The Inseparable Love of God (1) [ Romans 8:38-39 ] Why can nothing separate us from the love of God? 1. Because God’s love is eternal. Romans 8:29a says: “For those whom He foreknew…” The word “foreknew” refers to before eternity began —before the creation of heaven and earth . The phrase “those whom He foreknew” does not simply mean knowing about someone intellectually, but rather loving them. In other words, it refers to “those whom God loved from eternity past.” Amos 3:2a says: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” If “known” merely meant intellectual knowledge, that would imply that God only knew Israel and did not know the other nations—which cannot be true, because the all-knowing God lacks knowledge of nothing. Therefore, “I have known you only” means “I have loved you only.” God loved Israel among all the nations of the earth. Hosea 13:5 says: “I knew you in the wilderness , in the land of great drought.” The “wilderness” was where the Israelite...
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...