God has made certain promises to certain persons, identified in this text as “God’s elect” (vs. 33). He will keep them, the promises and the people. And in doing so, He “will not slumber nor sleep” (ref. Psalm 121:4).
Foreknowledge is God’s choice, fore, long before, of certain persons to know, to have an intimate, personal, permanent relationship with Him, as Father and child (ref. John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Peter 2:9; etc).
God’s love is perfect. God initiates our love relationship with Him. His love, like Mother’s but higher, is unconditional, sacrificial, and permanent.
As Christians, we have a heavenly Father, and we are marked by His work. He redeemed us in justification, shapes us in sanctification, and will perfect us in glorification.
God does not need to watch film to find our weaknesses. He knows them all. And in this text from the pen of the Apostle Paul, He identifies what could well be our greatest weakness.
Keep in mind the overarching theme of Romans 8 is glorification, a thing for which we wait. Christians, justified by faith, sanctified by the Spirit, are guaranteed to be glorified by God and with God, forever.
Adoption is a Greco-Roman concept that Paul applies here for the first time to Christianity (ref. also vs. 8:23, Galatians 4:5, and Ephesians 1:5). Adoption, on earth as it is in Heaven, is meant to be a glorious change for the better.
We assemble together on Resurrection Sunday, many of us supremely confident in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe He lived and died. We believe Jesus Christ is risen, He is risen, indeed.
Admittedly, the Scriptures do not have a great deal to say about Judas. What we do find is not flattering. His dastardly deed is predicted by the minor prophet Zechariah (ref. 11:12-13), then the four Gospel writers bring him into low light.
In verse two, two laws, or irrefutable principles, like the law of gravity, are at work in a human being who becomes a born again Christian. One is nurture, “the law of the Spirit of life,” and the other is nature, “the law of sin and death.”
