Jiggaz's Posts
Nairaland Forum › Jiggaz's Profile › Jiggaz's Posts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 (of 787 pages)
.... |
... |
.. |
. |
oluwaseyi000:My bro i perfectly understand u, but in heaven, no one or an angel will betray God again. The angels currently in heaven made their choice in eternity past to be loyal to God after Lucifer betrayed God with 1/3 of the angels following him. Any decision made by angels is fixed throughout eternity cos they were created perfect, so they can't change their decision like humans, when they make it. In heaven, we redeemed humans cannot betray God again like Adam did becos, we chose Him here in this fallen earth and in our glorified body, our will, will be perfectly in sync with God's will because we possess His spirit. That will not in any way take away our free will. We will still have our free will but sin will become so unattractive to us that we cant even think of commiting it. In heaven, we can never feel pain, sorrow, tears or being bored becos our new Glorified body will be in a different dimension from our current body but still the same anyways. Heaven will surpass anything the human mind can think of. Think of the most beautiful cities in the world... Tokyo, Singapore, Los Angeles, Miami, Manhattan(New York)? all these places are Ghettos multiplied to 1000 compared to New Jerusalem. In New Jerusalem, the streets are made of Gold...... No eye have seen, No ear have heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man, what the Lord have prepared for those who love him!! Heaven will be sooo much fun!!!! Believers in Christ are in for a great adventure throughout Eternity!! But the greatest beauty of Heaven is that we will live forever with our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ and also God the Father!! |
by John MacArthur First Corinthians 15 is the definitive chapter on the subject of resurrection. There Paul severely rebukes anyone who would doubt or question it: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’” To which Paul responds, “You foolish person!” (1 Corinthians 15:35–36 ). That is one of the most caustic retorts in all the Pauline writings. But in Paul’s estimation, this doctrine is fundamental. To deny an actual, physical resurrection is to embrace something other than genuine Christianity: “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” ( 1 Corinthians 15:16–17 ). God made human beings body and soul together. He “formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7 ). We consist of an inner self and an outer self (2 Corinthians 4:16 ). Therefore our ultimate perfection demands that both body and soul be renewed. Even the creation of a new heaven and earth demands that we have bodies—a physical earth calls for its inhabitants to have physical bodies. An honest approach to Scripture does not permit these realities to be simply spiritualized or allegorized. Eternal life as a mere state of mind would defeat the whole point of many of the promises of Scripture. Death results in the separation of the body and the soul. Our bodies go to the grave and our spirits go to the Lord. The separation continues until the resurrection: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29 ). Right now the souls of believers who have died are in heaven. Someday their bodies will be resurrected and joined to their spirits, and they will enjoy the eternal perfection of body and soul. Similarly, the bodies of unbelievers who have died are in the grave, and their souls are in hell. There will also be a day when the bodies of the ungodly will be raised from the graves and joined to their spirits. They will then stand, body and soul, before the judgment throne of God and will be cast bodily into the lake of fire (cf. Revelation 20:11–15 ). Christians need not dread that judgment. There is no possibility of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1 ). We eagerly await the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23 ). “For in this [body] we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:2 ). Precisely what does this mean? Does it imply that we will receive all-new bodies? Will they be anything like our current bodies? Will we look anything like we do now? First of all, note that our resurrection bodies are our earthly bodies, only glorified. The bodies we receive in the resurrection will have the same qualities as the glorified resurrection body of Christ. “We know that when He appears we shall be like Him“ (1 John 3:2 ). Christ’s resurrection body was the same body as before, not a whole new one. After He arose, the tomb was empty. The body itself was resurrected—the very same body, but in a glorified state. The wounds from His crucifixion were still visible (John 20:27 ). He could be touched and handled—He was not merely an apparition or a phantom (Luke 24:39 ). He looked human in every regard. He conversed a long time with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they never once questioned His humanity (Luke 24:13–18 ). He ate real, earthly food with His friends on another occasion (Luke 24:42–43 ). Yet His body also had otherworldly properties. He could pass through solid walls (John 20:19 ). He could appear in different forms so His identity was not immediately obvious (Mark 16:12 ). He could suddenly appear out of nowhere (Luke 24:36 ). And He could ascend directly into heaven in bodily form, with no adverse effect as He went through the atmosphere (Luke 24:51 ; Acts 1:9 ) Our bodies will be exactly like that. They will be real, physical, genuinely human bodies—the very same bodies we have while on this earth—yet wholly perfected and glorified. Second Corinthians 5:1 calls the resurrection body “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” First Thessalonians 4 describes how the earthly bodies of believers are reunited with their spirits. At the trumpet of God, “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are 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” ( 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 ). Paul speaks of this same reality in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 , where he says, Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. Believers who are dead will be united with their perfected bodies; then those who are still alive will be caught up and instantly “changed.” So every Christian still living on the earth when Christ comes will be instantly perfected. And both the living and the dead will have their old bodies made new, glorified. Next time we’ll take a closer look at a passage that illustrates what that glorification will entail. (Adapted from The Glory of Heaven ; all Scripture references are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.) http://www.gty.org/blog/B130701/a-glorified-body-the-necessity-of-our-resurrection
|
morning |
by John MacArthur It’s well beyond the finite capacity of our minds to comprehend the perfection of heaven. The best we can do is attempt to understand it in terms of this life. All that’s good and God honoring here will be perfected in heaven; everything else will pass away. In heaven there will be no sin, suffering, sorrow, or pain. We will never do anything to displease God. There will be no temptation because the world, the flesh, and the devil will all be conspicuously absent. There will be no persecution, division, disunity, or hate. In heaven there will be no quarrels or disagreements. There will be no disappointments. Prayer, fasting, evangelism, repentance, and confession of sin will cease because the need for them will cease. There will be no weeping because there will be nothing to make us sad. With sin and its effects erased forever, it will be a life of unimaginable blessing! We will then know perfect pleasure. In Psalm 16:11 , the psalmist addresses God: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” In heaven, everything that now makes us groan will be done away with. We will find ourselves in the very presence of God, where the purest and truest kind of pleasure is possible. Whatever pleasures we have known here on earth while living under the curse of sin will seem trivial, paltry diversions compared to the pure delights of heaven. When our souls are made new we will finally be able to glorify God perfectly and enjoy Him perfectly, as He intended. Since nothing is better or greater than God, the pure enjoyment of Him must be the very essence of bliss. In heaven we will also have perfect knowledge. Paul writes, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” ( 1 Corinthians 13:12 ). Since we are known comprehensively by God (Psalm 139:1–3 ), this must mean that in some sense we will have comprehensive knowledge. It cannot mean we will have absolute omniscience, for omniscience is one of the incommunicable attributes of God. To embrace all knowledge, one would have to be God. But it does indicate that our knowledge will be as complete as we could ever desire. We will have no more unanswered questions, no confusion, no ignorance, and no more need to walk by faith rather than by sight. We will live in perfect comfort . We will never experience one uncomfortable moment. In Jesus’ account of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man, Abraham says to the rich man in hell, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Luke 16:25 ). Hell is agony; heaven is eternal consolation. We will finally know perfect love. First Corinthians 13:13 says, “Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Why is love the greatest of virtues? Because it is eternal. In heaven all our hopes will be realized. “Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24 ). And all that we have laid hold of by faith will be ours to enjoy forever. Faith will be swallowed up by sight. But we will love perfectly and will be loved perfectly for all eternity. John 13:1 says Christ loved His disciples eis telos—literally, “to the end,” to utter perfection. That same love will engulf us forever. And we will finally be able to love perfectly in return. We could summarize by saying that heaven is a place of perfect joy . Our joy in this life is always mixed with sorrow, discouragement, disappointment, or worry. Sin, grief, and sorrow inevitably dampen happiness. An honest look at life in this world produces more tears than real joy. Our lives here begin with the joy of childbirth, but are marked by trials throughout and inevitably end in the sorrows of death and separation. In heaven things will be different. Heaven is a place of undiluted joy. At the end of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the master tells the faithful steward, “Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23 ). Jesus’ choice of that terminology indicates that one of the dominant characteristics of heaven is joy. Best of all, it’s an unending and never-diminishing joy. It must be, because heavenly perfection is never altered. Heaven is a place of utter perfection, but that perfection isn’t limited to the mental and emotional realms. It is also a real place where real people will live in real bodies. And that’s where we’ll pick it up next time. (Adapted from The Glory of Heaven ; all Scripture references are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.) http://www.gty.org/Blog/B130627/the-perfection-of-heaven
|
. . |
. |
.. |
by John MacArthur In heaven we will finally lose all traces of human fallenness. In fact, no one will ever enter heaven or dwell there who isn’t absolutely perfect. That point is often symbolized in Scripture by the imagery of white robes that are worn by the redeemed in heaven. Revelation 6:11 says this about the martyrs of the apocalypse: “They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” The white robes symbolize holiness, purity, and absolute perfection. In Revelation 7:14 one of the elders says, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Repeatedly, the Bible emphasizes the perfection of those who enter heaven. Scripture tells us that apart from holiness, “no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14 ). As we’ve already seen, God doesn’t merely justify us, clothing us with imputed righteousness, then leave us bound in the grave clothes of the flesh. He lovingly, graciously conforms us—heart, soul, mind, and flesh—to a standard befitting the lofty position He has elevated us to. But don’t misunderstand. This is not to say our own personal holiness is the ground on which we are granted entrance into heaven or acceptance with God. If that were the case, none of us could ever gain enough merit to deserve heaven. We are graciously granted entry into heaven solely and exclusively because of Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is imputed to us in our justification. The holiness gained in our sanctification is by no means meritorious. Moreover, the holiness our sanctification produces could never be sufficient to fit us for heaven by itself. In heaven we will be perfectly Christlike. Sanctification is the earthly process of growth by which we press toward that goal; glorification is the instantaneous completion of it. God graciously, summarily glorifies us and admits us into His presence. There is no waiting period, no soul sleep, and no purgatory. Misunderstanding on this point runs deep. No less a scholar than C. S. Lewis wrote: Our souls demand purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy”? Should we not reply, “With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know.”— “Even so, sir.” (C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer [New York: Harcourt, 1964], 108–109.) Lewis was no theologian. He was prone—like too many Anglicans—to water down the clarity of biblical truth with Roman Catholic tradition. But this is surely one of his most glaring and baffling errors. It is as if he were totally oblivious to the biblical promise of glorification. Nothing in Scripture even hints at the notion of purgatory, and nothing indicates that our glorification will in any way be drawn out or painful. On the contrary, the moment a believer dies, his soul is instantly glorified and he enters God’s presence. To depart this world is to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23 ). And upon seeing Christ, we become like Him. It is a graceful, peaceful, painless, instantaneous transition. Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8 ). Notice Paul also indicates that Christians in heaven now are “away from the body” ( 2 Corinthians 5:8 ). The body goes to the grave; the soul is admitted immediately to heaven. Hebrews 12:23 also suggests that all the saints who have died and are now in heaven are there without their bodies; it describes heaven as the dwelling place of “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (emphasis added). But we do not remain mere spirits throughout eternity. Our glorified spirits will be united with glorified bodies at the final resurrection. What will the perfected soul be like? The most obvious characteristic is that it will finally be perfectly free from evil forever. We will never again have a selfish desire or utter useless words. We will never perform another unkind deed or think a sinful thought. We will be perfectly liberated from our captivity to sin and finally able to think and act in a way that is perfectly righteous, holy, and honorable in God’s sight. Can you imagine yourself in consummate perfection forever? I frankly have a hard time envisioning myself as utterly impeccable. But there will be no imperfection in heaven! Revelation 21:27 says, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false.” No one who has any stain of sin will ever enter the heavenly city; therefore, sin will never again pose any threat whatsoever. What about the stain of our past sins? Revelation 22:14–15 says: Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Sin may define who we once were, but no longer. We are now new creatures in Christ, completely forgiven, thoroughly washed, and forever made perfect. As Paul wrote the Corinthians: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified , you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ; emphasis added) All believers can rest in this confidence: God has already justified us in order to free us from the guilt of sin. He is now sanctifying us in order to deliver us from the corruption of sin. And one day He will glorify us in order to liberate us from the very presence of sin—forever! If you are not a Christian, you need to lay hold of this truth by faith: the sin that will keep you out of heaven has no cure but the blood of Christ. If you are weary of your sin and exhausted from the load of your guilt, He tenderly holds forth the offer of life and forgiveness and eternal rest to you: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 ). No one will be turned away. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37 ). All are invited: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17 ). Any discussion of the glories of the eternal kingdom is ultimately irrelevant to anyone who will be excluded from heaven. Scripture makes it clear that those dressed in the rags of their sin will be forever shut out, but those clothed with the righteousness of Christ will be welcomed with open arms for all eternity. Longing for heaven is not enough; we must meet the spiritual dress code. And that requirement can only be fulfilled by God’s perfect substitute—only the Lord can clothe us in the righteousness of Christ. God treated Him as if He committed believers’ sins, and treats believers as if they did only the righteous deeds of the sinless Son of God. (Adapted from The Glory of Heaven ; all Scripture references are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.) http://www.gty.org/Blog/B130624/a-redeemed-soul |
morning.. |
morning |
by John MacArthur Although heaven will be our first encounter with true, complete perfection, the Lord is already at work in the lives of His people preparing us for that perfection. God begins the process of perfecting us from the moment we are converted from unbelief to faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit regenerates us. He gives us new hearts with new, holy desires (Ezekiel 36:26 ). He transforms our stubborn wills. He opens our hearts to embrace the truth rather than reject it, to believe rather than doubt. He gives us a hunger for righteousness and a desire for Him. Thus the new birth transforms the inner person. From that point, everything that occurs in our lives—good or bad—God uses to make us like Christ (Romans 8:28–30 ). In terms of our moral and legal status, believers are judged perfect immediately—not on the basis of who we are or what we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. We are forgiven of all our sin. We are clothed with a perfect righteousness (Isaiah 61:10 ; Romans 4:5 ), which instantly gives us a standing before God without any fear of condemnation (Romans 5:1 ; 8:1 ). And when Paul writes that God has “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” ( Ephesians 2:6 ), he is again speaking of this position of favor with God that we have been granted by grace alone. We are not literally, physically seated with Christ in the heavenlies, of course. We are not mystically present there through some kind of spiritual telepathy. But legally, in the eternal court of God, we have been granted full rights to heaven. That is the high legal standing we enjoy even now, on this side of heaven. But God does not stop there. Having judicially declared us righteous (Scripture calls that justification), God never stops conforming us to the image of His Son (that is sanctification ). Although our legal standing is already perfect, God is also making us perfect. Heaven is a place of perfect holiness, and we would not be fit to live there unless we too could be made holy. In a sense, then, the blessing of justification is God’s guarantee that He will ultimately conform us to the image of His Son. “Those whom He justified He also glorified” ( Romans 8:30 ). The seeds of Christlikeness are planted at the moment of conversion. Peter says that believers have been granted “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3 ). If you are a Christian, the life of God dwells in your soul, and with it all that you need for heaven. You have already passed from death to life (John 5:24 ). You are a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17 ). Whereas you were once enslaved to sin, you have now become a slave of righteousness (Romans 6:18 ). Instead of receiving the wages of sin—death—you have received God’s gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23 ). And eternal life means abundant life (John 10:10 ). That is what Paul means when he writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ). Now let’s be honest. Even the most committed Christian doesn’t always live as if “the new has come.” We don’t always feel like a “new creation.” Usually we are more keenly aware of the sin that oozes from within us than we are of the rivers of living water Christ spoke of. Although we “have the firstfruits of the Spirit, [we] groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” ( Romans 8:23 ). And we groan this way all our lives. Remember, it was a mature apostle, not a fragile new Christian, who cried out in Romans 7:24 , “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Here’s the problem: Like Lazarus, we came forth from the grave still bound in grave clothes. We are incarcerated in human flesh. Flesh in the biblical sense refers not just to the physical body, but to the sinful thoughts and habits that remain with us until our bodies are finally glorified. When Paul speaks of flesh and spirit he is not contrasting the material body with the immaterial spirit—setting up a kind of dualism, the way gnostic and New Age doctrines do. He uses the word flesh to speak of a tendency to sin—a sin principle that remains even in the redeemed person. Paul clearly spells out the problem from his own experience in Romans 7. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. (Romans 7:15 –21) As believers we are new creatures—reborn souls—vested with everything necessary for life and godliness, but we cannot fully appreciate the newness of our position in Christ because of the persistent presence of sin. Like Paul, we “delight in the law of God, in [our] inner being” ( Romans 7:22 ). Only the principle of eternal life in us can explain such love for the law of God. But at the same time, the flesh constricts and fetters us like tightly bound grave clothes. This flesh principle wars against the principle of new life in Christ. So we feel like captives to the law of sin in our own members (Romans 7:23 ). How can this be? After all, Paul earlier wrote in this very epistle that our bondage to sin is broken. We are supposed to “have been set free from sin” ( Romans 6:22 ). How is it that just one scant chapter later, he says we are “captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:23 )? The answer is, being a captive is not quite the same thing as being enslaved . As unredeemed sinners, we were full-time slaves of sin—willing servants, in fact. But as Christians who are not yet glorified, we are captives, unwilling prisoners of an already defeated enemy. Although sin can buffet and abuse us, it does not own us, and it cannot ultimately destroy us. Sin’s authority and dominion are broken. It “lies close at hand” in the believer’s life (Romans 7:21 ), but it is no longer our master. Our real allegiance is now to the principle of righteousness (Romans 7:22 ). It is in this sense that “the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ). Even though we still fall into old patterns of sinful thinking and behavior, those things no longer define who we are. Sin is now an anomaly and an intruder, not the sum and substance of our character. God is changing us from the inside out. He has planted the incorruptible seed of eternal life deep in the believer’s soul. We have new desires to please God. We have new hearts and a whole new love for God. And all those are factors that contribute to our ultimate growth in grace. Although sin has crippled our souls and marred our spirits—scarred our thoughts, will, and emotions—we who know Christ have already had a taste of redemption. As we set our hearts on heaven and mortify the remaining sin in our members, we can experience the transforming power of Christ’s glory on a daily basis. And we long for that day when we will be completely redeemed. We yearn to reach that place where the seed of perfection that has been planted within us will bloom into fullness and we will be completely redeemed, finally made perfect (Hebrews 12:23 ). That is exactly what heaven is all about. (Adapted from The Glory of Heaven ; all Scripture references are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.) http://www.gty.org/Blog/B130620/changed-from-the-inside-out
|
evening |
To celebrate the publication of the updated and revised version of John MacArthur’s book The Glory of Heaven, we are posting a blog series adapted from the climactic chapter of the book. Throughout church history, not much focus has been given to the topic of what believers will be like in heaven—that ought to make these articles all the more interesting, provocative, and enlightening for you and your family. -GTY Staff Perfection. Most of us understand the concept but have a hard time envisioning anything truly perfect. Everything in our earthly life experience is flawed, imperfect. And for those who know and love the Lord, the imperfections we are most deeply aware of often tend to be our own. I’m not speaking of the frailties of our bodies—though we feel those all too well. But the imperfections that trouble us most are not that superficial. The real problem is sinfulness that comes straight from the heart (see Mark 7:21–23 ). Of course we have a tendency to be more tolerant of our own imperfections than the failings of others. We try to cover ourselves, but in our hearts we know all too well that we are woefully and sinfully imperfect. What Christian cannot echo the sentiment Paul expresses in Romans 7:24 : “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” We’re not alone in this. The entire universe suffers the effects of human sin. Paul also writes, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22 ). That’s why all we can know on earth is imperfection. All creation agonizes under the cruel effect of sin’s curse, waiting for the consummation of all things, when the curse will finally be removed. At that time, everything will be perfect. Pain, sorrow, and the groaning of creation will finally be no more. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10 ). Not only that, but we shall be gloriously perfected. The whole person—body and soul—will be made completely new, flawless. As the apostle John wrote, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2 ). We can’t envision it now—“what we will be has not yet appeared”—but we will finally be wholly and completely Christlike. This is the very purpose for which God chose us in eternity past: “to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29 ). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4 ). He has already begun His good work in us, and He will faithfully “bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 ). And when we see Christ, we will instantly and summarily be made utterly perfect, because we shall see Him as He is. Heaven is a perfect place for people made perfect. Perfection is the goal of God’s sanctifying work in us. He’s not merely making us better than we are; He is conforming us to the image of His Son. He is making us fit to dwell in His presence forever. The utter perfection of heaven is the consummation of our salvation. It is the purpose for which He chose us before the foundation of the world. Being conformed to the image of Christ is not something that will begin when this life ends. God is already performing His sanctifying renovations in the lives of His people on this side of eternity. We will explore that in greater detail next time. (Adapted from The Glory of Heaven ; all Scripture quotations from the ESV unless otherwise noted.) http://www.gty.org/Blog/B130617/what-will-we-be-like-in-heaven
|
. . . . ...... |
noted.. |
.. .. .. |
. . . |
... |
. . |
afternoon.... |
afternoon |
. . . . . |
. . . |
... |
blazer234:Deluded hypocrite!! It is you and your generation that are agents of darkness!! Mr Pharisee, look let me tell you, i am not a nice person to Judgemental Hypocrites like you. I am nice to people who are nice to me but if u come as a Pharisee, i put u in your place. All the Curses you heaped upon me will never work for you cos i am the Righteousness of God in Christ. I am deeply loved, highly blessed and divinely favoured by the Lord. There is no condemnation for me cos i am in Christ Jesus. Christ is my Holiness and my Redemption!! So your curses cannot work, You Satanic agent from the pit of Hell!! My God is greater than you!! I am too graced & highly favoured by the Lord to be stressed!! Man's opinion of me is rubbish cos i have the approval of Christ. Anyone that fights the Grace of Christ is accu.rsed! Paul said it, so Mr Pharisee you have condemned yourself already!! The same way you termed me an agent of satan, is the same way i see you and your entire Gen.eration!! You acc.ursed thing!! Satanic agent!! Get behind me Satan!! I have zero tolerance for rubbi.sh !! You dare not say this to my face in real life!! Social media has given non entities liver!! |
Nigerian version of Christianity is the most deluded in the world!! You people are soooo annoying!! Bunch of unintelligent Hypocrites!! Tufiakwa you people!! I dey shame for una. Read the bible in context, no way. Yet they come here to talk rubbish. I repeat it, you can never be a co-saviour with Christ, it is not possible!! It is either Christ saves you and keep you or you save yourself.... This is the same Gospel that Apostle Paul preached and the Pharisees wanted to stone him!! Christ is the all and all in Christianity!! Your self righteousness is filthy rags!!! If you don't like it, then go and hang yourself!!! I brought Grace Revolution here to Nairaland and it is here to stay!! You Pharisees can't do anything!! I am ready for all of you.!! The Devil is a liar!! People must hear the good news and be free!! |
chinoify:Ignorant Hypocrite!! Read and comprehend an article, you can't!! Mediocre Christians everywhere.... I pity you lots. |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 (of 787 pages)