Lesson 57: Our Assurances as Children of God (from Romans 8)

If we are God’s children, we have the Holy Spirit within us that bears witness with our soul that we belong to God. We no longer need live in fear that God will judge us for our sins, but we live as children of God in closeness.

  • The Holy Spirit gives us manifestations of His presence in us in three main ways:

    • We pray to God as father; not as our judge but as a helpless child, completely depending upon Him. He relates to us as His child because of the Holy Spirit within us.

    • We hate our sin and go to war constantly against it, confessing to God that we can’t overcome it on our own. We gain victory bit by bit.

    • We confess Jesus as Lord and master of our lives, owned by Him.

  • As God’s children we can be confident in our inheritance:

    • The new heavens and earth in their glorified state and all the nations.

    • God Himself and all His glory as the center. Without God the material inheritance would have little value for us.

  • But we must also suffer in this world.

    • Not only persecution for our faith but also sickness, infirmities, losses and terrible circumstances.

    • Sometimes Christ answers prayers directly and solves our problem and other times He doesn’t.

    • He allows suffering to build maturity in faith and to get us to rely on Him instead of ourselves.

    • We need to endure our trials with faith and patience; never reject God because of it like so many do.

    • The entire creation groans as we await the new life.

    • We will also receive new bodies free from pain and death.

    • We will share in all of God’s blessings that we enjoy now except these will be glorified and much better.

    • We need to be in frequent fellowship with God now; building the relationship now that we’ll have for eternity.