Sunday School

Last Sunday, while we were at Will Rogers Methodist, we also attended Sunday School. Those not attending classes on Sunday mornings are missing a wonderful opportunity for Bible study. Here’s where questions can be asked and answered, research completed, verses memorized, doctrine questioned – excellent opportunities to learn. Yet many miss out.

I’m so glad I didn’t last Sunday when the teacher discussed Romans 8:28-30.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30 KJV)

Yep – three verses. Think it strange to cover two verses in about 30 minutes? That’s in-depth study of the Bible, along with application to our own lives.

You see, we love quoting verse 28. However, in context, it is conditional, tied to the “for whom” in verse 29. This lesson gave the five conditional links.

1. God’s foreknowledge of all that will occur;
2. God’s predetermined boundaries for those who conform to the image of Christ;
3. God’s calling to ‘whosoever’;
4. God’s justification for those who depend on Jesus;
5. God’s glorification of those who were called and responded.

Interestingly, the verb in that last item is in past tense. Even though the glorification is in the future, by God’s decision, it is an accomplished fact.

In the closing moment of the lesson, the teacher read verses 31-35. There is another who would love to see us condemned, one who would justify his own rejection of God by pointing to us and saying, “See, they are sinners, as I am. They stand condemned!” God gave us the answer:

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:34 KJV)

Thanks be to God for what He has done for us:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35 KJV)

You see, Christ was not defeated on the cross. He knew it what was coming, He prayed that it would pass, yet accepted the cup that was before Him.  He did so with that same foreknowledge of the first item:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 KJV)

How could I remember all of this? Note taking. It’s a school. Learn from it, please.