I Believe – Week 8
“The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
“Forgiveness of Sins”
Scope of Salvation: Past / Present / Future
· Justification – “I am saved.”
· Sanctification – “I am being saved.”
· Glorification – “I will be saved.”
Ephesians 1:4 - For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.
Romans 6:22 - But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!
Philippians 3:20-21 - Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
“Resurrection of the Body”
“Heaven is not the endgame. Heaven coming to earth to unite as one is the final promise.”
N.T Wright - “The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it.”
Romans 6:8-12 - Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 - For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
“The promise of Resurrection shapes how we live in the Present.”
“Life Eternal”
Heidelberg Catechism (1563) – “Since I now already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. A blessedness in which to praise God forever.”
Titus 3:4-8 - But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.
“When we've been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise,
than when we'd first begun.”