Bethel Baptist Church
Worship Service @ Home
4 April 2022
Service available on Youtube, or as text (below), or for audio see the Podcasts page.
Welcome
Let us continue to pray for an end to the war in Ukraine.
Testimony
“The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in His hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. So we are in His hands as He shapes and changes us into His likeness – from glory to glory. What an amazing Potter He is! Remain in His hands and you will be delighted with the results.”
Stella
Worship
Word
Please read: Romans 5:1-11
… and we rejoice in the hope of glory of God.
Rom. 5:2
Rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God is a main theme in this section. ‘Rejoice’ could also be translated ‘exult’, or even ‘boast’. Believers cannot boast in anything they have done, only in what the Father accomplishes by His Spirit through Christ the Son, cf.
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Gal. 6:14
This hope is sure and certain, not like the way we use the word hope e.g., “I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”. Previously references to God’s glory have been regarding those who have shown utter contempt for it,
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Rom. 1:21-23
and fallen short of it,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Rom. 3:23
What a change, promised to all who now believe in Jesus, a share in the glory of God and for that future hope we should rejoice and glorify God. Believers are being changed from one degree of glory to the next,
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Cor. 3:18
But there is a future glory that awaits, the already and not yet tension we find in the Scriptures. We shall see more about this future glory when we get to Romans chapter 8, e.g.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us … the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God …And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
Rom 8:17, 18, 21, 30
“We still await future glorification, which will involve moral perfection and restoration to the glory Adam lost when he sinned.”
Dr Thomas R Schreiner
And the restoration of glory will be even greater because believers will be conformed to the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We know that when He appears we will be like Him.
1 John 3:2
Quote of the week
“The law works fear and wrath; grace works hope and mercy”
Martin Luther
Verse of the week
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27
Let’s Pray
Father God, we praise you for the remarkable change you make in our lives from falling short of your glory, now changing us from one degree of glory to the next with this great hope before us of the glory to come, all in and through Jesus Christ; Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.