Are You Sure That’s What It Says? : Everything Happens for a Reason
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, (Ro 8:28)
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Context helps us understand the true _______________ found in ___________________.
________________ death is the only way that God can be both _________ to punish sin and able to _______________ the sinner.
3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life. (Ro 6:3–4)
10 For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Ro 6:10–11)
EHV Study Bible, “He [Paul] describes the surviving remnant of his sinful nature as sin living in me. It is like a foreign disease invading him. The true identity of each Christian is the new nature that agrees with God’s law.”
What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Ro 7:24)
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Ro 7:25a)
18 For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope 21 that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. (Ro 8:18–22)
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ec 1:2, NIV1984)
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. (Jn 16:21)
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro 8:38–39)
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God’s _________________ give us true _________.
Ravi Zacharias: If God were to give us 1000 answers to all the questions, questions we ask to force him to justify himself to us, we would demand 1001.
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, 29 because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. (Ro 8:28–30)
Points to Ponder
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What is one thing that stood out to you from this week's message?
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When someone asks you for the “why” and/or the “reason” for suffering and death, how are you going to answer and what hope can you give them?
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Explain this statement: Christ's death is the only way that God can be both just to punish sin and able to justify the sinner.
