hope because of the promise in the Word of God that there will be a new Heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21:1 NLT tells us:

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.

And what a day that will be for those who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

As Paul continues in Romans 8:21 NLT, he writes:

21 All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

That is what creation is looking for, a time when it is restored and renewed. We are told exactly what is going to happen in 2 Peter 3:10 (NAS):

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Intense heat could be created by the sun just rising twenty or thirty degrees from its normal life sustaining temperature. Intense heat could be created by the earth varying just slightly in its orbit around the sun. Intense heat could be produced by an atomic explosion. Intense heat could be produced by a large meteorite slamming into the earth. Intense heat could be produced in a variety of ways resulting simply from minor changes in the mathematical perfection of the universe.[fn] And if you believe that the entire universe can maintain this mathematical perfection without the hand of a Creator at the controls, you have some vivid imagination. Would you like some additional evidence? Let us go to 2 Peter 3:11,12 NLT:

11 Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living!
12 You should look forward to that day and hurry it along—the day when God will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames.

What is going to happen then? Peter tells us in the next verse, 2 Peter 3:13 NLT:

13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

For those, however, who have received the precious gift of grace through faith in Christ’s atoning death on the cross, they have eternal riches and joy beyond their ability to comprehend. We are not going to be equal to Christ in His position as God, but we are going to be equal to Him in the sense of inheriting all that He possesses. You are not going to find any No Trespassing or Do Not Touch  signs in Heaven. Listen to what John writes in John 17:13-26 NLT:

13 “And now I (Jesus) am coming to you (God). I have told them many things while I was with them so they would be filled with my joy.
14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not.
15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one (Satan).
16 They are not part of this world any more than I am.
17 Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.
19 And I give myself entirely to you so they also might be entirely yours.
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony.
21 My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are—
23 I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.
24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began!
25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me.
26 And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them.”

Jesus is saying that this is what He wants for believers. It is His will that we be with Him where He is and that we behold all the glory that there is to behold. He does not just want it all for Himself. This is pretty staggering to comprehend. We really need to understand this because we get so bogged down concerning what is going on down here on earth. Whatever that may be, it pales into insignificance compared with what we are promised for eternity. The next time problems are weighing you down, just think about the inheritance you have if you are a believer. And the real beauty of all this is that we do not have to do a single thing to earn it. All we have to do is accept the free gift by believing it. Let us look at some wonderful verses that confirm these wonderful promises of Jesus. First, Titus 3:5-11 NLT:

5 He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.
6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
7 He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.
8 These things I have told you are all true. I want you to insist on them so that everyone who trusts in God will be careful to do good deeds all the time. These things are good and beneficial for everyone.
9 Do not get involved in foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees or in quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws. These kinds of things are useless and a waste of time.
10 If anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with that person.
11 For people like that have turned away from the truth. They are sinning, and they condemn themselves.

Now Hebrews 9:15 NLT:
15 For this reason Christ brings a new agreement from God to his people. Those who are called by God can now receive the blessings he has promised, blessings that will last forever.

And Philippians 3:8-13, and 21 NLT:
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ
9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
10 As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death,
11 so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,

21 He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere.

And finally 1 John 3:1-3, 9-11, 17, 18, 21-24 NLT:

1 See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children.
2 Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we cannot even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
3 And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.

9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not sin, because God’s life is in them. So they cannot keep on sinning, because they have been born of God.
10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil. Anyone who does not obey God’s commands and does not love other Christians does not belong to God.
11 This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

17 But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help—how can God’s love be in that person?

23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.
24 Those who obey God’s commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us

When you see clearly what you are heading for, you begin to want to clean up your act. You cannot help but feeling that you should be the kind of person that a glory inheritor ought to be.                               

Romans 8 with verse 22 NLT:

22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

What was it that God said to Adam and Eve after they had sinned in Genesis 3:16? “You will bear children with intense pain and suffering.”

The word groaning in Romans 8:22 literally means to groan together. It is as if all things in the world are moaning and groaning like one gigantic choir over their cursed state. We see here that sin has contaminated the universe. The pain referred to in verse 22 is not necessarily a bad pain because it is a pain that leads to something good. It is the kind of pain we can look forward to because it brings something good. All this groaning, moaning, and pain of the earth in its anticipation will ultimately terminate at the reign of Jesus Christ during the Millennial Kingdom. The Millennial Kingdom will be a period of a thousand years when Christ will reign upon the earth after His return. This is when the lion will lie down with the lamb, when the desert will bloom like a rose, and we will finally live in relative harmony with one another. At the end of the Millennium God will create a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21). This is when all believers throughout history will find themselves in Heaven and when all those who have rejected Christ will find themselves in what the Bible refers to as the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14,15).[fn]

Then we are told in Romans 8:23 NLT:

23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

Here Paul is telling us that it is not only creation that groans, but that we groan also. Believers lament their cursed condition. We also groan under the pain of the curse of sin, over the evil in our lives. Paul gives us further insight into this feeling in 2 Corinthians 5:4 NLT:

4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

Would we all not like to be rid of the pain that our sinfulness causes us? We all know the pain of groaning for a better life, do we not? We are waiting, longing for the redemption of our bodies. For more on this you might want to read 1 Corinthians 15. Then in the next two verses, Romans 8:24,25 NLT we discover:

24 Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it.
25 But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.

A relationship with Jesus Christ brings peace and assurance. If you do not have it, you can get it the moment you ask for Christ to be your Savior, and then continually ask Him to guide your steps through each day and night. May all of us be the adopted children of God, brothers and sisters in the family of God, royalty, by the time the sun goes down today.

 

Every Adversity Is The Seed of A Greater Benefit

We will continue our study in Romans 8 at verse 26 NLT:

26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

Is that not a most comforting verse? When you are a Christian, when you believe that Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sins, it is so wonderful to know that God is on your side. I think some Christians go through their lives flinching, waiting to be blasted by God for every small thing they do wrong. There is a sense in which God rebukes and chastens His own, but keep in mind, however, that our fallenness and our humanness is as much a concern of the Spirit of God as it is our concern.

We believe God only moves in to discipline us when we get happy with our sin and keep doing it. As long as we long to be delivered, the Spirit of God is eagerly desiring right along with us. What security that is. The Spirit of God is constantly providing for us and we could not maintain our Christian walk without Him.

The problem is that we do not really know what to pray for. We are going through suffering. We have struggles with sin and the weakness of our flesh. We do not know the future. We do not know exactly what to pray for. That does not mean that we do not know how to get down on our hands and knees or fold our hands. This verse is talking about content, not form. In previous messages, we have looked at the truth that once a person is saved they are saved forever. But how is that so? Have we ever thought about how this actually works out? How does God keep us saved, especially when we still sometimes blow it in our daily lives? Let us find out what the Scripture tells us about that. Our redemption, our salvation, must be maintained and you and I do not know how to do that, do we? This verse gives us some important information about how that process works.

The Spirit helps our weakness, our fallenness, our sinful state. Believers could not keep themselves saved because they do not even know what to pray for. This is essential to understand.

So believers should be offering praise to Jesus for keeping us saved by continually interceding for us before the throne of God. We like the way Hebrews 7:25 NLT emphasizes this:

25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save everyone who comes to God through him. He lives forever to plead with God on their behalf.

What more could we ask for? What keeps believers saved is the ever-living Christ defending them before the throne of God in Heaven. Not only do they have Christ in Heaven interceding for them, but they also have the Holy Spirit in them helping them. We really do not know how to pray and protect ourselves. We must have help, and so we have it from Jesus in Heaven and the Holy Spirit of God on earth.

It is obvious we do not know what to pray for. The apostle Paul learned what we should all know (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). We really do not know what to pray for. When we suffer we ask God to take away the suffering immediately, if not sooner. We say, “I’ve learned my lesson Lord, now please take this away.” But we do not know whether a worse fate was about to befall us if it were not for the suffering God puts us through. Humanly we do not know how to tap divine resources. We do not know how to pray for the things we ought to pray for. But the Holy Spirit takes the longings of the believer’s heart for God and translates them into the language that makes the desires of his/her heart perfectly understandable to God. The Holy Spirit of God is working in us to bring about the perfect will of God. Now we continue in Romans 8:27 NLT:

27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

You may not know the will of God but the Holy Spirit does. That should be very comforting to those of us who are believers. You may not know how to pray but the Holy Spirit does. When the Bible says to pray in the Spirit, that does not mean to flip out. It means to pray according to the will of God. God always knows what the Spirit is praying because the Spirit is always praying in accord with the will of God. Why? Because within the Trinity there is always perfect harmony.

And now we come to another of what must be one of the top ten verses of the Bible, Romans 8:28:

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.   (NLT)

We will see four elements in this promise of security in verse 28:

1. The extent of it.
2. The recipients of it.
3. The source of it.
4. The certainty of it.

 

Let us begin by looking at the magnitude of our security. Romans 8:28 tells us that Everything works together for good. There could never be a more reassuring statement to a believer. There is nothing that could bring more hope, more joy, more trust, more confidence, more happiness, and more freedom to a Christian than to know that no matter what the pain, what the problem, what the trial, what the anxiety, it all works together for good. The extent of this promise is really beyond our ability to fully understand. There is no limit placed on the phrase, “All things.” Let us jump ahead a few verses and read what verse 32 tells us (ESV):

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Whatever the difficulty, whatever the pain, the problem, whatever the trouble, whatever anything, it will all work together for good if you know Jesus as your Savior. God will take all the good things and all the bad things that occur in the lives of believers and use them for the good of the believer. This just has to thrill you to death. This means that it does not matter what has happened or what will happen in the lives of believers. God will make it all work together for their good. What a glorious gift. The “good” referred to here refers to the good in the here and now as well as the good ultimately in Heaven. What that means is that no matter what happens in the life of a believer, God will make it work to produce something that will benefit the believer. Look at what God did for His people way back in the Old Testament when they were wandering in the desert before entering the promised land of Israel. Moses writes in Deuteronomy 8:15,16:

15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

In Jeremiah 24:4-7 NLT, Jeremiah writes about God allowing the Israelites to be taken into exile in Babylon:

4 Then the Lord gave me this message:
5 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians.
6 I have sent them into captivity for their own good. I will see that they are well treated, and I will bring them back here again. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.
7 I will give them hearts that will recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.

Here again we see a “tough love” approach on the part of God in caring for His children. God allowed them to be taken away to captivity in Babylon. Everything, even those things that appear to be hopeless disasters, will turn out to be for the good of God’s people. Our afflictions will be temporary and the reward that follows faithfully going through them will result in good.

If everything works together for the good of the believer, then nothing can work out to be bad. Nothing can really ultimately hurt the believer. There can never be any condemnation from God or the loss of one’s salvation once they have it (Roman 8:1). God’s power supports us in our troubles. We find this all through the Bible. For example in 2 Corinthians12:9-10 NLT Paul writes:

9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10 Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When trouble comes we can look to Psalm 91:14,15 NLT:

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue them and honor them.

When we are in need and seem to be on the brink of disaster, we can remember Philippians 4:19 NLT:

19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

As you can see by the verses we have been reading, The Bible also works together for the good of believers. We find that confirmed in Acts 20:32 NLT:

32 “And now I entrust you to God and the word of his grace—his message that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.

Prayer also works together for the good of the believer. As we pray, God’s power is released in our lives. Then there are also angels according to Hebrews 1:13,14 NLT:

13 And God never said to an angel, as he did to his Son, “Sit in honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”
14 But angels are only servants. They are spirits sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation.

Then there are other Christians who also work for the good of the believer as Paul writes to the people in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 1:24 NLT:

24 But that does not mean we want to tell you exactly how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy as you stand firm in your faith.

So we see that there are good things that work for the good of the believer, but we do not think that is the main thrust of this verse in Romans 8:28.What so many of us lose sight of is that bad things also work together for our good. We need to understand here right from the get-go that this verse does not say that bad things are good. We should know that bad things are bad. That is why they are called “bad.” So bad things are not good but they are used by God to work for the good of all believers. You know what that tells us? It tells us that God is so absolutely and totally in control of everything that He can overrule the worst of events and use them to work for our good.

I think we could all agree that in and of itself suffering is a bad thing. Suffering is the result of the existence of evil in this world. But the believer can know that God is in the suffering with them working out something that will result in good. Sometimes a believer suffers because God is disciplining them for their sin. Other times we are just suffering so that God can refine us for one reason or another. God is testing us, pruning us, building our strength. He is purifying us so that we will come out like pure gold, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter:1:6,7 NLT:

7 These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

On still other occasions suffering occurs so that God can be glorified. We see that in John 9:1-3:

1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
2 “Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.

But through it all God brings about a good result as we see in the following verses. James 1:12 NLT:

You see this is part of the perfecting process. It is through suffering that we learn kindness, sympathy, compassion, patience, and gentleness. We learn to look to God and trust Him through faith. We depend on His power. We need His grace. We rejoice in His mercy. Those are all the things we can learn through suffering. So suffering can be used for the good of the believer.

A classic example of this is Joseph in Genesis chapter 37. Joseph’s brothers threw him in an abandoned well. They sold him into slavery, and then he was thrown into prison for a crime he never committed. But the end of the story for Joseph was that it all worked out for good. If Joseph had never been sent to Egypt and thrown into prison, he would never have become prime minister and been placed in a position where he could help Egypt and his own family through a terrible period of famine.

Suffering can draw us to God and that is good. Suffering can purge out sin in our lives and that is good. Suffering can teach us what other people are going through in order that we can be compassionate and that is good as well. Job lost everything, and I mean everything, through an unbelievable series of circumstances. The only thing that he did not lose was his wife, and as things progressed he probably was not very encouraged by some of the horrible advice she gave him. Job got ulcers; boils all over his body; his cattle were stolen; and all his children were killed. And it all came down to this statement in Job 42:1-6 NLT:

1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.
3 You ask, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I. And I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me.
4 “You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’
5 “I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

Job says that finally for the first time he sees the true nature of God and he was only able to do so after he lost everything. The very same thing happened to me. But after Job faithfully went through it all, God gave him back much more than he had ever lost. God has also done the same for me although I would not equate my faithfulness to Job’s. I still have a long way to go and I have no doubt that if my faith and trust in God continues to grow, He will provide added blessings.

Suffering can work for good because it drives us to God. Even in the lives of people who do not believe in God, when disaster strikes, they cry out to Him for help. When a person has all the good things in this life, it is easy for them not to feel a need for God. When a person is suffering, however, they often realize that only God can help them. Personally after years of insolent arrogance and having whatever I wanted, I was brought to my knees through the suffering I experienced. I went from having all I wanted to wondering how I was going to pay the rent. Had God not permitted that to happen to me, I may have continued on through life thinking I could control my own destiny and never have felt the need to seek out the message of salvation. As a result I would have faced spending my eternity in Hell. Am I grateful for suffering? Not at the moment it is happening, but looking back, I am so grateful that God allowed me to go through what I needed to go through so that I would recognize how much I need Him and how much I need His Son, Jesus, as my Savior. When life is going along just great we tend to become preoccupied with our job, house, car, business, wardrobe, and any number of activities that can satisfy out lusts for pleasure. Then someone very close to you becomes terminally ill and suddenly your whole value system changes and your heart is driven to seek God in order to deal with that pain. Imagine the suffering that Christ endured for us, culminating in a tortuous death.

Suffering also works together for good because it confirms to us that we are God’s children. I just love this passage in Hebrews 12:6-8 NLT:

When you see yourself going through suffering and you know the Lord is chastening you and refining you, you ought to be thankful that He cares enough about you to want to make you the child you ought to be. God exercises discipline in order to refine you. But keep in mind that this does not apply to everybody. This only applies to those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Struggling with temptation can be a good thing as well because it can force us to our knees to pray. And praying when we are tempted is a very good thing. As a matter of fact, if we could train ourselves to pray every time adversity or temptation came upon us, we would probably save ourselves a great deal of frustration and depression. Struggling can also teach us lessons that later can be used to help others, and that too is a good thing. In that regard we really like what the author of Hebrews writes about Jesus in Hebrews 2:18:

18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted.

Struggling with temptation can also lead to good because it causes us to lean on the strength of God.

Another bad thing that can work for good, believe it or not, is sin. You well might be wondering how that is possible. God literally uses our sin for good when we seek forgiveness for it. When we see the sinful behavior of others, we may sense in our own heart that such behavior is not acceptable. It can also cause us to be stronger in our opposition to such behavior and even motivate us to try and do something about it. We may also become more thankful that God has delivered us from similar behavior.

Now let us get to the main point of all of this. Our own sins, if we are believers, work ultimately for our own good. God takes our sins and eliminates the judgment that would result from them if we did not believe. The difference between a believer and a nonbeliever is that God sees the believer as sinless because of their faith in the work of Christ. Now the immediate consequences and chastening resulting from our sin will not be eliminated, but the ultimate consequence of judgment and damnation is eliminated.
When a believer sees sin in their lives, we seek God out to deliver us from that sin. That is definitely good. Sin in the life of a believer will drive that believer to God.

Now let us focus a bit more on those who receive this security that we are told about in Romans 8:28. We are told that all things work together for good, but not for everybody. Not everybody in the world can claim that promise or hang onto that secure hope. There is an important qualifier in verse 28 and it reads, “To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” “Those who love God” is simply an identification of believers, those who know God through faith in Jesus Christ. True believers love God. From God’s side it is “Those who are called.” So from the side of believers, they are the ones that love God, and from God’s side, He is the one who has called the believer.

This theme carries all the way through the Bible from beginning to end. Let us, for example look at Deuteronomy 7:9 NLT:

9 Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and constantly loves those who love him and obey his commands.

God’s redeemed people have always been those who love Him. We see it again in the New Testament, for example, in1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT:

9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Also in James 1:12 NLT:
12 God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

James 2:14-20 NLT:

15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing,
16 and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
17 So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” I say, “I cannot see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.”
19 Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror!
20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?

If you do not have the gift of the Holy Spirit within you, which comes only with faith in Christ and His death on the cross for your sins, just remember, all you have to do is let God know you want Him to reveal His truth to you, and God’s promise is that He will begin leading you to such faith.

 

THERE IS MORE TO BEING A CHRISTIAN THAN JUST SAYING YOU ARE ONE

People who are truly saved do not just believe in God, they love God. I do not care if someone tells me they are a Christian, or they are an elder, or they are a pastor, or a bishop, because none of that means anything to me if they do not demonstrate, by the way they live their lives, that they love God. And it will not take you very long to know that a person loves God. It will radiate from the very core of their being. They will never hesitate to express that love for God no matter what type of hostile situation they might find themselves in. Their love for God does not embarrass them, and they do not care if they are not accepted into a certain social group because they are viewed as religious fanatics. They are like the martyrs in the early centuries after Christ. They would be willing to die for their faith. God is their Father and fellow believers are their brothers and sisters, family bonded by a common faith, a faith that is unshakeable.

Does that describe you? When Paul writes in Romans 8:28 NLT:

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Is Paul talking about you in this verse? Are all things that happen in your life, good and bad things, going to ultimately work out for good because you are one who loves God? Or are you a fence walker? Do you feel you can make your own decisions and chart your own course without God? Are you someone who says, “I believe in God,” but feels that all religions have the same God and we should be tolerant of everyone’s beliefs? Or are you one who claims to be a Christian and will not help the homeless person who may need a meal; or the neighbor who has cancer and lives alone; or the elderly person who went to your church and now is in a nursing home and is very lonely. Maybe a friend’s wife or husband died and you just feel very uncomfortable about calling or visiting him or her. Maybe there is someone that you are gossiping about or that you want to see humiliated because you cannot stand them. Or maybe you are like the pastor who once told me, “Our church really isn’t able to relate to those kind of people.” People who think like this cannot love God. Such people may be saved, but I would not bet on it. When a person accepts Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for their sins through faith in what Jesus did there, they receive eternal salvation and the Holy Spirit immediately sets up residence within them to begin helping that person be reborn and begin a new life with the power of God available to change them into what they were meant to be.

Based on our knowledge of the Bible, we do not believe that a person can then go on living their lives as they had before and not follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit of God. As we read earlier, James wrote in James 2:14-20 NLT:

15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing,
16 and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
17 So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” I say, “I cannot see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.”
19 Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror!
20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless? 

I am sorry to say that in the several churches I have been part of, I have seen little evidence of the love of God we have been discussing. Many churches are nothing more than religious social clubs where people come each week to confirm to one another how good and righteous they are, and there is little if any indication that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the members of these churches. If you think God is pleased with the way people have been caring for His Church over the last two thousand years, I would suggest you read the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation. There are only two of seven churches that Jesus commends for their deeds. The other five are found lacking in many aspects.

46 “So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you will not obey me?  (NLT)

Here Jesus is saying in effect, “Look, if I look at your life and don’t see any obedience, then your calling me ‘Lord’ doesn’t mean anything. If I don’t see obedience, which is the natural by-product of love, then there is no love there.” And how many people behave in such a hypocritical way toward God today? They flood the churches of this country going through all kinds of rituals, lighting candles, singing hymns, taking communion, being baptized, and any other number of other outward religious expressions, but when they leave the building they take with them no more than a thimble full of spirituality, and most of them spill even that on the church steps before reaching the parking lot. There is no real love for God in these churches. There is no substance.

There was a Wendy’s hamburger commercial many years ago that I will never forget. At the time all the major hamburger chains were advertising all the things they put on their hamburgers, and Wendy’s simply had this cute, feisty, little old lady come out and say, “Where’s the beef?” That is what I would like to direct at most churches. I would like to ask them, “Where are the deeds that show you love God? Where is the evidence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your work as a church? Where is there evidence of the love of God toward others?” True faith is to love God so much that you believe in His Word and follow its instructions all of your life. Anything else is meaningless chatter. And anyone who does not feel motivated to live this way, because of their faith, had better take a reality check. Because you may be headed for a place that you do not think you are headed for, and when you get there, there will not be any turning back. And of course I am talking about your eternity.

There is only one thing in all the world that you can totally believe in. There is only one thing in all the world that you can trust, and that is God and His Word found in the Bible. If your pastor says something contrary to what is in the Bible, he or she is lying. Do not believe them. If your friends, relatives, co-workers, or anyone else gives you an interpretation of Scripture that is not compatible with the whole of the Bible, they are lying to you. Do not listen to them. Surround yourself with a group of believers who you can trust to study God’s Word together, helping and building one another up in the faith, and speaking the truth in love. Anything else is meaningless rhetoric.

Loving God is a basic element of genuine redemption. Some of you may be wondering, “What kind of love is this? What are its qualities, and how can we know we have it?” Well let us suggest several possibilities, and although we will not read each Scripture passage, we will tell you where you can find them if you want to look them up.

1) The kind of love we are speaking of meditates on God’s majestic glory. It is the kind of love that is just thrilled by who God is (Psalm 18:1-3)

2) It is a love that trusts in God’s great power (Psalm 31:23,24; Psalm 63:1-3; 2 Chronicles 16:9a).

3) It is a love that seeks communion with God. All love seeks to commune with the object of its love (Psalm 63:1-3;42:1,2).

4) It is a love that secures the peace of the soul. People who do not have that kind of love relationship are anxious, upset, troubled, and seeking after it constantly. When they find the perfect object of their love, their soul finds peace. When we come to know God and experience His love, we enter into a peace like we have never experienced (Psalm 119:165; John 14:27; Isaiah 26:3).

5) It is also a love that is sensitive to God’s feelings. You cannot injure God and feel no   pain. We enter into the pain of the one we love. When God is dishonored we feel the pain (Psalm 69:9).

6) It is a love that loves what God loves (Psalm 119:97,103; Matthew 19:29; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Luke 5:32) .

7) It is a love that loves whom God loves (1 John 5:1-3; 3:16).

8) It is a love that cannot tolerate evil (sin) any more than God can (Matthew 26:75; Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9,10).

9) It is a love that rejects the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17).

10) It is a love that longs for Jesus’ return (2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13).

True believers love God like this. But there is one more that should head the list:

It may be a battle to conduct ourselves like this at all times, but if a person is truly a believer, the desire will be there.

Now let us go on to the next two verses in Romans chapter eight, Romans 8:29,30 (NAS):

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

I believe with all my heart that those theologians are wrong. I wrote a paper during my masters program at Wheaton College supporting my position based on what the Bible teaches. God is a God of love consistently throughout the Bible. I do not believe it possible that the God I know and love could have developed such a policy. I do believe He may have chosen any number of people to serve Him in various capacities and as such they would receive salvation, but I do not believe He selected who was to be saved and who was not as a matter of general policy. I believe God predestined everyone for salvation, that is why He sent Jesus to die on the cross as a payment for the sin of all human beings. Exodus 32:30-33 suggests that perhaps everyone’s name was originally written in God’s book, but by their unbelief they left God no option but to remove their names.

Exodus 32:30-33 NLT:
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sin.”
31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves.
32 But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”
33 But the Lord replied to Moses, “No, I will erase the name of everyone who has sinned against me.

That would seem to be confirmed in Deuteronomy 29:15-21 as well where God speaks to the people of Israel after bringing them out of slavery in Egypt:

15 I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the Lord our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
16 “You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.
17 You have seen their detestable practices and their idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
18 I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man, woman, clan, or tribe—will turn away from the Lord our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit.
19 “Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!
20 The Lord will never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the Lord will erase their names from under heaven.
21 The Lord will separate them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the curses of the covenant recorded in this Book of Instruction.

Then we find this verse in 2 Peter 3:9 NLT:

We are now going to look into the mind of God, into His purpose for salvation. One thing we all need to realize at the outset is that we are all going to be way over our heads. It is going to be impossible for us to totally get our arms around these concepts. So we need to affirm the fact that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God. We accept what we cannot fully understand, and we accept it by faith. Somewhere along the line you are going to jettison your reason and say, “ By-by” to your logic and human wisdom. Because we are going to be diving into some deep water of truth. We will be entering into a state of divine reality beyond our ability to understand. And we emphasize that you not jump to any conclusions until we are finished.

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. It is written to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
2 May grace and peace be yours, sent to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.
4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
6 So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son.
7 He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.
8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.
10 And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.  (NLT)

Salvation is based on what God decides. Let us begin our adventure in John 1:12,13 NLT:

 

THE PURPOSE OF SALVATION

It is God’s desire to forgive sin, remove guilt, provide the gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But all of those things are only a part of the reality of salvation. Even Heaven is only a part of the real goal, that we be conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus. In other words, God is redeeming an eternally holy, Christ-like, glorified race of human beings. When a believer first believed and accepted Christ as their Savior, the process of being conformed to Christ began, and it must be completed.

20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
21 He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere.

This means that our body in Heaven is going to be just like the body of Jesus. Believers will be made in the exact form of Christ’s post-resurrection body. But that is not all. We are going to be like Him in the spiritual dimension as well. Residing in the believer will be the very holiness of Jesus Christ. We will be free from the restrictions of humanness which we now possess.[fn]

How many of you ever longed to be like your hero? You know, that great looking movie star, or sports star, or whatever. Well, just think about it, if you are a believer you are going to be made just like the greatest hero that ever lived. This is described so beautifully in 2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT:

18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.

When you come to believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ, you are no longer blind. You now can see. When you become a believer, the process of taking you from one level of glory to the next level of glory to the next begins. It continues little by little until you move towards Christ’s likeness, until the day you see Him and become exactly like Him

Jesus did not have to make us His brothers and sisters. He could have made us His servants. Through Jesus, God gives us joy, peace, and Heaven. So if you are saved, God will bring you glory because that is why He saved you.

Now if there is anyone hearing this who is not a believer, I do not expect you to understand all of this. Even believers are probably having a hard time with this concept. But we would just like to encourage you not to worry about being chosen. Do not go around saying, “ I wonder if I am one of the chosen ones? Maybe the Lord did not choose me.” That is not a factor that you should be concerned about. Just know this: if you find in your heart a hatred of your sin; if you find in your heart an emptiness in life; if you find in your heart a desire for something better, a desire for God, a desire for righteousness; if you find in your heart a desire to turn from your sin and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and you do it, then you can be sure of one thing. You are saved and guaranteed a place in Heaven.

Have you ever thought of God as one who wants to damn you to Hell for your sins? Nowhere in the Bible is that even suggested. Most likely with tears in His eyes Jesus said, “ Why do you not come to me?” Listen to Jesus words in Matthew 11:28:

 

ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED  
Do you remember what we said earlier about the purpose of salvation? Why does God want to save you and me?   

In the last nine verses of Romans 8, Paul ends the letter to the Romans with a series of questions and answers as he concludes his teaching on the doctrine of security in salvation. He really wants to nail down this truth. It is as if he anticipates this truth is going to be rejected by the majority of mankind. He believes people are going to come along and say, “You know you could lose your salvation. The church could take it away from you, and there are circumstances that could cause you to say, ‘I don‘t believe any longer.’” Paul knows that is going to happen, so he reacts to that by asking a series of questions in Romans 8:31-39. Let us begin with Romans 8:31 NLT:

31 What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Let us look at persons first. Are there any persons anywhere who could remove our salvation under any circumstances? If God is telling us that believers are secure, just who do you think would have the wherewithal to overpower God who is for us? Do you know anyone who can overcome God? Can the Roman Catholic Church or other churches, when they excommunicate someone for committing sin? Can they remove salvation if in fact the person possesses salvation? They have throughout history removed certain people from the Church, excommunicated them, and burned them at the stake because they believed in the doctrine of justification by faith. Does the Roman Catholic Church have the right to take away the salvation of someone who is really saved, no matter what they do? Are those who are against us greater than God who is for us? Absolutely not. No one can take away the salvation of anyone who is truly saved.

Now sure enough someone is going to raise the argument that God will protect you as long as He is for you. But what if God stops being for you? Who is to say that God is not going to look at us and say, “This person is more trouble than they are worth. If I had known they were going to be like this, I wouldn’t have accepted him or her.” So they argue that maybe God will remove our salvation for one reason or another. Perhaps for too much sin or disobedience. Not so.

Look at Romans 8:32 NLT:

32 Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, will not God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?

God gave us His Son to save us when we were sinners. If He did that He would certainly do whatever was necessary to keep us once we were saved. If He did the greatest thing possible to redeem us, will He do less to keep us? If God loved us enough when we were wretched sinners to give His only Son on the cross to redeem us, will He not give us every other possible blessing?

Are you able to begin to see the enormity of love that God has for you and me? The Bible does not say that God gave His Son so that goody-good people could go to Heaven. It does say, however, that He gave His Son so that all sinners could be saved. It says that God loved everyone in the world, which includes the most wretched of sinners. He loved even them so much that He was willing to send His Son to die an excruciatingly painful death so that they could spend eternity in Heaven with Him. Then in Romans 8:33, 34 Paul writes:

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself.
34 Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.

If we look at the first sentence in each of these verses, we certainly get the idea that someone is going to try and condemn believers whose future glory is already secured, do we not? Who might it be who would want to do something like this? Who is the accuser? Who has access to God’s presence in order to do this? Satan does according to Job 1:6-12 NLT :

6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan the Accuser came with them.
7 “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. And Satan answered the Lord, “I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that is going on.”
8 Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”
9 Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason!
10 You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is!
11 But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
12 “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

Satan is always accusing the elect of God. He spends a lot of His time in Heaven trying to convince God that we not deserve the salvation that God has already guaranteed for all believers. There is a good example of this in Zechariah 3:1, 2 NLT:

1 Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Satan was there at the angel’s right hand, accusing Joshua of many things.
2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from a fire.”

Satan is really laying it on Joshua and God says in effect, “Nothing doing, Satan. Joshua is one of my own who I rescued from the fire.” The truly wondrous thing about all this is that although Joshua is guilty, he is under the protection of God and will not be condemned. God is not going to condemn someone that He has already pronounced to be righteous. If God has declared us righteous even though we were still sinners, then sin is never going to keep us from inheriting the eternal promise that comes with righteousness. Believers did not get into the Kingdom of God because of their goodness. And they are not going to be thrown out because of a lack of goodness. Listen to what John wrote in John 10:24-29 NLT:

24 The Jewish leaders surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is what I do in the name of my Father.
26 But you don’t believe me because you are not part of my flock.
27 My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

 

There is no way that a believer will ever lose their salvation.

Christ will certainly never condemn the believer. He died for them. Do you think after doing that, He would turn around and undo the meaning of His redemptive work?  Of course He would not. What are we told in John 3:16-18 NLT?

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18 “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.

Now there are those who think that they have sinned so many times and failed God so many times, that chances are God is going to throw them out and not let them back. Do not believe it. There is not a chance that will happen. John writes in 1 John 2:1 NLT:

Then in Hebrews 7:24,25 NLT we read:

Christ will keep believers saved all the way into Heaven. How? He ever lives to make intercession for believers. Whenever we sin, He pleads our case before the throne of God. He intercedes on the believer’s behalf and comes to their defense. So on the one hand you have Satan and all His accusations, and on the other hand you have the lawyer for the defense, Jesus, who speaks to His Father in defense of the believer. I do not know about you but if I ever have to go on trial before a judge and I can get the judges son to be my attorney, I will not sweat what the decision will be. God the Father always responds positively to the intercession of His Son.

God has provided those who love Him with all the security imaginable. If you believe in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and if you love God, you are going to Heaven where you will be like Jesus, and that promise is cast in stone. I hope I will see all of you there!

Now let us look at the conclusion of this chapter, Romans 8:35-39 NLT:

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God said to the people of Israel in Jeremiah 31:3 NLT:

3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

This is how God’s love is expressed in Romans 8. It is an everlasting love, a love from which there is no separation. Once you have been saved, you are saved forever. What might you do though that could cause God to stop loving you after you have been saved? Nothing! We have an everlasting love as believers, and that everlasting love provides everlasting hope. This hope tells us that even when we sin, and we will, that God will give us grace and forgiveness, which gives us a great sense of security. These verses ask the question: “What could possibly change this kind of love that God provides us?” So let us take a look at each of the things mentioned.

1) Hardship
Hardship occurs when you are cornered and out of options. It has to do with being under tremendous pressure. When the real pressure comes and there is a price to pay for being a believer, does that separate us from the love of Christ?

2) Distress
Basically we define distress as being caught in a circumstance where there does not seem to be any way out. But a believer does not have to be concerned about distress because we are told in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that:

13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.  (NLT)

Can that strong temptation that one might be wrestling with cause a believer to be separated from the love of Christ? No it cannot.

3 Persecution
Persecution is abuse that a believer feels when rejected by others because of his/her faith in Jesus. This could involve both physical and emotional suffering. Is this something that could separate us from the love of Christ? No, it could not

4) Famine
What about famine? Going without food; being utterly deprived and perhaps thrown in jail and left to die because of one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

5) Nakedness
What about nakedness? This means to be without clothes, to be so poor and destitute that you cannot even clothe your own body.

6) Peril
Peril has to do with being exposed to the treachery and plotting of others.

7) The Sword
The sword refers to death.

All seven of these things are very heavy matters. They involve the worst possible stress situations. Could such circumstances drive a believer to reject their faith in Jesus? Could such things drive us away from His love and affection? Could such circumstances cause us to doubt Him? Under such circumstances could we get weary and fall into sin, and consequently have the Lord shut us off and boot us out? Well, as Paul writes these verses, he is not just theorizing, he experienced every one of these things as we are told in 1 Corinthians 11:23-33 (Message):

I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. And that is not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I am not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.”

So Paul is not dealing with only theory here. This is Paul’s personal experience in his walk with Christ. Did tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword sever Paul’s relationship with Christ? Did it cause Paul in moments of trouble to say Christ was not worth it, and thereby abandon Him? On the contrary, this is a typical day for Paul. Such things do not take us out of the love of God. Such things show us that we are in the love of God. This is the history of those who love God. All the saints (believers) throughout the ages have endured this. It goes with the territory. We find this confirmed in Matthew 10:37-39 NLT:

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Also Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:11,12 NLT:

11 my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
12 Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

What if such things happen and it does drive them away from Christ? If that happens, the truth of the matter is that those people were never truly saved in the first place according to 1 John 2:19 NLT:

19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


© Ron Teed - Used by permission. All rights Reserved.