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The glory that will be revealed to us             [Romans 8:18-25]       Chapter 17 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, “On the Perseverance of the Saints,” says: “They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”   This doctrine is that those whom God has chosen by His eternal providence and regenerated by the Holy Spirit will never lose their status as God's children because they are protected by God's grace.   This means that such people will not lose their qualifications for adoption, their status as righteous will not be taken away, and their souls will not be destroyed (Jn. 10:27-29; Rom. 8:35-39; Phil 1:6).   John 10:28, one of the New Testament sources for this, says: “and I give eternal life to them, and they w...

Past, present, and future blessing       [Romans 8:1-2, 14-18]     Among the blessings that God has given to us Christians in Jesus Christ, I heard the word through our church retired pastor last Wednesday prayer meeting that the three blessings shown in Romans 8:1-2 and 14-18.   The three blessings are past blessing, present blessing, and future blessing.   I want to meditate on these three blessings again.   First, what is the past blessing?   It is that there is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus.   Look at Romans 8:1 – “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”   The Scripture says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.   What does it mean?   In order to understand this word, we need to know the meaning of the word “condemnation.”   The original Greek word for the word, “κατάκριμα,” is a court term and refers to conv...

Present sufferings and future glory             [Romans 8:18]                        Look at Romans 8:18 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”   I would like to think about two things based on this verse: (1) “the sufferings of this present time” and (2) “the glory that is to be revealed”.               First, let us think about “the sufferings of this present time”.                   The Apostle Paul speaks of “the sufferings of this present time” in Romans 8:18, and “this present” here refers to this world.   Therefore, “the suffering of this present time” refer to the sufferings of this world.   There are many suf...

The result of justification (11): Receiving future salvation     “For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10)                        The Bible says there was a time when we were God’s enemies (Rom.5:10).   How have we become God’s enemies?   In Genesis, after God created the heavens and the earth and created Adam, the first man, He allowed Adam to eat from all kinds of trees in the Garden of Eden .   B ut he commanded, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”   God said, “You will surely die” on the day you eat the fruit (Gen. 2:16-17).   However, Adam fell into the temptation of the crafty serpent (Satan), disobeyed God's command, and ate the frit of the tree of the knowledge of good a...