Romans 8
There are several verses, usually quite well known, in Romans 8 that demonstrate the absolute security of the believer who is in Christ. Or, as the Reformers might have called it, the perseverance of the saints. It works both ways, from God’s perspective and from ours. I have identified the following verses as in that category:
V. 1, “there is now no condemnation . . .”
V. 28, “all things work together for good . . .”
V. 31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
V. 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
Vv. 38, 39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There are other verses in the chapter that provide almost as much reassurance to those who are in Christ! It is a wonderful chapter to study!
This is from my morning journaling today. My best friend Kimberly and I study the Bible together long distance. We pick a book, then work through the chapters, journaling verse by verse along with any notes we might add from studying the Greek (via online tools), our knowledge of church history, or any background we remember from past sermons. We try not to use commentaries because we want to make ourselves dig rather than use books that might give us a shortcut to interpreting God’s Holy Word.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Mary. It was such a blessing to me this morning.
What I love about our study is it keeps me thinking all day about the Scripture and the things we have dug down to find in it.
Our security in Christ and the perseverance of the saints are really two sides of the same coin. At first I thought our view is our security and God’s view is our perseverance. But that can be turned around because God knows even more than we do how secure we are in Him. And when we doubt our standing, as we will because we are human, our perseverance in Him will give us assurance that we belong to Him, not because our obedience purchases our salvation—Christ did that—but because it reminds us He will never let one of His children go.
Read Psalm 103
Our chaplain here at Lake Prince used that in his Wednesday Bible Study in reference to being Alive in Christ because of our salvation.What a blessing reading that again!
God told us to study but we are all different in how we do that.
Since I met Kimberly at college, it might be predicted that we prefer to take an approach that might seem academic, organizing verses with similar themes like this. But while the academics may lead, the heart quickly follows as we are overwhelmed with the absolute security we believers have in Christ in the above verses!!!