Romans 7-8

Romans 7:1-6 The Law of Moses is like a deceased husband (JST Romans 7:5-27). Why? Here Paul compares Israel’s allegiance to the law of Moses with that of a wife to her husband. As long as her husband lives, a wife is bound to him, must obey his laws, and if she be with another, she is an adulteress. But when the husband dies, he can no longer direct her actions, and she is free to marry another; she can no longer be subject to him that is dead.

Romans 7:8 “All manner of concupiscence.” Concupiscence means strong sexual desire (lust!). Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Sound familiar (2 Nephi 4:17) NIV = Every kind of covetous desire.

Romans 8:6“To be spiritually minded!” Life and peace! Whether we will obtain eternal life or receive spiritual death is often determined by what thoughts we allow to enter our minds, what we permit our minds to “feed” upon (Romans 8:1-19). Romans 8:16-19Psalms 82:6 We are the children of God and joint heirs with Christ! Our goal should be to become as God!

“Joseph Smith described this in the King Follett Sermon, joint-heir-ship as inheriting the same power, the same glory, and the same exaltation, until an individual ascends to the station of Godhood and rises to the throne of eternal power sharing the rewards with all the faithful who have preceded him. A joint-heir legally inherits and shares all equities and gifts in equal interest with all other heirs. Nothing is excluded nor adjusted in value between the participating joint-heirs…(Delbert L. Stapley in CR, Apr. 1961, 66). Phillipians 3:20-21

If the faithful, who keep the commandments of the Father, are his sons, then they are heirs of the kingdom and shall receive of the fullness of the Father’s glory, even until they become like the Father. And how can they be perfected as their Father in heaven is perfect if they are not like him? They shall increase in knowledge, wisdom, and power, going from grace to grace, until the fullness of the perfect day shall burst upon them. They shall, through the glory and blessing of the Almighty, become creators.

“When you are prepared to see our Father, you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and he will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him, as you would your fathers and friends that have been dead for a score of years, you will be so glad and joyful. Would you not rejoice? When you are qualified and purified… you can endure the glory of eternity, so that you can see your Father…” (Brigham Young, JD, 4:54- 55).

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible, I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form, like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man…”(Teachings, 345, D&C 130:22).

“It is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see…

“…These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible” (Joseph Smith, Teachings, ).

“We must go through the same ordeal in order to attain to the glory and exaltation which God designed we should enjoy with him in the eternal worlds. In other words, we must become like him; peradventure to sit upon thrones, to have dominion, power, and eternal increase. God designed this in the beginning. We are the children of God… We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our Heavenly Father was when he was passing through this, or a similar ordeal” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 64).

Romans 8:26“Perfect prayers” Are those which inspire in which the spirit reveals the words which should be used (B.R.M., M.D., 586). Joseph Smith changes “groanings” to “strivings” (Teachings, 278) Romans 8:29-30 God predestinated the plan, but not the people (William E. Berrett). The Greek footnotes say appointed beforehand and foreordained. There is no Greek word for predestinate!

“We have reason to believe that all who were privileged to come to this mortal world came because they were entitled by pre-mortal qualifications. It is absurd to think that Paul would teach that in the beginning before the earth was formed, some souls were destined to come to earth, receive tabernacles and then be consigned to perdition and some to be saved. Such a doctrine is contrary to all that has been revealed” (A.T.G.Q. 4:153).

There is nothing in the original Greek word, which the K.J.V. chose to translate as predestinate, which implies a loss of free agency. It is a compound word formed from the prefix “pro”, meaning “before,” and the very horizo, meaning “to define.” The verb itself was derived from horos, a boundary. Literally, the word means “to determine beforehand, or decide beforehand.” Some modern biblical translations use the word foreordain.

NIV“Foreknew” Some insist that the knowledge here is not abstract but is couched in love and mixed with purpose. They hold that God not only knew us before we had any knowledge of him but that he also knew us, in the sense of choosing us by his grace, before the foundation of the world! “Predestined” = glorified!

Romans 8:31 “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (2 Kings 6:16) Romans 8:35, 39 Who shall separate us from the love of God?