Are you sure? Sure, I'm sure!
Previous articleBack to Table of ContentsNext article

FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Message Outlines: Chapter 8 (Include Audio)

Romans 8:17-25 (1)

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
October 16, 2007
Lincolnton, N.C.
(Download Audio)

(350)

Thesis:   The "problem" of suffering in this present world is only a "problem" because we are both ignorant and self-centered.

Introduction:   Last week we were, again, considering Paul's teaching about the impact of the Holy Spirit upon us as believers. We saw that Paul was very intent upon making sure that we are "sure" about the most fundamental of all of the issues of the eternal Kingdom of God. In spite of the fact that the vast majority of people who get into "God" stuff seem to cling to the notion that mankind needs an axe hanging over his head in order to get him to "behave", Paul's theology of God absolutely refuses to go there. For Paul, if people who were in bondage to Sin, are ever going to become free, it will only be by the gradual movement in their hearts and minds from "the force of unwilling constraint" to the "compulsion of real love". God is love and accepts nothing in the final sense that is not rooted and grounded in it. So, if anyone is ever going to actually get to the place where Love is the normal driving force of choices and actions, certain absolute provisions must be made by God. In our study last week we saw that the Spirit of Adoption, Himself, is at the root of those absolute provisions. And we saw in our study that being a child of God is the point of beginning.

Now, for this evening's study, we are going to look at another of the "absolute provisions" and one of its "logical extensions". This "provision" is God's practice of extending Himself and all of the matters that are associated with Himself in His creation-reality to His children. He provides them with His own Spirit to give them a sense of what it means for Him to be "Abba". Then, once they have been born into His family, He declares their future to them: inheritance of, and in, the Kingdom of the Father. It is this future to which we turn our attention tonight as we look into Romans 8:17.


(return to the top of the article)

Previous articleBack to Table of ContentsNext article
This is article #351.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.