Session 10 - 01/10/25

The Apostles’ Creed - Session 10. 01/10/25​ – The hope of the Spirit.

I believe in … the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

OPENING PRAYER ….

INTRODUCTION

Heaven is not a disembodied state somewhere on the clouds. The Creed affirms Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. This final session aims to outline a truly biblical understanding of eternity, to encourage confident Christian hope, and to challenge us to live lives in this world that are shaped by future resurrection and eternal glory. 

Question 1.  What do you imagine heaven or eternal life will be like? 

Read Romans 8:18-22 - Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20-21 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Q.2. What has happened to the created world as a result of humanity’s rejection of God? 

In verse 19 Paul tells us that the whole of creation is waiting for a time in the future when the sons of God will be revealed – those who belong to Christ will be given eternal life (v.11) and will share in Christ’s glory (v.17). In other words God will make a new humanity. 

Q.3. What will happen to the created world as a result of God’s new humanity?

Read verses 23-27
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Q.4. What are Christians waiting for? (See also verse 11.) 

Q.5. What do we learn about the life of eternity from verses 18-27?

Q.6. What does Paul mean when he says Christians have “the first fruits of the spirit” (v.23)

Q.7. How does the Spirit help us as we wait for our final redemption?

Read verses 28-39
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
    “For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.

Q.8. What is God’s plan for Christians?

Q.9. Why can Christians be confident about the future?

v.23.

v.28-30

v.31-34

v.35-39

Q.10. What difference should our future resurrection to everlasting life in glory make to the way we live now?

Q.11. Look back over the whole passage? How should these verses help Christians who are suffering?

Q.12. Paul reminds us in verse 7 that we are made right with God by His grace. But we still do wrong things. Being changed by the Holy Spirit is a process. What happens if we forget that it is a process?

CLOSING PRAYER