Everyone will live for eternity; some will live an eternity in hell while others will live an eternity in heaven. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

I love this beautiful hymn written by Charitie Bancroft. “Before the throne” was originally written in 1863 under the title, “The Advocate”. This hymn does speak of the advocate we have in Christ through trials, so and it’s one of my favorites.

I’ve been studying what it means to walk in the spirit. As I sought to have a better understanding of this concept, I looked to two great bible teachers, pastors John Mac Arthur and John Piper.

Chapter 18 of John Piper’s book, “50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die” talks about how disease entered the world when sin entered the world. Death and disease were part of God’s judgment on creation. Physical pain parallels the horror of sin. Sin eats away at us just like disease eats away at the body.

John Piper writes, “So here we are in the modern age–the age of science, internet, organ transplants, instant messaging, cell phones–and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our conscience condemns us. We don’t feel good enough to come to God. An no matter how distorted our consciences are, this much is true: We are not good enough to come to him.”

Chapter 17 of John Piper’s book, “Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die” talks about the wonderful truth that God provides everything we need. Piper is quick to point out that everything we need is not the same as having everything we want.

Chapter 15 of John Piper’s book, “50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die” talks about how Christ’s sacrifice makes us holy, blameless, and perfect. Sanctification is a process whereby we are becoming more holy.

I’d like to share a free bible memory software program that I stumbled upon that offers several different tools to assist you with memorizing bible verses. It’s called the Scripture Memory System. It comes with bible verse suggestions or you can add your own verses to memorize.

Chapter 14 of John Piper’s book, “50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die” talks about the old and new covenant. God initiated both covenants for his purposes. Galatians 3 states that the law was a tutor to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). The old covenant law points to our sin, while the new covenant points to Christ.

Circumcision was a part of Jewish law and custom, but once the gospel was spread to the Gentiles, some Jews were telling the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised as well in order to be saved. In other words it was the gospel + circumcision, or the gospel + rituals. Paul told them in Galatians 5 that they had “fallen from grace” because they were seeking to be justified by the law.